By Kenneth Hagin Jr.
The Bible gives examples of God multiplying people’s resources. For example, the feeding of the five thousand was such a tremendous miracle that all four Gospel writers included it in their writings (Matt.
14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:1017; John 6:1-13). It was recorded for our benefit, and the message of that miracle is for us today: God will multiply our resources!
JOHN 6:1-6
1 After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.
2 And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.
3 And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples.
4 And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.
5 When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, WHENCE SHALL WE BUY BREAD, THAT THESE MAY EAT?
6 And this he said to prove him: FOR HE HIMSELF KNEW WHAT HE WOULD DO.
Notice, Jesus already knew what He was going to do. He already knows what He’s going to do for us too. He just wants to see what we’re going to do. He just wants to find out where our faith is in each
situation and circumstance.
JOHN 6:7-13
7 Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, 9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? 10 And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, IN NUMBER ABOUT FIVE THOUSAND. 11 And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as
much as they would. 12 WHEN THEY WERE FILLED, he said unto his disciples, GATHER UP THE
FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN, that nothing be lost. 13 Therefore they gathered them together, and FILLED TWELVE BASKETS WITH THE FRAGMENTS OF THE FIVE BARLEY LOAVES, which remained OVER AND ABOVE unto them that had eaten.
I want you to notice something specific about this miracle. In the Gospel of Mark, you will find that Jesus’ disciples came to Him and said, “The people are getting hungry. Send them away so they can go
buy themselves some bread” (Mark 6:36).
Many times when we come face-to-face with a problem, and we don’t have the resources to meet the need, we have a tendency to try to “pass the buck.” In other words, we try to avoid solving the problem by putting the responsibility on someone else. We may say, “That’s not my responsibility! That’s So-and-so’s responsibility.”
And sometimes people try to escape from their problems altogether by running away from them. They think that if they can move to a new place, go to a new church, or get a new set of friends, they’re going
to get away from their problems.
But often people find they can’t get away from their problems because they’re the problem! So no matter where they go, they continue to find themselves in the same situations and circumstances they’ve always been in, because the problem is with them!
Have you ever felt like there’s no way out of the problems you face? There’s hope in God! Even if you feel hopeless and in despair, God can multiply your resources and help you solve every one of your problems. But you’ve got to give Him what you have so He’ll have something to multiply!
In the feeding of the five thousand, the disciples were confronted with an impossible situation. In the natural, there was no way to accomplish the task. They needed to feed five thousand people, and
they didn’t have enough food or money to feed that many people. Think about it a minute. That’s a lot of people to feed! The disciples didn’t want that responsibility – but Jesus did! He knew God would multiply His resources to meet the need.
Different people react differently when faced with problems. I guess one of the most common practices when people find themselves in an impossible situation is to put off dealing with it and just hope the
problem will go away.
Most of us have a tendency to put things off when we don’t know what to do, or when we feel we don’t have the resources to accomplish the task. So we wait for a more suitable time to deal with it! But God never has that problem! There’s never a situation God cannot handle! Sometimes in all of our efforts, we forget that fact, and we weary ourselves trying to solve our problems on our own.
No matter what your situation or circumstance, remember that God never has an emergency! I think if we really understood that, we could breathe a lot easier. Humans have emergencies, but God doesn’t have any emergencies. And if we would learn to rely on our spirit man on the inside, we wouldn’t have emergencies either.
Don’t misunderstand me. Of course, emergencies arise in the natural. But if we would learn to depend on the spirit man on the inside, we’d never have to stay in an emergency situation. We could keep a calm,
quiet spirit, knowing God can handle any crisis and deliver us from every test and trial.
That was not the case with the disciples. When they were confronted with an emergency, they didn’t know what to do. Jesus knew God would multiply His resources, but His disciples weren’t convinced.
JOHN 6:8,9
8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, 9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes:
BUT WHAT ARE THEY AMONG SO
At first Andrew said, “There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes . . .” (John 6:9). That sounded like Andrew was really getting ahold of this principle! But then Andrew said, “. . . but what are they among so many?”
Andrew started out talking right, but he ended up talking wrong, because he didn’t know God could multiply his resources! In the same way, many times we start out on the right track, but we end up talking wrong, and it defeats us.
In the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus knew God would multiply His resources. The disciples were perplexed, but they obeyed Jesus’ command to seat the people (John 6:10). But what about the young boy who supplied the loaves and fish? His small sacrifice made the way for God to multiply his resources and bless five thousand people.This young boy’s mamma probably packed his lunch the day he went to see Jesus. As the boy sat down on the grass with his lunch, one of the disciples said to him, “Son, Jesus wants your fish and your loaves of bread.”
The boy was probably just about ready to eat when that disciple approached him. We don’t think too much about it, but I wonder what went through that boy’s mind when they asked for his lunch? Maybe he thought, Man, this is all I’ve got to eat, and it’s a long way back home. Anyway, I only have five loaves and two fish. What does Jesus want with my food?
