Blessing of increase and fruitfulness.
Increase and fruitfulness are part of the dominion mandate. Gen 1:28 declares, “And God blessed them. And God said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion.” To conquer a mountain or a jurisdiction one needs the power of numbers. There is no dominion without multiplying and being fruitful. As a pastor I have heard many ministers comfort (or console) themselves saying that it is not about the numbers but the spiritual depth that matters. I disagree. For the marketplace and thought leaders to take a priestly king or kingly priest seriously they need to see fruitfulness and market power. In the battle for influence your market share matters. If you are in the jurisdiction of finance and your economic or financial muscle is small, this limits your influence. Aspire to be a major player in your domain of influence because this multiplies your influence. Imagine how the fruitfulness and increase of the USA gives it enough muscle to be considered the world leader. Never mind the fact that China is slowly overtaking them. Numbers matter for priestly kings. For priestly kings increase and fruitfulness speak of influence and power.
God gives this increase much weight. Listen to His promise to Abraham in Gen 17:1b-2 “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. I will make a covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.” (WMBBE). God takes this fruitfulness issue seriously. He had to make a covenant with Abraham to multiply him. I call it a covenant of increase and multiplication. Of Jesus, Isaiah declares, “of the increase of His Government, there is no end.”
God further reinforces this in Gen 17:5b-6 by declaring, “for I have made you the father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations of you. Kings will come out of you.” (WMBBE). Not just being fruitful but exceedingly fruitful. In Gen 22:17 he states to Abraham and to his seed. “I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your offspring greatly like the stars of the heavens and like the sand which is on the seashore.” As part of the Abrahamic blessings of which we are heirs, we have a right to fruitfulness and multiplication.
Do not dream small. Kings think expansively. They think growth of territory. Whatever you do on the mountain of influence, aim for increase and fruitfulness. Abraham was so blessed that even when he was not a king by earthly standards the kings he encountered treated him as royalty. Hebrews 6:13-14 declares this blessing of increase in this way. “For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he could not swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you.”
Didn’t Jesus himself say to us, “You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, He may give it to you”? John 15:16 (WMBBE). We have a covenant of fruitfulness. Jesus’ intention is that the fruit of our labour in the domains of influence be lasting and enduring.
We should pursue making an indelible mark in our spheres of influence for Christ irrespective of who succeeds us. As priestly kings whatever we pursue, can and should be marked by increase and fruitfulness. We should not be comfortable with smallness. For the sake of the Kingdom we need to have an increase mindset. I have stopped having small dreams. Whatever endeavor I am involved in I recognize that I have a covenant mandate to pursue increase and multiplication. When you consider those who currently control the mountains of influence they have this increase mindset. They are fruitful. Even though most of them pursue increase for the wrong reason.