Suddenly baby formula is scarce. The media is predicting that fertilizer will be hard to obtain, so how can farmers grow their crops? The supply chain has been disrupted. Fear is creeping into society. More importantly, recognized prophets and unknown intercessors are having visions and dreams of famine. Should we begin to hoard?
It Can Be Averted or at Least Decreased
If you will recall, Jonah went to Nineveh with a stern prophetic warning, “Yet forty days and Nineveh will be destroyed!” But the king of Nineveh took off his royal robes and began to fast and repent, ordering all his subjects to do the same—even the animals. God saw the repentance and change of hearts, so He relented. The judgment that Jonah prophesied only came after another 200 years!
Many times things can be averted because our Father is first of all merciful. When God’s people respond to crisis with humble, intercessory prayer, repentance, and turning from our wicked ways, God hears from Heaven, forgives our sins and heals our land according to 2 Chronicles 7:14. A change of heart and actions takes away judgments, and there is a mighty, praying Ekklesia that is standing before Him, passionately pursuing His heart for transformative revival and reformation.
God’s Provision in Difficult Times
In this time of transition into the Third Great Awakening—the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all humanity—the forever loser is fighting tooth and nail to maintain his deceptive hold over the minds of the people. A similar struggle was pictured for us in the Exodus of God’s people from Egypt. The entire Egyptian pantheon of gods was shown to be powerless in the Presence of the God of Israel as each of the ten plagues and the parting of the Red Sea brought every kind of devastation to the land, economy, and society that wouldn’t let His people go.
When the slaves finally found their freedom and danced on the farther shore of the Red Sea, our Father didn’t forsake His people in spite of their complaining, fear, and unbelief (thanks to Moses’ intercession). Yehovah provided water from the Rock that followed them and manna for their daily bread.
The book of Hebrews tells us there was a golden pot of manna in the ark of the covenant. That speaks of God’s covenantal promise of provision. Jesus made it a part of the prayer He taught His disciples to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11 NKJV).
When the Jews began returning to their Land in the 1800s, there were reports of manna sustaining the people while they were developing their food supplies. God keeps His covenant promises!
So you can stop listening to all the fear-mongering voices that are advertising dehydrated food packages in a tote, unless you feel that this is your answer to the question you asked God!
Just realize that if there is a food shortage—a famine—and you have food for yourself and your family but the people around you don’t, they will get desperate and come to you. So what are you going to do? Are you going to shoot them to protect yourself and your family? Think of the eternal implications for them—will you be sending them to Hell?
If you are going to follow what Jesus called the second commandment and love your neighbor as yourself, you’re going to get a vision for multiplying the food like He did.
Multiplication of Food
We have heard of many testimonies of the multiplication of food. Multiplying it will give you an opportunity to evangelize desperate people. They will see the love of God in action and their hearts will be drawn to Him.
People who have had visions of Heaven describe a tray of fruit that appeared in front of them and they were offered a variety from which to choose. One individual selected a pear and when he took it off of the tray, another pear appeared in its place. So multiplying food is a heavenly principle. That’s why Jesus did it with such ease. He thanked our Father for the food, broke it and gave it to the disciples, and they just kept breaking it off and giving it to the people.
Patricia King shares an encouraging testimony of God’s provision. She had only enough chicken to feed her family, but her husband brought a group of men home with him at dinner time. She told the children to wait until the others had taken their portion first. The platter went around the table and everyone heartily helped themselves to ample helpings while she cringed. When the platter came back to her, it had the same amount of chicken on it as when she brought it to the table. Nineteen people ate chicken that night and there was enough left over for them to eat for three days! That gave them faith to see many such miracles of provision on the mission field.
We have heard of a number of people throughout church history who received the revelation that Jesus was all the sustenance that they needed. They had Holy Communion every day and that was all, although one sister also had a daily cup of coffee.
We have fasted many times and known the sustaining power of the Lord, though we did lose weight. But just know that if you are faced with an absence of food, you can declare a fast and trust the Lord to share with those who don’t have any faith.
