Feeding the Multitude - Part 1 of 2

Part 1

Here we have a familiar story of the Bible taking place at the height of Jesus's earthly ministry. This is the only miracle story other than the resurrection found in all four gospels.

Jesus had to do a miracle on this day for more than one reason. First, there was the need – the people were hungry. They were in a desolate area which made space, storage, distribution, and manpower needed to bring in food for five thousand people unimaginable. Surely, this was a miracle setting.

We see a great multitude following Jesus because they witnessed the miracles he performed on those that were diseased. He would try to slip away, but as soon as they found out where he was, they followed him. Yet, he never turned them away. He ministered to their needs. This miracle was not done for the crowd alone but as a teaching for his disciples. For Jesus already knew what he was going to do to feed the crowd. He had already ordered the mother of a young lad exactly what to pack in his lunch box that day. He wanted to prove Phillip. It was a testing of his faith, and he will prove you and me the same way.

Situations don't just happen by accident or by chance but each arranged by the hand of God. He already knows what you're going to do when a situation occurs. He wants you to know just how little faith you really have. So, he uses a young lad to teach his disciples a severe lesson in faith.

When he asked Phillip, “Where shall we buy bread that these may eat?”, Phillip did a quick assessment of what he could see with the natural eyes (the crowd and the amount of money on hand which wasn't enough). What the natural eyes see are barriers to block our faith. Doubt and unbelief followed what Phillip saw even thought the GREAT I AM was standing there in his midst. Phillip calculated the crisis without Christ. We must not make the same mistake. Christ must always be counted in our crisis.

God had given them power and authority to heal the sick a few chapters back, and they had been everywhere preaching the gospel and healing the sick. Now, they're standing in the midst of Christ and a crisis and act as if they never knew him nor experienced his power.

Remember, in Christ is unlimited power and authority to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us! Do not allow the lack of resources to blind you to God's unlimited power. He is the GREAT I AM, El Shaddai, The Almighty God, the power with all power and not a God in recession or depression.

When Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished”, that's exactly what he meant! He finished what the Father had sent him to do, and he has deposited himself on the inside of us (the church) to continue his work in the earth! What we must know and understand is that we (the church) have been equipped, called and authorized by God to feed the multitude. Why? Because we are now HIM in the earth because he lives on the inside of us!

- Evangelist Brenda Hansley

Location Matters - Part 3 of 3

Part 3

How are we to tend to the temple of God? Nurture that which lies within us? 1 Corinthians 3 provides us with these instructions. (1Corinthians 3: 16-17) Paul writes; “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, But God who gives the increase.”

Paul was useful for planting work and Apollos for watering work, but God gave the increase. For any ministry to be successful, it must be derived from divine blessing - many parts but one body working in harmony to the divine will of God.

We must strive to build up and upon our holy temple – both in the physical and spiritual realms. Physically, we must eat right, get exercise, and plenty of rest. Our bodies are biological miracles that require proper caring and feeding. We need to keep our bodies “clean” physically and morally. (1 Corinthians 6:13) “Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” (1 Corinthians 6:15) “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not!”

Spiritually, we need to pray, meditate, fast, read and study the Scripture and be about our Father’s business. (1 Corinthians 6:20) “For you were bought at a price: therefore glorify God in your body and spirit, which are God’s.”

Location matters because as both the physical and spiritual vessel of the Holy Spirit, our location takes on more significance than a dwelling occupying a piece of land. Our location is the holy temple of the living God, and our location is also where we are in our relationship with God! God cares about these locations!

So what does all this mean to the sons of God? Each of us is a living temple of the living God. Christ by His Spirit dwells in each of us. The temple was set apart from every common to a holy use and to the immediate service of God. We need to be holy in profession and should be pure and clean both in heart and conversation.

When we turn on the “Home Network” on TV and marvel at multi-million dollar property set in some exotic and faraway place, know that these man-made buildings are like a house of cards when compared to our living and Holy temples of Jesus the Christ! What an awesome location we have in Jesus Christ!

Location matters!

Amen.

- Mike West

Location Matters! - Part 2 of 3

Part 2

We have a choice as to what to build upon Jesus Christ who is our foundation. (1 Corinthians 3:12-13) “Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.”

If we build upon the foundation of Christ Jesus with gold, silver, and precious stones, then those persons will hold and preach nothing but the truth as revealed by Christ. This is a building, a temple built upon a good foundation.

Let’s look a little closer at some of these building materials. We know gold as a valuable and precious commodity. But an interesting quality about gold is that it can be both beaten and purified! Gold can be beaten and molded into different shapes and sizes, according to its designed purpose. And at the same instance, when gold is heated to high temperatures, all the impurities are burned and scorched out of its elements – leaving a substance that is both pure and priceless.

As we pray, read the Word and preach the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a beating and purifying process of our spiritual man is taking place! God is molding us into instruments that He may use for His purpose, and we are undergoing a purifying and sanctifying cleansing by an all consuming fire! Thank you, Jesus!

On the other hand, if we go “cheap” with our building materials, like some contractors who use fewer nails or wood with knots in it to save money, we get into real trouble when we build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ with hay or straw. Why? Even though these persons adhere or connect to Jesus Christ as their foundation, they depart from the mind of Christ and truth. They follow and believe what they want to hear and not the truth. Not the Kingdom message. When hay or straw is beaten, it flattens and is crushed. When fire is applied to this tinder, it consumes and destroys it.

Location matters. Both the foundation and the materials you use to build your temple matter.

- Mike West

Location Matters! - Part 1 of 3

Part 1

A house built in Durham or Henderson may be worth $100,000. But take that same house
and build it in New York or Chicago, and suddenly it is worth a half million dollars.

Location matters.

As Believers and sons of God, our worth is not defined or bound to a physical location.
Instead, our worth is defined by how best we tend to the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit builds upon the location that lies within each of us. (1 Corinthians 3:16) “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” Therefore, it is the present location of the believer that has worth!

Location matters.

It goes even deeper than that! (1 Corinthians 3:9) “For we are God’s fellow workers: you are God’s field, you are God’s building.” Not only are we the vessel, the container, the dwelling place of the Holy of Holies, but we are also the fields and the ground in which God’s mighty acts manifest themselves! God’s divine will is communicated to us by the Holy Spirit to our spiritual man. And like any field in the natural world, our spiritual fields may be fertile or barren. Either we are ready to receive, to be receptive, and to act upon God’s commands, or we are barren and not ready for God’s blessings and commands!

Location matters.

And God’s instructions are explicit on how we are to build ourselves as vessels and containers of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 3:10-11) “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds upon it. But let each one take heed how he builds upon it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

Again, our worth is not defined by a physical location but is defined by how best we tend to the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit builds upon the location that lies within each of us.

- Mike West

GWM Readers - Thank You and Happy New Year!

We, at Greater Works Ministry, thank all the visitors who stopped by in 2011!

We pray that you were inspired to read, study, and meditate upon God's Word and most importantly, to apply it in your life!

Remember to always...

"Work the Word - so you can work the works!"

Expect miracles! May His blessings touch all in 2012!