God's Method of Multiplication

(Overcomer Wu)

“... And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes.” Matthew 14:19

In the account given in Matthew chapter 14 and John chapter 6, there is an interesting story of the way in which Jesus fed the five thousand men(not counting the women and children). In particular, let us turn our attention to the four verbs used to describe the process of that miracle. Those four verbs are: He “took”; He “blessed”; “He broke”; and He “gave.” All the actions of Christ are exhaustless foundations of revelation, for they lift the curtain and let us look into the depths of His nature, and His actions are not only histories of what He has done and some providing distinct prophecies of what He will do, but they also reveal to us the character of Who He is and how He works. We are not looking into this to satisfy our intellectual curiosity nor to simply show how the Lord operates in the past, but to gain an insight into the way in which He still deals with us today. The first word is “took.” He took the five loaves and two fishes from the boy—that He might multiply them into an abundance of supply for many thousands.

The act of taking the bread is significant, for it shows that before He can use anything it must pass into His own power, and be pervaded with His own will, and, as it were, be baptized with His own choice, and saturated with His authority. Just as long as the loaves and fishes were in the hands of the boy they were under the boy’s control, and not under the personal and absolute will power of Jesus, the Son of God, but when the boy turned them over to Christ, they passed out from his personal choice, and became the personal property of our Lord and Master, and, as it were, the bread and fishes went from the human to the Divine, from the control of a man to the control of God.

How true this is, that God’s will must get perfect possession of anything in order that it may be multiplied and utilized for God’s glory! And this brings us to another thought—that our Lord recognizes and honors the free agency of man in a most amazing manner. Nobody in the universe pays so much respect to the free will of man as the God that created him.

Everywhere in the Bible we see God coming to man and asking him for his heart, for his submission, and then waited for man to choose without imposing on him. He would not trample on the rights of a poor fisherman’s little boy by seizing his lunch against the boy’s will. He could not have wrought that miracle and so multiplied that bread if it had not been willingly yielded to Him.

It is when that the foundation of our life is turned over into the absolute possession of God’s will, and then the Son of God takes what we offered to Him into His personal power, that with it He might multiply and feed others. Thus it is beautiful to see how God waits upon free agency, and will not compel anything of us—whether a loaf of bread, or a human heart—until He can do so with the perfect consent of the creature that yields it. Just as He took the bread from the boy, so He wants to take us and make us into bread for the feeding of others. It is the longing of our Lord to gain full possession us, to have us saturated in His will, but in order to do this He has to wait until we surrender ourselves into His hand. What we give to the Lord becomes doubly ours – for it is ours to give to Him, and then He gives it back to us – multiplied and filled with blessing.

At this juncture, we need to recognize that self-will is the center of all sin, and it lies hidden away in the depth of the flesh of man. This root of sin asserts itself in so many subtle ways that it takes much time of dealings and much grace to bring an end to self-will. It is only when we come to the end of ourselves and our self-will that we can truly and utterly relinquish the loaves and fishes of our whole being to the divine possession. God can only save us, purify us, possess us and use us in proportion to how much we are willing to yield of ourselves to His full control and choose His will in place of our self-will. In other words, the measure in which God possesses us depends on the measure that we apprehend and yield to His will and His desire.

Jesus is asking for loaves of bread—little, common loaves—loaves of ordinary life, loaves of common capacity—that He may possess them with His vitality, with His own power, and use them in a supernatural way for the nourishing of hungry souls as well as for the working out of His good pleasure. The incarnation of God’s eternal Son into a human body is the key that unlocks the secret in creation, redemption, and providence, for it is God becoming a man accepting what the man yields and possessing what he gives up to Him. Thus the act of the Lord Jesus in taking from the boy the loaves and fishes is a typical act of all His dealings with man and illustrates how He took His own human body, how He took the tabernacle from the hand of Moses, and how He still takes the hearts and lives that are given up to Him, to be purified from the will of the creature and pervaded with the authority of His own personal possession.

