Happy New Year to you all, there is a whole new year ahead of us and we all have great expectations for 2005. Magazine and newspapers build on these expectations by printing horoscopes (horrorscopes) for the year ahead and people avidly read them for we all like to have some sense of the future. (How good it is to know that though we don’t know what the future holds, we do know Who holds the future.)
Though we’ve not read our horoscopes, we no doubt have spent some time putting pen to paper to do some planning for 2005, we have set out some goals and expressed some hopes, these hopes usually encompass an improvement in our situation – be it our work, our personal lives, our relationships or even the lives of those dear to us. This gives us a sense of being in control of the future – A lot of these things we write down as ‘New Years resolutions,’ and we start off with great expectations of accomplishment but more often than not before January is much older we have given up on most of them if not all. There are a number of reasons for this – the lists are often long and we feel we should accomplish everything immediately. We forget that there are 365 days in which to work through things. Another reason is that WE want to do it, we talk about MY New Years resolutions, but God always sees them as our New Years resolutions, in which He is the one in control. We might well shelve those resolutions only to put them on our lists again and again, year after year, God does not, I believe he gives us every opportunity to accomplish what we have written down if we see it and take it.

So let us turn to Jn 6, reading from v1 we find the story of the feeding of the 5000. We find Jesus asking Philip to feed this multitude and His reason for asking him, verse 6 tells us was to test Philip, because Jesus knew what He was going to do. What a re-assuring thought, for if it was true for Philip it surely is true for us. So when we are challenged, or tested, during this year, as we know doubt will be, let us take heart that Jesus always knows what He is going to do in every situation which we face. It is our willingness to respond which will set things in motion, not whether our response is right or wrong. Let us look at Jesus’ question: ‘where shall we buy bread that these may eat?’ Philip response, was to pick up on the word ‘buy’ and he calculated what it would cost to feed the people, for that was his level of understanding, he knew without a shadow of doubt that the only way to get food was to buy it and for this crowd they would need plenty of money, yet this wasn’t what Jesus asked him. Had he answered the question as asked the answer should have been at the local market, or was that taken for granted as theirs was less of a consumer society? We might well have answer Spar or Pick ‘n Pay. From this we realise that Jesus did not only ‘know what he was going to do’ he also knew the level of Philip’s faith, He didn’t expect Philip to multiply bread, but he wanted to multiply Philip’s faith in the Son of God, who knew what He was going to do.

Enter into the story Andrew, who was one of Jesus’ first disciples. When John the Baptist pointed Him out as being the one they followed Jesus, Andrew bringing back the report to Peter, we have found the Messiah. Andrew informs them that there is a boy in the crowd who has 5 ‘small’ (NIV translation) loaves and 2 small fish. His question is ‘what can we do with that?’

From this we see that Philip needed to have it all cut and dried and provided for before he started, Andrew on the other hand was happy to say we haves something, even though it seems every inadequate.

How often don’t we react like Philip, we need to have it all worked out and fully provided for, if not we have sleepless nights about it or we bring in contingency plans to help in the situation.

Getting back to Philip, if he had the faith he would’ve answered: Lord, God provided manna for Israel, meat for Elijah, wheat & oil for the widow, Lord You can do the same. How would Philip have known to give such an answer, had he given it? Paul writes to the Romans, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So if you make it a priority to hear the word of God on a daily basis your faith will increase for the situation/s you are about to face.

Some of you might have heard this story before, but I believe it is worth repeating, for it doesn’t necessarily depend on a specific word, but being washed in the word. After 3 years of Bible School and God’s provision for us Anton went back into the IT world, closing down a business which was no longer viable.
He got a job with a company but after six months the company folded, we were not aware of the eminence of this so we came home on the 2nd of Jan, which is exactly 4 years ago to a message on his cell to tell him that he had to phone his boss – the news ‘you have been retrenched’. We looked at each other and said praise God, He will provide, by faith Anton then said I will have a job in 2 weeks and it was so.

This was the 3rd time we faced this same situation, as job coming to an end. On the first occasion we made plans to cut down as we now would only have one salary and we had just purchased a new house. The second time we still made the plans though by now we took courage from the word, but there was no faith to put pressure on the word. How different it was the 3rd time around especially as we were in position to make contingency plans as I was no longer working. Anton is still in that job and God has blessed us abundantly from it.

Look at the recurring patterns in your life and see how you have responded to them has there been progress, can you see growth, or has your response never changed? Be encouraged in the areas where you have grown, but continue spending time in the word for those areas where you still need to overcome, knowing that Jesus knows what He is going to do, which miracle he is going to perform for you.

Our biggest mistake is that we look to the One who knows, yet we still expect Him to work according to our way of thinking, we look to the money that is needed to buy the bread rather than the multiplication of the bread, or like that man at the pool of Bethesda, we look to our ‘hope’ for him, someone to put him in the pool, so when Jesus asks him if he wants to be healed his reply is ‘I have no one to put me in the pool. Yet all he needed from Jesus was a word and obedience to that word. To which of those things on your list for 2005 do you already have the answer, the word, but you haven’t obeyed it because it is not how you expect it to happen?

There is a specific area in my life with which I still struggle, though I do believe the victory is close at hand. Now I’ve done many things to overcome in this area with only partial success. I went up for an alter call one morning concerning this area in my life and as Apostle Andre often says people have said that he shouted at them, when it was not so, I had the same experience that morning, he seemed to be shouting at me ‘not by might, not by power but by my Spirit say the Lord!’ while he ‘pushed’ me backwards. I now have a word for this situation in my life and when I apply it I overcome, when I don’t I stumble and fall. He wants me to rely on Him in this area of my life, in which area do you have to relinquish your way of doing things so that you can overcome? It would be very nice if God just removed the problem rather than making me rely on Him to overcome but if he did I would never mature and God is looking for mature Christians not a nursery full of babies.

If you as a parent picked up your baby and carried him/her every time they tried to walk, to prevent them from getting hurt when they lost their balance you would still be carrying your 10, 15