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.
Living in Abundance: Expanding Beyond Anxiety & Scarcity
We live in anxious times! The Covid epidemic brought about a universal sense of angst that settled across the entire world. Despite improvements in our country’s economic stability, our collective consciousness has become focused on shortages, dysfunctional supply chains, and ever-increasing prices because of inflation. While income has increased because of a shortage of employees; the price increases fueled by disruptions in the supply chain and corporate greed have gobbled up those pay raises.
The World Health Organization noted in March 2022 that the Covid pandemic increased rates of depression and anxiety by 25 percent. Changes in the work environment, social isolation, and lack of support from family and friends caused this sharp increase. Add to these stressors people’s fear of infection, grief over loss of loved ones, and financial concerns; is it no wonder that we all live in fear of scarcity?
Discerning Your Spiritual Calling: Plans, Processes, and Strategies
The Creative Life:7 Keys to your Inner Genius (Butterworth, 2003), uses the creation account to outline a seven-step meditational process for discovering your spiritual calling. The first four stages included Enlightenment, Expansion, Visualization, and Inner Guidance.
Enlightenment occurs when you first notice your spiritual call. You may not have the details of how it will manifest; but you feel a drive to respond. Then, in the second stage, your spiritual calling expands, and you become familiar with the larger goals. The third stage encourages visualization. The visualization fills in the details of your call.
Visualization moves from within outward and will take the form of pictures coming to your mind, imagining future activities, and re-occurring inspirational thoughts.
During the fourth stage of inner guidance, God provides the larger goals of your spiritual call, and you say, “I think I could actually do that”. Yet, the fourth stage remains aspirational; it is not until the fifth stage of your spiritual call that the processes, plans, and strategies for implementing your call occur.
Discerning Your Spiritual Calling: Envisioning your Call & Eliminating Worry
Eric Butterworth (2003) in the book The Creative Life: 7 Keys to Your Inner Genius, uses the Genesis creation account to outline a seven-step meditational process for discovering your spiritual calling. Just as the creation story manifest in stages, the revelation of your spiritual calling is progressive. The first stage is illumination, the next, expansion, and the third, visualization. Butterworth notes each progressive stage of the creation story provides guidance on how you can fulfill your purpose and create a life of meaning.
The creation story begins with God illuminating the earth with the phrase, “Let there be light”. This is a metaphor for the moment you first noticed your spiritual calling. You become inspired and open-minded to the possibilities of engaging in something bigger than yourself. You may not have the details of how the calling manifest; but feel a drive to respond.
Discerning Your Spiritual Calling: Expanding & Awakening Your Faith:
Eric Butterworth (2003) in the book The Creative Life: 7 Keys to Your Inner Genius, uses the Genesis creation account to outline a seven-step meditation process for discovering your spiritual calling. Butterworth notes that each stage of the creation story provides guidance on how you can fulfill your purpose and create a life of meaning. This article explores the second step of the meditational practice: awakening your faith.
During the initial phase of creation, God formed the heavens and the earth by separating light from the darkness. Metaphorically, this is the equivalent of the initial revelation of your spiritual call. You receive the initial illumination, yet you don’t have the details or the plan for how your calling will manifest.