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Abrahamic Blessing: Fruitfulness

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.

September 14, 2018 by

Abrahamic Blessing: The Promise

Blessing of Promise.

Abrahamic blessing includes being an heir to God’s promises. It includes being a covenant person. God entered a covenant with Abraham in which He made promises of eternal faithfulness. In the person of Jesus Christ, this covenant was ratified. We as priestly kings are not ordinary people we are covenant people. Though some of us who were gentiles were once afar off and strangers to the promises, we are no longer alienated from those promises. The Scriptures declare plainly, “Therefore remember that once —– you were at that time separate from Messiah, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Messiah Yeshua you who were once far off are made near in the blood of Messiah.” Ephesians 2:12-13 (WMBBE). It is critical that priestly kings live, walk and work with the consciousness of the covenants of promise.

You would recall that the thing that emboldened David when confronting Goliath, was the consciousness that David was a covenant person while Goliath was uncircumcised (a “no covenant man”). The Goliaths that challenge believers and defy God are un-covenanted and so can only be defeated by people who walk in the blessings of covenant-promises. You cannot take mountains which are infested by the demonic without a faith anchored in the covenant- keeping God.

You are no longer a stranger to the covenants of promise!

September 13, 2018 by

Abrahamic Blessing: Blessing of Land

Land is a primary aspect of the Abrahamic blessing. That is why the natural seed of Abraham values the land (Eretz Israel) so much. Since 1948 they have turned what was once a desert into prime agricultural land. They realize that God gives them land but it is up to them to develop the property. They have a property development mindset that adds value to what initially appears useless. Gen 15:7 declares “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land.”

One day I was struck with the impact of the issue of land. Do you realise that Abraham was promised a son and seed as numerous as the stars when he was very old and incapable of bearing a child, and yet he believed God – no questions asked. Check Gen 15:1-6. In fact when he believed the promise of a child the Bible says, “God accounted it to him as righteousness.” However when God in verse 7 promised him land (real estate), he stumbled. That is when he asked God, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it (the land)?” Abraham the father of faith could believe for a son and numerous seed BUT could not believe God for land. So he demanded an assurance. In response God initiated the covenant. So the covenant was a guarantee for possession of land. If you doubt me let us read together v18 that explains the purpose of the covenant God initiated with Abraham, “On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land.”

Once I realized how important land is to God, I have advocated for priestly kings to desire and pursue all legitimate means to acquire real estate. It is an undisputable fact that he who controls land controls the economy. Kings are wealthier when they control vast chunks of real estate. Although I cannot explain it biblically I have come to the persuasion that land that belongs to believers is redeemed land while land under the control of unbelievers is open to Satanic abuse including blood sacrifices. I believe that Satan fights land getting into the hands of priestly kings because land that belongs to believers is redeemed and no longer available for ungodly and demonic sacrifices.

September 12, 2018 by

Question 5: When am I called to serve?

Many Christians don’t understand that timing is critical to God. If you try to become what God is calling you to, before time, you will make mistakes. Moses heard the call of God and understood that he was called to be a deliverer. However when he tried it prematurely, it transported him to the University of the Wilderness for forty years. When the time came he made it. There is a difference between calling and commissioning. God speaks the end from the beginning. Many just feel the call of God and start running. They don’t even take time to prepare.  Timing is important. Part of understanding my jurisdiction is understanding God’s process and timing. He will tell you now it’s time to go. Many people hurriedly go into things that they have been called to before the time and they pay a heavy price. Even the Lord Jesus had to be born in the fullness of time and then wait for 30 years until the Father pronounced the season of commissioning. There is a difference between calling and commissioning.

I was called to the ministry of the preaching the gospel in 1987 when I was at the University of Zimbabwe. I had the call to ministry but I could not bring myself to a place of actually going into full time ministry. I struggled. Many people put me under pressure to let go of what I was doing and go preach the Gospel. But somehow I just knew it was not the right time. The calling was there. The willingness to do was there but the release was not there. The commission was not there. God took me instead on a journey that wherever I went I just served Pastors close hand. So I learnt pastoring not from Bible School, but by sitting and serving pastors. Without consciously putting any effort (in fact at the end I avoided pastors), they just found me and pulled me towards themselves. I served Pastors in Mutare, Rusape, Marondera, Thessalonica and Athens.

