Preparing for Multiplication – Part 3
Livestream: youtu.be/E_57UrH1R-I
Multiplication Begins in the Mind
Remembering the Previous Message
God has made us different. Some people like warmth, while others like cold.
Who remembers the topic we discussed last Sunday?
God has been speaking to us about multiplication, but also about multiplication as a way of thinking. A person will never grow beyond what he thinks about.
When I say that God cannot do something, understand the context. God has limited Himself by the principles He has established. He is sovereign, and as sovereign God He can do everything, yet He has set boundaries around Himself.
Therefore, when I say that God cannot do something, it is not because He is incapable. Rather, He is unwilling, because He is faithful to His principles and standards.
Ephesians 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. (KJV)
Our prayers always depend on what we think about. If I am not thinking about multiplication, I will never ask or pray for it.
Who has stopped and tried to reason about this word, allowing it to pass through himself?
The Nature of God Is Multiplication
The Bible says there is no limit to God’s multiplication. His kingdom will not shrink, but will continue to expand. When you cannot see multiplication, it does not mean that there is no multiplication.
When we do not think about multiplication, we will never receive mercy for multiplication. I am not in a hurry. I am trying to make sure that this enters your heart and mind.
God is the God of multiplication. Multiplication is part of His nature, and it represents the glory of God. It is not a human idea.
A Time to Sow and a Time to Harvest
God not only blesses us, but blesses us in order to multiply us. Everything you have received from Him, He wants you to multiply.
Two weeks ago, we discussed the fact that God is not willing for us to keep what we have received. He wants us to multiply it instead. God gives us talents so that we can develop them, and He gives us seeds so that we can plant and sow them.
He has assigned a certain time to us so that we can bear fruit.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. (KJV)
There is a time to sow and also a time to harvest. These times can be mixed. For someone, today may be a time to sow, while for another it may be a time to harvest.
Everything that does not multiply dies. This principle applies whether we are talking about nations, animals, or trees. Those who break the principle of multiplication disappear with time.
God speaks about multiplication because it is a serious principle. He says this to support us and to help the kind of life He has placed in us. He wants to help you.
Once you stop multiplying, you may be blamed by future generations. It may not seem meaningful now, but in eternity it will have enormous value and weight.
Time Is Given for Fruitfulness
Do you remember that we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ?
There are revelations that make us sober as Christians. We still have time, but not for wasting it or using it only for our own pleasure. We have time to contribute to multiplication, so that there is fruit that can be multiplied.
This mechanism has been placed intuitively in every living creature: the desire to multiply in order to preserve the form of life God has given. Many contribute to multiplication through the personal sacrifice of their lives. Lazy creatures cannot multiply.
Hypocritical, self-centered people cannot multiply because they think only about today, themselves, and their circumstances. They do not look broadly toward tomorrow.
Multiplication Looks Beyond the Present Generation
Hezekiah and a Self-Centered Response
A Warning Deferred
I have always been impressed by one story in the Bible about King Hezekiah. Some people think that it is a positive story. I thought the same until God showed me something.
The prophet Isaiah came to King Hezekiah and told him to put his house in order because he was about to die. It sounded like judgment: “You will die.”
2 Kings 20:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. (KJV)
A Response Focused on the Present
The king began to pray because he was not willing to die. Even those who are now in heaven did not want to die in order to get there. They were willing to enter heaven, but without going through death.
While Isaiah was still on his way from the king, God spoke to him and gave him a different message. God gave Hezekiah another fifteen years.
Later, God warned him about what was going to happen, but also said that it would not happen during those fifteen years. It would happen after his death.
How did King Hezekiah respond?
He began to rejoice: “Great. There will be no punishment. I will live a good life for another fifteen years. Later, my descendants will sort it out.”
2 Kings 20:19 And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days. (KJV)
He had prayed so hard for himself that even the prophet’s message changed, but he was not ready to pray for his descendants because he was selfish.
What We Pass to the Next Generation
God calls us to multiplication. He thinks more broadly than we do and sees the greater scope. He looks at what we are going to pass to the next generations.
What kind of faith are we going to pass to our children?
What kind of God are we going to pass to them: a living God or a merely traditional God?
These are important and serious matters. I understand that there are many worries in life.
The Fruit of Faith and Gifts
When Paul was about to leave for Jerusalem, he knew that he would never again meet the people from the church in Ephesus. In Acts 20, he gathered the elders around him. With tears in his eyes, Paul said that he had told them the whole will of God, but he could not make a decision for them.
Acts 20:26-27 Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. (KJV)
Let us reason about this.