The word “blessed” is the second of the four verbs that describe the feeding of the multitude by our Savior in Matthew 14. Now let us consider the blessings which flows from our Lord into whatever He gains possession of. After taking the loaves and fishes, He stood in the presence of the vast multitude, and lifting His eyes to Heaven, while holding the loaves and fishes in His hands, He blessed them. The Greek word translated “blessed” is literally eulogized. He thanked the Father for His provisions. Those plain loaves made of barley, which modern people consider to be a rough and hard bread for consumption. Yet there stood the Creator of the fishes and the Producer of all barley and wheat, eulogizing those plain loaves and two humbled fishes, thanking the eternal Father. This was “saying grace” in the loftiest and truest sense.

Just as soon as those loaves and fishes were given up by the boy and passed into the personal possession of the Lord Jesus, they entered, as it were, a supernatural world, and became flooded with God's will and glory, and were then in the realm of the divine – the realm of the inexhaustible supply. Hence, the multiplication of the loaves and fishes was no surprise. As long as those loaves were in the boy’s hands, they were under what we may call the natural law, but when the Lord Jesus took them into His hands they were above natural law, for they were under the immediate will of the Creator of all laws, and hence could be miraculously multiplied above all natural law of physics.

There are two sides to this word “blessed.” On the one hand Jesus blessed by eulogizing it; on the other hand, He blessed the bread by pouring into it a stream of grace and multiplying it, and making it the instrument to show forth God's glory. Likewise, this same truth of blessing the bread and fishes applies to us. When we offer ourselves unreservedly into the hands of the Lord so that His will can seize entire control of our hearts and lives, He then can bless us to bring forth glory to God. Furthermore, He blesses us in the same double way in which He blessed the bread, that is to say, He eulogizes us, He praises the Father for the privilege of saving us, and washing us in His own blood to make us His very own prized possession, then He imparts to us His own divine nature, His holiness, and His glory. Praise the Lord!

Our value in creation depends on what God puts in us and upon us. In our own humanity, we are nothing but an earthen vessel (2 Cor 4:7). It is the blessing poured into us by and in Christ that makes us truly rich and adds no sorrow with it (Prov 10:22). It is by clutching onto things in our own hands that deprives ourselves of the blessing of God and what impoverishes us. In other words, it is the assertion of our self-will rather than the yielding of it to the Lord that halts the down-flow of God’s blessing. If that little boy had even held on to those loaves and fishes with his little finger, or with the unseen clutch of an unwilling mind, it would have prevented Jesus from taking the bread and blessing it.

It is the lingering clutch of an unwilling heart—upon ourselves or our belongings—that hinders the Lord from taking possession of us and make us fully the heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ to receive the boundless supply of His divine grace, and blessing us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places (Eph 1:3).

We have now covered the two previous verbs of God's method of multiplication by “taking” our offering, and “blessing” it in order to feed the multitude. Let us now proceed with the third verb of “breaking” the bread. This is another key word to all the works and ways of God. A spiritual brother used to pray, “Lord, take me, and break me, and make me.” He had learnt the secret of this miracle in Matthew 14, that in order to fully transform us into the image of Christ and into vessels of use to Him, there must first be the taking and the breaking!

The loaves and fishes do not begin to increase and multiply until at the point where they were broken in pieces. When Jesus took a loaf and broke it, then suddenly each broken pieces of the loaf swelled into a full-sized loaf, so that the bread He held in His hands did not diminish rather they multiply. This is much like the process of mitosis for the cells in our body to grow and multiply. Each cell needs to be divided first going through four stages of prophase, metaphase, anaphase, and telophase which result in the multiplication of the cells in our body and this is how we grow physically. Likewise, we cannot grow spiritually until we yield ourselves unreservedly into the Master's hand and allow Him to break us and bring about the necessary growth and multiplication that we desire.

We also see in nature that a seed planted in the ground must first be broken, and have its shell rent, before it can yield a crop and be multiplied. Certain rocks must be broken and pulverized into fine soil, in order to liberate the fertile chemicals to produce forests, and grass, harvests and even building materials. The increase and usefulness begins where there is breaking; and if you stop the breaking, you stop the multiplication! When we see and realize that this is God method of multiplication, we will regret the many opportunities the Lord has afforded us to be broken in grace so that we can grow and multiply for the satisfaction of both God and man.

