MULTIPLYING

For years it has been my desire to multiply the message of Jesus in ways that will affect greater numbers. The ways of multiplying seem simple enough. If we take the examples of Matthew 14 of the five loaves and two fish, or chapter 15, of seven loaves and a few small fish, on each occasion Jesus took these and “giving thanks, he broke them and started giving them to His disciples, and the disciples in turn, to the multitudes” (14:19; 15:36). The same process is used in both cases; the meager food is multiplied to feed thousands.

We need bread and fish that can be multiplied. If it is actual food, then we need to take it, bless it, break it and give it away. It is the giving away that causes multiplication. Everyone gets a piece of bread. If we want more bread we must scatter more seed. Love for others motivates our sowing. We can give without loving, but we can’t love without giving.

Something happens when we desire multiplication. We go beyond ourselves to others. A love springs up to care about what we never cared about before. We stop talking about love and demonstrate love with real solutions. “There is one who scatters, yet increases all the more, and there is one who withdraws what is justly due, but it results only in want. The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered” (Proverbs 11:24-25).

“But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” Jesus