Lessons from the life of Jonah

Today, I want to share a few lessons from the life of Jonah (Chapter 1). First, the story very briefly and then the lessons I learnt from it.

Jonah was a prophet of Israel during the reign of King Jeroboam II. His  commission, was to convey a message from God to the people of Nineveh.

The Assyrians who were barbarians noted for their brutality,had by then destroyed the entire northern kingdom of Israel. The book of Jonah begins with a command from God, to Jonah, to go to Nineveh and prophesy to its wicked inhabitants. But Jonah was not overly enthusiastic about this assignment; in fact he was  reluctant to go, not only because he knew that they would laugh at him, but he also greatly feared that they would kill him if he went and preached to them. It is easy to understand his reluctance, if we visualize ourselves in an identical situation.  Imagine, if God were to tell us today, 'I'm going to bring terrible judgment on Pakistan. I want you to go to there and tell the terrorists to repent.' Just think about it… They would chop off our head in 2 minutes. Our first response then, would be to flee as far away as possible.

Jonah also had another selfish motive in running away from his assignment. He wanted God’s judgement to fall on the Assyrians in Nineveh and see them destroyed even as they had destroyed his beloved Israel.

So, Jonah, headed in the opposite direction to a place called Tarshish. Nineveh was about 500 miles to the east of Israel and Tarshish was about 2500 miles to the west, on the coast of what is currently Spain.  Jonah  was wasting his time and money to do something he was not supposed to be doing, rather than investing these resources to do the thing that God was calling him to do.

Isn’t it strange that a prophet like Jonah imagined that he could escape God and his assignment by running away to Tarshish?

To continue with the story, Jonah was now on the ship, sleeping blissfully.

All the while the ship sailed smoothly over the sea, Jonah forgot all about God and his assignment. But then God sent a fierce storm and the ship was on the verge of being broken to pieces. While Jonah was surprisingly still asleep below the deck of the ship, the sailors tried to do everything within their power to save the ship. They threw out the excess baggage and even cried   out to their gods for help. Then the sailors cast lots to determine who was the cause of their misfortune, and not surprisingly, Jonah’s name came up. Knowing full well that he was the root cause of all the trouble, Jonah offers to be chucked overboard.  And so, the sailors reluctantly threw him  overboard. 

Now Jonah’s very life was in danger. Did Jonah deserve to escape from the situation? No: But the Lord "provided a large fish to swallow up Jonah and bring him safely ashore.

So what are the  lessons that we can take from this story?

1.     We serve a God of second chances. In this book we see God who is revealed not so much as  powerful and  mighty, but as a loving and caring God who wants to extend his grace towards everyone. Jonah did not want the Ninevites to escape the wrath of God. Jonah’s hatred for Nineveh was probably greater than his love for God and that is what ultimately caused him to disobey God. But God loved these Ninevites, even though Jonah hated them. And I sometimes think that there is an awful lot of Jonah in us. It is funny how sometimes we want God’s grace for ourselves when we sin and fall short but we do not want God to extend the same grace to others when they fall short. We forget the fact that we serve a God who loves each of us equally and unconditionally: He cannot love me more if I do something good or less if I sin and fall short.

2.     Are we  on the right boat. Like Jonah, there are times when we go to great lengths to do the things that we are not supposed to do rather than the things that God is calling us to do. Jonah  was in the wrong place with the wrong set of people. For, though the sailors needed to be on the ship on account of their work, Jonah had no business being on board with them. He was supposed to be in Nineveh doing the work that God had assigned to him. So he found himself in the middle of a storm caused by his own rebellion, which affected not only him but also the sailors on the ship.

 When we are in a place other than where God intends for us to be, he can cause a storm to shake up our life and bring us back on track. Though the storm may have been intended for us, our friends, family or acquaintances could also be affected. Then they would be left with no other option but to throw us out of their life.

3.     Be careful about who is travelling with you in your boat. The reverse of the above statement  also holds true.  We can be a Jonah or we can have a Jonah with us. The sailors were affected by the storm meant for Jonah and as soon as they threw him out, the storm was stilled. Note, they were reluctant to chuck him out in the beginning, but when the fury of the storm kept increasing, they had to throw him out. Is there a Jonah in our boat? Someone or something (it could be anything- a relationship, an attachment, a person, an emotion) that is causing a storm to brew in our life? Then, don’t hold on. We need to let go, before we become victims of a storm not intended for us.

