Going Beyond Ministries with Priscilla Shirer – Supernaturally Equipped for Your Calling
Priscilla Shirer – Supernaturally Equipped for Your Calling
“If I were your enemy, I’d disguise myself and manipulate your perspectives so that you’d focus on the wrong culprit—your husband, your friend, your hurt, your finances, anything or anyone except me. Because when you zero in on the most convenient, obvious places to strike back against your problems, you get the impression you’re fighting for something. Even though all you’re really doing is just . . . fighting. For nothing.”
― Priscilla Shirer, Fervent: A Woman’s Battle Plan to Serious, Specific, and Strategic Prayer
― Priscilla Shirer, Fervent: A Woman’s Battle Plan to Serious, Specific, and Strategic Prayer
I’m so glad to be here.
Ok, I’ll do the preliminary things because they’ve told me I’m supposed to stand right here and show you my shoes.
Ok. So I’m gonna stand here so you can see my shoes.
I never wear these shoes.
Somebody gave them to me as a gift and you know, you have shoes and you just look at them and go.
Those are so pretty. What am I gonna do with those?
Can’t just go to the grocery store store and sequence shoes.
So, um, when Miss Joyce’s team emailed and said, hey, you need to wear good shoes.
Should have seen me in my closet trying to figure out what do you do with sequin shoes.
Um, but it’s, it’s fun to have an opportunity to wear them.
So, thank you so much, Miss Joyce for that. I appreciate that so much.
It is a privilege to be with you guys.
I want to thank you for being so kind and, um, and, uh, receptive, uh, to me and just so welcoming.
It’s always a privilege to be able to be here.
I’m always excited because I know that I’m going to be refreshed.
That I’m gonna be changed, that my life is going to be encouraged, not only in the messages that are shared um for Miss Joyce and the other members of the team that are going to be serving as well, but also just from you individuals, you have been so kind.
I was thinking of just about how refreshing it is to be with all of you.
This week has been a little bit of a tough week for me.
I was just, just had a little uh situation in my life that really caused me to just trip up a little bit with fear and a little bit of intimidation and just praying about that.
I was just praying. Lord just helped me to walk in courage and walk in confidence and not to let fear take root and all in my life.
And sweet woman just came up to me a few moments ago and just gave me a big hug and said I have a gift for you and, and she didn’t even know what she was doing.
I just cried a little bit as she just came over a moment ago because she gave me a gift.
I don’t even know what the gift is y’all.
All I know is that I looked in the packaging and the, the title of or the packaging itself, the label on it says live fearlessly.
I don’t know if it’s hand lotion.
I don’t know what it is. All I saw was live fearlessly and the holy Spirit whispered to me.
I got you. I got you. I’m so grateful, Miss Joyce. Thank you for having me.
I’m very grateful to be here y’all. Let’s pray, Lord Jesus. Thank you so much for your word.
I thank you that it is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword.
Lord, you have come to speak to us.
And so I ask father that you will, I pray, Lord that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my hearts will be acceptable.
I love what m Joyce prayed last night. Father, she said, do not let me say anything.
That is not exactly what you want your daughters to hear.
Speak Lord in Jesus name amen as was mentioned.
Um I have the privilege of raising three sons.
Jackson is 16 and then Jerry Junior is 14 and then we have Jude, I’ve told y’all before Jude is, he’s 10 years old now, but he’s our surprise boy.
We still don’t know how Jude made it here.
And uh we named him Jude on purpose because that’s as close as I could get to revelation because honey, it is finished.
That is the end of the line, Jackson.
Jerry Junior and Juke, I took them earlier this year to the movies.
That’s one of our things we like to do is go to a movie when one comes out, that’s really what we want to see.
And um, it, it’s kind of our thing. And so we went to the movies, we saw it in 3D.
So we sat down and we are all together at this Disney movie and, and we, we, we started the film and after the film was already well underway, I’m talking, we’re 15, 20 minutes into the movie.
Jude. The youngest looks over at me and taps me on the shoulder and says, mom, I don’t like this movie.
And I said, buddy, why don’t you like the movie? And he said, I cannot see it. It is blurry.
Why did they make a movie in 3d? But the whole thing is blurry since the beginning of this thing.
I haven’t been able to really clearly see anything.
And I looked down at him and I said, buddy, did you take the glasses?
Did, did you take the glasses out of the package?
You know, they gave you those little glasses and he said these and I said, yes, buddy, those put them on.
He put the glasses on that he had neglected to put on at the very beginning.
And he said this is awesome.
I could, I can, I love conferences like this one opportunities like this one because y’all, what it really is about is fitting you with the spiritual eyewear that you need to see your life from the perspective of how God sees you and the story that he’s crafting through your life and through mine.
The movie that I took them to go see was Incredibles. Two Incredibles Two.
I’m not sure if you saw that one, but it was, man just as good as the first one.
And I loved the story line so much in this one.
Mr Incredible and his wife Alaska girl, you know, they’re in the throes of taking care of evil and sort of coming out of retirement in order to do that.
But it Incredibles too. It’s Alaska girl that takes the forefront.
She’s the one that’s sort of at the helm of fighting dangers and evil in the society.
And the Children end up having to get much more involved this time.
Man, they are running across powers that they never knew they had.
They’re being set in scenarios that are a little bit dangerous, a little bit risky, lots of adventure that they are called to sort of be a part of.
And you know, Alaska girl, she’s, she’s got a mama’s heart and she’s watching her three babies in the throes of all of this.
And at one point she turns to her husband, Mr Incredible and she says they’re just Children and he says they’re Children, but they’re Children with power and because they have power that makes them special.
And then he said whether or not they choose to use the power is up to them, but either way they’ve got it, it occurs to me in a room this size with women that are actually daughters that have placed faith in Jesus Christ.
We’re Children, but y’all, we ain’t just Children.
We’re Children with power that the Holy Spirit of God has given you power so that whatever place of danger or risk or adventure that you may have been called into, you need to know that you’ve got the power to sustain you into that place in which you have been called and, and, but, but here’s the deal whether or not you choose to use it now, that’s up to you.
What I don’t want is to get to the end of my days only to look back and realize I had all that power but never took advantage of it.
It is at least in part to that end that I believe that there is a portion of scripture that man over the past year, it has spoken so clearly to me and been a blessing in my life.
I wanna share it with you. It is in Luke’s Gospel.
If you have your Bible and you want to turn there with me, you can, if you know, if you actually still use the Bible with paper pages like I do or your iphone, your ipad pad, any manner of I will get you to Luke chapter nine.
I think they’re going to put it on the screens as well. I want to read verse one and two.
Then I’m gonna jump over to verse 10. I’m gonna read verse 10 through 17.
Luke chapter nine, verse one and two says this, It says, and he called the 12 together.
That’s Jesus. He called the 12 together. He gave them power and authority over all demons and to heal diseases.
And then he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and perform healing.
Listen to that again, this is the disciples going on their adventure.
And Jesus called, he called, somebody said, he called, he called the 12 together.
And then he gave, somebody said, he gave, he gave them power and he gave them authority.
Then verse two says, and then he sent somebody say, he sent, we sent them out.
Verse 10 says, and when the apostles turned, they gave him an account of all that they had done and taking them with him, he withdrew by himself to a city called Beth and the multitudes verse 11 says, they were aware of this.
So they followed Jesus and welcoming them.
He began speaking to them about the Kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing.
