INCREASE

INCREASE
This coincidentally is my first post here this year and speaking on such a theme is surely prophetic. We all shall enjoy divine increase in all areas of our endeavours this year in JESUS name. No one makes an investment,  plants a seed that doesn't have the thought of an increase afterward, the difference in their expectations is just time bound and also dependent on the quality and quantity of their investments. Even when a child is given birth to, there is usually the expectation by the parent upon the child to increase in size, a default from this status quo begins to give the parents and many times the community at large, serious cause for concern.

Increase is the act or process of becoming larger, to wax stronger, to go up, to grow, to rise, to soar, to shoot up or raise up. If a farmer after planting comes back some weeks later to find out that the seed remains in the ground, no shoot or roots yet, he becomes disappointed. A man spends a lot of work hours in the gym in attempt to become stronger, and he finds himself growing weaker, his hopes are dashed. A student spends countless night hours trying to study for an exam and at the end of the day he doesn't get the required degree, it isnt just him that is demoralised but the sponsors of such student are.p Infact, everything we put an effort to or invest in, an increase is the expectation.

Now, increase is many times relative as earlier established that it depends on the prior investment and care/monitoring given to the investment. We all have experienced an increase, whether you want to be grateful for it or not, but we have all increased in age. Many would not truly see this as a form of increase but it is, just imagine if you were stuck in an hour, not being able to reach out to the next second, it is limiting as well as disheartening. As we increase in age, there is a tendency that you would also increase in knowledge, skill, wealth etc, hence your ability to do the unimaginable and achieve higher heights.

If the desire in the hearts of the parent is to see their new born grow optimally, then there would be a true devotion on their part to make it happen. Food in its right quantities, having the desired nutrients and in accurate timing would be given the child, coupled with conducive environmental factors, such a child would increase in a way that brings joy and fulfilment to the parents. As it is in many African settings, when a newly wedded couple arrives, within a period of the next year, the community would be expecting an increase in their number by the introduction of children from the union.

This same expectation is what the Lord desires of us as we become born into the family of GOD. As a born again child of GOD, He expects that you begin to increase in the things that you have been called into, that you increase in knowledge of what you now are and increase in understanding what He has concluded on the cross of Calvary on your behalf (Col. 1:10)

Matthew 25:14-30 gave a narrative of a king who went on a journey into a far country and as he went gave talents to his servants according to their individual capacities with the expectations for them to trade with and bear an increase. The one he gave five bore five more, the servant he gave two, added two more but the last servant whom he gave one talent did nothing with it but hid it in the ground and returned it the same way to the master at His return. An act that the master frowned at seriously and JESUS in narrating this parable said it is so with everyone who has been given much to deliver in the kingdom but does absolutely nothing about it and how their consequence would be to be cast out into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Why not make good use of what GOD has deposited in you and make good profit of it?

It's been a while since you gave your life to JESUS but where is the increase the Lord desires from you. Is it still just that one person you spoke to about JESUS that you were sent to? How about your knowledge base as touching the word of GOD, don't you see a need to get an increase in revelations? You started out praying once a day, when do you intend to increase this? Getting better, going deeper, growing wider is the plan of GOD for you. Work in it.


Crowds trooped just to hear Jesus's teachings (John. 6:1-13), such that they got to a place where they all got tired and hungry but there was no place neither was there a financial capacity to buy food, but as GOD would have it, there was a young boy who followed that had with Him his lunch for the day - just five loaves of bread and two fishes, who when he was presented to JESUS offered his lunch and JESUS gave thanks to GOD for that provision and the food small as it was increased greatly such that it fed comfortably not countung women or children, five thousand men as they got back twelve baskets full. This teaches me that increase of any category that would last and would even expand is found only in JESUS (Isa. 9:7), increase from anywhere else would simply fall like a pack of cards, shameful.

There is the possibility for an increase to cease and this happens whenever the Lord JESUS isn't involved. Wealth obtained through falsehood is a quick example (Prov. 13:11). Be warned, if you are today excited at the increase you are seemingly laying hold upon through fraudulent means, one day it would certainly gain wings and fly away (Prov. 23:5), meaning that within a short span of time, all the wealth would vanish, either it disappears to armed robbers, or it is spent on an incurable disease until it finishes.

In conclusion, it seems very much beneficial to decide to increase. But beyond an increase, how about increasing in works of righteousness, increasing a lifestyle that depends totally on GOD, increasing an interest in the things of GOD. These increases cannot and would not cease or fade away and like the kingdom of our GOD which is eternal, you can never go wrong.

GOD BLESS YOU.