What kind of fruit does my faith bear?
What am I doing with the gifts and talents I have received from God?
How do I multiply them?
It is still not too late to think and reason about this. It is still not too late to make multiplication the goal of your life.
A person always aspires to the things he has set as goals. I remember that all of you set goals in your lives, and many of those goals you reach. But when you analyze them, most are set for yourselves. They are related to status and comfort.
Is that bad?
It is not, but the Word of God says to seek the kingdom first. It tells us to set our goals in that direction and never regret the price we pay for them.
Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (KJV)
You are already paying a price to reach your own goals. Therefore, pay the price that helps you reach God’s goal.
Multiplication Means Reproduction
What is multiplication? It has to do with reproduction: reproducing yourself.
When we read Genesis, this was one of the first things God spoke to humanity about: be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.
Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. (KJV)
In its natural sense, multiplication concerns numbers. God expects everyone to multiply something.
Spiritual Life Must Multiply
From Natural Life to Spiritual Life
Because of the life we have received from God, the revelation He has given us, and the wisdom He has placed here, we have the ability to reproduce and multiply what comes from God. God has said to every creature He created: multiply.
Consider salmon. Every living creature must multiply in order to preserve its species. To multiply, salmon enter rivers and swim against the current. They put their lives at risk so that young salmon can be born in the river. Then those young salmon swim to the sea.
Later, in order to lay their eggs, salmon again swim upstream. Many die on the way, but they multiply. Multiplication involves risk and sacrifice.
When God gives us the command to multiply, He is speaking about the life He has given us. There is no global problem with biological multiplication. Two people are enough to fill the planet.
Biological human beings multiply, but we are speaking about spiritual life. A person is born in sin. Through biological multiplication, sinful life and sin itself also multiply. One person is born after another, and the sinful nature continues.
But those who receive the opportunity given by God and receive new, everlasting life have received a life that can also multiply. If such a person does not multiply, the world will keep filling with sin.
God wants to multiply His life in us. Through me, someone else can accept and receive the life of God. I was born to give birth to others. You are born from above so that other people can be born from above through you.
How does this happen?
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (KJV)
I am blessed in order to become a blessing to others. I am born in order to give birth to others. This is what multiplication means. Think about it and reason about it.
Believing, Preparing, and Working
God is looking for people who believe in multiplication.
Ask your neighbour: “Do you believe in multiplication?”
Jeremiah 30:19 And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. (KJV)
Do you believe in multiplication?
If you do not, you will probably laugh, because you do not accept it positively. God is looking for people who not only believe in multiplication, because faith without works is spiritual nonsense.
Faith That Produces Action
When I say that I believe in multiplication, it means that my deeds will prove my faith. You will do something in this direction to show God that you truly believe.
God is looking for people who not only believe in multiplication, but who are also ready to multiply and to work for multiplication. There are three things: believe, get ready, and work for the sake of multiplication.
James 2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. (KJV)
I am not responsible for multiplication itself. God possesses the power of multiplication, but God multiplies what I sow. Paul sowed, another watered, and God gave the increase.
1 Corinthians 3:6-7 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. (KJV)
Put yourself in the place of Paul. What are you sowing in order to multiply?
This is the work you can do for multiplication. When you have sown, how do you water it?
When you have sown, watered, and cared for it, then you can say: “I believe that God can multiply what I have sown and watered.”
Who can hear what God is calling him to?
We still have many things to work on for the sake of multiplication. Comfort, laziness, selfishness, and sin all hinder it. Sin is a spiritual disease.
Spiritual Disease and Selfishness
Why does it happen that sometimes a family or couple cannot have children?
There must be a reason, perhaps some disease. When one of the spouses is ill, this can prevent fruitfulness. In spiritual language, these are sins: a spiritual disease.
There will be no fruit or multiplication where there is sin. Some people refuse to have children because they do not want responsibility. They say that they prefer to enjoy their own lives. They acknowledge that they want to live for themselves.
The future of such people can be a terrible thing to consider. Many remain alone in their old age because they have already received their benefit and have produced nothing.
I want you to see the spiritual parallel. We are not called to live for ourselves.
Tell your neighbour that God has called him not to live for himself.
Set Multiplication Before Your Eyes
The Joy and Goal of Multiplication
There is joy in multiplication – the joy of having descendants and multiplying.
I have already told you one thing: put multiplication before your eyes. What does this mean in practical terms? This is not a mechanical repetition. Set multiplication as a goal. Look at what you possess now, what you can do with it, and what you will receive as the result of multiplication.