Verse 12 says, and the Day began to decline.
The 12 came and said to him, Jesus, please send this multitude away.
They need to go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging and get something to eat for right here.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not Jesus, but here we’re in a desolate place.
But Jesus said to them in verse 13, he said, uh uh you give them something to eat.
They said, come on Jesus, we have no more than five loaves and two fish.
Unless perhaps we go and we buy food for all of these people.
Luke wants to make sure you know that there were 5000 men there. I love the physician.
Luke because he wants to tell you the details. He says 5000 men because there were women and Children there.
So scholars say there were likely 15,000 there on that patch of stony ground that day, Jesus said, have all of them recline in groups of about 50 verse 15 says, so they did that had them all recline and Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he blessed them and then he broke them and he kept giving them to the disciples to set before the multitude.
And verse 17 says, they all ate and they were all satisfied And then they picked up the leftovers.
And when they did, they discovered that there were 12 baskets full of leftovers.
In this very familiar story that many of us probably have heard or and are in some way familiar with is a story of a multitude of people who are being Fed.
They are hungry, they are empty, they’re in need of nourishment and they are more in need of an encounter with Jesus and Jesus gives them both.
But I want us to turn our attention away from the multitude And really focus in on these 12 disciples.
The disciples, those who walk with Jesus and talk with Jesus, those who are in relationship with Jesus, those who follow him, those who want to learn of Jesus, the disciples, the one who fly halfway across the country to come to the conference, to learn more about Jesus, the disciples.
I believe that this story, this well loved story, an encounter, miraculous encounter that Jesus had in the Scriptures, man.
I believe that it is, it is starts not just when the crowd gets hungry.
I really do believe that it starts in verse one and two, we find the disciples, the 12 have an up close personal encounter with Jesus.
We find more out more about this particular counter that they had in Mark chapter six, you don’t have to turn there.
But this exact same story is told in Mark chapter six.
What I love so much about the first three books of The New Testament is that they’re called the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke Synoptic, meaning that there’s synergy in the stories that are told the tone in which they’re told the way that they uh that the right wrote those particular encounters and the more you read them, the more layers of insight you can gain about what happened in that particular story in that particular encounter that Jesus had.
We found this same story found in Mark chapter six.
And when we read Mark chapter six, it gives us some texture to the story.
It’s kind of like if someone offered you some chocolate cake and they gave you an option, you can either have a one layer chocolate cake or a seven layer chocolate cake.
Well, I don’t know what y’all gonna do, but I’m gonna choose the seven layer chocolate cake every single time because the more layers there are the more rich and delectable the experience becomes Mark.
Chapter six is our layer of chocolate cake.
What we find out is that this is the occasion where God called Jesus called the disciples together.
And do you remember he sent them out in prayers, he sent them out two by two to the neighboring towns and the neighboring communities, they, he said them out with an with an assignment.
Their assignment was that everywhere they went, every person that they encountered should walk away with a more clear picture in their head of who Jesus really is that they were supposed to go out in power and authority to preach and to teach and to perform miracles for the purpose of authenticating that Jesus was who he said he was.
And that Jesus could do exactly what he had said, that he could do the whole point of the disciples coming together and then being dispersed was so that the power and authority with which they would live, their life would mean that every person they encountered, every interaction that they had would leave the people who they had encountered knowing that Jesus must be the real deal.
What’s the point of us coming together is after we leave this place, every person we encounter does not know that there must be a God somewhere.
And his name is Jesus Christ.
So they go out in Paris And I mean, they handle their assignment with integrity.
They are fully entrenched. Mark. Chapter six tells us in the task that is at hand.
And after they finish the assignment, they come back to Jesus and they give him an account for how they handled the assignment that they had been given, how they handled the ministry that had been entrusted to them.
I wanna make sure that everybody in the room knows that they are in ministry.
If you have named the name of Jesus Christ, you are in ministry.
Don’t let someone else or the enemy convince you that ministry is relegated to standing on a platform behind a podium with a little microphone attached to you.
Ministry is the place where you’ve been called to serve in the assignment that you have been given.
Every one of us are representatives of the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. You are in ministry.
So mother of small Children don’t let anybody tell you that you’re not in ministry every single time you sit around that dinner table with the casserole that you prepare the new way that you figured out to make chicken for dinner tonight and you figure it out successfully one more night and you sit those kids around the table and you pray over them and you teach them a Bible verse before they go to bed.
Don’t let anybody tell you that that ain’t ministry at high school student when you’re walking down the corridor of that high school that you attend and you’re the one that stands for righteousness in the midst of the darkness.
Don’t let anybody tell you seventh grader, eighth grader, freshman, sophomore that you are not in ministry, a university student like Mr Dave’s niece that he just told us about university student when you are the only one in the philosophy class where the professor is telling you things and teaching you things that are left of center of the truth of God’s word.
And you’re the only student in the class of 300 that raises their hands and takes them to term and lets them know that there actually is a truth, a standard that is the word of God.
You are in ministry and corporate man or woman when you sit around that boardroom table.
And you’re the only one that when they’re talking about their projections for the future, but they lack a smidge of integrity or character.
And you’re the one that stands for righteousness and calls people back to the truth of God.
Don’t let anybody tell you that that ain’t ministry.
Every single one of us has an assignment and just like the disciples, the day is coming where we’re gonna have to give an account, the day is coming sooner than we think.
But we’re going to look our savior in his face.
And we’re gonna have to give an account for how we used our time and how we used our talents and how we uh use the gifts that he entrusted to us and how we took care of the assignments that each and every one of us have been called to.
He’s not gonna ask me about her assignment.
He’s gonna ask me about mine and he’s not gonna be interested in how many Instagram followers I had, he will not be interested in how many people were my friends on Facebook or liked the tweet that I put up.
He’s only gonna ask me number one, did I know his son Jesus Christ?
And then I’m gonna have to give an account for the assignment that he called me to.
And when I look my savior in his face, I want to tell you that I am looking for well done.
Anybody interested in, well done.
I wanna hear well done.
Which means that my main priority can’t be to please you.
Your main priority cannot be to please me.
Our priority collectively cannot be to garner the applause of people.
Our interest has to be in garnering the applause of heaven because the day is coming sooner than you think.
But we’re going to have to look at our savior and give him an account.
It has been about two months ago on July 24 that I celebrated.
Gosh, my 19th wedding anniversary, I was out celebrating with my husband doing what you do when you’ve been married for almost 20 years.
We, we were at home goods just strolling around just enjoying an afternoon, you know, with no schedule, we’d had a little bit of dinner and then we just went and ran a few errands and just kind of walking around in, um, in, in, in home goods.
I was looking forward to the whole week.
I had plans the next day with um, really my best friend, one of my best friends, my cousin, uh winter, we had plans, we were going to go to the movies together.
She was gonna drop her four girls off off at my house so that my three boys and the four girls, their cousins, they could all kind of hang out and be together.
We had a plan for the next day. It was just gonna be a fun week.
So I was strolling through home goods on the 24th just enjoying my time with my man and the phone rang and I saw that, um, Jonathan Pitts, winter’s husband, Jonathan Pitts, his name popped up on my phone and because their last name is Pitts.
We always kind of tease them about that. I always answer the phone and I say you’re the pig.
So I answered the phone right there in an aisle, way between the kitchen towels and the bath towels.
And I said, you’re the pit. What’s up? And I just heard sobs, sobs.
