NOTE: I am going on vacation from tomorrow until Easter Sunday. For those who watch LIVE every day, you will still be able to watch. Since we are leading up to Resurrection Sunday, starting tomorrow and all next week, I will have a prerecorded message GO OUT LIVE at 7 am EST every weekday morning. These are messages about Jesus and what He went through on the road to the resurrection.
This morning, we continue our series, “The Miracles of Jesus.” Before we get into the miracle, let’s look at the foundational scripture I will share with you all year.
(Psalm 126:4 TPT)
Now, Lord, do it again! Restore us to our former glory! May streams of your refreshing flow over us until our dry hearts are drenched again.
This is a season of refreshing and restoring for us. I pray you get refreshed and restored as we study each miracle.
Read Luke 5:1-11, 2 Kings 4:1-7, and John 6:1-15
We have been looking at the story of Simon Peter’s miraculous catch of fish for days now. Along the way, I connected this story to others, like the story of the widow in 2 Kings 4 and Jesus feeding the 5,000 in John 6. This will be the last story about this miracle. Here is a quick recap of the three stories I have mentioned thus far.
In Luke 5, when Jesus was ready to provide a harvest on the seed Simon the fisherman had sown into his ministry, the size of the harvest had nothing to do with the amount of work Simon put in. Simon worked all night long, and it produced ZERO results. But since he had sown a seed into Jesus’ ministry from his fishing business, Jesus was ready for him to reap a harvest in his fishing business. At that point, the size of the harvest was only connected to the size of Simon’s faith. Jesus told him to launch out into the deep and let down his “nets” for a catch. Simon did not truly believe anything was going to happen, so he only put down one net. The amount of his faith was the only limiting factor in the size of his harvest. This had nothing to do with human effort or hard work.
In 2 Kings 4, when the widow gathered her pots and even borrowed pots as the prophet directed, the woman gathered all the pots she could. Once all the pots were in place, the prophet told her to pour the oil from her SINGLE JAR into all the pots. She did, and miraculously, the oil did not stop until she ran out of pots. God’s provision was not tied to her work or human effort. God’s provision was only limited by her capacity to believe. If she had only gathered a few pots, she would have only received a little oil.
Thankfully, she believed the prophet, she gathered a bunch of pots, she was able to pay off her debt, and she still had enough money to live off the rest with her two sons.
In John 6, when Jesus asked Philip where they could get bread to feed the crowd, the analytical disciple did the math, and he calculated that it would take eight months’ wages to buy enough bread for each person to get just one bite. He was trying to figure out how much WORK (or human effort) it would take to finance God’s will.
The Bible says that Jesus already knew what He would do. Jesus knew that He could not accomplish everything He was born to accomplish in 3 1/2 years of ministry if he had to rely on human effort and hard work to PAY for everything. What Philip said would take eight months of work was accomplished in eight seconds of faith. I made the point yesterday that God is not looking for you to pay for all the things He wants to do on this planet. If we had to rely on buying and selling to pay for ministry efforts, we would be limiting God. We must learn to rely on sowing and reaping. One harvest from God can provide what is required to fund His projects at any given time. Fish fry’s and chicken dinners are not God’s way of funding His projects. We must believe God.
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. If you are truly EXPECTING God to do something that He promised, then you will actively be PREPARING for the manifestation of it.
I have shared with you many times that prepared blessings come to prepared people. As I thought about this point yesterday, while I was driving to a meeting, the Lord gave me the following:
I will use a pregnant woman as an example. When we say that a woman is “expecting,” we also see the family preparing. If the woman is truly expecting, then she’s also going to have to be preparing. You have a baby shower, you get gifts, you paint the room, you assemble the crib, you get the stroller together, you buy the car seat (that you’re going to need to bring the baby home from the hospital), and you get the outfit together that you want the baby to wear on “day one” coming home from the hospital for the pictures. You do all of this BEFORE you have a baby. Why? Because you are expecting!
Unfortunately, today, some people say they are expecting things from God, but you can’t see any preparation in their performance. If you’re not preparing, then you’re not expecting. If you really are expecting the supernatural to manifest, then you need to prepare!
I run into people all the time, who have a small business or a side hustle, and they believe that God is going to bless it. They tell me that they are believing God for this contract, or that contract, and how it can happen at any time. But when I ask them, “Do you have the systems in place to execute the contract? Do you have a system to invoice? Do you understand how you’re going to hire for the contract? Do you understand how you’re going to run payroll?” I asked basic questions like that. In many cases, the person does not have good answers because they’re not prepared. So if you’re not prepared, stop saying that you really expect God to do what you say that you expect God to do. If you are “EXPECTING” you need to be preparing for what you are expecting!