Biblical Examples of the Multiplication of Food
Most people know the stories of how Jesus fed the five thousand men (plus their families), and later the four thousand men (plus their families). In each case there were leftovers—twelve baskets from five loaves and two fish, and seven baskets from the seven loaves. It was more than ample!
Food was multiplied in the Old Testament as well under Elisha’s ministry. In 2 Kings 4, the widow woman’s oil was prosperously multiplied so she could pay off her debt and make a living for her family. In the same chapter there is an account of a man bringing the firstfruits of his field with barley loaves. Elisha ordered him to set that small amount before the hundred men who were there, and it was enough to feed them with leftovers.
In 2 Kings chapters 6 and 7, the king of Syria had besieged the city of Samaria, and the people were starving to the point of eating dove’s dung and even their own children. Elisha prophesied that the next day there would be an abundance of food being sold cheaply. Four lepers who had to live outside the city decided to take their chances to beg mercy from the enemy. Before they got there, the Lord had caused the Syrian army to hear the noise of a great host with chariots and horses, so they fled for their lives! God plentifully supplied the need by means of their enemy.
Yehovah Yireh
When God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac in Genesis 22, he obeyed from the heart, knowing that God’s covenantal promise was on Isaac. He was certain that God could and would raise him from the dead. Abraham was all in to give up his son of promise in obedience. He declared that God would provide the sacrifice, and He did by sending a ram into the thicket. Abraham called the place Yehovah Yireh, “the One who was, is, and will be, who sees the need and sees to it.” He has the vision ahead of the need and makes provision.
He made us in His image with the ability to look ahead and see what is going to be needed and provide for it. But don’t only think in the natural. We have to be prepared in these days to walk in the supernatural!
Obey God and Live—The Shmittah/Sabbatical Year
God’s commandment to dedicate every seventh year to Him was a challenge to Israel to believe His promise and trust Him for provision. They were not to plant their fields, but let them rest. And they were to come together and listen to the reading of the Torah so that they would understand how they were to live (Deuteronomy 31:10-12).
‘So you shall observe My statutes and keep My judgments, and perform them; and you will dwell in the land in safety. ‘Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety. ‘And if you say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?” ‘Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years. ‘And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest. (Leviticus 25:19-22 NKJV)
That meant that they had to trust God to provide in that seventh year. If they were living in obedience to Him, He gave them a bumper crop in the sixth year that would get them through the seventh year and until the harvest of the eighth year, and it would even be enough to see them into the ninth year!
His provision is a covenantal promise—we just need to keep our side of it. The famines in the Bible were God’s response to Israel’s disobedience. When they obeyed, they had provision. Put yourself in the equation. Are you obeying God? If so, you can be confident that He will provide. Just do what He says in His Word (you have to read it and apply it), and obey the promptings He gives you.
The Prepper Trend
If you have a vision from God to be a prepper, that is storing up food that will last a long time until you need to use it, be encouraged to obey God! Just make sure that you’re obeying God and not operating in fear or living by a “just in case” mentality. We all have a tendency to be “sheeple.” We have a herd mentality, so if one person gets a good idea, many people will follow that trend.
Back in the 1970s numerous people had visions, dreams, and prophetic words about hard times coming and lots of people stored up dried foods. The founders of this ministry did that. But after 30 or 40 years, we decided to check and see if that food was any good. The beans weren’t edible, even when we put them in a pressure cooker! We suspected that most of it had gone bad, so we wound up throwing out the whole supply. It’s not that the prophets were wrong! The intercessors intervened and God had mercy, putting off the judgment in answer to prayer. The key is your walk with the Lord—listen, hear, and obey!
Do follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, and seek Him with that question, “should I store up food?” “What should I store up?” Don’t operate out of fear! Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.
How Do I Do That?
First of all, ask God questions then learn to get quiet and listen. Sometimes that’s the hardest part! But know that if you are seeking him with your whole heart, He will get the answer to you, even if you are spiritually hard of hearing.
Many times when you seek the Lord with a question, He answers in your mind or in your spirit with scripture. When you hide God’s word in your heart over time, answers will come up from the treasury of what you have memorized. The answer might come in the lyrics of a song. The answer might come in conversation when someone says something and you resonate with that in your spirit. When you get an answer from God, you have peace.
