Add, Not Subtract

Isaiah 54:² “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.” (NIV, emphasis added)

When God says, enlarge the place of your tent, there are implications of the concept of the “tent” and the enlargement thereof. Over the next few days, we will look at five of such implications of “tent” and the enlargement thereof. In Genesis 4:20, the Bible talks about a man called Jabal and describes him as “the father of such as dwell in tents”. In other words, Jabal pioneered and was the progenitor of dwelling in tents. We also know that the patriarchs of faith were tent dwellers. So, when God says, enlarge the place of your tent, God is speaking to us as tent dwellers, as people who understand what it is to dwell in tents.

But we are not tent dwellers. We live in houses made from brick, mortar, wood, plaster, and stones. When God says, enlarge the place of your tent, what does that mean? How are you going to do that? Are you going to break into your neighbour’s house? With the mindset of brick and mortar, we cannot begin to understand what God means when He says, enlarge the place of your tent. The first thing we need to know about the “tent” and the enlargement thereof is the Cumulative Increase Of Influence. What does that mean? From Jabal to all the other tent dwellers, they rarely built bigger tents when their household increased. They hardly pulled down their existing tents to build a bigger tent. What they did was expand the existing tent.

How? They take another material and add it to the existing tent. How does that apply to you and me? God is saying, do not abandon your current influences for the new influences He is giving you. For example, a lot of people who emigrate from Nigeria, abandon Nigeria. Do not do it. If God has called you to another nation or you are emigrating, to enlarge the place of your tent means do not burn your bridges in Nigeria. Do not abuse everybody—your neighbour and your boss because you have a Ghanaian visa. Do not do that. Do not say that because God has blessed you with a new job, a better job that pays ten times more than your current job. So, you abuse your bosses and walk out the door. Who needs them anyway?

No, that is not the heart or the attitude of enlargement. It is a cumulative increase of influence. The doors that are opening to you for enlargement are not for the abandonment of your current positioning. You have to have the capacity to hold down your current position and expand the place of your tent. And this applies to other areas of your life as well.

Prayer: Father, my enlargement will result in increased influence and not burnt bridges, in Jesus Name. Amen!