God Wants to Multiply Your Resources

You know the story of Jesus multiplying the loaves and fishes for the crowd of 5000 in Matthew 14:13-21 (NLT)

¹³ As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone. But the crowds heard where he was headed and followed on foot from many towns. ¹⁴ Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

¹⁵ That evening the disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves.”

¹⁶ But Jesus said, “That isn’t necessary—you feed them.”

¹⁷ “But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!” they answered.

¹⁸ “Bring them here,” he said. ¹⁹ Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people. ²⁰ They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers. ²¹ About 5,000 men were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children!

Notice a few things

• Jesus was ministering to the crowd. You are also ministering to a “crowd” every week.
• Jesus had limited resources to minister with. I’m guessing you do to?
• Jesus wanted to do something impossible. Again, I’m guessing you feel sometimes that He asks you also to do the impossible?

Look how Jesus made this happen.

1. He had a vision to feed them.
2. He took the helpers he did have and asked them to help solve the problem.
3. He organized the people he was going to minister to by having them sit down.
4. He identified what resources someone had (John tells us it was a little boy’s lunch).
5. He blessed what he had.
6. What he had was multiplied.

So think of your resource needs in ministry. Is it money? People? Space?

1. Get a vision from God for it. You can’t spell provision without vision.
2. Get some people involved in helping you believe for this thing and ask for ideas on how to solve it.
3. Organize what you do have. A church consultant told me once. Get rid of your junk because when God multiplies you you don’t want it to be multiplied too.
4. What resources do you have? Count the people you do have. Figure out how much money you really have. Take a look at your spaces. Learn to assess and  measure everything.
5. Bless what you have. Turn it over to God. Maybe you don’t get anymore volunteers because you are so busy verbally trashing the ones you have. Instead of talking about how little money you have thank Him for what you do have. Instead of talking about how bad your facilities are, fix them up and take care of them.
6. Watch God do the multiplying. I know I have had many years where I had $0 budget but I learned to trust God in those years. I never went without resources to do what He called me to do.