By breaking that bread, the Lord Jesus also foretold of His own death, and how He must break His own body, the true, divine Loaf of Bread, the Bread from heaven, in order to distribute it, and in order that His body might be multiplied for the formation of the corporate mystical Body of saints, the Church. Jesus Himself tells us that a grain of wheat will remain alone except it fall in the ground and be broken in death, but through that death He will and has been multiplied and brought forth many grains(Jn 12:24). If Jesus had not broken the bread of His own body, not one single human being could ever have been saved, for He gave His life a ransom for us. We are not saved by the incarnation, nor by the birth of Jesus Christ, nor by His example, His character, nor even by His righteousness, holiness, and perfection in and of themselves—but by His death, the breaking of His body! It is by the actual breaking of the body of Christ, the breaking of that Loaf of Bread, that we are saved and nourished. Unless His love had poured itself out in His blood it could never have saved us; hence, Hebrews 9:22 says, “Without the shedding of blood(the blood of Christ Jesus) there is no forgiveness.” He died, the Just for the unjust. His body was broken, and the blood vessels were ruptured, and His heart was pierced, for nothing less than death would have met the demands of God’s holy law, nor have been sufficient for our full salvation.

Many Christians do not grasp the key of the truth of our salvation— it is not just paying our ransom or bringing us forgiveness of sins and reconciled us back to God, but the life of Christ Jesus imparted to us through His death! It was by smiting the rock that the water flowed out, and so it was by the smiting of Jesus Christ on the cross—that the stream of His life was poured forth for us to drink (Exo l7:6, Jn 4:14, 7:37-38). It is by bruising the olive berry that the sweet oil can be obtained, and by the bruising and breaking of the body of Jesus, the oil of the Holy Spirit is given to believers of Christ Jesus.When we chew a piece of bread, we are but breaking it that its hidden qualities may be liberated and be assimilated into our bodies, and thus Jesus broke the bread of His own body that His life and virtues could be received us.

The principle of the necessity of breaking for the release of life, light, grace and other blessings of God can also be seen in His other acts and works among man. For instance, it was only by breaking the pitcher on the part of Gideon’s band, that the light of the lamps could flash forth to the bewilderment and utter confusion of the Midianites (Judg 7:19-21). Thus Jesus broke the pitcher of His own flesh that the inward lamp of His spiritual life could shine forth in this dark world. Likewise, we need the breaking of the outer man(the old man and our flesh) for the release of the Spirit. Our self-will must be broken, our foolish sentimentalism, our natural affections, our wild fancies, our self-esteem, our own religious ideologies, our human creeds, that beautiful white loaf of the self-centered life, which seems so fair, like angel cake instead of brown barley, must be broken to pieces, if ever God is to make us to conform to the image of Christ. This is repeated over again when we allow the Lord to take possession of more of our heart. This gives Him the liberty to break us, that through our breaking He may on the one hand grow us spiritually by the multiplication of His life within, and on the other hand make us channels fitted for the distribution of His life for the multiplication of His life to others. The word “Christian” simply means a person who belongs to Christ, possessed by Christ, and anointed with the Holy Spirit by the authority of Christ.

Another example of this principle of God's work through breaking is shown by God’s Word in Isaiah 33:23, “The lame take the prey.” When God made Jacob lame, and broke the main source of his natural strength, he was then blessed with a new name Israel and as it were taken up into the position of the throne of God to be a prince of God, which is the meaning of the name Israel, where he could conquer his enemies including his brother Esau, and make the heathen afraid as he marched through their country with his family and herds. It is the soul which God breaks that wields the divine strength (Gen 32:1-32; 33:1-16; 35:5).

If you look in a very large mirror, you will see only one reflection of yourself, but if you break that mirror into a hundred pieces, each separate piece will reflect your image with a different angle and a different focus, or perhaps some fragments are used for the reflection of others' images. Thus the Lord multiplies His reflection in us by breaking us into fragments, in order that the highest glory of God can be attained by the destruction of our self-glory. Thus the Lord is dealing with us as He dealt with the five loaves and two fishes—when He takes us, and blesses us, and then breaks us. As painful as the breaking process may be oftentimes, we need to thank the amazing love of God in dealing with us as He dealt with the spotless humanity of His own dear Son!