4.     God’s provision does not always come gift wrapped per our specifications. Sometimes we fail to recognize a provision because it was not what we expected. The fish may have been smelly and  dirty; but it was really a provision from God for Jonah’s escape. Had God not send the big fish at the right  time, Jonah would surely have perished.  But did Jonah see it as a provision. No, . Not immediately. To him it appeared to be more of a problem than a solution.  But when God put Jonah in the belly of the fish, we see him repenting and getting back on track  to achieve God’s purpose. That might not have happened if he had been  rescued by a big comfortable ship.  Many times, we see too see God’s provision as a problem. But what we need to remember is that God does not work as per our specifications. He has his own reasons for doing something. He may put us in an uncomfortable place for a while  to reroute us and point us in the right direction, so that we can achieve the purpose for which he has called us.

A fresh look at the story of David and Goliath

We’ve all heard the story about how a young shepherd boy defeated a huge Philistinian giant, and delivered God’s people from the clutches of the Philistines. The account of this epic battle is recorded  in 1 Samuel, 17. The Israelites were pitted  against  the Philistines. Both armies were encamped on 2 mountains on opposite sides of   the valley of Elah.

Running away from challenges: Goliath, was the tyrant used by the Philistines to bully the Israelites every day. This bullying did not happen   for 1 or 2 days but continued twice a day for 40 whole days.  Interestingly, every morning, God’s people followed the daily army drill. They dressed for the fight, picked up their weapons but when they heard Goliath’s challenge, they turned and fled away from the challenge.  And their leader –  king Saul – who was supposedly responsible for taking up the challenge sat fearfully in his tent.

Isn’t it interesting that Goliath never once attacked the Israelites, he just challenged them from afar but that was sufficient to scare the Israelites.

A common tactic used to demoralize your opponent is to create fear in their heart. If you succeed in doing this, they may give up  or even if they fight, they would  do so halfheartedly and eventually lose. So, in effect, you’ve won the battle with your words before it even began. Here Goliath was doing something similar. In fact, Goliath defeated the Israelites on basis of fear alone. The fight had gone out of the Israelites long before the battle began.

This is a significant strategy of that the devil uses against believers. For some of us the battle is over even before it begins.  The fight goes out of us when we are faced with a challenge- a bad prognosis, financial problems, challenges at workplace etc. What we need to keep in mind is that intimidation and creating fear is the most powerful tool of the enemy. Before we face any challenge, we must face our fear itself. John 1: 1 says ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’. Today we have the scriptures with us, we have Jesus in our midst. Why should we be intimated?

Accepting the challenge: What about David? He was seeing the same Goliath, he was hearing the same threats, yet he was unmoved. One reason was that he was looking at Goliath through an entirely different perspective. He was not focusing on how big Goliath was, his focus was on the bigness of his God as compared to Goliath. The Israelites on the other hand saw only how big Goliath was. God was relegated somewhere to the background.

Also, David was not focusing on the threats of Goliath but on the faithfulness of a God, who had rescued him from difficulties earlier. David knew that the same God who delivered him from the lion and the bear would also deliver him now.

Second reason is in chapter 16 where we see how Samuel anointed David to be set apart for God. David was filled with the Spirit of God and so he could stand up to any intimidation.

 On the other hand, Saul who was the logical choice to fight with Goliath, was scared. At one time, he was a fearless leader who had led his people to victory many times.  But that was before the Spirit of the Lord departed from him. As the Spirit left Saul, his courage also left him.

Today, we are a people set apart for God. We have his Holy Spirit inside of us. Why should we then be intimidated?

The fight: This was not a fair fight at all. It wasn’t Goliath against David. It was Goliath against David and the Lord God of Israel. The battle was over for Goliath before it began. He was a dead man as soon as David accepted the challenge.

But David was wise with his words, “the Lord will deliver you into my hand.” David was bold, but his boldness was in God,  not in himself. He did not forget that this was not his battle, this was the battle of the Lord.

