by David Falk | Download PDF | Purchase Hardcopy

Recently when I was praying, a picture came to me of new sprouts. I saw seeds sprouting and new growth, like the winter was ending and the spring was coming. There had been some rain followed by sunshine and then humidity. All of a sudden there was fresh growth. In my spirit, I had the sense of fruitfulness and multiplication. The Lord was commanding a blessing!

We have a large eucalyptus tree in our front yard. Whenever we are in drought, regardless of the season, the tree sheds a layer of yellow creamy spore that covers the ground. Because it is under stress, this species endeavours to guarantee its survival through multiplication. The tree drops its spore to ensure further germination. We can learn from the eucalypt. Fruitfulness and multiplication always come in times of affliction.

We know that the Lord commands blessing by His word. You and I need to mix His word with faith. ‘For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.’ Heb 4:12. When the Lord commands a blessing, He is bringing a word to us, for us, and about us.

When the word is coming to us, it is mostly a still small voice as it was in Elijah’s day. We read, ‘And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.’ 1Kings 19:12. It is interesting to note that a command can be in a still small voice. When He brings a word to us, it has within it the capacity for growth and multiplication. We can think of growth and multiplication as the capacity to bring us through to the next season. If we're going to multiply, that new growth needs to run through its season. It must produce its spore, drop its spore on the ground and germinate to multiply. The Lord is commanding a blessing and will bring us to fruitfulness and multiplication.

In human terms, we know that multiplication began with Adam and Eve. In the Garden of Eden, God commanded them to ‘Be fruitful and multiply....’ Gen 1:28. It was a command to increase the human race. We marry and raise families for that purpose. In the book of Genesis, there is a very positive statement regarding the Israelites when they lived in Egypt. ‘So Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions there and grew and multiplied exceedingly.’ Gen 47:27. God was active among them.

The word of God was no doubt being spoken amongst them. Jacob, with the seventy, had come down to Egypt and began to prosper under the hand of Joseph. But years went by and other Pharaohs came to power and they did not remember Joseph. They began to feel threatened by the Israelites. Therefore, in turn, the Egyptians began to threaten them. This is not necessarily a negative thing. When we are under threat, like the tree, we are going to throw our spore! The Scripture records, ‘The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.’ Ex 1:12. The book of Acts speaks of the Israelites in Egypt and says ‘When the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied’. Acts 7:17. Here we see the timing of God. The Israelites spent four hundred years down in Egypt.

In the history of the modern Christian church, it is now some decades since the Pentecostal renewal. Like the Israelites, we wait to see what God will do. There is a time of revival where we see the Spirit move, and then another season where we wait. When we become aware of ‘the time of the promise’ drawing near, we are thinking with a spiritual brain and looking with a spiritual eye. According to the principles of the world, the more people are afflicted, the more they are crushed. If we think that way in times of trial, our morale falls and our confidence fails. When we begin to think with a spiritual brain and look with a spiritual eye, we will know that when affliction comes, the promise is drawing near.

We should not always think of affliction as negative, although it may sometimes be that. Affliction is the ‘x-factor’ that God brings to your life to make you more than you are now. Affliction will enable you to increase and multiply. Successful ministry is not necessarily standing up and preaching a good sermon. That would certainly be evidence of the preacher growing and bringing forth fruit. But more than that, the preached word must provoke the work of God in the hearer’s life as they mix it with faith. Affliction is just that extra ‘stress factor’, that compounding factor that is going to take you beyond simply sprouting new growth to seeing spore produced. Your DNA which is the essence of you, your sonship and your born again life, is not just bringing forth its fruit like a tree brings forth its fruit in season. Each piece of fruit has the capacity in its seed, not only to be fruitful, but to generate itself again. It has the capacity to multiply.

If God is putting pressure on you, squeezing, correcting, refining or processing you, lift up your head and rejoice for the time of the promise is drawing near. In the season of your life, the Lord not only wants to see you grow, but He wants you to multiply. Whatever you are, He wants more of you. The Scripture says of Jesus and His kingdom, 'There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace’. Isa 9:7. Eternity is not just where we land and where we stop. It does not simply say there will be no end, but rather ‘there will be no end to the increase’.

