That New Math

Luke 9:12-17s states:

12And when the day began to wear away, then came the twelve, and said unto him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the towns and country round about, and lodge, and get victuals: for we are here in a desert place.

13But he said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said, We have no more but five loaves and two fishes; except we should go and buy meat for all this people.

14For they were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, Make them sit down by fifties in a company.

15And they did so, and made them all sit down.

16Then he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them, and brake, and gave to the disciples to set before the multitude.

17And they did eat, and were all filled: and there was taken up of fragments that remained to them twelve baskets.

We are in the beginning of an outstanding Bible study series at Urban Empowerment about prayer.  Bishop and Pastor Woods often say, much prayer, much power, little prayer, little power.  That saying is so true.  When you pray effectually, fervently, consistently,  continually and you are committed to having a prayer life and constant open communication with God, you begin to experience what feels like new math.

Take the text of Luke above.  The disciples felt the need of the crowd that had gathered.  The people wanted, no needed to hear what Jesus had to impart to them.  They needed the Word.  But when it was time to feed them naturally, the disciples began to think of how this need could be handled so they asked Jesus if they could disperse the crowd so that they could go and take care of their needs.  Interestingly, Jesus told them to feed the people.  I imagine that the disciples were confused and that they wanted to be obedient, but had no idea how they were going to do it, so they pointed out to Jesus, just in case He wasn't aware, that they didn't have enough for everyone.  They pointed out that they could go get more.  Jesus simply instructed the disciples to divide up the crowd of men into companies or rows of 50 per row.  The disciples asked no more questions.  They got busy doing what Jesus told them to do.  There's so much there, but that's not my assignment today.

Jesus then took the five loaves of bread and the two fishes and looked up to heaven.  He blessed them as He would have done with any other meal.  He began to break them and give to His disciples for distribution.  The disciples then gave it to the crowd and the crowd ate and were filled.  After everyone finished eating, there were still twelve baskets of fragments.  That's new math.  God can take what we have, break it up and based upon our obedience to His command, make it be more than enough.  In man's hands five loaves of bread and two fish may be able to feed one family, but when you speak the name of Jesus over your situation, little becomes more than enough.  

Bishop Woods is teaching us that prayer is really to bring our will in alignment with God's will.  It is really to help us to put on the mind of Christ.  It is really to bring me into order so that I am prepared to carry out the command of God at a moment's notice, for example, when God's people need to be fed and there's no opportunity to try to go and get something and God doesn't want them sent away because He has something more in store for them.  As an Elder, Minister, Deacon, Armor Bearer, Evangelist, Teacher, or whatever role we have, God needs us to be ready to carry out His will.  In order for me to carry out His will, I have to know what it is.  I have to hear from Him.  I have to be in order and in alignment with Him.  So I have got to pray, supplicate, meditate both day and night, praise, worship and hear from Him.  I have to put myself into submission so that I can hear when it is time for God to work some new math in my life.

I pray today for God to be able to perform some new math in your situation.  Where you have been feeling like you don't have enough, I seek God to break up your situation into fragments and to feed you until you are full and have fragments left over to gather up.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.