Lastly, the word “gave” is the fourth and the crowning verb descriptive of the actions of Jesus in feeding the five thousand. The other three actions of “taking” and “blessing” and “breaking” the bread and fishes were but preparatory or prelude to this crowning act of giving out the bread to the disciples, that they might distribute them to the multitude. Notice the circuit around which the bread an fishes traveled. They were firstly in the hands of the boy; and he put it in the hands of Jesus, letting it pass entirely out of his will; then Jesus took possession of it, and filled it with His divine power and essence in blessing and breaking it, and then returned it again through the hands of the disciples into the hands of the boy who had given it up. Needless to say, the boy received all he wanted and more because there were 12 baskets full of leftovers!

This is the way of God's blessing, the way of God's multiplication and growth. All He requires of us is to give ourselves and what we have fully and unreservedly into His possession. Lest we think it is a loss or a sacrifice to give what the Lord requires of us. Just consider this example in Matthew 14, we can see clearly that what we give to God becomes doubly ours. The Lord awaits our free will to choose to give over to His hand, and then He gives it back to us and to other needy ones—enlarged, grown, multiplied, and filled with His blessing!

Please note that the bread and fishes were multiplied in the very act of giving it away! Just as fast as Jesus broke the bread and gave it out to the disciples, just so fast it grew upon His hands, and when He stopped giving it out it ceased to multiply. This truth extends all through the kingdom of God, and through nature and our spiritual life as well. Very few people ever learn the truth that giving is the very best of living, and the true essence of increase. After Jesus takes us, blesses us, and then breaks us to pieces, it is then and not till then, that in the highest and broadest measure He begins giving us out to meet the need of others (Please refer to 2 Kings 4:1-6 for reference).

It is the heart that Christ has broken that He can distribute and give out for the edification, the salvation, or the consolation of a multitude of other souls (2 Cor 1:4-5). The devil also breaks many people, and breaks many hearts, but they only become shattered wrecks on the shores of life. But those souls that God takes in hand, and that He breaks are made into vessels of the water of life and the bread of life. The breaking that God does is like the breaking of the flax out of which is made the beautiful linen, or like the breaking of grains of sand out of which is made the exquisite cut glass, or like the breaking of volcanic lava out of which is made the most fertile soil on earth.

It is true with us as it was with the miracle, that when we stop giving out we cease to multiply! The more we give out our life, our time, our possession, our hearts, and the riches of Christ, the more they increase. The society we live in teaches as well as it is inherent in the human nature to hoard up more and more of this worldly possessions, position, and wealth. This is a life govern by covetousness. This is antithetical to what our Lord wants to see in His children. For this reason, He said, “Take heed and guard yourself from all covetousness; for no one's life consists in the abundance of things which he possesses”(Luk 12:15).

Too many of God’s people are kept on the verge of want because they will not give. Verses such as, “Give, and it shall be given unto you” (Luk 6:38) seems to be impenetrable to their harden hearts or they simply turn a deaf ear to such verses. (Let me hasten to add that there are many faithful servants of God who live in poverty not for lack of giving, but it is simply their lot in this age under God's providence for His own greater purpose and use.)

What we give to the Lord will in due time come back to us, having been appropriated and saturated by the will and blessing of God, multiplied, more useful, and more enduring than if we had kept it in our own power and possession. Just see how they collected twelve baskets of fragments after all the thousands had been fed. There is always an overabounding riches in what we hand over to God and what flows out of His hand from the very things we are willing to give up to Him! After we have been broken by the Lord and our lives and possessions have been given out in service to others, there will be gathered up as our reward the twelve baskets of an abundant overflow at our Home gathering in the future! (Matt 14:20).

The poor widow who gave away her last morsel of bread to feed Elijah, got it back in the shape of an exhaustless meal barrel and oil cruse. Mary, who gave away all her costly spikenard upon the feet of Jesus, got it back again in fragrance on her own head when she wiped those feet with her hair (1 Ki 17:8-16; Jn 12:3, 13:17). Praise the Lord for showing us His method of multiplication which is contrary to our natural selfish ways and disposition. May we put into practice what the Lord has shown us, not just for our own enjoyment of the increase riches and the life of Christ in us, but also for the fulfillment of God's purpose for the edification of the saints, and for the growth and multiplication of the Body of Christ.