When God Asks Questions

Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?" This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. (John 6:5-6)

I have noticed something about the way that Jesus related to people that is different than leaders usually relate to people today. Jesus used the technique of questions to make a point rather than simply spelling out plainly what He wanted to convey. This has the effect of engaging others and causing them to stop and challenge their assumptions or at least to begin using their own minds and hearts more than they typically are used to doing.

This reminds me of the special benefits I have observed whenever people discover the wonderful advantages of inductive Bible study. Instead of being spoon-fed with pre-thought-out conclusions that have been broken down into what are termed 'Bible studies', a person is taught to use a simple format of study that requires them to think for themselves as well as learn to listen to the Spirit of God in ways they likely have never experienced before.

This method of Bible study can many times be viewed as a threat by mainstream religion because it undermines the control that religious institutions have over the minds of their millions of followers. It tends to put people much more directly in touch with God personally and stimulates thinking outside the normal boundaries laid down by tradition and church dogma. Because it seems to cause disunity it is often viewed with great suspicion by leadership. But the unity that they are usually trying to maintain is really more along the lines of uniformity through rigid control by human authority rather than the unity of spirit that will be seen among the true followers of Jesus Christ.

As with pretty much everything in God's kingdom, questioning can be extremely beneficial but it also has its counterfeit in Satan's schemes to lead us into deception. The key factor between true devotion in spiritual life and counterfeit ideas that appear very religious and pious is the state of a person's spirit in their personal relationship with God. In this second instance, questions are used to reinforce doubt and produce unbelief instead of to uncover exciting truths and fresh revelations of God that will increase faith and deepen a person's connection with heaven.

Jesus' questions very often were designed to stimulate people to begin to use their own minds and lead them to realize the dissonance between their intellectual beliefs and their heart beliefs many times. Here in this instance Jesus started out with the assumptions that most of us would start with even though the writer clearly states that Jesus already knew what He planned to do. He started where His disciples would likely be thinking in order to engage them with Him so that when He did reveal heaven's perspective and plans they could be part of what He was doing instead of just outside observers.

I noticed something about this question that Jesus posed to Philip that I find interesting. Jesus asked Philip where they might find food to feed all of these people who were coming to hear Jesus, but Philip in his answer gravitated to thinking about how much it would cost to feed them all, not where to find the food.

I find this difference significant. How often we become so stuck in a certain mode of thinking that we miss the simple questions that God may pose for us to ponder and instead rush to dwell on what we consider the greatness of our difficulties.

Did Jesus intend for Philip to become overwhelmed with the difficulty of the situation that was developing in front of them? I'm not sure about that. But I do believe that it may be important at times for us to be aware of the enormity and impossibility of our circumstances before we are able to appreciate God's provisions and His love and grace in providing for us. When we think that our problems can be solved by ourselves with a little assistance from God, it is very easy for us to think that we have contributed something of value to His solutions in ways that deceive us as to how God has provided our salvation.

But when God allows us to come into situations where it finally becomes obvious that our resources are totally inadequate to deal with our problems, we may find ourselves moving into the interesting emotion of hopeless despair which may be just where God wants us to be. We may be stepping into the very incubator of faith itself.

Hopeless despair is one of the big six emotions that have been identified as emotions that need to be experienced as part of our maturing process. But this particular emotion is one that many people are very afraid to experience because inside they are sure they may become stuck there and might never be able to return. Or they may think that hopeless despair may somehow dishonor God or make them look like inferior Christians with no faith, so that emotion must be avoided at all costs.

But in reality, to grow into a healthy maturity each person must at some point in their lives learn to return to a state of joy and peace from every one of these six major emotions that all of us have to face from time to time. When we fail to learn how to emotionally recover from any one of them we become almost paranoid of even getting close to those emotions because we may get stuck in them and not know how to ever escape. We also remain stuck in levels of immaturity that dishonors our heavenly Parent.

God does not want to leave us in immaturity for all of our lives. It is one thing to be immature because we have not yet had time to grow up enough, to have a chance to learn recovery from all of these emotions. But it is another thing to become stunted because we refuse to cooperate with God's leading in our life and to be mentored into greater maturity through various circumstances designed to challenge us. Hopeless despair is one of those emotions that is often the last that people are willing to face and learn to grow through instead of running away from each time.

When properly understood, hopeless despair is actually one of the most exciting emotions that we might ever face in our lives. I know this may sound absurd at first, but when we are facing situations that push us toward this intimidating emotion, we are actually getting very close to the front seat where we may be positioned strategically to view some of the most awesome revelations of God's power and glory that can be seen anywhere. But the best view can only be experienced when we allow ourselves to be seated in the front row of hopeless despair.

In essence, Jesus was inviting Philip here to take a seat on the front row and sit down with Him in hopeless despair to enjoy the best vantage point in the theater. Jesus already had learned the wonderful benefits of this seat and had developed His own maturity through obedience throughout His growing up years. Now He was engaged in the process of mentoring His disciples by introducing to them the skills and lessons needed to grow them into greater maturity. At this point it was time to learn how to trust God whenever circumstances appear totally impossible, and so He engaged Philip with this question to give him the first option of participating with Him in learning how God does things as opposed to how humans usually do things.