They have no need to go away; give ye them to eat.

Matthew 14:16

Spiritual poverty and spiritual straitness are two of the greatest problems in the Church. Too many Christians are so poor they have not sufficient for their own needs. Alas for any who go to them for help! But poverty is effect, not cause, and straitness is effect, not cause. The cause of poverty and of straitness is a lack of the Spirit’s discipline. Those who are wealthy, and only they, who have known such discipline. They have a spiritual history with God, because they have suffered for the Body’s sake. Their sicknesses, their domestic problems, their adversities, all were for the increase of Christ in his people. It is they who always have something to give. Those on the other hand who bypass such discipline, choosing instead a life of ease and prosperity- they are the straitened and the poverty-stricken. The poor and needy come to them in vain for help. They have no overflow.

Watchman Nee

The story surrounding our text is one that is quite familiar to us. It seems that Jesus has been teaching the multitudes for a lengthy time when the disciples came to Him asking to send the multitude away so they could get food. Matthew 14:16 is His response. Their next question concerned what they would feed them since they had made no provision and it was going to take a lot of food. Jesus instructed them to seek out what was available and when they returned, they brought with them a lad who had five little loaves of bread(small rolls) and two small fish. The disciples were sure this wasn’t enough and then Jesus blessed it and had them to break the loaves and fish into fragments and pass it out. As they did, everyone ate their fill and there was food left over.

How does this apply to us? Here it is. Far too often we are like the Israelites traveling through the wilderness. I realize that we live in a challenging world and daily we find ourselves battling the devil and personal temptations. Some weeks when we drag ourselves to a worship service we are so drained by life that we are almost at the point of spiritual death. Some of this stems from the fact that during the week we starve our spirit while make sure to provide for our flesh. We make sure we feed our bodies, find recreational activities to relieve our stresses, and we seek entertainment over spiritual fulfillment. It is easier to care for our natural man while we neglect our spirits.

The night Christ was arrested, Peter found himself in spiritual poverty. When the time of testing came, he had nothing to meet it with and failed. Had someone came to him at that moment, he would have nothing to give. But some days later after he was filled with the Holy Spirit, he ran into a person in need. Although he couldn’t meet the person’s request, for that person was only asking for survival supply, his reply was incredible: “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee.” That something was way more than a few coins in a cup. It was new life and a new way of living for the beggar was no longer at the mercy of stranger’s kindness; now he could care for himself. What an extravagant gift Peter could give because now he had something to give. Just as Jesus had took a small boy’s lunch and made it sufficient to feed a multitude, now the Holy Spirit took a man who had failed because of spiritual poverty, filled him to overflowing so that a beggar in need could receive supply.

We live in a world of needy, broken, hopeless, and helpless people, much like the multitude and the beggar. When they ask us for help, often we can only reply “Silver and gold have I none…” And we stop for we cannot say, “Such as I have give I thee” because our spiritual bank is empty.

Can we find a solution to our spiritual poverty and lack? Nee tells us that both of these are results rather than causes. In Revelation 3, Jesus addresses this very issue:

“To the angel (divine messenger) of the church in Laodicea write:“These are the words of the Amen, the trusted faithful and true Witness, the Beginning Origin of God’s creation: ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold (invigorating, refreshing) nor hot (healing, therapeutic); I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm (spiritually useless), and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth [rejecting you with disgust]. Because you say, “I am rich, and have prospered grown wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked [without hope and in great need], I counsel you to buy from Me gold that has been heated red hot refined by fire so that you may become rich; and white clothes [representing righteousness] to clothe yourself so that the shame of your nakedness will not be seen; and salve to put on your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I rebuke and discipline [showing them their faults and instructing them]; so be enthusiastic and repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, your sinful behavior—seek God’s will]. Behold, I stand at the door [of the church] and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him (restore him), and he with Me.”

Revelation 3: 14-20

Jesus begins by telling them that He sees their true condition. They are neither cold( invigorating, refreshing) nor hot(healing and therapeutic). In other words, God wants us to be filled with His Spirit until we are either overflowing with invigorating and refreshing spiritual water- so that those who have been walking in deserts of life can be revived- or overflowing with healing and therapeutic water that soothes tired and weary hearts. But if we’re dry we have neither refreshing nor healing water to dispense. God then describes the cause: “Because you say, ‘I am rich and have need of nothing.” In other words, it’s the Christian who is self-focused, spiritually arrogant, and dependent on their own experience, ritual, or strength. O how sad it is when we can only offer trite religious rhetoric or sit in meetings rehearsing over and over again the issues but never providing an actual solution. Much like the disciples, we take a look at the size of need and the size of our resources and say, “Send them away, we can’t meet their need.” But if we would follow Peter’s example and first go to the fountain and drink deeply of the Spirit, we can say instead, “Such as I have give I thee.” And if we will do so, we will see lame men walking under their own power. Jesus says the solution to our spiritual poverty is to “buy from Him gold that has been refined by fire and white raiment to clothe our spiritual nakedness.” This isn’t indicating that we have to pay God for such for they have been purchased by His own blood. But there is a price. It is giving ourselves completely to the Lord at all times and in every situation including both pleasant and unpleasant. In every condition, we find ourselves drinking deep from the well of the Spirit so that even in our personal sufferings, we still have something to give to the needy.

Dr. John Thompson