And poor Goliath – he had no idea what was about to hit him. Infuriated at David’s boldness, he advanced to kill him. But David didn’t run away like the other Israelites. Instead, David hastened to meet the Philistine.

Goliath with all his weapons of war  and David with just his staff and sling. David hurled a stone from his sling with all his might, and that was the end of the mighty Goliath.

I would close with some footnotes:

1.     Goliath never leaves if we don’t take up the challenge and fight back.  Here we see Goliath came back twice each day for 40 days until David finally went down to face him in the valley. Our giants are similar. They will never depart on their own. Until we stand on the Word and the promises of God and fight in Jesus’ name, they will never leave.

2.     David needed Goliath: Though he probably didn’t realize it, Goliath was good for David. David who was to become King needed to gain the confidence of the people that he was qualified to lead them. When David defeated Goliath, he proved a point.

We too need our Goliath’s or the challenges in our life so that we can grow in and through them. God uses every challenge we face to make us stronger. 

3.     There is some amount of doubt and some amount of belief in all of us. Faith is choosing to believe inspite of our doubts. Everyone knew that God was all powerful and well able to deliver them from their enemies.  Many times, we have head knowledge which we don’t put into practice. Anyone could have overcome  Goliath had they taken a step in faith. David kept his doubts aside and chose to act by faith and God honoured him.

From Jacob to Israel- Part 1

From Jacob to Israel- Part 1

There are so many lessons to be learnt from the life of Jacob- Simple practical principles, which we can apply to our daily life and be blessed. Today, I want to share a few of them with you and I hope it blesses you as much as it did me.

1.Descriptors : ‘What’s in a name ? A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet’.  ‘That was William Shakespeare in his famous play Romeo and Juliet. But what do we make of a name like Jacob ? As a twin in the womb with Esau, Jacob was born grasping his brother’s heel.  The parents promptly named him Jacob, which meant Grabber of heels or supplanter. In Bible times, a name given to a child had a lot of importance. It was an adjective which described the child and very often defined the child’ s future. Take another name from the scriptures ‘Nabal ‘ which means ‘Fool’. Mindblowing !! I have been trying to figure out ‘why Nabal’. While today, naming children in such a manner is no longer a trend, some parents nevertheless brand their children with   descriptors such as ‘good for nothing, lazy, black sheep, etc. We knew a person who used to call his daughter ‘pain’ because she was very naughty ; but the more he addressed her such, the naughtier she became. It was uncanny. Word seeds which are sown during childhood take root in the heart of the child and produce fruit ; namely the character. The problem is that they may soon start living upto the name, either in sheer defiance or resignment.

We know that both Jacob and Nabal lived upto their names.

Scripture support-

Genesis 27 :36 And Esau said, Is he not rightly named Jacob ? for he hath supplanted me these two times. 

1 Samuel 25 : 25- Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name--his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. 

2. Favoritism : All of us have at one point or the other experienced the effects of partiality or favoritism either at home, school or work, and it certainly is not a pleasant experience. In fact, favoritism is highly destructive especially when the person playing favorites is in a position of authority. E.g. As in a parent child, student teacher or boss employee relationship. Scripture says that Esau, the hunter, was his father’ s favorite while Jacob was his mother’ s favorite, for their own reasons. So Isaac wanted to bless Esau, while Rebekah wanted Jacob to get the blessing. And that was how the trouble began.

3.Communication gap : Good communication is the foundation of a strong marriage wherein couples talk freely, they feel safe sharing their thoughts, ideas, experiences and advice. But in Jacob’s family, the communication lines between husband and wife were not open. Isaac did not know what Rebekah or Jacob were upto and if Rebekah had not overheard Isaac talking to Esau, she would have known nothing of Isaac wanting to bless Esau. Things would have been different if Isaac and Rebekah had sat down and talked things through.  

