How do you walk by faith and see "miracles"? The simple answer is: be obedient to what God is asking you to do, no matter what the odds are against you to complete it. As a family, we have been traveling to do ministry all around this country for the past 8 years. The reason we do it is because God put the desire in my heart to do it years ago and, at one point about 10 years ago, said "go for it!" Well, it took my a while to get up the nerve. You see, I never had a name of recognition or financial backing or an extensive catalog of connections for making such ventures across the country. I only had a vision, a calling, and faith enough for one step at a time. But thanks be to God! That is enough.
This story of Jesus in Luke's Gospel gives us all we need for instructions on how to obey and see the miracles of God: As the day wore on, the twelve came to Jesus. "Send the crowds away", they said, "so that they can go into the villages and get something to eat. We're in quite a lonely spot here." "You give them something to eat," he replied. (Luke 9:12-13) Here is the command from Jesus, "You give them something to eat." And here comes the obstacle: "All we've got here," they said, "is five loaves and a couple of fish..." Jesus then gives the disciples one objective at a time: "Get them to sit down..." If you are called to feed five thousand people with just five loaves of bread and two fish, the first thing you have to do is get the people to sit down. That is not difficult and you can do it, so get on with it. And they did. What's next? Well, now the weight of responsibility for the situation has fallen upon the shoulders of Jesus who suggested the crazy idea in the first place. What is He going to do? Is He going to make a dramatic prayer and insist that God multiplies the food? No. He simply looks up to God and says "thank you" for the food and continues to obey God (Jesus had been called by God to feed the sheep of Israel) by giving the food out. All that the disciples were required to do was what they were able "Get the people to sit down." All that Jesus was required to do was to begin to serve the food after asking for God's blessing. I could do that as well as Jesus. You could do it too. God then did His own part and brought the miracle, the food just kept on coming. Everything that was done in that scenario can be done by you. You could have gotten the people to sit down, you could have taken what you had and given thanks, you could have begun distributing it until it ran out. The rest would not be your responsibility. There is nothing that God has called us to do or required us to do that we are not able to perform. He will take care of the rest. But it begins with faith. Without faith, you would never risk asking the people to sit down as though you had something to offer. Without faith, Jesus never would have thanked God for food that was yet to exist! All we are required to have is faith enough for step #1, then we can deal with what comes next, when it comes. The greatest Giants of the faith still only had small faith with simple obedience before a great God. So what are you waiting for? Give them something to eat!
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