My question to you today is…”Do you need a miracle?”

I am going to venture out and say the answer is a strong “YES!” Most people are in need of some sort of a miracle in their life, big or small. I am not sure I have ever met someone that has no “needs” in their life. We all face areas that we need God to do something amazing in. The good news is that He is in the miracle business!

I am going to share 6 lessons from a passage of scripture that teaches us about miracles this week on my blog…let’s jump in…

Luke 9:10-20

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

10 When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, 11 but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.

12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”

13 He replied, “You give them something to eat.”

They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” 14 (About five thousand men were there.)

But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15 The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. 17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

Lesson #1 – All Miracles Start With A Problem

12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”

The 5,000 people gathered with Jesus had a big problem. They had been listening to Him teach all day and now were growing hungry and tired. They were in need of food, but did not have enough to go around…they had a problem.

Every miracle in the Bible started with a problem whether it was physical pain, emotional struggles, enemies pursuing, financial limits, self-doubt, fear, etc… Problems are not problems unless you don’t do anything with the problem, then it really becomes a problem. Problems are actually  great opportunities for miracles according to God’s word. So don’t fear your problem, embrace your problem as an opportunity for God to show Himself strong.

Have you ever felt that you did not have enough of whatever it is you need? Maybe you felt as though you were lacking in an area and it was causing you to not move forward. Always remember your lack of enough is an opportunity for God to perform a miracle. Never allow your problems to keep you from believing God can come through! No problem is too big for God to solve. No matter how big your problem is, it is nothing compared to God’s power and ability.

Lesson #2 – We Are Called To Partner With God

The disciples approached the problem with a great solution for Jesus…send the people away. They offered their thoughts on the matter and what they felt needed to be done. How many times do we do the same thing? We offer our thoughts to God and tell Him what to do. We offer our solutions to our problems hoping God takes our advice. They tried to give Jesus the solution, but Jesus had His own solution. They didn’t want to deal with the problem. They wanted the people to leave and go to another town. We too, sometimes try to push our problems to the side and not deal with them. We hide our problems, we try to justify our problems, we even try to tell God how He could solve our problems. But look at what Jesus said to the disciples after they offered their solution for the people to leave…

13 He replied, “You give them something to eat.”

Jesus told the disciples to do something about it. You see, Jesus wants to partner with us to perform miracles. He is not interested in pushing us out of the way to do His thing, we are His thing! He wants us to join together with Him and do our part. We can’t just take our hands off and say, “If it’s God’s will it will just happen.” It takes us doing our part with God to see miracles happen. We have to step up and be willing to do things God’s way. In my book the Worship Revolution I said that, “The people are looking for a great move of God, but God is looking for a great move of His people.” We are responsible to make ourself available to what God wants to do in us and through us. We aren’t the miracle worker, we are the miracle.

Lesson #3 – Excuses Limit Your Faith

Jesus asked them to feed the people and do their part, but the disciples made an excuse.

13 They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.”

The disciples could not see the miracle because they had more excuses than they did trust. When we come up with more reasons why miracles can’t happen rather than whey they can we start to lose our faith. Excuses are just fears and doubts expressed. They are lies in disguise. They seem logical, but they are based on human reasoning not supernatural belief. It was impossible to feed the people with the little they had. The disciples were more focused on what they didn’t have, not what they did have. They came up with all the reasons why they couldn’t feed the people.

If you and I are more focused on all the reasons why things won’t work, we will never have the faith to see how it will work. Our focus determines our faith. The disciples weren’t focused on Jesus’ power they were focused on their limits. If you always make excuses why you will never get wealthier, never get healthier, never get ahead, never get opportunities you probably won’t. You could call it coincidence, but I have noticed that those who believe big ten to experience big, those that believe small tend to experience small, and those that believe nothing usually tend to get nothing.

* Wednesday I am going to finish the last 3 lessons from this scripture. Be sure to subscribe to the blog in order to receive the posts via email so you don’t miss out! You will also receive my FREE eBook “How To Get More Time” for subscribing!