Jonathan could barely catch his breath. I had to calm him down. Jonathan. What is happening? Why are you crying?
Of course, I was, I was startled just because of the intensity of the phone call.
As I heard this grown man wailing and wailing. Jonathan, what is going on?
He said, she’s not breathing, she’s not breathing. I said, what are you talking about? Who’s not breathing?
He said winter, she’s not breathing. I said, Jonathan, what’s happening? Did you call an ambulance?
Yes, they’re on their way. But Priscilla, I don’t think she’s gonna make it.
I’ve been doing CPR uh they’ve only, it’s only been two or three minutes since I’ve called them.
They’re on their way, but I can’t, I can’t get her to respond to me. She’s not breathing.
I said, Jonathan, we’re on our way.
We jumped in the car, we were about 30 minutes from where the ambulance was taking her.
I called on the way to talk to him.
Uh, he was being driven in a car with some friends of ours that I had immediately go over, they were at our house, immediately had go over to take him.
Um, we arrived at the hospital and when I arrived at the hospital, I ran down the corridor and another family member was standing outside of the room already leaned up against the wall.
And I said to her, is she breathing yet?
And I knew that when Andrea looked back at me and shook her head, no, That if it took me 30 minutes to get there, if she was not yet breathing, that means she probably wasn’t gonna breathe again.
They let me in that little room To see my 38 year old best friend and cousin With four small Children, Ages 13 and Under four girls.
She went from being fine and planning a movie with me and a play date with the kids.
One minute. The last message I have is from, from her is at five PM And it’s 6:15 PM.
God said it’s time and she stepped out of history into eternity and in a moment she had to give an account I want to say to all of you who are in the room that you do not know the day nor the hour.
And that if because you’re 35 or because you’re 25, you think you’re pretty young?
So you have a whole lot of time ahead of you.
Would you listen to me and listen to me clearly that you cannot judge whether or not you are old or young based on your birth date.
It has to be judged based on your death date.
Because if you’re 25, but you only have until you’re 36, you’re pretty old If you’re 50, but you’ve got until you’re 95, you’re pretty young.
But for all of us, since we do not know when he will call us home, since we do not know when we’ll have to look at our savior in his face and give him an account.
We better get busy living fully the adventure to which he has called us.
And when these disciples came to Jesus, the reality is that he said to them basically well done.
He acknowledged that they had exhausted themselves, fully engaged in the task at hand.
Mark chapter six says that he recognized that they had done the thing that they had been busy following hard after the assignment to which they had been called, they had done the thing.
Would you look at the woman next to you and say girl do the thing they had effective ministry.
So I wondered really quickly, if you don’t mind, I wondered if I could just take a rabbit trail for a second because I found in this story, a recipe for effective ministry.
I just wanna open up a parenthesis here to tell anybody who’s interested what the recipe is for effective ministry.
Anybody interested. There’s a recipe here.
The recipe is in those first two verses, there are three ingredients to the recipe. It says first ingredient.
He called them, he called them.
Oh There are so many beautiful layers here in this first ingredient in the recipe.
I love so much that God the Father, the glory of all of God Almighty that he was willing to clothe himself to encase himself in flesh.
The purpose was so that the word John writes could become flesh and dwell among us so that we could behold his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father Jesus made it so that he condescended to humans.
So that when he spoke, the disciples could actually hear the voice of God, the father in the person of Jesus Christ, all that deity clothed in humanity so that he could meet us where we are.
He made it so that humans could hear him.
And what he did uh in the first century is exactly what he does in this century through the person of the Holy Spirit that just like they could hear the call of God on their life through Jesus Christ.
You get the privilege to hear the call of God for your life through the person of the Holy Spirit.
God calls he convicts, he compels he challenges throughout this conference. You’re gonna feel a pain in your gut.
It will be the Holy Spirit saying go and here’s the thing about the whole, about these disciples when they heard the call of Jesus.
When Jesus said, you go out in prayers and authenticate who I am through the deeds that I’m giving you power and authority to carry out.
When they heard the call of Jesus, there was no other earthly ambition that they had that superceded.
The calling of Jesus on their lives.
When they heard the call of Jesus, they laid everything else down to pursue what it was that Jesus had asked them to do to do.
May it never be that we have ambitions that are higher than the ambitions of God’s calling for us?
May we always be willing to lay down our nets to leave behind prior ambitions to do what it is that God.
God has called us to do.
May His calling in your ears and in your heart be like fire, shut up in your bones to where you can’t not do what God has called you to do.
Lord, forgive us when because of hubris or pride or arrogance.
We have left your calling to pursue a calling that was never ours to pursue, forgive us father.
When we have tried to walk in shoes that were somebody else’s shoes to wear, forgive us father.
When we tried to walk down a lane that was never our lane to walk down when he calls, accept and celebrate your calling.
And then I love that when he called them, he didn’t just jump to the third ingredient.
He didn’t call them and then send them. I loved it before he sent them.
The second ingredient in the recipe is that he gave them power.
Come on, somebody say power and he gave them authority, which means they did not have to be afraid that they were not equipped for the calling.
Because even if as Mr Joyce taught us last night, they did not have the natural capacity to sustain them in the calling.
He entrusted them supernaturally with the power and authority.
They would need to succeed in the assignment that he gave them.
In other words, he does not call you because you are already equipped. He calls you.
And then for those that will say, yes sir.
He will equip you with exactly what you need to sustain you in the calling that you have been given.
Can I tell you that there is a very real enemy and the enemy hopes you will go in your own power.
He hopes that you will go in your own authority.
He hopes you will think and I will think that we are gifted enough or talented enough or savvy enough or impressive enough.
What does not want is a woman who has chosen to rest, not in her laurels, but in the power and the authority that has been trusted her by almighty God.
It is the anointing and the favor of God on your life that will sustain you in the calling to which you have been sent and called it is his supernatural endowment, his entrusting of power.
And authority in you that will make you the mother that you’re supposed to be the wife, that you’re supposed to be the single woman, that you’re supposed to be the career woman that you’re supposed to be the entrepreneur, that you’re supposed to be the woman in ministry that you’re supposed to be, whatever it is that he has called you to do it do, he will give you exactly what you need to be victorious and successful in that task.
It’s not by power and it’s not by might.
It is by the spirit of God and some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but we trust in the name of the Lord, our God.
So he called them.
There’s the first ingredient. Then he entrusted them with power and authority.
Oh y’all the power is there, whether or not you choose to use it is up to you.
And then 3rd ingredient he sent them.
Listen, he’s the one that did the sending resist.
The urge to send yourself to do an assignment that it is not yet time for because just as important as your calling is itself.
So too is the, is the timing in which that assignment is outworked in your life.
Because if you give birth too soon to an assignment that it is not yet time for you will abort the character that he was trying to build in you.
You will abort the spiritual backbone, the maturity that was gonna be necessary to sustain you in the assignment to which you have been called.
Because listen, the spotlight that you may be craving if that spotlight hits you and you have no character, that light will burn you to a cris.
So wait until God says go, Lord, make us patient enough to wait for the time and the season that you have called us to do what you have asked us to do.
So the disciples after being called, after being entrusted with power and authority, after being sent in the timing of Jesus, they go, they give it their best.
They give it their all they handle well.
The assignment as disciples that they have been called to handle, they come back and they give them an account.
Jesus says, man, y’all done well and you’re tired.
