God will Supply

First Fruits

In this passage a man comes to bring the First Fruits (twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain. This is a tithe and strangely this topic came up just last week, here in the church. Tithe.

Elisha uses this offering to feed over one hundred of his men. But notice that faith is required. First of all, in order to get the first-fruits, the man must come to the man of God to deliver, by faith. Every week we come to the house of the Lord, and we must ask ourselves, what is it that the Lord asks of me. Faith often means that we do not know the whys but only the need.

I watched a video Tuesday morning, produced by a god-fearing-man, concerning what he called god-tapped. What he says is that often times God taps us on the shoulder and says do this. In this story, this man notices some well dressed ladies come into a restaurant and sit just a few feet from he and his companion. Suddenly as he watches the family of women move past him he feels a great desire to tell one of them that she is looking quite stunning today. Now he has never met them before but feels strongly that this is what God is calling him to do. As he and his companion move to leave the restaurant he walks over and kneels down to look the woman square in the face and then says to her, you are lovely today. The woman says to him, I know you, but the mans says no, we have never met , but she replies, I know your spirit for that is exactly what my husband would have said to me. You see he died a few years ago but what you said to me comes straight from the spirit that he had.

The man was stunned as tears began to flow down his face, what had just happened? The man had been faithful to the tap on his shoulder and done his part, but he had no idea what he would get from this act of kindness.

In this story, or passage, we see that by faith, the man brings his offering to the Man-of-God. The man of God tells him to feed the men and with doubt he utters that there is not enough to feed one hundred men.

I believe we come to the altar with an offering that we feel is not sufficient and yet we bring it thinking that because we cannot change the world with our less than sufficient offering, it is all we have to offer.

I believe that we offer in a wrong state of mind. Take for instance the man in my story. If he had overcome the desire to listen to the nudging of the Spirit, he might have sat there in silence. He would never have been the hand of God. This is a trickle down effect, because you might consider it okay if you miss out on the blessing, but what about the woman who needs to hear from her lost husband.

You know this is the one area where God says that we should test him. Listen to the nudge so that you may test the Lord. In our humanness, we stop ourselves from doing the impossible. The man in this passage does his part by bringing the offering, and as soon as they begin to apply the offering to the need, he admits it is not sufficient. In that alone there is a message for the giver. (do more)But the priest pushes forward in faith, knowing that God can supply the needs and we are offered these scripture knowing that what God says He will do, he will do. They shall eat and have some left.

So you might say, in your humanness, if God can do this? Why must I increase in my giving? It is not that God cannot, it is that he wants you to be blessed in the giving.

Aldersgate St. 1738, May 24th, John Wesley, with the nudging of his friend George Whitfield, begins to preach outside the church, which was against the law. John later states that suddenly his heart was slightly warmed.

Why do I bring this up? I believe this is what John and George are encountering. The nudge, the obedience, and the blessing. It took an act of obedience for both men to encounter the Spirit at work.

Ask yourself, why was there food left over, when enough would have been sufficient? This is the god-factor. This is what God does to show you that he is more than capable. The man in my story was blessed by what he found in the eyes of the woman, something he had no idea was there. What is it that God is nudging you to do today?