Twice Sown Seed

5 When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? 6 And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. 7 Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, 9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? 10 And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. 11 And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. 12 When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. 13 Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.

With the economy acting funny, I wanted to put down some principles that I have used from years of praying in everything that we have, relying on God’s economy and not man’s.

I have been mulling over a principle found in this section of scripture for quite awhile now. I have implemented it in a few churches where I have Pastored over the years and have always seen fruit, even when I didn’t fully understand what was happening in the spirit.

What would have happened if Jesus would have taken the loaves and just sat down on the hillside and ate them? Or distributed them among himself and the disciples and ate them? Well, their own stomachs would have been full for sure, right?

However, the only miracle that would have happened that day would have been their own provision and the greater need and the real miracle would have been missed.

Instead of doing that, Jesus took what was offered to him, gave thanks for it and broke it. (There is a sermon right there…) He then had his followers sow it again among the people and in doing so, the miracle took place.

I have seen this principle out of the corner of my eye for quite awhile but it had never really been given legs until now.

How often churches and ministries push people to give, telling them about the huge miracles that will come from their gift. But how little are miracles actually seen! Not to mention the unmet needs among the congregation and the world that are never addressed by the church. Could it be that ministers and their staff are eating the seed and missing the miracle?

If Jesus would have run things the way that the modern church does, he would have taken an offering for bread in response to the need that he saw before him. Then he would have waited to see what came in and when he was presented with the 5 loaves, he would have either blamed the people for not giving or decided that it was not God’s will to feed them. After the failure of the offering, he would have of course fed himself and his staff the little that came in and wondered why God didn’t supply more for the obvious needs among the people.

That is exactly what we do, isn’t it? We look at the need and then we take up offerings to meet it. And if our need is 5,000 and only 5 came in, we would despair. And in our despair, not only would the need not be met but all blessing would be lost as well.

After all who was it, besides God, who supplied the need that day if not that boy with the loaves? It was his gift that multiplied and supplied the greater need. And it was his blessing that was at stake, wasn’t it?

I really believe that we need to rethink how we live out our faith and even our ministries today. So many methods are worldly and so little of what we do has any supernatural aspect to it. And that is not God’s fault, it is our own. We decide to just take control and do what we can, hoping that God will take over and do what we can’t.

But God is not interested in being your ‘closer’. God is interested in living Christ’s life through you, not with you.

Jesus understood something here in this story that I think we have missed in the modern church.

As I see it, there were two main steps to the miracle. First, the bread was sown to Jesus. This is what happens every single week in church. Now, we don’t know what did or didn’t happen with that boy due to his gift. Maybe it came back a hundred fold and he ended up being the greatest baker in Israel. What we do know is that the boy sowed into God’s economy, so the fact that he didn’t have much to sow didn’t mean much.

This is only because Jesus did not intend to eat it.

The second part of the miracle involves the increase and this is what I want to share with you. This is where the miracle moves into God’s territory and it is the area that we seldom see.

Most of us take what comes in and resign ourselves to our fate based on that amount alone. If the need is 7,000 and 7 comes in, we begin to make excuses for God. But the increase only happens after the second time it is sown!

If you remember, I wrote in God’s economy that God told me once to not “eat my seed”. That principle has stayed with me a long, long time. And it applies here as well. These are guidelines that I follow in my life:

Give as you are led with what you have, even if it is small.

I usually put my money where I have been getting fed spiritually by another minister unless God leads otherwise.

I try to meet any need that I personally come across or I do what I can, even if it is a sacrifice. This is the principle of the claim. I don’t respond to a need on a televangelist’s program but rather those needs that I see myself firsthand.

When you have a need, give. What comes back in, if it is not enough- sow it again a second time.

Give God avenues to work through. It may be day labor, investments, partners, websites, mail, whatever. The more avenues that you give God to use to supply, the less faith it takes to get the answer. If no one knows about your situation, you don’t work and sit around in your dark house all day, prepare for a faith war. It can still happen but it will be a hard row to hoe.

Take care of God’s servants, particuarly those without their own jet. Smith Wiggleworth taught that the person who cared for the needs of a missionary first would never have to worry about his own needs. This is a wonderfully true and powerful principle.

There is a miracle of increase there for you or those you are standing for. Just remember, God’s economy works differently than ours, usually it is the exact opposite of what men would normally do.

Be blessed!

JC