Living in Abundance: Awakening Divine Provision in Your Life
The story of the Feeding of the Multitude is the only miracle of Jesus narrated in all four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). The story begins with Jesus seeking alone time with his disciples after hearing of John the Baptist beheading.
As Jesus and the disciples set off by boat, great crowds chased after them along the shoreline. The disciples pulled into an inlet, beaching the boat. When Jesus saw the crowd, he felt great compassion. Christ saw they were a sheep without a shepherd. As a result, Jesus spent the afternoon into the early evening teaching the crowd about the spiritual principles of the kingdom of God.
As dusk settled; the disciples expressed concern they were in a rural area and the crowds needed to be sent away to get shelter for the night. Jesus commanded his disciples to feed the crowd. However, the disciples protested, “It would take eight months' wages to feed a crowd this size”. In response, Jesus instructed his disciples to gather what food was available. They found five loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus requested the crowd sit in groups of 50 and blessed the meager meal. Jesus broke the loaves and fish until it fed the entire crowd. There was such a great abundance of food; when everyone finished eating, the disciples gathered twelve baskets of leftovers.
Title: říční malování, Author: Tereza Simandlová, Source: Flickr is licensed by CC BY 2.0
There are many interpretations of this story, some leaning toward the miraculous. Other interpretations provide a more practical means of how the multitude was fed. Most theologians agree, what is important is the compassion of Christ and the divine provision to the needy, sick, and poor. Jesus was not only concerned about the people's spiritual needs; but had compassion for their physical needs as well. The problem is not God’s desire to provide; it is our understanding and acceptance of this provision.
Awakening to Divine Abundance:
You live in a world where you are constantly reminded of scarcity, lack, and shortages. From the minute the alarm clock goes off in the morning to when your head hits the pillow at night, scarcity and lack are your constant companions. The morning news report brings you all the calamities that arrived in the world while you were sleeping. Catastrophes like wars, grocery shortages, politicians behaving badly, and health crises barrage your mind with worry and anxiety. When you arrive at work; you confront downsizing, layoffs, and the constant demand to do more with less. Is it no wonder our brains have become naturally wired for scarcity?
From an evolutionary perspective, your brain is designed for worry and fear of loss. This is an adaptive survival mechanism, as your brain rehearses every possible thing that could go wrong. This pattern of thinking was very helpful in our more primitive, hunter-gatherer days. It enabled you to respond to a crisis with a plan and act. In our modern, fast-paced culture, this type of thinking becomes a liability. Globalization, the 24-hour news cycle, and the bust and boom economic cycles create too many what-if scenarios for our primitive brains to plan for. As a result, your cognitive pathways become overloaded, resulting in depression, anxiety, and fear.
The feeding of the multitude teaches you there is a different way of living, thinking, and being. Just as Christ had compassion on the multitude; Jesus desires to have compassion on you physically, emotionally, and spiritually. This mindset is not natural to your thinking; instead, you must make a choice to awaken to divine abundance. When you make the choice, you are not only satiated, but there is an abundance left to serve and help others.
The Beginning of Living in an Abundance Mindset:
There were two important factors the preceded the feeding of the multitude. First, the crowds that formed around Jesus were living in an expectancy versus a scarcity mindset. The reason the crowds were following Jesus was the disciples had just completed a country-wide tour where they healed the sick and ministered to the poor. The disciples performed miracles, and the crowd was hungry for more. There was a spirit of expectancy.
The second factor was Jesus’s teaching on living in the kingdom of heaven. Whenever the Bible discusses the kingdom of heaven, it is in the context of personal and spiritual growth. The kingdom of God is compared to a mustard seed that starts small and grows into one of the largest plants in the garden (Matthew 13:31-32, WEB). It is also compared to a hidden treasure so valuable that a merchant sold all he had to purchase it (Matthew 13: 44-46, WEB).
The kingdom of heaven in Jesus’s teaching is not some future kingdom; it is in the here and now! Jesus does not teach that abundance is in some future, way-off heaven. He wants you to learn to live a life of abundance, wellness, and joy now! The kingdom of heaven is already in you. You only have to do one thing; change your focus, change your mindset, change your belief. A process much easier to say than to do.