4.Lending a helping hand : Rebekah had received the promise concerning Jacob. However, rather than waiting for God’s perfect timing for its fulfillment, she decided to help God along.  When she heard that Isaac wanted to bless Esau, Rebekah encouraged Jacob to deceive his poor blind father and grab the blessing. Result ?? Jacob was in trouble with his father. His brother was ready to murder him and he was forced to flee   from his family, finally ending up with his uncle Laban. Little did he know that he was soon going to get a taste of his own medicine and have his heel grabbed by Laban. What’s more Rebekah never saw Jacob again. When we step out of God's timing, we can sometimes invite a disaster, we have to live with. We wrongly assume that when God puts a promise/desire in our hearts, He is ready to bring it to pass immediately. And rather than trusting him, we try to work things out ourselves in our own strength.  What ever it is, a new job, house, life partner, a financial breakthrough, we cannot rush God. We need to trust him as He knows the perfect time to bless us with the breakthrough.

5.Wrestling with God- Genesis 32

When Jacob was wrestling with God, Jacob holds on to him and says“I will not let you go unless you bless me.” ²⁷ And God says to him, “What is your name ?”

Fascinating !! Was God asking him for information, just like we ask someone his or her name. No, He is all knowing ; Why would he ask Jacob his name ? You see, many years ago, Jacob had asked his father to bless him using a false identity. Now he was asking God to bless him and God wanted to show Jacob what was in his heart.

Jeremiah 17 :9, 10  says "The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately wicked; Who can understand it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind ‘, 

When God asked him his name, Jacob was compelled to reveal his name and in so doing, he was not just saying his name, but confessing it, before God-‘ Deceiver 'heel grabber,' 'supplanter’, and as soon as he had confessed, God gave Jacob a new identity, Israel interpreted as “May God rule.”  Jacob, who had earlier stolen a blessing from his father illegetimately, now received a blessing from God legitimately. 

Deuteronomy  8 :2 says “You will remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness  these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, 

God is interested in the condition of our hearts and wants us to be clear with him. Just like Jacob we have our own shortcomings and failures. And what we need to do is what Jacob did. Confess our weaknesses and face God.

And when we do that we leave our “Jacob” identity behind and step into a brand new identity ready to receive God’s blessings.

Preetha Paul

A Prayer, a Pledge and a Belief

A prayer, a pledge and a belief

Before I share the text for today, I want to share something lighthearted with you.....

A little boy wanted a bicycle but he did not know best how to pray for one. So as he was watching a church television program, a very traditional service, he saw how the minister prayed. At the end of the day, the lad got on his knees and said: "Lord, if it is in Your Sovereign will and in Your Eternal plan that I can get myself a bicycle - in your time and according to your will - would you please get me a bicycle In Jesus name I pray. Amen."
        Two days later, there was still no bicycle; so he began to think he needed a different prayer. He turned on the television again to watch another type of ministry in operation. And at the end of the day, he got on his knees and said: "Lord, I declare my need for a bicycle! And I declare that it will be a nice blue-colored bicycle and delivered to my home within 24 hours. I lay claim to it, Amen!"
        After several days and still not having received a bicycle.  As he was passing through the hall he saw a statue of the Virgin Mary there on one of the shelves.  He took the statue off of the shelf and disappeared somewhere. His mother was observing him all the time. Later that night as he got ready for bed, the little boy got down on his knees and said, "Dear Jesus, if you ever want to see your mother again..." 

It was Dr. Ravi Zacharias who asked this very profound question of his audience at one of his meetings « If a non-believer were to base their understanding of God and Christ and the Christian faith on what they witness of our life in general and our devotional life in particular, what conclusion would they come to?

The text that I want to share is from 1 Samuel 1- verses 1 onwards which the story of Hannah is. As we read the story we observe 3 things happening   in Hannah’s life.  A Prayer, a pledge and a belief

The Prayer

Very briefly the story goes like this

There lived a man called Elkanah who had two wives; Peninnah who had children, and Hannah who didn’t have any. Over the years, Hannah had become an object of ridicule due to the fact that the Lord had shut her womb and Peninnah never missed an opportunity to mock her regarding this.

Year after year after year Elkanah and family went up to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, the place which was considered to be the religious hub of the nation. We don’t know how long Hannah had gone through this annual routine; whether she went out of a sense of duty, compulsion or simply because it was a tradition.

For, though Hannah was physically present at Shiloh, she was mentally far away, her mind weighed down by the misery and shame she was experiencing.

You see sometimes we do things for God, with the wrong attitude. It is very easy to get bogged down by our circumstances and settle down into a kind of monotonous routine. As a result, our worship becomes routine, our prayer life becomes routine and spending time with the word becomes routine.