For example, if you are alone now, what will happen if multiplication takes place? Later, you will not be alone.
If there are five people in a family, and later there are ten, that is multiplication. As a church, we are people. When we become ten after being five, it is multiplication.
Is it multiplication or merely addition?
In other words, set multiplication as your goal. How can you know that you are multiplying?
Read the Book of Acts. In the beginning, people were added to the church. Later, three thousand joined at once, then another five thousand. They began with one hundred and twenty people, and then in chapter 6 we read about a great number of disciples.
Acts 2:47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. (KJV)
Acts 4:4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand. (KJV)
Acts 6:7 And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. (KJV)
How did Luke know how many had joined them?
Who counted them, or did nobody count them?
Who do you think counted them?
God knows. Later, they stopped counting because it was impossible. There were simply many. God is counting.
God wants us to value the numbers. Set the goal of multiplication before yourself.
Do you know why you may not be willing to do it?
Sometimes you are afraid of failure. You think, “Remember how we did this before.” But you have no choice. If you want multiplication, you must set a goal, individually and together.
Expand Your Capacity
Make Room for What You Pray For
We are to expand our capacity. I will explain it with an example.
When you set a goal, you must know how many you can fit into it so that the goal is realistic. I gave this example at a leaders’ meeting because it is easy to understand.
Imagine that you own a company that sells coffee. You are able to serve twenty people. That is your capacity. You have twenty cups, while you are praying for multiplication. You set the goal of one hundred cups so that you can serve one hundred people.
God hears your prayer and sends one hundred people. They are standing in a queue because you have only twenty cups, and they are in a hurry.
What do you think they will do?
They will look around and see another cafe offering the same service. Slowly, they will go to the neighbouring company because they can be served there sooner. In the end, you will remain with twenty people because you are not able to serve more.
Did God hear your prayer?
Yes, He did.
Did He send more people to you?
Yes, He did.
Were you able to keep them?
You were not. Why? Because you had not expanded. You cannot increase without expanding your capacity. You cannot multiply because your facility is not large enough.
Consider drought. You need water, so you pray to God for rain. The rain begins, but you put out only one bucket. The bucket fills, and then the rain stops.
How much water did we receive from the rain?
One bucket.
How much water did God send?
You could have filled one hundred buckets, but you did not have them.
The Widow’s Vessels
There are many examples of this principle in the Bible. Remember the widow who had a debt and came to the prophet. The prophet told her to borrow as many vessels as possible, take her oil, and pour it into the vessels.
2 Kings 4:3-6 Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. (KJV)
Who provided the multiplication?
God did, because God possesses the power. Yet He collaborates with us.
Prepare Rather Than Limit the Increase
When the widow poured oil into the vessels, her son was asked to bring more, but there were no more vessels. Who actually limited the multiplication?
The human being did. The Bible says that the oil stopped flowing.
Expand your capacity. When God gives you more than you can contain, the remainder can be wasted. Sometimes it is God’s mercy when He does not give us more than necessary, because the rest would be wasted.
We cannot simply ask for multiplication without preparing for it. Multiplication requires us to expand and prepare greater capacity.
Did you understand the point?
Enlarging the Tent
The Promise and the Instruction
Let us open Isaiah 54, the first four verses. I remember giving these verses to someone as a task.
Isaiah 54:1-4 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. (KJV)
Here we read instructions using the image of shepherds in Old Testament times. When a family grew, they needed more space for everyone, so they had to enlarge their tent. God uses this as a parable.
When a person is barren, God promises blessing: “I will multiply you. Many people will come.” But He also says, “Begin preparation. Expand what you have, because what you possess today is too small to contain everyone.”
Expand, lengthen, and widen. Multiplication will come, and you must act now. When you have the thinking of multiplication, you do something today for the benefit of the future and prepare for multiplication.
Preparing Before the Arrival
It is like a family waiting for a child.
Who has bought a pram before the child was born?
Who has prepared a separate room or bed before it happened?
The child has not yet been born, and you do not even know whether the birth will be successful. Yet people prepare because they believe that the child will come.
God asks: how can He know that you are expecting multiplication? How can He know that you are ready to receive someone else? We will be known by what we are preparing for.
Receive Revelation for Multiplication
Seeing with God’s Perspective
What do these terms in Isaiah 54 mean? Begin to change your way of thinking. Tune in to God’s channel.
Remember how God transformed Abraham. He brought him out of his tent and told him to look at the sky and count the stars. God showed Abraham what He was going to give him.
