I Prayed have prayed
Lord God, You are our Shepherd. We lack nothing. You restore our souls. You guide us in paths of righteousness for the sake of Your Name.
Reading Time: 5 minutes

As we walk through our grocery stores and find shelves empty, where bread and other staples used to sit in abundance, it is easy to allow fear to grip our hearts. Where will we get bread to feed our families? (And I’m not even going to touch on the toilet paper issue!)

But we must remember that Jesus said, He is the bread of Life. It is no coincidence that He used those particular words.

Recently I was pondering the story of when Jesus fed the multitude. It is interesting to note that we are in the same time frame in our world as when this story took place, as it was “when the Jewish Passover Festival was near.” (Passover this year is April 8-16.)

There are no coincidences with God. He has a message for us.

John 6:5-13 says:

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.

Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there).  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.

When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

I have always loved that story and have often heard how God can use whatever we have in our hand, no matter how small. This is true. But then God broke into my thoughts and interjected, “It doesn’t require that you have anything. For I created the world out of nothing.”

My world exploded with the thought of how we limit the power of God in our lives to somehow think He is controlled by what we possess.

When He created the world, He simply spoke and it appeared. That creative power in His words is still active today and He has given us the power to align with His Words to declare and create—and if need be, out of nothing.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace, the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands (Is 55:8-12.)

According to the Jewish calendar, this is the year 5780. The number 80 in Hebrew correlates with the 17th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which is the letter pey, which means “mouth.” This is the year of the mouth, which also means to express, to declare, speech, and breath.

With our mouth, we speak and declare. What are you declaring and creating over your world right now as the opportunity to fear knocks at your door? He is trying to teach us something that we not only need now, but will need in the future, if we will grasp hold of this truth.

May we come into agreement with His Words, which carry the power to create, as we declare:

  • In the days of famine, we will have abundance (Ps 37: 19).
  • We are the righteousness of God in Christ. He will never forsake us, nor will our descendants beg for bread. In fact, all day long we are gracious and lend, and our descendants are a blessing (Ps 37:25-26).
  • He will instruct us in the way we should choose. Our soul will abide in prosperity. (Prosperity in that verse is the Hebrew word tôwb which means: bountiful, cheerful, pleasant abundance, at ease in soul and body Ps 25:12-13).
  • The Lord sustains us when we are sick; and restores us to health (Ps 41:3).
  • The Lord is our shepherd. We shall not want or lack any good thing. He makes us lie down in green pastures; He leads us beside quiet waters. He restores our soul. He guides us in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake (Ps 23:1-2).

The word restore in Psalm 23:2 is the Hebrew word shûwb, which encompasses a multitude of things. It means He will cause us to recover, to be refreshed, to be delivered, to lie down in rest, to be rewarded, to feed, to rejoice, to go again, to be recompensed, to be rescued…and more.

This is not a time to fear, but to declare with our mouth what His Word says, not to regurgitate what the media says. We will indeed create our world with our words. Will it be one of provision or one of fear and lack?

We need to get past the place where we look upon empty shelves and see what is missing, but instead recognize the power of God within us and see His provision. Jesus didn’t see lack. He saw the miracle. If He fed the multitude, He can certainly feed you and your family. He healed the sick, and if you get sick, He can heal you. In fact, He told us to heal the sick. It is the power He has given to us.

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give (Mt 10:8).

I believe this can be the greatest hour the Church has seen, if we will simply rise up in the power He has given us. It is time the Church becomes the Church. May this be a time of healing revival to sweep our nation and restore our land.

Psalm 25:14 says, “The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him.”

It’s time we take our eyes off the waves and the storm and instead align our hearts and our words with His heart and His words. May we see with His eyes, for in His world there is no lack. Lord give us this day our daily bread…

Let us take the Word to declare and create a different world around us than we presently see. For He left it up to us to speak out His Word. It is His job to then watch over His Word to perform it (Jer 1:12).

 

Karen Hardin is an intercessor, author, minister, and literary agent. Her work has appeared on USA Today, World Net Daily, Intercessors for America, Charisma, CBN.com, The Elijah List, etc. For additional information, you can contact her at www.prioritypr.org or www.karenhardin.com.

 

 

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Allison Skibba
March 21, 2020

Such encouragement! God has given me the tools!! All I need to do is “GO”!!…and use what He has already given me! I’m looking straight ahead for the time is short!!

Elaine Danan
March 20, 2020

I went to the store for laundry soap. And there was one package of my brand left. Sadly, I didn’t rejoice, I wondered what was wrong with it. Later, I remembered and repented.
Today I had to get “diapers” for mom. I asked the Lord to direct me to the store that had them. As I drove it occurred to me that He would provide, which ever store I chose. I smiled. As I turned down the aisle, they were scarce, but sure enough, there was the exact package. Even four of them! So I resisted taking a second, in case someone else was looking for them, too. Thank you, Jesus, my provider!

Veronica Leach
March 19, 2020

Amen, Amen, and Amen! This is so GOOD!!!

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Allison Skibba
March 19, 2020

I have prayed more lately that the words that come from my mouth will be in the authority of the Lord, with great power to change circumstances and people over to the Kingdom of God!! This article answered the direction into which my heart and spirit are leaning!

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CHERYL HALL
March 19, 2020

Our God is awesome. He is only limited by our lack of faith.
Thank you, Karen for this inspiring & uplifting word.

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Carol Hedrick
March 19, 2020

Absolutely, nothing is impossible for our God.

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Karen Secrest
March 19, 2020

Thanks for your reminder to stand on the Word. It still amazes me that people dont pray before they leave home knowing in your “knower” that God is going to direct your every footstep.

I thought, then made a snarkey comment about people dwelling on lack. The Lord immediately reminded me that as a Psychologist, I presumably knew that the focus on whatever lack was due to being rudely bounced out of their comfort zone.Learning a whole new skill set is difficult at any time but when you feel you have no control, it then means dealing with emotions that won’t stay tamped down. It’s easy to comment until the Lord shines the light on your own life. THEN He lets you find that baking mix on the shelf and you make biscuits And remember how much fun we had when Dad made little dollar pancakes for breakfast.
God go with each one as we walk this unfamiliar path.

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Brenda
March 19, 2020

Heavenly Father,
I pray we as Christ followers look up to you instead of the “thing” that is gripping us in fear or sorrow. When we turn ourselves to you we are flooded with hope, love, strength, and a Kingdom perspective. I pray we help our families, friends & strangers look at life not death, good not evil, hope not despair as we look up to You.
I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

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Gloria A Robles
March 19, 2020

Amen! What a great reminder! Our church made the decision to temporarily suspend services, but continue to livestream. The intercessors compiled a sheet to circulate amongst the church calling for 7 days of prayer & fasting. My point being each day has a decree saturated in the word. We must get into alignment with God’s word. All of his promises are yes and amen in Christ. It is living and active and never returns void. I pray that while we are in temporary isolation we become better acquainted with the word of God. Thank you for sharing this Karen.

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