timeless teaching
Originally published
September 2004
The Limitless Power of God
by Kenneth Copeland
God never planned for you to be at the mercy of this world’s finances. He planned for you to be a source of those finances. He intends for you, as His child, to be a blessing by bringing to this limited world the unlimited resources of your heavenly Father.
'Me?' you may think. 'I don’t have enough money to fully meet my own needs—much less be a blessing to others!'
No doubt the disciples had similar thoughts when a hungry crowd of more than 5,000 people needed to be fed and Jesus turned to them and asked, “Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” (John 6:5). I imagine they were stunned by the question. They probably wondered why Jesus would even ask it. After all, He knew they didn’t have the kind of money it would take to buy dinner for such a multitude.
'What could He possibly be thinking?'
Actually, the Bible tells us exactly what He was thinking. It says, “This he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do” (verse 6).
Jesus already had a plan from God. He didn’t ask the disciples where they were going to buy bread to feed the crowd because He didn’t know what to do. He knew exactly how He was going to feed those 5,000 people.
But did the disciples know? This was a test to see what they had learned from Him. Jesus 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 give Jesus the right answer—they didn’t pass the test. Instead, the disciple 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 the disciples 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 aren’t able to hear the proper questions and answers from The WORD of God. So we end up trying to figure out what we’re going to do instead of looking to God for what He can do!
20 : BVOV