Genesis 15:5 And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. (KJV)
God cannot give you what you cannot see. Revelation comes through understanding what God is telling you. You may see empty chairs, but revelation helps you see people sitting on those chairs with spiritual eyes.
You are not living in fantasy. You believe because you are on the same wave as God.
Moses stood before the sea, which had become an obstacle. The sea prevented the people from escaping Pharaoh and his army. Moses looked at the army and said that they would not see those Egyptians again.
Exodus 14:13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. (KJV)
The Egyptians had come to kill them, but Moses invited the people to look at them for the last time.
Why?
Because Moses did not see them anymore. God had told him otherwise. Moses was looking with God’s eyes.
You need revelation. There is no multiplication without revelation.
Stretch the Tent of Your Heart
Expand your capacity. Stretch the tent wider. Create extra space for those who are coming. Create places for them in your heart.
If people come, we will find places for them among us. We will find a place in our hearts. Stretch the tent of your heart. Expand it.
Lengthen the Ropes – Reach Further
The next instruction is to lengthen the ropes of your tent. It means that we should prepare to be united more broadly so that we can serve more people than we serve now.
Reach more people. Touch more people. Let your life reach more people than it reaches now.
Strengthen the Stakes – Build a Structure That Can Hold People
God also instructs us to strengthen the stakes of the tent. This speaks about a structure capable of holding people in place.
Where will they go?
What will they do after they have come to us?
It is similar to fishing. Catching a fish is one task. Cleaning it is another. Preparing it for food is different again.
Once someone caught a fish and brought it to us, but it required much work to make it edible. Even cutting off the fish’s head was difficult. Honestly, I asked for help, but somehow my wife and I managed. When the fish was baked, it was very tasty.
This is what I mean by a small structure. Ministry in the church is a place where we must help one another. Home groups and many other things are needed.
Multiplication requires work. It requires work.
Receive the Word and Pay the Price
I hope you pray for multiplication. I hope you believe that God wants to multiply us. I hope you are ready to collaborate with Him.
This is only one third of the series about multiplication.
Today I thought that some people want to enter the water without getting wet. They hear the word, but it does not enter them. I believe that everyone who has heard this word today has also received it inside.
I want all of you to be fruitful and to have fruit. I want all the empty chairs here to be filled with people.
Spiritual revelation is born from the Word of God. You listen to the Word and begin to expect something. God can, but are we willing?
Are you ready to work hard and labour for this goal?
In Isaiah 54, one of the instructions says, “Do not hold back. Do not be afraid.” Do not be afraid of the price you must pay. Expand and pay the price. You have to pay the price for multiplication.
This is not for lazy people, but for those who are ready to sacrifice.
Applying the Message in Practice
Prepare Before the Need Appears
Who has a thought to share about what we have heard today?
There are many thoughts, but please share at least one. I want to hear your feedback and make sure that this was not just noise in the air.
In brief, to move forward in multiplication, you must prepare for it. I also want to reason about what this means in practical terms for me personally. First of all, there must be preparation. Preparation comes first, not the other way around.
Let us say that young people or teenagers gather, but then we do not know what to tell them or what to do together. First there must be a preparation phase: what to talk about, what to eat, and so on.
For this, a ministry is needed to work with young people and youth.
The Will of God and Our Responsibility
Multiplication represents the will of God. It is not merely His will – He has arranged life in this way. He does not ask anything of us that He has not given us the ability to do.
One thing frightens me today. When righteousness multiplies, the earth rejoices. But when sin multiplies, imagine what our land can become if sin is the only thing multiplying and righteousness does not.
Today I repented of my sins. When my children make me angry, I sometimes tell them, “Do whatever you want. I will not be here one day. What the earth will look like in your time, I do not care.”
But I realize that this is our responsibility.
When you have been without children for a long time, at a certain point you may no longer want them. This is selfishness. You are not willing to leave your comfort zone.
Today God invites each of us to understand whether this applies to us personally. Are you willing to care for someone or not?
When you are unwilling, it reveals a spiritual disease.
Changed Destinies Through New Birth
Thank God for His Word and for reminding us of these simple and good things. He not only reminds us, but also sows a seed in our hearts so that we begin to multiply it.
Then we begin to see to the left and to the right people whose destinies have been changed – people who were born naturally and then were born a second time.
Many people in this world are born only once and do not know that there is another opportunity: to be born again into freedom.
The second birth returns the true DNA. It is not I, but Christ who lives in me.
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (KJV)
I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. This is the best condition a person can have in life. These are changed destinies and changed histories.
