The scriptures record many instances of multiplication – where matter multiplies instantly.
Are you in debt, financial trouble or experiencing poverty? God can and still wants to work miracles of multiplication on your behalf.
As we saw in the last article, Elisha the prophet asks this poor widow a pertinent question; ‘How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?’
I remember when I was a young single man living in a small Church of England owned cottage and working as the church parish assistant. I lived next door to the Anglican Church building and helped out with the children’s and youth work in what was then considered a very deprived council estate.
We started a discipleship group in that cottage where we ate biscuits and explored the Bible with un-churched youth from the area.
One day, my housemate was cooking himself some food and the young people asked for some. We were able to feed them. But following that incident the news spread amongst the young people of that estate that if they went to my house they could get a meal. From that time on, when the local schools were finished for the day, there were queues outside my house.
The first day this happened, I was cooking myself a meal and I heard a banging on the door – I opened the door and the first small crowd of young people stood outside wanting food. I began serving them plates of food from the pot I had made for myself. Throughout that evening groups of young people continued to arrive demanding food. It was only after a while I realized that the food must have multiplied as I fed so many young people that evening on the very little food I had made for myself.
Feeding 100
‘A man came from Baal Shalishah, bringing the man of God twenty loaves of barley bread baked from the first ripe corn, along with some ears of new corn. “Give it to the people to eat,” Elisha said. “How can I set this before a hundred men?” his servant asked.But Elisha answered, “Give it to the people to eat. For this is what the LORD says: ‘They will eat and have some left over.’” Then he set it before them, and they ate and had some left over, according to the word of the LORD.’ -2 Kings 4:42-44
We recently hosted a Christmas Event on another council estate with high levels of deprivation. We had a live nativity play with live animals (donkeys) and gave away toys, clothing and chocolate selection boxes to local families. When it came to the sit down meal aspect of what we were offering, we had limited space and limited food. The amount of food we had catered for looked like it might serve 50-60 people – however, we had a queue of approximately 120 people so I prayed that God would multiply the food. Those in the queue continued to get served food and somehow everyone was fed and watered!
Feeding of the 4000
This miracle is recorded in Matthew 15:32–39 and Mark 8:1–9. Jesus says,
‘I feel sorry for these people’ (v32)
It is the compassion of Jesus that led to the multiplication in this case. He asks, ‘How much bread do you have?’ (v34)
7 loaves and a few small fish. They all ate as much as they wanted. Afterward, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food. There were 4000 men who were fed that day in addition to all the women and children (v38)
Multiplication is activated by giving the little you have to Jesus in the face of insurmountable problems
Feeding of the 5000
The miracle of feeding the 5000 is recorded in all four gospels (Matthew 14:13–21; Mark 6:31–44; Luke 9:12–17; John 6:1–14).
‘That evening the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it is already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves”‘ -Mark 6:15
‘But Jesus said, “That isn’t necessary – you feed them’ (v16)
What an absurd sounding statement that is.
‘”With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people”‘ (v37)
By ssome reconings it would take 200 denari. A denari us was equivalent to a labourers full day wage. In UK terms, that’s probably the equivalent to somewhere between £15,000-£30,000
And yet, they had nothing to feed the crowd with, or so they thought!
Jesus told them to go and find out how much bread they have.
“There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”
Have you ever had that mentality – we don’t have enough for ourselves let alone supplying the needs of others
There’s not enough to go around…
From Supplying Your Needs to Meeting the Needs of Others
The first few articles in this series, ‘Contending for the Miraculous’ has focused so far on God performing miracles to meet your own personal needs…
These stories give us the opportunity to venture further in providing for the needs of others
God can take the little you have and multiply it out to the crowd
How are you reaching out and feeding others physically and spiritually?
