Dear friends,

     I pray that you are well; body, soul, and spirit. Though there is a sense of urgency in my spirit, there is great peace and an anticipation of the Lord doing awesome things. It is difficult to be unaffected by what we see and hear going on around us. It is especially important to keep your mind stayed on Him. Today, I would like to share a word of encouragement that the Lord quickened to me as I was reading the scriptures the other day.

 

 

As I was reading Matthew 15:29-39 the other day, the Lord showed me several things that I found encouraging in these days. I'll just list these not necessarily in the order they came.

 

1. The compassion of Jesus- This passage demonstrates that Jesus is concerned with our physical needs. If you do a study on compassion, Jesus was often moved by compassion and since He was the physical expression of the Father's heart, doing only what He saw the Father doing and speaking what He heard the Father speaking, we see a demonstration of the Father's compassion. Your Father knows what you have need of. Jesus did not want to send them away hungry.

 

2. The disciples lack of faith- They had already seen Jesus feed 5000 + with five loaves and two fish with twelve baskets left over. This time there were seven loaves and a few fish, yet they were asking the same questions they had asked before. "Where can we get enough bread?" If they had gotten the revelation

of the miracle of feeding the five thousand, they would have said," Lord there is more than enough."

 

3. They were filled- They were all filled. They ate as much as they wanted and seven large baskets were left over. This was not a few crumbs; it was the full meal deal. Jesus brought resources out of the kingdom into the physical realm.

 

 

As we look at the text. We see that they were all filled. The only way they would have left empty is to reject what He was giving.

If we attempt to live this life without being filled we will faint on the way. The word that was quickened to me was this, Jesus never sent anyone away empty. There were those who went away empty because they were hungrier for something else than they were for Him. Example: The rich young ruler could not part with his riches and went away empty. 

 

Jesus never sends anyone away empty. He desires for us to be filled. Yet, how often do we leave our meeting places empty? Some are content to go through life living on a few crumbs. How often do people come to us and leave empty? If we are hungrier for Him than anything else this world has to offer, He will see that we are filled and running over. When Jesus fed folks, there was always more than enough. If we are truly hungry the resources of the kingdom are available. We, who are born again believers, are the representation of Jesus on this earth. We are called to re-present Him to a starving world. Years ago I gave a man in the grocery business a word from the Lord, that he would be a distributor of bread, and that I didn't think that meant groceries. Several years later he became a minister. Are we not called to be distributors of bread? My prayer is that when hungry people come to me, they will have a Jesus encounter and that they will not go away empty. If they Have a Herb Dean encounter they will go away empty, but if they have a Jesus encounter Jesus never sends anyone away empty.

 

                                     In His love,

                                     Herb Dean

RborVitae5@aol.com