Lk.9:13 – MSG – “You feed them,” Jesus said.

Lk.9:13 – TPT – Jesus responded, “You have the food to feed them.”

Mk.6:37 – But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.”

Lk.9:13 – Amp – But He said to them, You [yourselves] give them [food] to eat.

This miracle, the feeding of the 5000, always reminds me of the dark hole I found myself in in 1990 trying to pay for our recently completed church building. At least I thought I was in a hole, I just couldn’t seem to find Jesus in the mess I was in. Looking at our problems has a way of doing that to us, all we can see is our lack. A guest speaker really ministered to me about that time, it was Tommy Barnett preaching about, “There is a Miracle in the House”. He preached that everything we need is already here, we just need to see it and bring it to Jesus. Pastor Barnett told me at lunch that day that I couldn’t see the miracle that was all around me, that conversation changed everything for me. It was shortly after that that we started Feed the Multitudes and the Lord began to show up in unusual ways. Jesus told the disciples the same thing, “you have the food to feed them”. Here is how the Passion Notes followed by Barclay describes this moment.

“In the Greek text, the word you here is emphatic. Jesus told his disciples they had food to give to others. Because Jesus lives within us, we can give others the living bread and, if need be, multiply food for others to eat. We are to focus on what we have, not on what we don’t have.”

“Jesus’ help was generous. There was enough, and more than enough. In love there is no nice calculation of the less and more. God is like that. When we sow a packet of seeds we usually have to thin the plants out and throw away far more than we can keep. God has created a world where there is more than enough for all if we will share it.”

So that first FTM the Lord showed up and there was more than enough to feed all the people. The same was true in the church, everything we needed to fulfill His plans has always been right here in the house. I can’t wait for church this Sunday, there will be all kinds of miracles in the house.