He acknowledges that they are plain old flat out and any disciples in the house tire because man, you haven’t been doing the thing perfectly, but you’ve been doing it purposefully, your marriage, your Children, your job, the ministry, man, you’ve been trying your best.
You’ve been doing it diligently. You’ve come to this conference and you are plain old flat out time.
You’re so glad that all of these sessions are gonna happen today.
But you’re, you’re debating because you just, you know that you could take a nap because you’re tired.
Anybody come on now, Jesus recognizes their exhaustion.
Here’s what I love about this whole encounter Jesus has with these exhausted depleted disciples who, by the way, Jesus recognizes in Mark chapter six, he says y’all haven’t even had time to eat.
He says you’re hungry too. You haven’t even had time to eat. I have never been that busy anybody ever.
I just, I don’t get that busy.
I’m the kind of girl that I, I’m not gonna order a salad and have little water to be cute.
Mm mm. I’m gonna order the biggest plate of nachos they got and then when I’m finished, I’m gonna scan your plate for any leftovers but the disciples had not even had time to eat.
Here’s what I love about Jesus encounter with the tired, depleted, exhausted disciples.
He does not say to them y’all go away from me, take a nap, get yourselves together, then come back and I’ll use you.
He says come away because you do need rest but come away with me.
Don’t go away from me, come away with me.
In other words, the cure for your exhaustion is intimacy with Jesus. That’s secure you’re looking for.
So take a holiday, take a sabbatical, take a vacation, step back for a little while until you can get yourself together from the ministry or your job or that endeavor.
But but when you take a holiday, don’t take a holiday from Jesus.
The actual refreshing that you’re looking for cannot be found apart from an intimate fervent, close up relationship with the lover of your soul.
Intimacy with him is the cure for your exhaustion. So he says to them, come away with me.
He takes them across the northern tip of the sea of Galilee to a little patch of stony ground that is right outside of a town called Beth.
He takes the disciples on a retreat so they can be replenished and refueled. He’s taking them on a holiday.
So when they arrive on the little patch of stony ground outside of the town of And there are 15,000 people waiting for them.
You can imagine how perplexed the disciples must have been Jesus.
You said, for us to come away with you.
You said there was gonna be something in us, in it for us.
You said we were gonna be replenished and refueled here here.
And Jesus, of course, in his sovereignty, sovereignty means he’s seen the end from the beginning.
Sovereignty means he stood in eternity past and he is seen all of time from its beginning, all the way to the end of the spectrum of time which we have not yet seen and he has seen into eternity.
Future, sovereignty means not only that he’s seen the whole time spectrum of time and eternity.
Sovereignty means he’s got the whole thing in the palm of his hand, which means your life and mind, which is a blip on the radar screen of the spectrum of time and eternity is also in the palm of his hand.
If you believe in the sovereignty of God.
It’s what allows you to do what psalm 46 10 says, be still cease to strive, chill out and know that I am God.
So he knew what the disciples could have never known in his sovereignty.
Jesus knew that he was taking the tired disciples to a place where there was going to be a multitude waiting on them.
When they got there. It was not a mistake.
It was of the sovereign design of God, which means there must have been something in that multitude that was going to be refreshing for the disciples.
It tells us that this uh well loved biblical encounter is not just about the multitudes getting fed, it’s about the disciples getting fed.
It tells us that the five roves and the two fish was the gift to the multitude.
But it’s that multitude that is the gift to the disciples.
There’s something about that multitude, placing a demand on them, something that is out of their control and beyond their capacity.
Something that they do not feel like they have the capacity to handle.
It’s that multitude that is actually going to enable the disciples to finally pull out the treasure that they’ve been ignoring and acting like it completely insignificant.
It’s the multitude that is gonna have them see what it looks like to place their little bit into the hands of a multiplying master and watch him perform a miracle that is going to blow their minds.
It’s the multitude that’s gonna have them access the power and authority that has been given to them by Jesus and see what it looks like to operate in the power and authority that is rightfully theirs.
Without the multitude, they would never have the opportunity to experience the power of God that has been entrusted to them.
I’m talking to anybody that’s got a multitude in your life that there is something pressing on you that is wearing you out.
There is a struggle in your marriage or in your finances or in your health or on your job and it’s more than you can handle.
The multitude is beyond your natural capacity.
The good news is when you come face to face with a sovereignly ordained multitude, that means the multitude is your gift because the multitude is gonna have you start accessing power and authority and treasure that you would have discounted before it’s gonna have you look at the five loaves and the two fish, that little gift, that little talent, that little finance, that little energy, that little patience, that little idea, that little creativity that you thought was so useless before you’re gonna pull it out.
The multitude is gonna make you pull it out.
You’re gonna place it in the hands of Jesus and he’s gonna perform a miracle that’s gonna blow your mind.
The multitude is your gift.
Did you notice that in verse 12, the disciples?
Say Jesus send the multitude away and we don’t just say it, we pray it in Jesus name and by the power of Almighty God, I speak to the multitude.
Lord take this multitude away and we don’t even know that we’re praying away.
The thing that is our gift. In verse 12, the disciples are praying away.
If you look, they are praying away at what? In verse 11, Jesus just welcomed.
It says in verse 11, he welcomed the multitude. One verse later, the disciples are praying away.
What they don’t even know is their gift.
Resist the urge to wish away what God has welcomed into your experience.
Instead say, Lord don’t take it away if there’s something in it for me.
Lord instead fit me with the right eye.
Wear the right spiritual eyewear that will help me to see this 3d picture, right?
Lord don’t let this multitude be taken away until I say, see and mind from it.
Every single treasure, every single gift, every single nuance that’s gonna build my life or that’s gonna help me to access this power and authority.
Lord don’t let this multitude leave my life until I milk it for every single thing you brought it here to give Jesus said to the disciples.
The exact same thing I wanna say to you today.
He said verse 13, you give them something to eat.
Everything your multitude needs is already in your hand.
You don’t need something else. Something more, something different, what you need.
You’ve already got pull it out, tap into the power and authority of the Holy Spirit of God that is already on the inside of you.
So finally the disciples, they take their little bit and they place it in the hands of Jesus.
Listen, they place it in the hands of Jesus.
You need to know that everything changes when you take your little bit and give it back to God.
Jesus took the little meager gifts of man. Thank you Lord.
He took the little bit that they had and looking up to heaven. He blessed it.
You don’t, you just need God’s blessing on the five rooms and the two fish you’ve already got.
You don’t need more talent. You don’t need more skill. You don’t need necessarily more resource.
All that you need is God’s blessing His favor. His anointing his hand.
Listen, God’s favor is what opens up doors that no man can shut.
God’s favor is what takes you places nobody can take away from you.
God’s favor is what sets you in position.
You know, you’re not qualified for God’s favor is what makes the scales balance out in your favor.
God blessed the five loaves and the two fish and then he broke it and then he kept handing it out to the disciples and it kept going and it kept going and it kept going and going and they had no idea the disciples couldn’t figure out where all of this resource was coming from.
They just had this and now it keeps going and going.
Their patience just Exponentially their resources, their ideas, their creativity, their gifts, their talent, everything that they need was already in their hands.
They just, they just had to give it to Jesus. And now the entire multitude is sustained.
And verse 17 says that when everybody ate and just in case you’re not clear on what kind of meal this is.
They want you to know everybody ate to the point of satisfaction. They were filled up to overflowing.
