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And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick. When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” He said, “Bring them here to Me.” Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained. Now those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children. --- Matthew 14:14-21
Oftentimes people read the Bible like a history book. They hear the stories and put them so far back in time in their mind that it can't be personal to them. But God says His Word is alive and active. He is the same yesterday, today and forevermore. If He did it then, He can do it now - but it's all according to your faith. This is a story, just one instance, where I saw the Word come to life.
Early December of last year, the Lord was putting it on my heart to minister to the homeless community in Hawaii. I was still in Florida at the time but my wife and daughter were there visiting her family and I was preparing to join them. When I arrived, I knew I was there on a mission, but I didn't quite know what the assignment would entail.
During a Bible study, I was reading Matthew chapter 14 where Jesus fed the multitudes with five loaves of bread and two fish and I knew that God wanted me to feed His children. There was only one problem: I didn't have the resources to feed a multitude of people. However, I didn't let that stop me. I knew that if God was telling me to do it, then He would provide everything I needed.
I started making plans with a couple different groups of people to hand out food to the homeless. The holidays were approaching and I knew from my time at the rescue mission that this was a particularly hard time for the people who were already ignored by society. We decided that Christmas Day would be the best day for us to go out so we started recruiting volunteers. A restaurant heard about what we were doing and committed to donating $1500 worth of fish! A few days later, we were discussing our plans with the owner of a coffeeshop and bakery and they said that they would donate all the bread that wasn't sold on Christmas Eve and gave us a few hundred to-go plates and utensils. Then, when we were shopping at Costco for rice and water bottles, we ran into the owner of the gym my wife and I used to work for. She was excited to see us again and once we told her what we were shopping for, she offered to pay for it! She told us that once we were done to bring our receipt to Fitness Forever and the gym would donate that amount to our cause.
Christmas Eve came and we went to the coffeeshop to pick up bread. When we arrived, the owner told us that something had happened with the oven that morning so the bread didn't brown on the outside. Although it was perfectly good to eat, it was not display worthy so they would not be able to sell it. They ended up donating the entire batch for that day, which came out to about $400-$500 worth of bread!
On Christmas Day, we prepped the food and gathered our volunteers at Fitness Forever. We loaded the trays of food and water bottles into the back of a pickup truck and set out to hand them out in the community. As we drove around town, we stopped and offered food and prayed over everyone we saw that was in need. We were able to feed and pray for about 100 people that day!
As a follower of God, our job is to take care of his flock. Our Father will provide the resources to help us take care of His children. Faith is motion-activated. Once God sees you making strides to do His will, He will help cover the rest. Because I was obedient to God and didn't project my limitations on His plans, He provided over $2000 worth of resources for His assignment!
God wants to be a part of our every day life. Make yourself available for Him to use you daily!
"Kingdom, Your Divine Source and Supplier" Dr. Myles Munroe