But one year, Hannah decided to get out of the monotony, she came into God's presence with a specific powerful prayer. Verse 9 and verse 10, tells us that Hannah went to the Tabernacle to pray and weep bitterly before the Lord.

The Pledge

In verse 11, Hannah made this vow to God: "O Lord Almighty, if you will look down upon my sorrows and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you ".

What an incredible pledge! She had by faith, just promised to give God something that she had desired to have the most in her life, something of infinitely more value than gold, silver or money, the very child that she had waited so long for.  

And as Hannah was faithful and gave up her child to God, God blessed her with 5 more children, three sons and two daughters.

There is a very important principle here. When we sow out of our areas of lack by faith, God is faithful to bless us in that area.

The Belief

The facts were against her. After all the Lord had shut her womb. What chance did she have to bear a child? Yet she chose to place her trust in the Lord and believed what Eli, the priest, had told her. In fact the word says, she was at peace. She was no longer troubled.

Today we have Jesus as our High Priest sitting on the right hand of the Father. When he says “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do,” no matter what the odds are, no matter what the facts tell us, we need to choose to believe what Jesus says to us. We need to believe it is done.

THE PERFUME

^{THE PERFUME} 

Today, I want to share on the topic of giving and for that I’ll first share a story and then a text from the Bible. A man goes to his pastor and says “Pastor, you have got to pray for me. I am really struggling in the area of tithing”. Why? What seems to be the matter? Asked his Pastor. “You see, there was a time  when I was earning 50 dollars a week and I was tithing 5 dollars No big deal, it was cool, then my salary became  500 dollars a week and I had to tithe 50 dollars, which was also ok. But now, I am earning 5000 dollars a week and tithing 500 dollars is too much. His pastor began praying for him” God, you have got to help this brother here who is struggling to give his  tithes, so I pray that you would decrease his salary so that the amount he has to tithe would also become less and it would be easier for him to pay his tithes.

Humour apart, when it comes to giving, people do all kinds of peculiar calculations in their head and come up with reasons on why they cannot give. Seriously how does addition of one more 0 matter?  It’s the principle that matters.

The text that I want to share is  from John 12- Verse 3 onwards, It is a graphic  story which  basically looks into the  hearts of 2 people Mary (generous heart) and Judas (selfish heart).

³ Then Mary took about a pint^[a] of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

⁴ But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, ⁵ “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages” ⁶ He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

In those times, one Denarius was one day’s wages, so ANNUAL INCOME of an ordinary person would be around 300 denarii. Now nard or spikenard was a costly perfume which most probably had originated from India, China or Nepal and Mary would have paid around 300 denarii for jar of the perfume.

To really appreciate this story, you need to imagine it in today’s context.  So Mary enters Shoppers Stop, goes upto the perfume counter and says “Look I want to buy the most expensive brand of perfume that you have”. The salesman says “ok here you are, 1 ounce bottle that would be Rs.50000”. And Mary replies “I don’t need just 1 oz. I need one pint .I need 16 oz. Here is my entire years’ salary. Wow! Just think about it.

Makes me wonder, why did Mary do it? She was not rolling in money. She was an ordinary person with an Average income like you and I. Then what motivated her? The answer may be found in the previous chapter. Lazarus had just been raised from the dead and they were having a small party on that day with Jesus and his disciples. Mary was obviously grateful. Not only that, she loved the Lord with all her heart. And it was this love and gratitude that led to her incredibly lavish gift. So here we have the picture of the generous heart. A person  living life with an  open hand, which says God nothing matters more to me  than you and  all I have, my finances, my talents, my time, my resources are  yours.

Now look at Judas. He was so concerned about the money (which incidentally was not even his).  What was his motive? Concern for the poor was the last thing on his mind; it is very clear that Judas was only seeking to gratify his needs.

He was the treasurer and He was pilfering with the offerings. He was literally robbing Jesus. It says here- he was a thief.

You may wonder- Didn’t Jesus know what was going on? Didn’t he know Judas’s nature? Then why did he place him in such a responsible position? God knows everything about us including our weaknesses and he sometimes deliberately places us in areas of our weaknesses, to make us strong in those particular areas. In Judas we have the picture of the selfish heart. A person living life with a closed fist, which says nothing matters more to me more than my finances, I will grab whatever I can and hold on to whatever I have.