Living in an abundant mindset is learning to live with a heart of expectancy of your highest good. To be clear, this is not talking about prosperity theology; a theology that teaches a life of opulent wealth and comfort. Instead, abundance comes when you change what you value in accordance with the spiritual teachings of Christ. The reality is you may not gain wealth, power, or influence…. that wasn’t the path of Christ. If Christ is truly the way-shower to God; then you can only live in abundance when you live in it as defined by God. Unfortunately, our modern culture has created an illegitimate definition of abundance based entirely upon money. This is not what Christ taught.
A kingdom of heaven definition of abundance is rooted in service, the station of your calling, and your ministry to the world. As Paul the Apostle notes in Romans 12:1-4 (WEB), you are to present your bodies as living sacrifices as God equips you “according to your measure of faith (vs 3, WEB). Your abundance is not entirely for you. It is a gift to serve others! You are to exercise caution when living in abundance. First, you are not to conform to the worldly definition of abundance based upon money, success, and power (vs. 2). Second, your gifting should not lead you to think of yourself more highly than others, for your abundance is a gift of God’s grace to you (vs. 3) for acts of service.
Living in Abundance:
You cannot measure true spiritual abundance in wealth, accumulation, or affluence. True abundance is when you learn to trust your life to God as the source of all that you have and all that you are. It is the realization that you are nothing outside of God. When you place your definition of abundance on wealth, accumulation, and affluence; money has become your source, instead of God.
True abundance begins when you attune your mind and heart to God as your source. It is from spiritual abundance that you will truly know the joy of serving others and prosperity will flow to you for every act of service for which you are called and empowered. When God is the source of your abundance; God meets your needs spiritually, physically, and emotionally to enable your service to others.
The only thing preventing you from living in abundance is your belief in the false definition of abundance. When you look at material things to define your abundance, you allow only one expression of abundance in your life… material wealth. Yet God is not limited to providing you with abundance only through wealth. God is beyond matter and money; God is all!
In order to understand the depth and scale of God’s abundant supply, stop for a moment and take a deep breath. Breathe deeply and long. Breathe until satisfied. Did the world run out of oxygen? Was there a limited supply? Absolutely not! There is more than enough air to fill your lungs with life-sustaining oxygen. The only limit of oxygen is your capacity to inhale it. When God is your source, there is no limit or supply; it is only your capacity that limits your breath (Fillmore, 2018).
Living with God as your source begins with gratitude. When you recognize God’s blessings in your life; you become open to recognizing God’s abundant gifts and provision. In order to see what God can supply, you must first recognize what God has already given. The mindful act of gratitude changes your perception of your current circumstances. It allows you to see how God is already working in your life, which opens your thoughts from scarcity to possibility.
Expectancy, Service, and Gratitude in Abundant Living:
When leaving a scarcity mind set behind; it is important to take active steps to live in expectancy, service, and gratitude. Like Jesus, abundance should lead you to a heart of compassion and service for others. When your compassion manifests, you will find your metaphorical five loaves and two fish expand beyond your wildest dreams. Not only are you filled; but abundance overflows and provides for others. Abundance is about service and compassion; it is only from this perspective that one can truly live an abundant life.
Spiritual abundance can only occur when you look to God as your source. You are not to look to money, power, and affluence as evidence of abundance. Christ teaches you to seek first the kingdom of heaven, and then abundance manifests in your life. This is not the world's definition of abundance. Instead, abundance manifests as good relationships, health, time to serve others, and the list goes on and on. Limiting God to the world’s definition of abundance only limits the flow and supply to your life.
Meditations on Living Abundantly:
Become aware of how your daily interactions with media, your work environment, and your relationships with others direct your thinking to a scarcity mindset. As you do this, you will notice how scarcity conversations shape your thinking into fear, anxiety, and depression. When you encounter scarcity thinking throughout your day, invoke a mindset of gratitude. Take the time to thank God for what the Spirit already gave to you in your life. This meditation is the beginning of expectancy. This process reminds you that there is only one principle, one power, God the good, who desires to meet both your spiritual and physical needs in this world.
Written by: Heath B. Walters, Ph.D.
Copyright © March 17th, 2023, Heath B. Walters DBA Spiritual Life Resources, All Rights Reserved.
Reference
Fillmore, Charles, (2018). Prosperity-Talks on Truth. In Charles Fillmore Complete Collection of Twelve Books. (Kindle Edition). Alpha Centauri Publishers.
World English Bible (2022). WEB Online. https://ebible.org/study/.