And after everybody got a good old Sunday afternoon kind of meal, they picked up the leftovers And there were 12 baskets full, 12 baskets.
There was one basket for each disciple to take home as a reminder of the great power of God to multiply the resources in your life.
Lord Jesus multiply our resources do it for your glory. It is in Jesus name that we pray.
Amen.
Ok, I’ll do the preliminary things because they’ve told me I’m supposed to stand right here and show you my shoes.
Ok. So I’m gonna stand here so you can see my shoes.
I never wear these shoes.
Somebody gave them to me as a gift and you know, you have shoes and you just look at them and go.
Those are so pretty. What am I gonna do with those?
Can’t just go to the grocery store store and sequence shoes.
So, um, when Miss Joyce’s team emailed and said, hey, you need to wear good shoes.
Should have seen me in my closet trying to figure out what do you do with sequin shoes.
Um, but it’s, it’s fun to have an opportunity to wear them.
So, thank you so much, Miss Joyce for that. I appreciate that so much.
It is a privilege to be with you guys.
I want to thank you for being so kind and, um, and, uh, receptive, uh, to me and just so welcoming.
It’s always a privilege to be able to be here.
I’m always excited because I know that I’m going to be refreshed.
That I’m gonna be changed, that my life is going to be encouraged, not only in the messages that are shared um for Miss Joyce and the other members of the team that are going to be serving as well, but also just from you individuals, you have been so kind.
I was thinking of just about how refreshing it is to be with all of you.
This week has been a little bit of a tough week for me.
I was just, just had a little uh situation in my life that really caused me to just trip up a little bit with fear and a little bit of intimidation and just praying about that.
I was just praying. Lord just helped me to walk in courage and walk in confidence and not to let fear take root and all in my life.
And sweet woman just came up to me a few moments ago and just gave me a big hug and said I have a gift for you and, and she didn’t even know what she was doing.
I just cried a little bit as she just came over a moment ago because she gave me a gift.
I don’t even know what the gift is y’all.
All I know is that I looked in the packaging and the, the title of or the packaging itself, the label on it says live fearlessly.
I don’t know if it’s hand lotion.
I don’t know what it is. All I saw was live fearlessly and the holy Spirit whispered to me.
I got you. I got you. I’m so grateful, Miss Joyce. Thank you for having me.
I’m very grateful to be here y’all. Let’s pray, Lord Jesus. Thank you so much for your word.
I thank you that it is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword.
Lord, you have come to speak to us.
And so I ask father that you will, I pray, Lord that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my hearts will be acceptable.
I love what m Joyce prayed last night. Father, she said, do not let me say anything.
That is not exactly what you want your daughters to hear.
Speak Lord in Jesus name amen as was mentioned.
Um I have the privilege of raising three sons.
Jackson is 16 and then Jerry Junior is 14 and then we have Jude, I’ve told y’all before Jude is, he’s 10 years old now, but he’s our surprise boy.
We still don’t know how Jude made it here.
And uh we named him Jude on purpose because that’s as close as I could get to revelation because honey, it is finished.
That is the end of the line, Jackson.
Jerry Junior and Juke, I took them earlier this year to the movies.
That’s one of our things we like to do is go to a movie when one comes out, that’s really what we want to see.
And um, it, it’s kind of our thing. And so we went to the movies, we saw it in 3D.
So we sat down and we are all together at this Disney movie and, and we, we, we started the film and after the film was already well underway, I’m talking, we’re 15, 20 minutes into the movie.
Jude. The youngest looks over at me and taps me on the shoulder and says, mom, I don’t like this movie.
And I said, buddy, why don’t you like the movie? And he said, I cannot see it. It is blurry.
Why did they make a movie in 3d? But the whole thing is blurry since the beginning of this thing.
I haven’t been able to really clearly see anything.
And I looked down at him and I said, buddy, did you take the glasses?
Did, did you take the glasses out of the package?
You know, they gave you those little glasses and he said these and I said, yes, buddy, those put them on.
He put the glasses on that he had neglected to put on at the very beginning.
And he said this is awesome.
I could, I can, I love conferences like this one opportunities like this one because y’all, what it really is about is fitting you with the spiritual eyewear that you need to see your life from the perspective of how God sees you and the story that he’s crafting through your life and through mine.
The movie that I took them to go see was Incredibles. Two Incredibles Two.
I’m not sure if you saw that one, but it was, man just as good as the first one.
And I loved the story line so much in this one.
Mr Incredible and his wife Alaska girl, you know, they’re in the throes of taking care of evil and sort of coming out of retirement in order to do that.
But it Incredibles too. It’s Alaska girl that takes the forefront.
She’s the one that’s sort of at the helm of fighting dangers and evil in the society.
And the Children end up having to get much more involved this time.
Man, they are running across powers that they never knew they had.
They’re being set in scenarios that are a little bit dangerous, a little bit risky, lots of adventure that they are called to sort of be a part of.
And you know, Alaska girl, she’s, she’s got a mama’s heart and she’s watching her three babies in the throes of all of this.
And at one point she turns to her husband, Mr Incredible and she says they’re just Children and he says they’re Children, but they’re Children with power and because they have power that makes them special.
And then he said whether or not they choose to use the power is up to them, but either way they’ve got it, it occurs to me in a room this size with women that are actually daughters that have placed faith in Jesus Christ.
We’re Children, but y’all, we ain’t just Children.
We’re Children with power that the Holy Spirit of God has given you power so that whatever place of danger or risk or adventure that you may have been called into, you need to know that you’ve got the power to sustain you into that place in which you have been called and, and, but, but here’s the deal whether or not you choose to use it now, that’s up to you.
What I don’t want is to get to the end of my days only to look back and realize I had all that power but never took advantage of it.
It is at least in part to that end that I believe that there is a portion of scripture that man over the past year, it has spoken so clearly to me and been a blessing in my life.
I wanna share it with you. It is in Luke’s Gospel.
If you have your Bible and you want to turn there with me, you can, if you know, if you actually still use the Bible with paper pages like I do or your iphone, your ipad pad, any manner of I will get you to Luke chapter nine.
I think they’re going to put it on the screens as well. I want to read verse one and two.
Then I’m gonna jump over to verse 10. I’m gonna read verse 10 through 17.
Luke chapter nine, verse one and two says this, It says, and he called the 12 together.
That’s Jesus. He called the 12 together. He gave them power and authority over all demons and to heal diseases.
And then he sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God and perform healing.
Listen to that again, this is the disciples going on their adventure.
And Jesus called, he called, somebody said, he called, he called the 12 together.
And then he gave, somebody said, he gave, he gave them power and he gave them authority.
Then verse two says, and then he sent somebody say, he sent, we sent them out.
Verse 10 says, and when the apostles turned, they gave him an account of all that they had done and taking them with him, he withdrew by himself to a city called Beth and the multitudes verse 11 says, they were aware of this.
So they followed Jesus and welcoming them.
He began speaking to them about the Kingdom of God and curing those who had need of healing.
Verse 12 says, and the Day began to decline.
The 12 came and said to him, Jesus, please send this multitude away.
They need to go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging and get something to eat for right here.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not Jesus, but here we’re in a desolate place.
But Jesus said to them in verse 13, he said, uh uh you give them something to eat.
They said, come on Jesus, we have no more than five loaves and two fish.
Unless perhaps we go and we buy food for all of these people.