This is a pretty good analogy of our lives. The spirit of generosity (the Mary spirit) and spirit of selfishness (the Judas spirit) coexist in all of us, maybe in different areas and like everything else in our life the battle between the 2 is in the mind. And every time the battle begins, we need to make a choice, the choice either to be generous or obey God or the choice to be selfish and gratify self. Making right choices every time leads to the formation of right habits. And forming right habits leads to creating right lifestyles. So if we are generous every time, it leads first to a habit of generosity and then to a lifestyle of giving. And vice versa is also true.

Before I close, I want to share an interesting statistic with you.  The word "Give" appears 921 times in the Bible, almost as many times as "Faith" (270), "Hope" (165), and "Love" (541) put together. God is repeatedly exhorting us to be generous because he knows perfectly well that most of us struggle with this discipline. 2 Corinthian 9: verses 6-11, particularly verse 11 are powerful scriptures on generosity. I particularly like Verse 11 which says

¹¹ You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

God enriches us so that our generosity achieves two basic purposes:

·         God's name will be thanked and praised by people whose lives we impact.

·         God's people will have their needs met.

And as we step into the New Year, let us try to have a lifestyle of giving so that our offerings would be used to impact lives here and round the globe...

THE PICNIC BASKET

The Picnic Basket

God uses ordinary people extraordinarily and today I want to share about the life of one such ordinary person from the Bible, whom God used mightily to achieve something extraordinary. He was so ordinary that I don’t know his name, his genealogy or his age. I don’t know whether he had any siblings or whether he was rich or poor.  In fact I know nothing about him; I can only surmise a couple of things about him .Number 1: He probably had a healthy appetite   and Number 2: He had loving parents who provided for him.  I am talking about the little boy with the picnic basket- 5 barley loaves and 2 fish, in the story of Jesus feeding the 5000.  While this miracle is recorded in all 4 gospels, I’m picking it up from Mark 6 verses 35 – 44.

³⁵ By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. ³⁶ Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

It is easy to understand the mind-set of the disciples. They had been managing a crowd of about 20000 people. They were exhausted, hungry and ready to call it a day. And so they were desperately trying to persuade Jesus to send the crowd away.

Jesus however was having none of that.

³⁷ But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”  Can you imagine how shocked, the disciples would have been on hearing this statement. Feed such a huge crowd? Was Jesus serious?

They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages^[a]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

The Bible places the count of men who came to hear Jesus at 5000. In those days, however, only the men were counted, women and children were not considered whilst taking a count. Taking them also into account, the actual number of people present at that time could well have been around 15 to 20000.

I don’t know how much it would have cost to feed 15 – 20,000 people in those days.  But today If we have to feed so many people, it would be somewhere in the vicinity of Rs. 15  lakhs.  Now that’s a whopping amount of money, it’s almost more than a year’s income for many people.

³⁸ “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

I love this story because it has a lot of principles tucked away in it and today I want to share some principles that can be practically applied to our lives. So here goes…..

Principle 1: Offer what you have to Jesus.

I wonder how many among the 20000 present on that day had carried something to eat. I daresay some may have had their own lunchbox, but did not want to let go of it. In fact, if I had been in that boy’s place, I might have kept my lunch well hidden somewhere. That’s human nature, to hold on to things and never let go.

But this small boy, surprisingly gave his lunch to the disciples. It must have cost him a lot of heartache, to see his lunch walk away from him when he was hungry, yet he offered it. He might have had some misgivings on how so many people could be fed with the little that he had to offer, yet he offered it. God expects that from us. We are all blessed, some with little, some with much. But whatever we have- be it our time, talents, finances, or resources, we need to offer it willingly to Him.

Principle 2: God starts with what you offer.

We serve a mighty God who can speak things into existence, who can create something from nothing. That is God the Creator. However when He works in our life,  God always takes something that we offer and then multiplies it. Here Jesus   could have created bread from nothing, He could have created the money from nothing. He is the All Powerful One. He could have done anything. But he started with the 5 loaves and 2 fish that the little boy had offered. In II Kings chapter 4, God started with the oil that the widow had put inside the pot…. .In the case of the widow of Zarephath, he started with the flour.