God led me to teach on the miracles of Jesus. While I am teaching this series, I believe God wants you to get your expectations up. As I teach each miracle, God wants you to OPEN up your heart to His supernatural power. I’m teaching all the miracles because God wants to do some things in your life in 2023 that only He can do. But prepared blessings come to prepare people. If you are not prepared for the blessing, then God can give it to you because, at that point, the blessing would become a burden.
If God gives you the blessing before you’re ready for it, then all it is going to do is burden you down, and God will not burden you. So, if you want the blessing, you need to prepare.
The woman with the oil prepared. She got as many pots as she could. She had pots all over the house. She had so many pots that when the oil filled up the pots, and she sold the oil, she was able to pay off her debt, and she and her boys lived off of the rest. Simon could’ve received on another level, but he only laid down one net. Jesus told him to throw multiple nets, and he was partially obedient. Partial obedience is actually disobedience. God wants you to open up your heart to the level of his grace. If you don’t believe on the level of his grace, then you are going to miss out on God’s best. Many believers today are living below God’s best because they don’t truly believe God. I pray that this series will help you believe on the level that God wants to release in your life in 2023!
2. God’s vision cannot be funded with routine human effort alone.
— Jesus was on the earth to accomplish the will of the Father. (By the way, they same can be said of you). Jesus did what He was sent to the earth to do. He waited 30 years to begin His ministry, and He only ministered for 3 1/2 years before He was done. In 3 1/2 years, Jesus accomplished so much that John said, “If all the things Jesus did were written down, the entire world would could not contain all the books” (John 21:25).
— When Jesus was feeding the 5,000, Philip calculated that eight months wages would barely buy enough bread for each person to have one bite. Philip was looking at the situation in the natural. Jesus was looking at it in the supernatural. Jesus did not have eight months to wait for his team to “earn” the money (and this is not to say that they did not have the money, either). But Jesus did not want them to use money. Jesus wanted His team to use their faith! By faith, the answer was provided in seconds, not months.
— If Jesus waited for His projects to be funded by human effort, His assignment on the earth would have taken a lot longer than the Father wanted. Jesus only ministered for 42 months. He did not have time to wait on natural supply. For Him to accomplish what the Father sent Him to the earth to accomplish, He had to rely on the supernatural. Guess what? Your name may not be Jesus, and the time you have to complete your assignment may be longer than 42 months, but the same holds true. You cannot get God’s will done by relying solely on human ability. You can’t work hard enough or raise enough money (in the natural) to pay for God’s will. Like Jesus, you must BELIEVE for it!
— God’s gives you a vision that far exceeds your human ability, power, and strength. His vision exceeds your education. His vision exceeds your experience. His vision exceeds your bank account. God does this to force you to rely on Him. God pushes you out there so far that you say, “Okay Father, if you don’t do it, it won’t get done!” God does this because He is not asking you to pay for it. He is asking you to BELIEVE for it!
3. God’s vision requires faith and supernatural manifestation.
— When God calls you to do something, His call is NOT based on your paycheck. He calls you based on His grace. He already gave you the grace. The resources are already stored up. So when He calls you, He is not checking your bank account; He is checking your faith!
— Favor can do more in a minute than labor can do in a lifetime.
— One Word from God, one supernatural manifestation, can do more than 50 years of hard work.
— You can’t earn God’s assignment. God planned your assignment before you were born. He did this by His unearned grace. Your job is to receive it by faith. And just like you can’t earn the assignment, God is not looking for you to “earn” the money to pay for it. He is looking for you to BELIEVE!
— God is not looking for you to perform to earn His best. Religion is about performance, which is why God hates religion. He is not looking for you to perform, He is looking for you to believe!
Declaration of Faith:
Father, this is a season of refreshing and restoring for me!
I am a believer and not a doubter. I walk by faith and not by fear. I believe You!
You give me the vision, and You have already prepared the provision.
You are a God of NO LIMITS! My total trust and confidence is in You! Therefore, I don’t see limits.
There is nothing You can’t do, no assignment You can’t complete, no challenge You can’t overcome, and no project You can’t fund. So I enter this day and the rest of my life with my eyes, heart, and faith fixed and focused on You!
My faith for EXPECTATION will be seen in my level of PREPARATION. I am PREPARING for what I EXPECT!
I know GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