Luke wants to make sure you know that there were 5000 men there. I love the physician.
Luke because he wants to tell you the details. He says 5000 men because there were women and Children there.
So scholars say there were likely 15,000 there on that patch of stony ground that day, Jesus said, have all of them recline in groups of about 50 verse 15 says, so they did that had them all recline and Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he blessed them and then he broke them and he kept giving them to the disciples to set before the multitude.
And verse 17 says, they all ate and they were all satisfied And then they picked up the leftovers.
And when they did, they discovered that there were 12 baskets full of leftovers.
In this very familiar story that many of us probably have heard or and are in some way familiar with is a story of a multitude of people who are being Fed.
They are hungry, they are empty, they’re in need of nourishment and they are more in need of an encounter with Jesus and Jesus gives them both.
But I want us to turn our attention away from the multitude And really focus in on these 12 disciples.
The disciples, those who walk with Jesus and talk with Jesus, those who are in relationship with Jesus, those who follow him, those who want to learn of Jesus, the disciples, the one who fly halfway across the country to come to the conference, to learn more about Jesus, the disciples.
I believe that this story, this well loved story, an encounter, miraculous encounter that Jesus had in the Scriptures, man.
I believe that it is, it is starts not just when the crowd gets hungry.
I really do believe that it starts in verse one and two, we find the disciples, the 12 have an up close personal encounter with Jesus.
We find more out more about this particular counter that they had in Mark chapter six, you don’t have to turn there.
But this exact same story is told in Mark chapter six.
What I love so much about the first three books of The New Testament is that they’re called the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke Synoptic, meaning that there’s synergy in the stories that are told the tone in which they’re told the way that they uh that the right wrote those particular encounters and the more you read them, the more layers of insight you can gain about what happened in that particular story in that particular encounter that Jesus had.
We found this same story found in Mark chapter six.
And when we read Mark chapter six, it gives us some texture to the story.
It’s kind of like if someone offered you some chocolate cake and they gave you an option, you can either have a one layer chocolate cake or a seven layer chocolate cake.
Well, I don’t know what y’all gonna do, but I’m gonna choose the seven layer chocolate cake every single time because the more layers there are the more rich and delectable the experience becomes Mark.
Chapter six is our layer of chocolate cake.
What we find out is that this is the occasion where God called Jesus called the disciples together.
And do you remember he sent them out in prayers, he sent them out two by two to the neighboring towns and the neighboring communities, they, he said them out with an with an assignment.
Their assignment was that everywhere they went, every person that they encountered should walk away with a more clear picture in their head of who Jesus really is that they were supposed to go out in power and authority to preach and to teach and to perform miracles for the purpose of authenticating that Jesus was who he said he was.
And that Jesus could do exactly what he had said, that he could do the whole point of the disciples coming together and then being dispersed was so that the power and authority with which they would live, their life would mean that every person they encountered, every interaction that they had would leave the people who they had encountered knowing that Jesus must be the real deal.
What’s the point of us coming together is after we leave this place, every person we encounter does not know that there must be a God somewhere.
And his name is Jesus Christ.
So they go out in Paris And I mean, they handle their assignment with integrity.
They are fully entrenched. Mark. Chapter six tells us in the task that is at hand.
And after they finish the assignment, they come back to Jesus and they give him an account for how they handled the assignment that they had been given, how they handled the ministry that had been entrusted to them.
I wanna make sure that everybody in the room knows that they are in ministry.
If you have named the name of Jesus Christ, you are in ministry.
Don’t let someone else or the enemy convince you that ministry is relegated to standing on a platform behind a podium with a little microphone attached to you.
Ministry is the place where you’ve been called to serve in the assignment that you have been given.
Every one of us are representatives of the king of kings and the Lord of Lords. You are in ministry.
So mother of small Children don’t let anybody tell you that you’re not in ministry every single time you sit around that dinner table with the casserole that you prepare the new way that you figured out to make chicken for dinner tonight and you figure it out successfully one more night and you sit those kids around the table and you pray over them and you teach them a Bible verse before they go to bed.
Don’t let anybody tell you that that ain’t ministry at high school student when you’re walking down the corridor of that high school that you attend and you’re the one that stands for righteousness in the midst of the darkness.
Don’t let anybody tell you seventh grader, eighth grader, freshman, sophomore that you are not in ministry, a university student like Mr Dave’s niece that he just told us about university student when you are the only one in the philosophy class where the professor is telling you things and teaching you things that are left of center of the truth of God’s word.
And you’re the only student in the class of 300 that raises their hands and takes them to term and lets them know that there actually is a truth, a standard that is the word of God.
You are in ministry and corporate man or woman when you sit around that boardroom table.
And you’re the only one that when they’re talking about their projections for the future, but they lack a smidge of integrity or character.
And you’re the one that stands for righteousness and calls people back to the truth of God.
Don’t let anybody tell you that that ain’t ministry.
Every single one of us has an assignment and just like the disciples, the day is coming where we’re gonna have to give an account, the day is coming sooner than we think.
But we’re going to look our savior in his face.
And we’re gonna have to give an account for how we used our time and how we used our talents and how we uh use the gifts that he entrusted to us and how we took care of the assignments that each and every one of us have been called to.
He’s not gonna ask me about her assignment.
He’s gonna ask me about mine and he’s not gonna be interested in how many Instagram followers I had, he will not be interested in how many people were my friends on Facebook or liked the tweet that I put up.
He’s only gonna ask me number one, did I know his son Jesus Christ?
And then I’m gonna have to give an account for the assignment that he called me to.
And when I look my savior in his face, I want to tell you that I am looking for well done.
Anybody interested in, well done.
I wanna hear well done.
Which means that my main priority can’t be to please you.
Your main priority cannot be to please me.
Our priority collectively cannot be to garner the applause of people.
Our interest has to be in garnering the applause of heaven because the day is coming sooner than you think.
But we’re going to have to look at our savior and give him an account.
It has been about two months ago on July 24 that I celebrated.
Gosh, my 19th wedding anniversary, I was out celebrating with my husband doing what you do when you’ve been married for almost 20 years.
We, we were at home goods just strolling around just enjoying an afternoon, you know, with no schedule, we’d had a little bit of dinner and then we just went and ran a few errands and just kind of walking around in, um, in, in, in home goods.
I was looking forward to the whole week.
I had plans the next day with um, really my best friend, one of my best friends, my cousin, uh winter, we had plans, we were going to go to the movies together.
She was gonna drop her four girls off off at my house so that my three boys and the four girls, their cousins, they could all kind of hang out and be together.
We had a plan for the next day. It was just gonna be a fun week.
So I was strolling through home goods on the 24th just enjoying my time with my man and the phone rang and I saw that, um, Jonathan Pitts, winter’s husband, Jonathan Pitts, his name popped up on my phone and because their last name is Pitts.
We always kind of tease them about that. I always answer the phone and I say you’re the pig.
So I answered the phone right there in an aisle, way between the kitchen towels and the bath towels.
And I said, you’re the pit. What’s up? And I just heard sobs, sobs.
Jonathan could barely catch his breath. I had to calm him down. Jonathan. What is happening? Why are you crying?
Of course, I was, I was startled just because of the intensity of the phone call.
As I heard this grown man wailing and wailing. Jonathan, what is going on?
He said, she’s not breathing, she’s not breathing. I said, what are you talking about? Who’s not breathing?
