Multiplication

 “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” -Genesis 1:28

We were made to manage and govern. What starts with control of our own lives grows to governing a family, a small group, various projects, then employees, departments, and organizations… The more faithful you are, the more God puts you in charge of. I’ve seen this happen even with stay-at-home moms; when they govern their kids wisely, other parents flock to them to hear their advice. While their domain may appear small to our eyes, the reality is a much larger impact.

The results of good governance can be seen in these verses: fruitfulness and multiplication. Whenever something is being managed well, it will multiply. While I have usually only looked at these verses from a people perspective (that we are supposed to multiply people) I actually think it goes much deeper, talking about all aspects of our lives like the rest of the passage is saying. Multiplication:

• Deals with a geometric increase, and has a compound interest-like growth curve. Addition can be seductive because you get results faster and quicker. In multiplication if you do the right thing for 20 years, you may see little to no fruit for the first 10, then the growth starts and the impact is way more than addition.
• Multiplication implies the fruitfulness of the fruit. For example, in finances getting a salary is addition; every month the amount goes up. But that money isn’t producing more money, whereas in an investment it would be. Addition to the church is where we are adding people to the pews but not training them. Full discipleship is multiplication, and each disciple in turn creates other disciples. Even though the process is painful and slow, when the compounding effect kicks in there is great fruit.
• Multiplication can work in positive and negative directions. 10 x 5 is 50, but -10 times the same number is -50. We need to be careful when we have been elevated in governance because both our strengths and weaknesses are multiplied.

We spend so much time in management setting goals and talking about what are positive results, and it drastically changes depending on what you are managing. However, in one word, God sums up all of his expectations and the results of good management: multiplication. It’s absolutely true… In the library I want people who can multiply the attendance and impact of the books, in the sewing school I want people who can multiply their teaching and products, in the IT sector I want people who can multiply my investment in them.

I am also amazed at how different from accepted reality this one word is… Most people think good management is stability; things will look just like when you left them, but we need to know God expects more and to the people under us we need to give them the freedom and expectation of multiplication.

 

Righteousness

 

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. -Romans 15:13

I love looking at scripture from a contractual perspective; it’s not a way I often think, but I believe it’s really helpful to find out exactly what my role is and what God’s is. As you trust in him - this prayer of Paul’s is actually conditional: May God do ____ as you do _____. What prayers am I praying for others that should be conditional? In Mozambique, everyone is always praying and talking about blessing, but blessing isn’t always good for the soul.

Again here, trust is a choice: a choice (our role) that leads to a change in our emotions (God’s job). That sounds pretty good… After all, I can’t fill myself with joy or peace, but I can choose to trust!

So that you... There is a reason Paul is praying this. He is trying to take his people from here to there; showing them the life that they should be living. A life overflowing with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We see this consistently in our lives. It’s not a hope that is an emotion or a fleeting experience. Through the years of living with the Lord and seeing his heart and his capacity, we constantly live with hope in our circumstances and in the circumstances of those around us; a hope that most people are sorely lacking. It consistently surprises me how much more hope I have for someone else’s life than they have for their own…

Abram believed the Lord, and it was credited to him as righteousness. -Genesis 15:6

Righteousness - right standing with God. In an era before that was even technically possible, and before anyone had written books of testimonies from following the Lord, Abram believed. No wonder he was called the father of the faithful!

Interesting aside… Most of the time we talk about righteousness, it’s from the perspective of a lack of sin in our lives. But if you look at the biblical references, less than half are about that; many more are about your actions to others, your mercy, or compassion. Joseph was a righteous man, so he didn’t want to stone Mary as was his right. True fasting is letting justice flow and paying your workers fairly. Righteousness is the presence of attitudes and actions, not just the absence of bad ones.

Righteousness isn’t just related to our relationship to ourselves (sin), or to others (good deeds), but also to our relationship with God. Believing him is credited as righteousness.