The hows of multiplication?

If I were the disciples in the story of the feeding of the five thousand, I would have many questions. It had been a gruelling ministry season. They had been toiling, crowd controlling, running errands for Jesus for the last 3 days, as he ministered to a staggering crowd whose desire to linger with Christ wouldn’t wane.

Finally, the break that the disciples were hoping for had come. Jesus Christ looked at them and said it was high time that the crowds got something to eat. Naturally speaking the disciples would expect Jesus to send the crowds away since there were so many. Yet he didn’t…he wouldn’t. Jesus Christ was preparing them for a lesson in the school of the extraordinary, as he instructed the disciples to feed the crowds.

The disciples puzzled must have thought Jesus was crazy or joking. Feeding 10-20 thousand people (women and children included) was no joke. Besides all they had were five loaves and two fish. Sure Jesus had done many miracles prior, and so far his word was credible, yet this was different. No one had fed so many, with barely nothing. Food multiplication was far from their thought processes. Naturally speaking, people bought food, or prepared food when they were hungry, thus that was the thing to do.

As we embark on a miraculous journey this year, what do you expect God to do and how? Are you looking for God to move or you. Naturally speaking we know we need to plan, and figure things out. But who is our trust in, and to whom do we look to for results? The disciples represent many of us in that we are stuck in cultural and traditional models of viewing God’s workings. We look to see how God has worked around us, in our circles, and with contemporaries. Yet God clearly declares that all things are possible to him who believes. Belief for us becomes often a mental assent, where we say yes but.

Thus the disciples represent you and I as the “yes buts” people. Yes Lord you will do miracles in my ministry this year, but this is what I am prepared to expect. Jesus, yes I know you will take care of that problem, but its probably going to be this way.

I was recently overcome in a service by a miraculous stream of God’s healing power. This reminds me that while doctors, aspirins and knee braces are necessary, Jesus is the healer.

Friend, Jesus is the multiplier, Jesus is the provider, Jesus is the deliverer. But he needs you and I to hang on to him in faith. For his says all things are possible…not for those who try, not even for those who are faithful. No. All things are possible to him who believe.

So dream big. Reach out big. Talk big. Act big. Do something big, for we serve a tremendous God, who says, I can do more than you can ask think or even imagine, according to the power that works within you.