He said winter, she’s not breathing. I said, Jonathan, what’s happening? Did you call an ambulance?
Yes, they’re on their way. But Priscilla, I don’t think she’s gonna make it.
I’ve been doing CPR uh they’ve only, it’s only been two or three minutes since I’ve called them.
They’re on their way, but I can’t, I can’t get her to respond to me. She’s not breathing.
I said, Jonathan, we’re on our way.
We jumped in the car, we were about 30 minutes from where the ambulance was taking her.
I called on the way to talk to him.
Uh, he was being driven in a car with some friends of ours that I had immediately go over, they were at our house, immediately had go over to take him.
Um, we arrived at the hospital and when I arrived at the hospital, I ran down the corridor and another family member was standing outside of the room already leaned up against the wall.
And I said to her, is she breathing yet?
And I knew that when Andrea looked back at me and shook her head, no, That if it took me 30 minutes to get there, if she was not yet breathing, that means she probably wasn’t gonna breathe again.
They let me in that little room To see my 38 year old best friend and cousin With four small Children, Ages 13 and Under four girls.
She went from being fine and planning a movie with me and a play date with the kids.
One minute. The last message I have is from, from her is at five PM And it’s 6:15 PM.
God said it’s time and she stepped out of history into eternity and in a moment she had to give an account I want to say to all of you who are in the room that you do not know the day nor the hour.
And that if because you’re 35 or because you’re 25, you think you’re pretty young?
So you have a whole lot of time ahead of you.
Would you listen to me and listen to me clearly that you cannot judge whether or not you are old or young based on your birth date.
It has to be judged based on your death date.
Because if you’re 25, but you only have until you’re 36, you’re pretty old If you’re 50, but you’ve got until you’re 95, you’re pretty young.
But for all of us, since we do not know when he will call us home, since we do not know when we’ll have to look at our savior in his face and give him an account.
We better get busy living fully the adventure to which he has called us.
And when these disciples came to Jesus, the reality is that he said to them basically well done.
He acknowledged that they had exhausted themselves, fully engaged in the task at hand.
Mark chapter six says that he recognized that they had done the thing that they had been busy following hard after the assignment to which they had been called, they had done the thing.
Would you look at the woman next to you and say girl do the thing they had effective ministry.
So I wondered really quickly, if you don’t mind, I wondered if I could just take a rabbit trail for a second because I found in this story, a recipe for effective ministry.
I just wanna open up a parenthesis here to tell anybody who’s interested what the recipe is for effective ministry.
Anybody interested. There’s a recipe here.
The recipe is in those first two verses, there are three ingredients to the recipe. It says first ingredient.
He called them, he called them.
Oh There are so many beautiful layers here in this first ingredient in the recipe.
I love so much that God the Father, the glory of all of God Almighty that he was willing to clothe himself to encase himself in flesh.
The purpose was so that the word John writes could become flesh and dwell among us so that we could behold his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father Jesus made it so that he condescended to humans.
So that when he spoke, the disciples could actually hear the voice of God, the father in the person of Jesus Christ, all that deity clothed in humanity so that he could meet us where we are.
He made it so that humans could hear him.
And what he did uh in the first century is exactly what he does in this century through the person of the Holy Spirit that just like they could hear the call of God on their life through Jesus Christ.
You get the privilege to hear the call of God for your life through the person of the Holy Spirit.
God calls he convicts, he compels he challenges throughout this conference. You’re gonna feel a pain in your gut.
It will be the Holy Spirit saying go and here’s the thing about the whole, about these disciples when they heard the call of Jesus.
When Jesus said, you go out in prayers and authenticate who I am through the deeds that I’m giving you power and authority to carry out.
When they heard the call of Jesus, there was no other earthly ambition that they had that superceded.
The calling of Jesus on their lives.
When they heard the call of Jesus, they laid everything else down to pursue what it was that Jesus had asked them to do to do.
May it never be that we have ambitions that are higher than the ambitions of God’s calling for us?
May we always be willing to lay down our nets to leave behind prior ambitions to do what it is that God.
God has called us to do.
May His calling in your ears and in your heart be like fire, shut up in your bones to where you can’t not do what God has called you to do.
Lord, forgive us when because of hubris or pride or arrogance.
We have left your calling to pursue a calling that was never ours to pursue, forgive us father.
When we have tried to walk in shoes that were somebody else’s shoes to wear, forgive us father.
When we tried to walk down a lane that was never our lane to walk down when he calls, accept and celebrate your calling.
And then I love that when he called them, he didn’t just jump to the third ingredient.
He didn’t call them and then send them. I loved it before he sent them.
The second ingredient in the recipe is that he gave them power.
Come on, somebody say power and he gave them authority, which means they did not have to be afraid that they were not equipped for the calling.
Because even if as Mr Joyce taught us last night, they did not have the natural capacity to sustain them in the calling.
He entrusted them supernaturally with the power and authority.
They would need to succeed in the assignment that he gave them.
In other words, he does not call you because you are already equipped. He calls you.
And then for those that will say, yes sir.
He will equip you with exactly what you need to sustain you in the calling that you have been given.
Can I tell you that there is a very real enemy and the enemy hopes you will go in your own power.
He hopes that you will go in your own authority.
He hopes you will think and I will think that we are gifted enough or talented enough or savvy enough or impressive enough.
What does not want is a woman who has chosen to rest, not in her laurels, but in the power and the authority that has been trusted her by almighty God.
It is the anointing and the favor of God on your life that will sustain you in the calling to which you have been sent and called it is his supernatural endowment, his entrusting of power.
And authority in you that will make you the mother that you’re supposed to be the wife, that you’re supposed to be the single woman, that you’re supposed to be the career woman that you’re supposed to be the entrepreneur, that you’re supposed to be the woman in ministry that you’re supposed to be, whatever it is that he has called you to do it do, he will give you exactly what you need to be victorious and successful in that task.
It’s not by power and it’s not by might.
It is by the spirit of God and some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but we trust in the name of the Lord, our God.
So he called them.
There’s the first ingredient. Then he entrusted them with power and authority.
Oh y’all the power is there, whether or not you choose to use it is up to you.
And then 3rd ingredient he sent them.
Listen, he’s the one that did the sending resist.
The urge to send yourself to do an assignment that it is not yet time for because just as important as your calling is itself.
So too is the, is the timing in which that assignment is outworked in your life.
Because if you give birth too soon to an assignment that it is not yet time for you will abort the character that he was trying to build in you.
You will abort the spiritual backbone, the maturity that was gonna be necessary to sustain you in the assignment to which you have been called.
Because listen, the spotlight that you may be craving if that spotlight hits you and you have no character, that light will burn you to a cris.
So wait until God says go, Lord, make us patient enough to wait for the time and the season that you have called us to do what you have asked us to do.
So the disciples after being called, after being entrusted with power and authority, after being sent in the timing of Jesus, they go, they give it their best.
They give it their all they handle well.
The assignment as disciples that they have been called to handle, they come back and they give them an account.
Jesus says, man, y’all done well and you’re tired.
He acknowledges that they are plain old flat out and any disciples in the house tire because man, you haven’t been doing the thing perfectly, but you’ve been doing it purposefully, your marriage, your Children, your job, the ministry, man, you’ve been trying your best.
You’ve been doing it diligently. You’ve come to this conference and you are plain old flat out time.
