Where vs. How

Eze.37:³ “And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”

We have been looking at Jesus’ intent, Jesus’ question, and Phillip’s response for the past few days because there is so much to learn as it relates to our walk with God, to leadership, and to relationships with people. The challenge is people are not able to respond appropriately when asked a question because they do not stay with the question for long enough. John 6:^5-7 “Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do. Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!” (emphasis added). Phillip probably thought, ‘Is this man Disillusioned? Does He understand the gravity of what is on ground? Maybe I need to enlighten Him, to give Him the big picture that there is no money anywhere.’

The truth is that even if Phillip wanted to give Jesus the big picture view on things, when he lands the big picture, he would have answered the question, right? But that was not the case. There was no recourse or reference to the question asked. You would also agree with me that, it was not that Phillip did not know where the bakery was. If the quantity of the bread was not so humongous in Phillip’s mind, Phillip would have pointed out the location of the bakery. Phillip knew where the bakery was, but his focus was on something else. It was not that there will be capacity issues either. Let say the bakery in Bethsaida could only bake fifty loaves per day and we are looking at five thousand men not counting women and children. If that was the issue, Phillip would have said to Jesus, ‘Lord, there is nowhere to get this volume of bread in this area.’ So, it means that He knew where the bakeries were, and he knew that the bakery had the capacity to supply Jesus’ quest. But his conclusion was there is no money to buy it.

Jesus was asking, “Where” but Phillip was answering “How” – how is this possible? The issue with Phillip is not a question of ‘where’, Phillip knew ‘where’. The issue with Phillip was a question of ‘How’ – how in the world can we afford it? When we answer the questions we are not being asked, we are responding to the things we do not understand even when we understand the question. “Do you want to made whole?” Jesus asked the man that was lame for thirty-eight years and his response was, “I have no man…” We respond to questions based on our own limitation. As human beings, we struggle with ‘How’ a lot. Many times, God wants us to define ‘What’ and we cannot define ‘What’ or begin to operate in ‘What’ because we are wondering ‘How’ can these things be? The angel said to Mary, ‘You will conceive…’ and she says “How? I am a virgin”. One of the best things you can do for yourself, in your walk with God, is to leave “How” to God.

Prayer: Father, I ask for the wisdom to lean into the Holy Spirit so that my responses will always be the God-responses, in Jesus Name. Amen!