When God moved us to Celebration Church, He opened a door and within two years, I was ordained as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This was now 2004. Called in 1987, but ordained and commissioned in 2003. That is a story for another time.

The point is that: to fully understand the jurisdiction of your calling, you need to understand that timing is critical. Calling is not commissioning. Follow the process and wait for the fulness of time. Time is the final boundary for your jurisdiction of the assignment.

I trust that as we considered these questions it has helped you as  a priestly king to sharpen the boundaries of your assignment. Go get them!

 

September 11, 2018 by

Question 4: How am I called to serve?

I am sure that as we deal with these questions, a clarity is emerging in your mind as to your positioning as a priestly king in the mountains of influence.

When you answer of how you are called to serve, you sharpen your area for service. Am I called to write books? Am I called to go on television? Am I called to start businesses? Am I called to finance opportunities? Am I called to just intercede? Am I called to intercede and take action? What exactly am I called to? What is my specific jurisdiction? When you establish that, it helps. I believe that God called me to be part of the end time strategic facilitators of the Kingdom. That places me on the domain of coaching and finance. The particular emphasis is in facilitating for strategic Kingdom agendas. In that case I mostly to serve as a consultant and coach in the mountain f Education. (I am using this domain as an example but remember in a previous posting I alluded to my being active in multiple domains)

Some people because of the nature of their assignment need to have specific geographic locations as offices. You need to know what exactly God is calling you to.  Consider strategic financiers: Some may be funders of church outreaches. Others may be called to fund social causes and take care of the vulnerable. Others will finance government programmes to assert the Church’s influence on politics. Others will finance primarily church programmes.

My pastor, Rev Tom Deuschle narrates an encounter he had with God at a critical point in his ministry. It answered the question of how he is called to serve. The ministry had just started a television ministry that was flourishing. Pastor Tom has a magnetic television presence. Apparently some well meaning investors approached him with a once in a lifetime deal to sponsor him into a television ministry that would take him away from his home church and ministry. This was a great opportunity that would have amplified the reach of his ministry. After prayer, God spoke to him and said, “Your ministry is to Zimbabwe but your message is for the world.” (free  quote). This was a boundary setting jurisdictional question that settled the matter for him. So though he is called for reformational impact to the world, his geographic boundary as a beachhead was set to Harare, Zimbabwe. Of course this can change later as God continues to deploy and redeploy. But at that stage the word from God set the boundaries of his jurisdiction.

Consider yourself now: How exactly are you called to serve if your calling is in business? Start a business. Serve in a business. Consult for businesses. Finance businesses. Market a business. After following through this can you locate the how to your jurisdiction?

September 10, 2018 by

Question 3. Who am I called to serve?

You must be clear as to what exactly you are called to and for. Listen to Paul. He is comparing his ministry with that of Peter. In Galatians 2:7-9 he declares ‘On the contrary when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised. (for He who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised, worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles. And when James, Cephas and John who seemed to be pillars, perceived that grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.” There were clear boundaries of their jurisdictions in terms of calling assignments. Paul was called to the Gentiles while Peter was called to the Jews. However Paul learnt it the hard way. God called him “to be the light to the gentiles” but when Paul started preaching he did not go to the gentiles first. He went to the Jews. He went from synagogue to synagogue preaching. An interesting phenomenon happened: every time in the biblical record that Paul went to preach to the Jews, he was beaten up and/or left for dead. I suggest that this was because he was outside his range of authority (his jurisdiction) and the devil could touch him. When the Jews rejected him and threw him out, it finally dawned on him and he turned to the Gentiles. From that day onwards you do not hear of people touching him because he was now within his range of authority. So when he says Peter was called to Jews, he had learnt his lesson through the School of Hard Knocks. When he was in Ephesus and the silversmiths rose up to harm him, they could not touch him because God raised a town clerk who protected him. When he was targeting the Gentiles they could not do him any harm. There is a price for not knowing what you are called to. Sometimes we bind the devil and he says “It is not my fault you came into my territory. You are within the range of my authority”. Ask yourself where you are called to serve? What is your jurisdiction? What is your exact target market? Who are your customers? Who are you called to serve? To Paul it was the gentiles. To Peter it was the Jews. How about you?

