Friday, April 29, 2011

GOD'S BLESSING-BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY



I know that if you will take time to read this, you will in fact be blessed.  We can know for certain that our God is a God that desires to bless us and see us increase in every area.  He said be fruitful and multiply and he has given us the ways and means to see that happen!  Be blessed as you read about God's plan to increase you!

Genesis 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

HE SAID TO BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY

Part of the initial blessing spoken over man was to be fruitful and multiply.  To be fruitful and multiply means so much more than to just have children which was part of it but it means to increase in number and become great!  It means to increase in livestock or livelihood.  It means to bring others up under you teaching them to be fruitful and staying connected.  It means to increase in the "likeness" of God, demonstrating and spreading his goodness throughout the earth.  It means to increase in wealth as well, as we labor with our efforts and supply others with our abundance.  It does not mean to become greedy and love money and wealth above God but as we pursue a life of godliness, a blessing from God is that we have no lack.  Even in the New Testament, which is the better covenant full of better promises we see a God that desires to do far more for us than we can ask or think.  He desires to do it for us and he desires that we glorify him for it!

Ephesians 3:19-21 (New King James Version)
19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

God's desire is to bless us and increase us more and more in a never-ending perpetual blessing that we might spill over.  I'm not only talking about a financial blessing but a life that is blessed and is a blessing in every area!  It includes finances and again, the subject is way to large of a subject to cover in detail here, but we must realize God's salvation covers spirit, soul and body! It's about being blessed and not cursed!  It's about being a blessing that can reach out and help others.  The best thing we can do is share eternal life with someone.  That's what I mean by perpetual.  The blessing is now but this blessed life spills over in every area and reaches into eternity.  It's in this life and in the life to come.  It's a never ending perpetual blessing!  In the above passage, he said, "to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

INCREASE MORE AND MORE

1 Thessalonians 4: 9-12  9 But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; 10 and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more; 11 that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, 12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing.

What a wonderful passage that sums up a life in Christ:  loving one another, doing good toward all, increasing more and more, living a hard working life with no lack!

It is not God's will that his children have lack but rather that his children are able to bless others! 

ABOUND MORE AND MORE

This passage in fact starts in verse 1 stating it is God's will that we abound more and more:

1 Thessalonians 4:1  Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more

Now it is true this is talking about the love and ways of God but it's also true that the love and ways of God are that we have no lack that we may be a blessing to others.  The passage ends in verse 12 saying "that you may lack nothing."  What is nothing?  It is no-thing.  Nothing! Nothing! Nothing!  It is God's will that we lack no-thing!  When the passage said it is his desire that we abound more and more, it meant to become and be great, just as the blessing spoken of in Genesis says to multiply. It means the same thing- become great!  Abound in the Greek and in the English means to be great and be abundantly supplied in both flow and overflow.  To abound is to have something come to you and flow outward to others.  It is to be fully furnished, to have in abundance, to be in affluence, to be pre-eminent and to excel and exceed beyond original measure.  It means to be furnished richly so as to have to give out!  Again, I can't over-emphasize that we serve a God of abundance in every area!  He is good in every area! He is loving in every area!  He is merciful beyond imagination!  He is kinder than any other, sweeter than any other, more beautiful than any other, more powerful than any other, and yes, he is wealthier than any other!  He's the creator and the owner of all things.  He is just beyond imagination and he has spoken over you that you also should be blessed, be fruitful, multiply, take dominion and increase more and more and more! It is his will that you abound and be like him!  This IS the will of God for your life!

OVERFLOW BY EMPTYING OUT

In the same way that God is a God of abundance and his abundance flows outward from himself to bring increase to you, it is his will that we, from our abundance flow outward to others.  This is the way you multiply!  You multiply by giving out! That's how God multiplies.  He multiplies by the very nature of creation!  He made us in his image.  Now he has a family with many children.  Through God giving his son, he has multiplied exponentially as a family!  Oh my, I am seeing how long this study could be!  Now you know for sure why I have a very hard time writing short teachings!  Just see it!  God increased when God gave and we too increase when we give.  When we give, God can trust us to be givers so he refills our cup so we can keep on giving.  If you are not a giver, you will not be replenished by him.  He refills us when we give out!  We increase more and more so we can share our increase more and more.  When we give, we take on the very nature of God and become just like him and so he continues to refill us!  It's his nature!

Luke 6:53  Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Well you can't get any plainer!  Give AND it will be given to you.  When you give, a pressed down, shaken together, running over blessing comes back to you! The secret is to keep being filled to overflowing, you must keep spilling out all around you.  This is the exact nature of seedtime and harvest which God said would always be.  A natural and spiritual law that was set in place in the beginning of time, applies in every area! 

SEEDTIME AND HARVEST

Seed produces.  Anything given out, multiplies and comes back.  Sowing and reaping is a natural and spiritual law of God.  Things do come back to you but it's not because of a law of some made-up religion! It's the seed-time and harvest law of a super-natural, ever existing, God, the creator of all mankind and the creator of the earth he gave us to live on!  God was the first person to mention seedtime and harvest or sowing and reaping:

Genesis 8:22  “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”

Seedtime and harvest is not a man-made religion.  It's a God-made law!  It applies in every area.  Whatever is sown, is reaped!  Look at how the New Testament states the same principle:

Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

WHAT DID HE MEAN WHEN HE SAID "BE FRUITFUL"


Fruit comes from seed sown
Part of the spoken blessings is fruitfulness.  Let's just look at a quick list of some of what the bible calls fruit:

Fruit & vegetation: Genesis 1:11
Reproduction: Genesis 1:28
Labors: Exodus 23:16
Ways of Man: Proverbs 1:31
Souls: Proverbs 11:30
God's Wisdom: Proverbs 8:19
Spoken Words: Proverbs 12:14; 13:2; 18:20,21
Thoughts: Jeremiah 6:19; Philippians 4:8
The Word of God:  Matthew 13:23
The Fruit of the Spirit: love, is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control.
Offerings: Philippians 4:17
Good works: Colosians :10
Discipline: Hebrews 12:11
Praise: Hebrews 13:15


MAKE SURE WE'RE PRODUCING GOOD FRUIT- YOU'RE KNOWN BY IT

Just because a person calls themselves a Christian doesn't make them one!  It's fruit that tells the story.  The bible says we are known by the fruit we produce!  That fruit is produced by a Spirit- led life that walks and talks in the ways of God in obedience to him!  It is the outcropping of the life of God flowing out of them from an inward change, a work of the Holy Spirit himself.  Man can try with all of their might to produce a fruitful life on their own but at the end of the day, it's a work of the Spirit that will be lasting and produce true change!

Matthew 7:16  You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn-bushes or figs from thistles?
Matthew 7:20
Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Let's make sure we are filled with the wisdom, words and ways of God that we might produce fruits of righteousness, ever increasing more and more.  Let's make sure we are living spirit-filled, spirit-led lives that we might first be changed!  Let's make sure we live hard working lives, not expecting things to fall from the sky but knowing that God will bless the work of our hands. Let's truly be fruitful in the fruits of the spirit!  Let's make sure we are continually living a life that is planting good seed through giving, charity, acts of kindness and righteous living that we may be influential in the lives of others.  If God can trust you to be a giver, God will refill you.  The blessing of God will make you great.  God will give to you because he can trust you to give to others.  It is through God's laws of seed-time and harvest that the blessing comes! Let's sow good seed and be blessed! Be fruitful, multiply and subdue the earth! Remember, in exercising patience, you will see the fruit of all of your seed sown! Amen!

James 5:7  Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.

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