BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

********** ADVERTISEMENT ********** Dean Sikes is now on bvovn® BELIEVER’S VOICE OF VICTORY NETWORK REAL. LIFE. FAITH.® NEW LINEUP THIS FALL * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Send us your testimonies about how BVOVN has blessed you. KCM.ORG/TESTIFY * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * WATCH ON dish® CHANNEL 265 apple tv® 4th Generation Roku® bvovn.com YouTube® amazon fire TV ******************************************* * * * * article from p. 19 continues * * * * This was a test to see what the disciples had learned from Jesus. He had been teaching and training them. They’d been watching and listening to Him and knew His basic methods of operation. So, they should have had some idea of what He was going to do. Who Are You Listening To? The disciples, however, didn’t pass the test. Instead, Philip jumped up and said, “Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little” (verse 7). Philip’s answer proves he never really heard Jesus’ question. Jesus didn’t ask how much money they had. He didn’t say anything about money. He simply asked where they would buy bread to feed the crowd. Philip made the same mistake most of us make. He got caught up in thinking about the problem. He was figuring out how many people there were, how much money was in the treasury and how much bread costs. He was so preoccupied with his own doubts and questions that the problems were speaking to him more loudly than The LORD. As a result, he answered Jesus without really listening to Him. We all do that at times, don’t we? We get so focused on our problems that we’re not able to hear the proper questions and answers from The WORD of God. We end up trying to figure out what we’re going to do instead of looking to God for what He can do! Thankfully, there was one disciple there that day who did hear Jesus’ question. It was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. As he was thinking about where they could buy some bread, he saw a young boy who was working as a vendor selling bread and fish to the people. The little fellow had already sold almost all he had, but Andrew brought him to Jesus anyway and said, “There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?” (verse 9). Andrew was on the right spiritual track when he did that. He had listened, and responded to Jesus’ question. But he, too, quickly got sidetracked when he started thinking about the limited resources before him instead of his unlimited God. Like Philip, Andrew got caught up in thinking about the problem instead of keeping his attention focused on Jesus. Interestingly enough, Jesus didn’t even reply to Philip and Andrew. He didn’t respond to their concerns at all. They hadn’t really listened to His question or grasped what He’d been teaching them. So He didn’t have anything to say to them. Get Involved in a Miracle Remember that the next time God doesn’t seem to be answering your questions or addressing your concerns. Maybe it’s because you haven’t been paying attention to His WORD. Maybe it’s because you’ve been so busy thinking about and reacting to your problems that you’ve failed to listen to (and act on) what He’s already said to you. If that’s the case, He doesn’t have any grounds on which to communicate with you. That’s the position the disciples were in that day. But Jesus didn’t leave them there. Instead He gave them one simple instruction: “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. 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” (verses 10-11). Even though the disciples didn’t pass the test, Jesus gave them the privilege to take part in what He was doing. Despite their weaknesses, He was still able to capture their thinking and get them involved in a miracle. In His hands, Jesus took the little loaves and fish that Andrew brought to Him. He blessed them, gave each disciple a portion and—miracle of miracles—those portions multiplied and fed the entire crowd! What made that possible? The anointing of increase! That is the anointing that’s in the hands of Jesus! It’s in His ministry. It’s in His WORD. It’s in His Spirit. It’s in His Name. It’s in His blood and it is in and on His people! Jesus’ disciples had that anointing of increase on them even though they didn’t understand it very well. 20 : BVOV

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