The Mystery of Godliness part II

By Major W. Ian Thomas

Doing the Impossible

To help provide an understanding of how Christians are to live by the power of God through dependent faith and display God’s Loving Nature in everything they do, we will look at a lesson taught by Jesus when He fed the five thousand. We find Him using Philip as an example to help explain this Spiritual principle.

When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for He already had in mind what He was going to do. (John 6:5-6)

Jesus was always prepared to respond to the situations presented to Him by His Father. Even though He had surrendered His own power (human will or self sufficiency) and Glory to live as a man in a weak mortal body, a life that required Him to depend on the Father for everything, nothing overwhelmed Him. He was never baffled. Jesus continued to Trust in His Father’s ability to be in everything He did. As One who lived in the Light, it could therefore “be seen plainly” how His works were being done “through God.” (John 3:21)

Jesus presented the problem of feeding the five thousand to Philip to expose a darkness that still existed in Philip’s thought processes. Philip had not yet learned to live by faith in God’s power. His thinking was still connected to the way that man naturally lives – by his own efforts. Jesus knew that if Philip continued to live by human wisdom and strength, it would be impossible for Philip to reflect the Glory of God in this world as he (Philip---representing mankind) was created to do.

The others disciples would have undoubtedly given a response similar to the one given by Philip. Jesus was merely using Philip as an example. His response to the question reflects a natural human thought process. He said, “Eight months wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” (John 6:7)

Can we see what Philip was using as the basis to resolve the problem? Was he thinking in terms of what God is able to accomplish through His power? No! He naturally turned to the purchasing power of money! Philip had not yet learned to
consider God’s power when confronting difficult situations.

What are you depending on? Have you learned to walk in a Way that truly depends on the power of God? As you were making your various decisions over this past week, did you naturally turn to your own sufficiency? Did you have a tendency to live by your own wisdom and strength? Did you take into account that Jesus has gone to be with the Father to enable you to Live as He did through the power of God?

You will need to repent in every area of your life where you have not learned to live by faith in God’s power. If you are not yet living in a moment by moment dependency on your risen Lord, if there is somewhere you are still trying to be
adequate (within yourself) without Him, then you are not yet walking as a Spiritual Christian. And, of course, if you are still living by your own strength, others will not be able to see the Light and Glory of God working through you. (John 3:21)

Jesus next asked His disciples, “How many loaves do you have?…Go and see.” (Mark 6:38) “Another of his disciples, Andrew…spoke up, ‘Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?’ ” (John 6:8-9) Again, we see human wisdom getting in the way of Living by faith in God’s power!

A small child offering his lunch to feed the multitude did not seem to offer any real help. But God, in order to display His Glory, will often make use of things that appear foolish to the natural mind. He generally avoids using the most prominent or the most promising to accomplish His Divine work. “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” (1 Cor. 1:27) He has chosen to manifest His Glory by using those who come to Him in childlike simplicity and faith, offering what they have for His use.

There was a secret to the miracle Jesus performed. He wanted to teach this lesson to His first disciples. He also desires to share the same secret with His disciples today. This is a lesson we all need to learn.

“Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish” (John 6:11 Emphasis added) We are now coming to the very heart of The Mystery of Godliness! It is written that Jesus took the loaves and “gave thanks” to the Father. In other words, He expressed His complete dependency on the Father. Because He was truly relying on His Father to provide the power needed to do His assigned work, and He had faith in His Father, He was able to express thanksgiving prior to the work being done.

The Son of God continually refused to do anything through His own strength while He lived as a man. He said, “I do nothing of Myself.” (John 8:28) He depended on the Father for everything. He was enabled to miraculously distribute the food through the hands of His disciples by depending on a power that came from His Father in Heaven.

Without question, Jesus Christ, who was God in a mortal body, could have exercised His own power as God to feed the five thousand. He could have lived by His own strength. But if He ever acted on His own {in His own sufficiency} while living as a man, He would have stopped living as God had planned for man to live.

Jesus came into this world to show fallen man how to live by the power of God through a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. He was called the Second or Last Adam because He came to demonstrate how man was originally designed to live by dependent faith in God’s power. He set an example by depending on the Father for everything. He then told His disciples to follow Him into the same “Light of Life.”