In You

Gen.1:²⁸ “Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it.” (emphasis added).

We see from today’s scripture reference that when God made man, God blessed them. He from whom I deserve nothing chooses to give me everything, that is the word blessed, Hesed in Hebrew. God blessed them and said, do not just be seed-full, be fruitful and do not just be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and govern it. When you go beyond being seed-full to being fruitful, God is excited. However, you need to go beyond being fruitful to multiplying. You need to multiply because your multiplication determines your influence. “…multiply. Fill the earth and govern it”; your governing means influence, what you oversee. Luke 19:^16-17 “The first servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made ten times the original amount!’ “‘Well done!’ the king exclaimed. ‘You are a good servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.’” Amazing! Your multiplication determines your influence.

Please read Luke 9:12-17, it is an amazing story. Jesus had been preaching since morning and when it was time for brunch, He did not stop. He kept preaching, the time came for lunch, and He still did not stop. He kept preaching until it was late in the afternoon. I am suspecting that Peter volunteered to go and tell the Master what all twelve disciples had decided. I can imagine it went something like this; Master, you are surely the Son of God, but you cannot be preaching an infinite message. If you continue, we are going to have a crisis on our hands. Send the crowds away, You have to be pragmatic. I can just imagine Jesus listening to them. Send them away, there is no food here, better cut this Your sermon short. When they finished, Jesus probably said, is that all? Luke 9:¹³ “But Jesus said, “You feed them…”. Peter probably went back to the other disciples and said, ‘you cannot imagine what He said.’ ‘Tell us’, Bartholomew said. Peter said, ‘The Master said we should feed them!’ I was not there but someone must have said, ‘I have been suspecting this Jesus has a problem.’ Who do you think would say something like that?

Then Philip says, ‘I have collected one small boy’s lunch. Now Peter let us turn the joke back on Jesus. We will say to Him, ‘You told us to feed them, now see what we have got, and it is not enough.’ Luke 9:¹³ “…But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. “Or are you expecting us to go and buy enough food for this whole crowd?” Their answer shows us that even though these men were following Jesus and they believed in Him, they struggled because Jesus was saying things that were just ridiculous. When they brought the five loaves and two fishes, they were not bringing it for a miracle, they were bringing it to turn the joke back on Jesus.  They did not tell Jesus that Phillip bullied a small boy and took his lunch pack. That was what happened, I was not there but it could have been Phillip.

Prayer: Father, help me to flow with You in obedience even when I do not understand what You are doing, so that I can experience multiplication, in Jesus Name. Amen!