The “Tent”

Genesis 12:⁸ “And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.” (NKJV)

The family tent was the centre of community life. Everything flows from it. God is saying your tent is the centre of your life, everything flows from it. Enlargement cannot happen if you abandon your current influence. God is going to make you influential. Your influence is going to extend to the ends of the earth in the Name of Jesus. But some small-minded people see it as an opportunity to abandon current influences. God has not called you to do that. God is saying, add, because it is Cumulative Increase Of Influence. And that is the first implication of “tent” and the enlargement thereof. Expand. Enlarge. Stretch. In order to stretch, you must maintain your current position. Imagine you want to stretch a rubber band, but the original position keeps moving. Stretching that rubber band will be impossible. However, if you hold down one side of the rubber band (the original position) and pull in the opposite direction, then expanding the rubber band will happen. That is what cumulative increase of influence looks like.

The second implication of “tent” and the enlargement thereof is the Expansion Of God’s Kingdom. God will increase your influence, so that you can steward your influence as an expansion of God’s Kingdom. If you are a medical doctor, for instance, God will increase your influence. The more your influence increases, the more you are bringing God to your practice, or God to your space, and expanding the Kingdom of God. In whatever field you are in, as God is expanding you, so the custody of His Kingdom that you are carrying should expand in your space. It as a call for evangelism. When God expands His tent in your life and through your life, His Kingdom should expand. God has moved you to a new location. Praise God. The question you need to wrestle with is, how has His Kingdom expanded because you are in that location?

As you share the gospel with others and invite them to come to Christ, the tent of God’s Kingdom expands. God has enlarged you. The question is, how has the “tent” of the Kingdom of light expanded through you? As God strengthens our existing territory and influence. We also trust God to open new doors for us. The truth is that, for the strengthening of the existing territories and the opening of new doors, we need to partner with God to make this happen. And as we partner with God to make it happen, we are building for Him a habitation. We are expanding the tent of His Kingdom. He Himself will bless us, and the whole earth will fear Him.

Prayer: Father, may the strengthening of my stakes and lengthening my chords result in the advancement of God’s Kingdom through me, in the Mighty Name of Jesus. Amen!