Principle 3: God multiplies what you offer.

Luke 6: 38 is a powerful verse on multiplication and it says ‘Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. We generally associate this verse with finances, but it is not only for finances, it is for everything that we give. It says in the last part “For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again”. The keyword here is ‘it’; it stands for whatever we give.

In earthly multiplication, when we multiply any 2 numbers we get the Product of the 2 numbers. The product is a finite number i.e. something we can count.

But in heavenly multiplication, when something is multiplied by God, it becomes limitless, infinite.

In this case 5 loaves + 2 fish multiplied by God gave Food enough for 20000 people + 12 extra baskets of food.

Principle 4: Multiplication is in kind

Here loaves multiplied into more loaves and fish to more fish. It didn’t multiply to cakes or meat. Not that He couldn’t have done that, but we serve a systematic God, a God of order and he typically multiples in kind. If we offer Him our finances, he will multiply it and give it back to us, if we offer him our talents, he will multiply that and give it back to us.

Principle 5:  Nothing multiplies unless Jesus blesses it.

⁴¹ Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people.

Notice something interesting here? As long as they were with the boy, they were just 5 loaves and 2 fish, as long as they were with the disciples, it was only 5 loaves and 2 fish. Then Jesus gave thanks, broke the bread and handed the pieces to the disciples to distribute and as they were distributing it, it multiplied in their hands. Ditto with the fish. It continued increasing in their hands, the supply was limitless and that was incredible. They had 12 baskets left over!!! Wow!!

Principle 6: We become a channel of God’s blessings to others.

The little boy must not have imagined in his wildest dreams that the 5 barley loaves and 2 fish that he offered to Jesus, would be used to feed the multitude. He had become a channel of God’s supernatural blessings to the multitude. His offering had impacted so many people.

To conclude, we all have   barley loaves and fish in our lives that we can offer God. Handing over   our finances, our relationships, our talents, our time, our resources  to God, gives God the opportunity to multiply it and bless us and many others through us.

Many are unwilling to offer it up, fearing that there would be nothing left for them, many may think that what they have is not significant enough for God to use.

These are thoughts of insufficiency arising out of a scarcity mentality. It is a snare of the enemy by which we restrict God’s multiplication in our lives. 

We may not have much to give, but whatever we do have, we can offer it to Jesus. Even if it isn’t much, let’s offer it.  Little becomes limitless when multiplied by God.

Today, if there is any area of our lives in which we need to see a growth, a supernatural increase.  Let us offer it to God. And see the power of multiplication in our lives.

PETER AND THE REST

Thunder rolled and lightening flashed, the storm was raging,

The tiny boat shook and swayed, how long they couldn’t say.

Battered by the winds, the disciples with the oars, struggling;

Tired and weary, their Master seemed so far away.

Suddenly in the hazy darkness, on the stormy waters, a figure seemed to loom,

In wild terror shrieked out they;

Their minds sensing impending doom.

Who was this – a phantom or a ghost, come furtively to spirit them away?

“Shh, it is I. Do not be afraid” a familiar voice reassured.

Seeking to drive out their fear, ingrained deep within.

But the disciples cowered in fright, even though the Master’s voice they heard.

All, except Peter, who boldly spoke up, ignoring the din.

Eyes focused on the Lord; Obeying His Master’s call,

Into the water Peter stepped, letting go of the boat,

One step, then two, moving ahead, walking tall;
Until he shifted his gaze from Jesus and floundered; his heart leaping to his throat.

'My Lord! ‘ he cried, 'Save me! Save me!  '
Jesus caught ahold of him, 'wherefore did you doubt in your mind? '

I am with you in the storm, you see. 

I will never leave nor forsake you, let me again remind.

Am I like Peter who stepped out believing?

Eager to do as his Master bade?

Or am I like the rest, His voice not heeding;

Unable to answer, sore afraid?

Dearly beloved, let us not shift our gaze - from 'THE MASTER.'

And fix it on the stormy sea!
For in so doing – we may falter and confront disaster.
Let us look to the 'ONE' - who by His spoken word, created all things to be.

by Preetha Paul