“Let the peace of Christ [the inner calm of one who walks daily with Him] be the controlling factor in your hearts [deciding and settling questions that arise]. To this peace indeed you were called as members in one body [of believers]. And be thankful [to God always]” (Colossians 3:15 AMP).
Pay attention to the peace, or lack of peace, in your inner being where the Holy Spirit resides. His peace will be like an umpire to help you make a decision or to give you direction. Let His peace bring a settling for you between the possibilities you are considering.
Meditate on scripture and speak it out loud. Pray in tongues, lift your hands in praise and worship. Read scriptures about the Lord providing and picture the events in your mind. Use your sanctified imagination to picture how the Lord could use you to provide food for the hungry and watch it multiply in your hands.
“You will keep in perfect and constant peace the one whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on You—in both inclination and character], Because he trusts and takes refuge in You [with hope and confident expectation]” (Isaiah 26:3 AMP). The Young’s Literal Translation puts it this way: “An imagination supported Thou fortifiest peace — peace! For in Thee it is confident.”
Create Your Scenario with Your Words
The worlds were framed by the word of God (Hebrews 11:3), and our words have the power of life and death (Proverbs 18:21). Begin to speak your expectation of Him to be a supernatural provider of natural things. Call things that be not as though they were (Romans 4:17).
Stand on 2 Corinthians 4:17-18: “For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!], Since we consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting.”
Declare the scriptures that show His faithfulness to all generations. Tell your own testimonies of His unfailing love, mercies, and provision. Recount stories of others who have experienced miraculous supplies of every kind. Spend time in prayer and speak those things that the Lord shows you. If you seek Him diligently, you will certainly find Him.
A Peaceable Habitation
The promises of Psalm 91 are for those who dwell, live, and make their habitation in the secret place of the Most High, abiding under His protection. Those who make the choice to make Him their refuge, put their confident trust in Him. It’s a place of intimate fellowship like the “secret place of the stairs” in Song of Solomon 2:14. It’s the place one goes in obedience when the Lord whispers, “Come away, my beloved!” That is a place of ascent where one is caught away in His love.
When Jacob was fleeing from the wrath of his brother, he spent the night in Bethel (the House of God). In that place he had a dream of a ladder that reached from earth to Heaven and the angels were going up and down on it. God stood at the top and revealed Himself to Jacob as the One who had made covenant with his father and grandfather, and he reiterated the same promise to Jacob that his descendants would be given the land on which he was sleeping. He also promised to be with Jacob until all His promises were fulfilled. Covenant makes provision!
When Jesus met Nathanael as He was gathering His disciples, He prophesied that Nathanael would “see angels going up and down on the Son of man.” That means that Jesus Himself is not only the Door, He is also the Ladder! He is deeply involved in all the details of our connection with our Father, Yehovah Yireh, our provider!
He is our Father. In His love for us and in His covenant with us, He is going to provide because that’s His nature. He wants His people to walk with Him in such a way that it’s perfectly natural to depend on Him.
God helps those that are doing this from the heart. It’s about what Jesus called “the first and greatest commandment,” that you “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).
Sure Bread
Isaiah 33 speaks of a time of trembling for the godless ones, but His promise to the righteous is that, “his bread will be given him, water for him will be sure…” The secret to getting through the hard times and shakings that are ahead is to be righteous. It’s to walk uprightly, to speak uprightly, to despise bribes. These are the things that will keep you in the secret place.
So it’s so important that whatever we’re doing physically to prepare for what is coming, we must do it in concert with the Holy Spirit, expecting that He is going to do something amazing, even miraculous, with regard to multiplying food and every other need that arises.
Go ahead and plant your garden if that is how the Lord is leading you. Learn about edible wild things growing around you. Learn how to preserve what the Lord gives you. Buy what you feel led of the Holy Spirit to buy, whether it’s a few extra cans or totes full of dehydrated food. But the most important thing is to develop your relationship with your Heavenly Father. Let Him give you a vision that is beyond yourself—a vision that can only be fulfilled as you partner with Him.