You’re so glad that all of these sessions are gonna happen today.
But you’re, you’re debating because you just, you know that you could take a nap because you’re tired.
Anybody come on now, Jesus recognizes their exhaustion.
Here’s what I love about this whole encounter Jesus has with these exhausted depleted disciples who, by the way, Jesus recognizes in Mark chapter six, he says y’all haven’t even had time to eat.
He says you’re hungry too. You haven’t even had time to eat. I have never been that busy anybody ever.
I just, I don’t get that busy.
I’m the kind of girl that I, I’m not gonna order a salad and have little water to be cute.
Mm mm. I’m gonna order the biggest plate of nachos they got and then when I’m finished, I’m gonna scan your plate for any leftovers but the disciples had not even had time to eat.
Here’s what I love about Jesus encounter with the tired, depleted, exhausted disciples.
He does not say to them y’all go away from me, take a nap, get yourselves together, then come back and I’ll use you.
He says come away because you do need rest but come away with me.
Don’t go away from me, come away with me.
In other words, the cure for your exhaustion is intimacy with Jesus. That’s secure you’re looking for.
So take a holiday, take a sabbatical, take a vacation, step back for a little while until you can get yourself together from the ministry or your job or that endeavor.
But but when you take a holiday, don’t take a holiday from Jesus.
The actual refreshing that you’re looking for cannot be found apart from an intimate fervent, close up relationship with the lover of your soul.
Intimacy with him is the cure for your exhaustion. So he says to them, come away with me.
He takes them across the northern tip of the sea of Galilee to a little patch of stony ground that is right outside of a town called Beth.
He takes the disciples on a retreat so they can be replenished and refueled. He’s taking them on a holiday.
So when they arrive on the little patch of stony ground outside of the town of And there are 15,000 people waiting for them.
You can imagine how perplexed the disciples must have been Jesus.
You said, for us to come away with you.
You said there was gonna be something in us, in it for us.
You said we were gonna be replenished and refueled here here.
And Jesus, of course, in his sovereignty, sovereignty means he’s seen the end from the beginning.
Sovereignty means he stood in eternity past and he is seen all of time from its beginning, all the way to the end of the spectrum of time which we have not yet seen and he has seen into eternity.
Future, sovereignty means not only that he’s seen the whole time spectrum of time and eternity.
Sovereignty means he’s got the whole thing in the palm of his hand, which means your life and mind, which is a blip on the radar screen of the spectrum of time and eternity is also in the palm of his hand.
If you believe in the sovereignty of God.
It’s what allows you to do what psalm 46 10 says, be still cease to strive, chill out and know that I am God.
So he knew what the disciples could have never known in his sovereignty.
Jesus knew that he was taking the tired disciples to a place where there was going to be a multitude waiting on them.
When they got there. It was not a mistake.
It was of the sovereign design of God, which means there must have been something in that multitude that was going to be refreshing for the disciples.
It tells us that this uh well loved biblical encounter is not just about the multitudes getting fed, it’s about the disciples getting fed.
It tells us that the five roves and the two fish was the gift to the multitude.
But it’s that multitude that is the gift to the disciples.
There’s something about that multitude, placing a demand on them, something that is out of their control and beyond their capacity.
Something that they do not feel like they have the capacity to handle.
It’s that multitude that is actually going to enable the disciples to finally pull out the treasure that they’ve been ignoring and acting like it completely insignificant.
It’s the multitude that is gonna have them see what it looks like to place their little bit into the hands of a multiplying master and watch him perform a miracle that is going to blow their minds.
It’s the multitude that’s gonna have them access the power and authority that has been given to them by Jesus and see what it looks like to operate in the power and authority that is rightfully theirs.
Without the multitude, they would never have the opportunity to experience the power of God that has been entrusted to them.
I’m talking to anybody that’s got a multitude in your life that there is something pressing on you that is wearing you out.
There is a struggle in your marriage or in your finances or in your health or on your job and it’s more than you can handle.
The multitude is beyond your natural capacity.
The good news is when you come face to face with a sovereignly ordained multitude, that means the multitude is your gift because the multitude is gonna have you start accessing power and authority and treasure that you would have discounted before it’s gonna have you look at the five loaves and the two fish, that little gift, that little talent, that little finance, that little energy, that little patience, that little idea, that little creativity that you thought was so useless before you’re gonna pull it out.
The multitude is gonna make you pull it out.
You’re gonna place it in the hands of Jesus and he’s gonna perform a miracle that’s gonna blow your mind.
The multitude is your gift.
Did you notice that in verse 12, the disciples?
Say Jesus send the multitude away and we don’t just say it, we pray it in Jesus name and by the power of Almighty God, I speak to the multitude.
Lord take this multitude away and we don’t even know that we’re praying away.
The thing that is our gift. In verse 12, the disciples are praying away.
If you look, they are praying away at what? In verse 11, Jesus just welcomed.
It says in verse 11, he welcomed the multitude. One verse later, the disciples are praying away.
What they don’t even know is their gift.
Resist the urge to wish away what God has welcomed into your experience.
Instead say, Lord don’t take it away if there’s something in it for me.
Lord instead fit me with the right eye.
Wear the right spiritual eyewear that will help me to see this 3d picture, right?
Lord don’t let this multitude be taken away until I say, see and mind from it.
Every single treasure, every single gift, every single nuance that’s gonna build my life or that’s gonna help me to access this power and authority.
Lord don’t let this multitude leave my life until I milk it for every single thing you brought it here to give Jesus said to the disciples.
The exact same thing I wanna say to you today.
He said verse 13, you give them something to eat.
Everything your multitude needs is already in your hand.
You don’t need something else. Something more, something different, what you need.
You’ve already got pull it out, tap into the power and authority of the Holy Spirit of God that is already on the inside of you.
So finally the disciples, they take their little bit and they place it in the hands of Jesus.
Listen, they place it in the hands of Jesus.
You need to know that everything changes when you take your little bit and give it back to God.
Jesus took the little meager gifts of man. Thank you Lord.
He took the little bit that they had and looking up to heaven. He blessed it.
You don’t, you just need God’s blessing on the five rooms and the two fish you’ve already got.
You don’t need more talent. You don’t need more skill. You don’t need necessarily more resource.
All that you need is God’s blessing His favor. His anointing his hand.
Listen, God’s favor is what opens up doors that no man can shut.
God’s favor is what takes you places nobody can take away from you.
God’s favor is what sets you in position.
You know, you’re not qualified for God’s favor is what makes the scales balance out in your favor.
God blessed the five loaves and the two fish and then he broke it and then he kept handing it out to the disciples and it kept going and it kept going and it kept going and going and they had no idea the disciples couldn’t figure out where all of this resource was coming from.
They just had this and now it keeps going and going.
Their patience just Exponentially their resources, their ideas, their creativity, their gifts, their talent, everything that they need was already in their hands.
They just, they just had to give it to Jesus. And now the entire multitude is sustained.
And verse 17 says that when everybody ate and just in case you’re not clear on what kind of meal this is.
They want you to know everybody ate to the point of satisfaction. They were filled up to overflowing.
And after everybody got a good old Sunday afternoon kind of meal, they picked up the leftovers And there were 12 baskets full, 12 baskets.
There was one basket for each disciple to take home as a reminder of the great power of God to multiply the resources in your life.
Lord Jesus multiply our resources do it for your glory. It is in Jesus name that we pray.
Amen.
