In a recent conversation with God, of which has been amidst troublesome times, I was asking Him, “What on earth (or heaven for that matter) is going on?” I don’t know about you, but I’ve come to experience some real targeted battles coming from within my own soul as well as from the enemy. I don’t think anyone would disagree with me in this statement, that we are living in the last days. The Bible clearly states that “perilous times” will come. We see this in 2 Timothy 3:1-7
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
As we read through that list of “symptoms of the last days”, I’m sure you would agree that the majority if not all of these items listed are prevalent in today’s society. Much of these things are being propagated by the media and education of today as “good things”, or character traits of those that have “made it”. We hear things like, “Make sure to take care of number one (referring to yourself)”, or “I’m just out to get mine.” Society in and of itself if failing and in a downward spiral to torment and destruction. Now all that aside, we have are own inward battles that have yet to be conquered. In analyzing my life and walk with God, I began to dissect the areas of my life that have yet to be surrendered to the cross. I understand that God has a process to maturing His children. A life with Christ is an ongoing surrender, and an ongoing battle. So being of this mindset, I was in a time of sitting and waiting before God. I had no preconceived ideas or agendas, I had so many questions and complaints burning within my soul, but held back. I wanted to “be” with God, and allow Him to speak rather than hearing my own chatter. As I was meditating in stillness, He brought to my attention the story of the feeding of the 5,000. This is a familiar passage of scripture that we find in Matthew 14:15-21 and Mark 6:34-44. Let’s take a look at this event…
When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!” They said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” And He said, “Bring them here to Me.” Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children.
Matt 14:15-21
When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. When it was already quite late, His disciples came to Him and said, ” This place is desolate and it is already quite late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But He answered them, “You give them something to eat!” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and spend two hundred denarii on bread and give them something to eat?” And He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” And when they found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” And He commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass. They sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He kept giving them to the disciples to set before them; and He divided up the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and they picked up twelve full baskets of the broken pieces, and also of the fish. There were five thousand men who ate the loaves.
Mark 6:34-44
This is quite a fascinating story, full of insight and instruction. In meditating on these passages, this event in history began to speak to me. In our quest to finding our significance and destiny, we often get disillusioned by delay or disorder. We can tend to find ourselves frustrated, angry, depressed or despondent. I know I have found myself in some of these places. In looking at this event, I began to see a pattern that Holy Spirit was trying to illuminate in my heart. It was in reference to how God desires to answer the needs of the world around us. We see in these passages, that there was a great multitude of people following Jesus wherever He went. They were desperate in their souls to hear from God and to see success in their lives. How about you? Do you find yourself in that same place? I know I do. We see that the disciples were concerned about these people, they have been following with determination and dedication. Now it was becoming late, and the disciples began to address the physical needs of the people. They needed to eat, and the disciples felt the need to bring this to the attention of Jesus. Isn’t that how we are as well? Do you find yourself approaching God with the obvious, as if the Creator of time and space may have overlooked it. Often times physical needs distract us from spiritual realities. I find it interesting that when presented with the physical need, Jesus throws the responsibility of action back onto the disciples. He tells them, “You give them something to eat!” In Mark’s account of the event, we hear about the disciples rebutting Jesus with another physical response, “Shall we go and spend money on bread to give them something to eat?” I love how Jesus remains heavenly minded. He replies, “How many loaves do you have? Go look!” So we read that they come back with five loaves and two fish. Here is where Holy Spirit really drilled home a revelation to me about God’s divine plan and process of development for our lives. Four things we see Jesus do to meet the needs of the people around Him.
1) Beckoned: The first step in our development process is to be beckoned by God. He has an amazing way of calling people to Himself. Often times it’s through His presence and love, sometimes it’s through trials. Ultimately, He longs for a relationship with you that goes well beyond what your natural senses find reasonable. We see that Jesus took into His hands the substance to meet the need. In our case, we are that substance, we are the “living sacrifices” to God that we read about in Romans 12:1. As we are beckoned by God, forever drawn to His heart, we become an instrument for His glory. We must allow ourselves to be embraced by God. It takes courage to abandon yourself to the will of another, and that is where we live out our faith and intimacy to God. We rest in His hands.
2) Blessed: In this place of yieldedness, God begins to bless our lives. We begin to experience His love, joy, peace and so on. We see that God begins to open doors of opportunities, and closes doors of hindrances. We get to taste of the fruit of true kingdom living. We see how Jesus takes of the bread, looks up to heaven, and blesses it. This is the point in our walk where Jesus presents us to the Father and pronounces blessing over our lives. What a wonderful place to be living in. To experience His greatness in and through your life, nothing is more exhilarating. The place of bliss, until…
3) Broken: This is the place where the honeymoon is over, and the training/conditioning begins. The wonderful and terrifying thing about God is that He loves you so much as to take you as you are, but too much to leave you that way. His ultimate goal for our lives is to be conformed into the image of Jesus. In order for that to happen, we are like clay in the potters hands. It’s up to us whether we will be soft and pliable in His hands, or rigid and uncooperative. Often times we fight against the process of conformity because we don’t like to change. We’ve spent years bringing ourselves to the point where we were at before encountering Christ, that we don’t like to have it all unraveled. In that unraveling, there is a fear that presents itself that we will never be put back together. It takes a total reliance on God to surrender to this refinement. This is where I find myself currently. All I can say it OUCH! Jesus took of the bread, blessed it, then broke it. Many times in scripture we see this breaking of bread. We see it in the Lord’s supper, and we see it in Acts where the church ate together and broke bread (Acts 2:46). This breaking of bread also symbolizes communion and intimate relationship. This breaking process of our lives is done out of complete love and adoration. He longs for us to be more and more like Him. In this place, we take on His plans, pursuits and assignments. We care more about His will then our own. Jesus went through this brokenness process in the Garden of Gethsemane. There He spoke the famous words, “Abba! Father! All things are possible for You; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what You will.” (Mark 14:36-37)
4) Broadcasted: So I struggled to find another “B” word to finish up these four points. As I started to research in the dictionary and thesaurus, I ended up with broadcasted. It’s meaning struck me, and explained the final point. It’s meaning is this, to transmit, to speak, perform, sponsor or present, to cast or scatter abroad over an area (as seed in sowing), to spread widely, disseminate, to make something known widely, to reach the greatest number of people. The fourth and final phase of development is where we are broadcasted. Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, then dispersed it out to the people. He was very systematic in His approach as well. When He asked them (the people) to sit, He commanded them to sit down by groups. We see they sat down in hundreds and fifties. There was order to the provision. God has a systematic approach to reaching this world, and He’s going to use you! His desire is that in partnership with heaven and all His resources, that we be scattered throughout the world like seed, to produce results. The great commission commands us to go into all the world and make disciples of nations. That’s a pretty tall order coming from heaven, and it can only be done through committed, trained and refined people of His presence. Those He can trust and count on to be obedient and aggressive in establishing His kingdom and His righteousness on earth as it is in heaven. Will you be one of them? The Bible states clearly in Daniel 11:32…
Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.
The New American Standard Translation says the same verse like this…
By smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display strength and take action.
So in summary, cooperate with the process of development God has ordained to take place in your life. In it comes a life full of excitement and fulfillment, and ultimately VICTORY!