If our lives are always at ease, we will only produce from within ourselves. However it is the will of God to bring a word to us. His word is living and active and proceeds toward us continually. It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God’. Matt 4:4. That word proceeding might be in a loud voice or it might be in a still small voice. But it is coming to each of us and it needs to be mixed with faith. This can be likened to the woman who hid leaven in three measures of meal. Luke 13:20. The leaven remained there ‘til the whole was leavened’. The leaven of faith needs to be mixed with the word that comes to us. Only then will the word profit us. 

God begins with the ‘x-factor’. It is what the Lord commands toward us and it gives us the capacity to increase and multiply. Perhaps we need to change our thinking about affliction. It is not always bad. It’s only bad when we perceive it to be that way. I'm the ultimate optimist because I'm firstly a pessimist. I consider the worst thing that can happen. Finally, it would be for me to die. That is not so bad anyway, because I'll have an abundant entry, I hope, into an everlasting kingdom. So if death is the worst that can happen to me, I can lift up my head and rejoice.

Affliction is going to compound the word upon me and when mixed with faith, I will begin to grow and multiply. In the emergence of the early church, we see initially a time of rejoicing as the Holy Spirit was pouring in. But it wasn't long before the Lord decided that the church would not only be fruitful, but that it would multiply. And what happened? The church went straight into affliction. The believers were all scattered except the twelve apostles. When I read that I think of the big eucalypt tree in my front yard. A huge amount of spore which we’ll call the seed of the word, falls out of those gum nuts and is carried in the breeze. I'm sure most of it doesn't fall on the ground. That gentle blowing breeze carries the seed of the word to who knows where. It’s just like the sower with the seed. This proceeding word, this ever-living, dynamic, active, life-giving, life-generating, powerful word is under stress and out it goes. ‘The more they were afflicted the more they grew and multiplied.’ Acts 12:24.

Affliction will either soften or harden your heart. As Jesus continued to bring the word, the hearts of the hearers were hardened or softened, allowing them to believe. To believe the word is to obey it. You can't hear the word and not obey it, or you are a hearer and not a doer. James 1:23. If you're a hearer and not a doer, then that word is not multiplied.

We believe in an ever proceeding illumination of the word. I do not believe the revelation of the word stopped with the twelve apostles or with Paul. Nor do I believe it stopped with any other reformer. I believe the word will continue to be seed sown until the moment we see Him. The word is ever-proceeding and multiplying. The singular most critical thing for you and for me is to have a heart to receive the word.

Christians in countries such as China know the importance of affliction better than we do here in Australia. We do not experience affliction as they do. In China, there has been fifty years or more of affliction with communist rule. As a result the word has grown and multiplied. I've heard that this affliction and pressure is likely to decrease in the coming years. The Christian leaders are concerned because they know that pressure causes the church to grow. They don't want Western Pentecostalism. They don't want believism because they know it will dilute their faith, making it hedonistic and materialistic.

While we do not know that kind of trouble, the affliction which we do know is the context where God is specifically doing something in our individual lives. He is putting pressure on us. At a fundamental level, the pressure that God puts upon you is not even particularly for your change of character. It is so the word will grow and multiply. If you can begin to think this way, you will become a highly proactive, motivated and enthusiastic person. You will be committed to the generation of the word of God and the increase of the kingdom because you will know that God is not against you. Everything that He does to put pressure on you and where you are afflicted and pressed down, God is working in your life to grow and multiply you.

Receive the word as it comes to you as a still small voice. Accept the afflictions of the righteous as they come upon you. And ‘there the Lord commands the blessing’ as you mix the word with faith, and as you believe and take hold of it. Faith by itself doesn’t do it. Faith mixed with the word, sees God command the blessing. It is His command that multiplies.

Author: David Falk | Toowoomba Christian Fellowship TCF
Published by Vision One at Toowoomba Christian Fellowship TCF
Christian Resources

Download PDF

Purchase Hardcopy