From Loaves to Lessons: Discovering the Power of Faith and Obedience
Mark 6:37a He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat…
Imagine that! Jesus places for the disciples what they considered to be a tall order! How were they to feed thousands with only a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread? I really like Jesus’ style. He gives them the instruction before He leads them through the process. In one sentence He gives both the vision and the assignment… “Give ye them to eat.” While He does so, He fully anticipates the participation of the disciples as He unveils, step by step, exactly how this is to happen.
God will often show us the big picture first, and then lead us step by step from point A to point Z in the process of fulfilling the vision He gives us for our lives in His Kingdom. The key to fulfilling God’s will and being instrumental in the miraculous is to operate in simple obedience and faith, one simple step at a time.
It is worth pointing out that Jesus was fully capable of pulling this entire event off Himself, but in this instance, Jesus was multi-tasking. Though He had compassion on the multitudes, and though He wanted to feed them, it really wasn’t just about the needs of the multitude. It was about the needs of the disciples. You see, Jesus was teaching and training them to operate in faith. He was showing them how to tap into Heaven’s resources through faith in an otherwise impossible situation. He was letting them know that the assignments ahead in their ministries would be impossible with men, but possible with God. He was building up their most holy faith.
No doubt later when Peter came back to Christ after denying Him thrice, and Jesus instructed him to “feed my lambs”, he must have remembered this event fresh in his mind when Jesus asked him and his friends to feed the multitudes with nothing more than obedience, faith, and a meager supply. Jesus was giving them ammo. Jesus was preparing them for when they would need encouragement as they faced humanly impossible situations while preaching the gospel.
It was imperative that they know that with each assignment is given the power and the supply to pull it off when they trust and obey. Admittedly, at first, they did not get it. But don’t you know that later on in their more mature years of ministry, that those seeds of faith came into full bloom and the lessons were finally learned, and not a minute too soon!
Now, what about you? What are you avoiding that God has asked you to do, simply because you’ve looked at your limited supply instead of His endless power? If you’re in that place, simply take the first step of faith, and God will lead you step by step!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill
Imagine that! Jesus places for the disciples what they considered to be a tall order! How were they to feed thousands with only a couple of fish and a few loaves of bread? I really like Jesus’ style. He gives them the instruction before He leads them through the process. In one sentence He gives both the vision and the assignment… “Give ye them to eat.” While He does so, He fully anticipates the participation of the disciples as He unveils, step by step, exactly how this is to happen.
God will often show us the big picture first, and then lead us step by step from point A to point Z in the process of fulfilling the vision He gives us for our lives in His Kingdom. The key to fulfilling God’s will and being instrumental in the miraculous is to operate in simple obedience and faith, one simple step at a time.
It is worth pointing out that Jesus was fully capable of pulling this entire event off Himself, but in this instance, Jesus was multi-tasking. Though He had compassion on the multitudes, and though He wanted to feed them, it really wasn’t just about the needs of the multitude. It was about the needs of the disciples. You see, Jesus was teaching and training them to operate in faith. He was showing them how to tap into Heaven’s resources through faith in an otherwise impossible situation. He was letting them know that the assignments ahead in their ministries would be impossible with men, but possible with God. He was building up their most holy faith.
No doubt later when Peter came back to Christ after denying Him thrice, and Jesus instructed him to “feed my lambs”, he must have remembered this event fresh in his mind when Jesus asked him and his friends to feed the multitudes with nothing more than obedience, faith, and a meager supply. Jesus was giving them ammo. Jesus was preparing them for when they would need encouragement as they faced humanly impossible situations while preaching the gospel.
It was imperative that they know that with each assignment is given the power and the supply to pull it off when they trust and obey. Admittedly, at first, they did not get it. But don’t you know that later on in their more mature years of ministry, that those seeds of faith came into full bloom and the lessons were finally learned, and not a minute too soon!
Now, what about you? What are you avoiding that God has asked you to do, simply because you’ve looked at your limited supply instead of His endless power? If you’re in that place, simply take the first step of faith, and God will lead you step by step!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill