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.
(Matthew 17:24-27 TPT)
24 After they arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and asked, “Does your teacher pay the tax for the upkeep of the temple, like the rest of us?”
25 “Of course he does,” Peter answered. When Peter walked into the house, and before he had a chance to speak, Jesus spoke up and said, “Peter, I have a question for you. Who pays tolls or taxes to a king? Is tax collected from the king’s own children, or from his subjects?”
26 “From his subjects,” Peter answered. Jesus replied, “That’s right. The children get off free without paying taxes.
27 But so that we don’t offend them, go to the lake and throw out your hook, and the first fish that rises up will have a coin in its mouth. It will be the exact amount you need to pay the temple tax for both of us.”
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. Faith requires obedience to what God says, even when it makes no sense.
— Jesus and Peter were in a situation where they were being asked to pay taxes. Without going to their treasurer, Jesus chose to receive the required tax money in a supernatural and uncommon way. Jesus told Peter to go fishing, and the first fish he caught was going to have the tax money in its mouth.
— Although Jesus’ instructions were bizarre (after all, Peter had fished all his life and had never found money inside a fish), Peter displayed obedience and faith. He followed Jesus’ instruction without questioning it.
— God is God. His ways are above your ways. His thoughts are above your thoughts. He knows what He is doing. He is a spirit, and He does not need to make sense (He is spiritual, not sensual). The problem is not with God. The problem is often with us. When God tells us to do something that seems strange, many times, believers fail to it because they don’t understand it. I have warned you many times about allowing reason, logic, and common sense to keep you from God’s best.
— God is not a man. He does not have to do things the way men do. So if He tells you to do something that you don’t understand, don’t allow your lack of understanding, or even flat-out confusion, to keep you from obeying God’s command.
— Faith requires obedience. You must attempt what God says, even at the risk of looking foolish, and you will discover a God who can do anything, anywhere, at any time, by any means. But if you “think” your way out of your blessing, you will miss out on experiencing God in a supernatural way.
— I pray that studying the miracles of Jesus, the way we have is leading to an expansion in your capacity to believe God. You must believe in a God who can do anything, so you can free Him to perform the seemingly impossible in your life!
— Simply put, obey and trust God’s plan, even when you cannot understand how it will unfold!
— The miracle of the coin in a fish’s mouth is a reminder to us that God’s ways often defy conventional wisdom and norms.
2. Living by faith requires overcoming fear and doubt.
Put yourself in Peter’s shoes for a minute. You have been a fisherman all your life. You have spent more time on the water and with fish than most. You have caught countless fish, but never one with money in its mouth. You are being asked to pay taxes. Jesus tells you to go to the nearest lake, let down your fishing hook into the water, and catch a fish, with the expectation that the first (and only) fish you catch will have the tax money in its mouth.
Your name may not be Peter, and you may not be a fisherman, but for you, this may look like the following:
— God asks you to do something that makes no sense at all.
— God asks you to do something in the area of your expertise. This is something you have mastered. You have your 10,000 hours in this thing. You know how it works. And you also know that what God is saying goes against everything you know.
— Your past experience in this area, in this situation, is a detriment. If God had picked someone who had never fished before, they would not have the frame of reference that Peter did. But in this case, the frame of reference becomes a burden, not a blessing. Because Peter knows so much about fishing, and because what Jesus is saying goes against his experience, then his past performance becomes a tool that satan can use to instill fear, doubt, and unbelief in his heart.
— While the Bible does not say it, I imagine that satan was having a field day with Peter while he was on his way to the lake. I am sure satan was putting thoughts in Peter’s head like, “This is never going to work,” “When have you ever seen money inside of a fish?”, “This is a dumb idea,” “This is a waste of time,” etc. But thankfully, Peter obeyed Jesus’ command, and he overcame every inkling to doubt.
— For you to become the man/woman God has called you to be and for you to do what He sent you to this planet to accomplish, you will have to press through (in your heart and mind) against fear, doubt, and unbelief.
— Satan will do all he can to cause you to doubt God, especially when God’s instruction goes against your vast experience. But you must trust God and obey His commands anyway!
— Face your fears and trust God. Our God will provide for you in ways that exceed human understanding.
3. God will lead you to be bold and humble at the same time.
Before Jesus decided to pay the tax that He and Peter were asked to pay, He said the following:
“Peter, I have a question for you. Who pays tolls or taxes to a king? Is tax collected from the king’s own children, or from his subjects?” Peter answered, “From his subjects.” Jesus replied, “That’s right. The children get off free without paying taxes. But so that we don’t offend them, go to the lake and throw out your hook…”
Here is the Rick Piña Version (RPV) of what Jesus said, “Peter, now you know that we are being asked to pay taxes to the king. But my Father is the King of the kings of the earth. He is the Lord of the lords. I am His Son, and as his Son, I don’t have to pay taxes, because the royal family is tax-exempt. However, I don’t want to get into all of that right now, with these people. So, in order to avoid offense, this is how I want you to go find the tax money...”
— There are times when God will lead you to confront circumstances and situations, but there are other times when God will lead you to comply, not because you have to, but to avoid offense.
— When you walk with the Holy Spirit and develop divine discernment, you will know which battles to fight and which to avoid.
— Jesus knew who He was, but He also knew that some battles were not worth fighting. You can be bold and humble at the same time. You can have the boldness to know who you are and know what is right or wrong, but then, at the same time, be humble enough to let things “slide” when the Holy Spirit leads you to “let it go.”
— You don’t have to fight every injustice or wrong. The Holy Spirit will lead you concerning what to do and when to do it.
4. God’s Provision is always enough, but you must trust Him as your source.
— One of the themes that have come out of this study on the miracles of Jesus is the fact that God is your source. This point is very apropos in this season. With the economy constantly fluctuating, inflation being the highest it has been since the 1980s, and so many financial experts saying that a recession is either here or it’s coming, this is a great time to be reminded that God is your source!
— Jesus sent Peter to catch a fish, and when he did, the coin Peter found in the fish’s mouth was the exact amount needed to pay the tax for Jesus and Peter.
— God’s ways are above our ways, and He provision is always enough! We just need to trust in His ways and His timing.
— When faced with a financial need, Jesus knew exactly where to send Peter to find the money. This is a great reminder that God knows where the money is!
— When you are led by the Holy Spirit, He will reveal to you what to do in order to receive the provision God has stored up for you.
— If you have a business, God knows where the customers are. He knows what contracts He already stored up for you. He knows what is already yours, and He will lead you concerning how to position yourself to receive what He has already provided.
— If you have a job, God knows which promotions He already planned for you to have. And He will lead you concerning what to do and how to do it, so you can receive promotions and increase, even when the world says you are not qualified. You may not be qualified, but you are destined, and God’s provision is always enough!
— Don’t stress over where the money is going to come from. Trust God. Seek His face. Spend time with the Holy Spirit. He already made plans for you. God has millions of ways to get you millions of dollars if that is part of your purpose. So stop stressing and start resting. The more you rest in God’s presence, the more OPEN you will be to the voice of the Holy Spirit. He will lead you concerning God’s provision for your life!
5. You have a part in God’s provision for your life!
— Don’t just sit back and say, “Well, God knows what I need. So I am going to sit here and wait until He brings it to me.” If you do that, two things may happen: 1) you may be waiting a long time, and 2) you may starve to death because God’s provision (most of the time) comes as you cooperate with Him, not just while you wait on Him to do everything for you.
— Jesus involved Peter in the process of provision, making him an active participant in the miracle. The same will hold true for you where God’s provision is concerned.
— God is your source! Yes! That’s true. But that does not mean you can lazily sit back and expect provision to come to you. The Apostle Paul said, “If anyone doesn’t want to work, he shouldn’t eat” (2 Thes 3:10).
— You have a part in God’s provision. He expects you to work, create, do business, be industrious, earn, and then give, sow, contribute, and be generous. If you fail to do these things, you will also fail to experience God’s provision.
6. God will use your profession or area of expertise as a conduit through which He can release provision.
This is my last point for today, and I have several things to say about it.
— Peter was a fisherman. He had been fishing all his life. He had built up a certain level of expertise in the area of fishing. So notice how God sent the fisherman to find provision inside of a fish. This is no coincidence.
— What are you good at? What have you developed years, or even decades, to master? What do you have your 10,000 hours in? Whatever that is, make no mistake; God will use it to provide for you.
— Don’t expect money to fall out of the sky. God will not print currency for you and heaven and then make it magically appear in your bedroom. God is your source. Yes. He has provision stored up for you. That’s true. But He manifests divine provision on this planet by working through you, by putting His grace on you, and by favoring the work of your hands so that He can generate results that exceed human ability. But if you’re not willing to put in the work, you’re not giving out anything to work with.
— By involving Peter in the miracle through his profession, Jesus demonstrated that He can take our ordinary skills and experiences and use them for extraordinary purposes. This instance shows that God can work through our unique talents and backgrounds to fulfill His divine plan.
— God will use your expertise or skills as a vehicle of provision and prosperity. The story of Jesus providing for Peter through a fish — something directly related to his profession — demonstrates that God can use our unique talents, skills, experiences, and abilities to provide for our needs and bless us.
However, it is important to remember that God’s ways are not always predictable, and His provision may not always come in the form we expect. In some cases, God might use our expertise to provide for our needs directly, as He did with Peter. In other situations, God may lead us into new opportunities or experiences that are beyond our current skills or expertise to stretch us and help us grow.
Whatever the case, we must be OPEN to God; we must do whatever He leads us to do, we must do it the way He leads us to do it, and we must do it in faith, without wavering, without a doubt. If we do, we will experience God’s provision in a supernatural way!
Declaration of Faith:
Father, this is a season of refreshing and restoring for me!
I am so refreshed that my heart is OPEN to hearing from You directly and clearly.
I am sensitive to the divine impulses of the Holy Spirit, and I am quick to obey whatever He leads me to do; however, He leads me to do it, even when it makes no sense at all.
I will not allow human logic, reasoning, or common sense to cause me to “think” my way out of Your best!
You are my source and my supply. The provision I need to have and enjoy life is already stored up for me. As I am led by Your Spirit, I will come into Your provision in the fulness of Your timing.
I put in the work as You lead me, You bless the work of my hands, and You cause me to increase in ways that exceed my power, ability, and strength.
Walking with You, I will NEVER LACK! My confession is: I LACK NOTHING! And GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