September 7, 2018 by

Question 2. What is the Purpose of My Call?

Within the same domain of influence there can be different purposes. Two individuals may be called to the same mountain, but have different tasks they are to accomplish within that common domain. In pulpit ministry Paul contrasted his ministry with that of Apollos. One planted and the other watered [I Corinthians 3:6].

God often calls different churches within the same city to do different things. The call of God upon local churches can be different based upon the purpose for which God has raised that church up. Though the two ministries are both local churches and have local pastors and local believers, the purpose and, therefore, the thrust of the two churches may be different.

Let me illustrate. John, Ruth, Michael and Reuben may all be called to the domain of Education and yet they have different boundaries in terms of their callings and assignment. John may be a policy-maker determining the value systems and worldviews that will control education. Ruth may be called as an entrepreneur in education to establish elitist Christian schools that are for profit and yet molding godly principles and values in the students. However Michael may be called to be an educationist who gives his life to touch lives in public schools and models godly values. Michael through this calling may stem the inroads being made by ungodly agendas into education. And yet Reuben may be called to the domain of education as a rich philanthropist who establishes a network of low costs non-profit schools for people who could never afford even a government education. His schools help meet a significant need for education for the vulnerable.

God assigns specific mandates to specific individuals. If He does so, then that assignment must be adhered to. What is my specific mandate in the mountain of influence? Coach, policy maker, model, influencer, executer, counselor.

Prayerfully reflect your exact place and purpose within the domain of your calling.

September 6, 2018 by

Question 1. Which domain of influence am I called to?

You need to identify the domain or sphere of influence that you are called to. This is the first broad boundary for your assignment.

This question helps you identify what you are authorized to do and limited to in your assignment. The basic God-given assignment acts as border lines that define the jurisdiction of your calling. Which mountain of influence am I called to? Many have erred and pursued rabbit trails that resulted in them losing their Kingdom effectiveness. It is imperative to get to clarity on which mountain(s) you will serve God.This may not necessarily be the sam as your profession or your current job. These may simply be stepping stops to where you are called.

In some cases a person can be called to a number of domains of influence at the same time. For example at this point of my life I am actively involved in the Faith Domain as a church statesman passionate about the concept of worldviews. I am called into the domain of Finance in order to finance the Kingdom, recruit, equip and empower an army of Kingdom financiers. But I am also actively involved in the domain of Education where I train and equip priestly kings. It is vitally important to establish the mountain to which you have been called in order to serve the Kingdom.

September 5, 2018 by

Jurisdictional Boundaries for Your Assignment

The exercise of every king’s authority is limited by the boundaries of his jurisdiction. As a priestly king you can only exercise your regal authority within certain boundaries that are prescribed by your life assignment and purpose.

Paul speaks to this in 2 Cor 10:13-15. “But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God has distributed to us, a measure to reach even to you. For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not to you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ: Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men’s labours…”

There are boundary lines that govern the scope of operation of every ministry gift. Paul speaks here of a definite region within which he had the right to operate legitimately. It is his jurisdiction. Can I propose that there are jurisdictional borders that govern your assignment? There are boundaries or limits that God assigns to your domain of influence and field of assignment. I am fully persuaded that God not only calls people to the ministry, but also specifies boundary lines that define their callings.  I have seen ministers or business people leave places where they were thriving and then go elsewhere and bomb out. God expects us to stay within the boundaries of our assignments and get the job done!

The measuring line that defines the jurisdiction of a priestly king’s activity is the commission God has given. The boundaries of your jurisdiction are determined by what God has called you to do. Your authority never goes beyond the boundaries of your God-given commission. Our sphere of influence is determined by the limits God has assigned to us. It is vitally important for priestly kings to know that they have a jurisdiction and to know what their jurisdiction is.

In the next few daily posts, we will consider a question a day that may help you zoom into an understanding of the boundaries of your calling and purpose.

September 4, 2018 by