What if that boy’s attitude had been, “Hey, tell Jesus I’ll share half a fish and one of my loaves of bread with Him.” We really don’t know what the boy’s attitude was, but we do know he gave Jesus his five
loaves and two fish.
I wonder if that young boy understood the significance of what he was doing. When he supplied Jesus with the loaves and fish, I doubt that he really understood the blessing it would be to so many people.
When God asks us to do things for Him, we don’t always understand the blessing our obedience is going to be to so many either. But if we wholeheartedly give God what we have and trust Him in simple faith and obedience, God will multiply what we have and make us a great blessing to humanity.
You may never see the outward result of everything you do for God. You may never know about all the lives you’ve touched. No one may ever know anything about it but God! But God is keeping a record in Heaven!You may not think you have much to offer God. But God can even take what you think is your most ineffective talent or ability and make it a blessing if that’s what is needed. He can multiply your resources! For example, those five loaves and two fish seemed very insignificant. We’re not talking about big loaves of bread! Today you’d probably call them mini-loaves. They were just small loaves of bread – me just enough for two people to eat. But, you see, even though the loaves and fish were seemingly insignificant, they fed five thousand people!
What a blessing it is to a person when he wholeheartedly gives of himself in obedience to God! A person will be blessed in life when he obeys God without questioning what the outcome is going to be.
But when God speaks to some people to do something for Him, the first thing they want to know is, “What am I going to get out of it? How’s this going to bless me?” People like that will never be a success at anything they do, because they’re selfish. They’re interested only in themselves.
You see, you’ve got to have the attitude, Lord, make me a blessing. If some of you would start praying, “Lord, make me a blessing,” instead of praying, “Lord, bless me,” you’d find the blessings of God would
overtake you. In other words, if you would start being a blessing, you would find that God’s blessings would follow after you.
The Bible says Jesus is our Example. He came to the earth to bless humanity, and everything He did was for the purpose of helping others. But He helped others through faith in His Father God.
In the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus did something that caused God to multiply His resources. And you can do the same thing in your own life when it looks like you don’t have the resources to accomplish
what is set before you.
First, once Jesus saw the need, He took inventory of His available resources. When faced with the need, He asked his disciples, “N”at have we got?”
In your own life, you can ask yourself, What have I got to offer God? How can I help meet this need? In taking inventory of your resources, you may find you’ve got enough to start, but not enough to finish.
That’s not necessarily an indication that you should sit down and quit. That just means you’ve got to give God what you have so He can multiply it! To do that, you’ve got to have faith in Him.
For example, look at the woman in the Old Testament who needed her resources multiplied (1 Kings 17:8-16). She had enough meal and oil left to make one small cake, because there was a famine in the land and the people were starving. She was going to make the cake, and she and her son were going to eat it before finally starving to death. Then the prophet Elijah came to her house and said to her, “Make me a cake first.” She only had the resources for one cake, but she said, “All right. I don’t have much, but if the prophet of God needs it, I’ll give it.” And as long as the famine lasted, she made cakes every
day! And every day after she made a cake, she still had the same amount of meal and the same amount of oil left.
If you will just take what you have and use it for God, God will multiply your resources too. Every time it looks like you don’t have much for God to work with, if you will just give what you have to God
in faith, God will give the increase.
The next thing Jesus did to multiply His resources was to give thanks to God. He took the loaves, and He gave thanks. Then He said to His disciples, “Go feed the people.” And the disciples fed five thousand
people that day!
There’s a lesson to be learned in this account. Some of you need to turn loose of your “five loaves and two fish” that you’ve been holding on to so tightly. And when you do, you’re going find that you’ll have
baskets of blessings left over simply because you turned loose to God in faith and thanksgiving and quit being stingy! You gave God something to multiply!
When you run up against a challenge in life, don’t throw up your hands and yell, “What are we going to do now?” Instead, look around and find something you’ve got to give. Say, “All right, Lord. This is what
I’ve got – here it is.” Once you’ve given what you have to God in faith and thanksgiving, God will give the increase and multiply your resources!
The answer to every obstacle and challenge in life can be found in the Word of God. But some people drag their feet when it comes to faith and are slow to act on what they know about the Word. For example, some believers have never learned the secret of giving according to the Word. The reason they don’t have anything is that they’re not giving anything to God. You’ve got to learn to give in line with God’s Word if you expect God to give you increase.
This applies to every area of life. In other words, anything the Lord said in His Word to do, we must be faithful to do it. It may not always be easy, just as it probably wasn’t easy for that young boy to
give up His lunch. But because he did, God multiplied his resources and many people were blessed.
By turning loose and giving God your resources no matter how small, you, too, can enjoy a realm of greater multiplied blessings than you ever thought you’d enjoy! As you give God your resources, God will give the increase and multiply your resources back to you!
This article came from the June 1993 issue of “The Word Of Faith” magazine.
Christian Information Network
