1. Jesus and the disciples saw the crowd coming up the mountain they were on. How many times have you seen something coming in your life that you didn't know how to face? Maybe you didn't even know if you could face it. Perhaps, you wished that it would go around you and camp in someone else's yard. Yet, you know that something was coming that you had to face.
2. Jesus asked Philip, "Where are we going to buy the bread to feed all of these people?" Jesus already knew what He was going to do. Why didn't He just tell Philip and the rest, "Hey, guys. Just relax. I've got this miracle well in hand. Just do what I tell you and you're going to see a miracle." Instead, he asked a question that challenged Philip's ability to solve the problem. Philip answered, "Looky here, Jesus. All we have in the treasury is 200 pennies and that's not enough."
Jesus knew how much they had in the treasury just like He already knew what He was going to do. His challenge to the disciples was to think. He asked them to take a full stock of their inventory and their ability and come up with a real solution.
In our walk with Jesus Christ, we have got to expect that He will bring us to the same challenging moments. He'll remain silent while we think and re-think our plans to solve a problem. We need to understand that it is times like these that God is training us to rely on Him. He's not picking on us. He's not trying to make us look stupid. BUT, He is trying to get us to learn how to rely on Him.
REMEMBER: JESUS ALREADY HAD IT FIGURED OUT
3. Andrew told Him about a boy that had five loaves and two fishes.
a. Andrew was not just sitting and waiting for the problem to get bigger. He had been out among the folks, making friends and loving on people. During this time, he met a little friend who had a lunch with him.
b. It wasn't until AFTER Andrew brought the news to Jesus about his find that Jesus began to give orders on how to meet this tremendous need.
The worst thing in the world to do is just what most of us have been trained to do. When we see a problem coming our way, we stop everything we're doing and begin worrying about how to fix it. The problem is not a challenge to us. It is another opportunity for God to display His ability to meet our needs.
Andrew kept ministering. No, he wasn't preaching. No, he wasn't leading worship. He was going through the crowd and looking for an opportunity to tell someone about Jesus. This crowd was hungrier for a relationship with Jesus Christ than they were for food. If they had come for food they would have waited until Jesus had already put the hamburgers on the grill.
The people you live with, live around, work with, and worship with are all looking for something more than just their meals. They don't spend hours and hours eating. Well, most of them don't. But they will spend hours and hours talking about something that interests them. AND, if that interest can be channeled into a conversation about Jesus Christ, you have fed and satisfied a soul.
4. Jesus did NOT tell them what He was going to do. If He had, they might have had a reason to just stare at Him like He was the biggest idiot on the planet. And, Jesus, knowing their limited faith and comprehension didn't want to take the time to listen to their arguments. He just wanted to get down to the business of feeding these people and showing the disciples the glory of God. And when He deals with us, He deals with us the same way. If He DID tell you how He was going to meet your need, you would spend a lot of time trying to tell Him how impossible it was. God's smart enough to know when to shut up. He loves us just that much.
5. An important key to witness God working a miracle in your life is to be obedient when you have no clue as to what God is up to. We are called to be disciples, or students. We are to listen, obey and learn. It is when we obey without question the things that God has asked us to do that it will begin to dawn on us what the Master is up to. When we become argumentative, rebellious or obedient because we sware up and down we HAVE to do it, we lose sight of God's ability to meed our needs.
6. Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it and passed it out. He did the same with the fish. In solving our problems, the answer comes quicker when we seek the blessings of God, allow Him to break us when it is necessary, and minister to others as is needed. Remember that AS we are blessing others, God is sending others to us to bless us in return. And His promise is that it will be good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over that men will give to us.
7. The greatest point to remember about this lesson is the title to this blog. When we say to God, "This is all I've got" He'll answer, "That's all I need."
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