"INCREASING
GOD'S BODY"
-MULTIPLICATION-
Rev. MF Blume
August 2, 1998 pm
TROUBLE
Mica 7:1-6 Woe is me! for I am
as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the
vintage: [there is] no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.
The good [man] is perished out of the earth: and [there is] none upright
among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother
with a net. That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh,
and the judge [asketh] for a reward; and the great [man], he uttereth his
mischievous desire: so they wrap it up. The best of them [is] as a brier:
the most upright [is sharper] than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen
[and] thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity. Trust ye not
in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth
from her that lieth in thy bosom. For the son dishonoureth the father, the
daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother
in law; a man's enemies [are] the men of his own house.
CALLING UPON
GOD WHILE IN TROUBLE
vv. 7-9 Therefore I will look
unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear
me. Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when
I sit in darkness, the LORD [shall be] a light unto me. I will bear the indignation
of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause,
and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, [and] I
shall behold his righteousness.
THE VICTORY AFTER CALLING UPON
GOD
v. 10 Then [she that is] mine
enemy shall see [it], and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where
is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden
down as the mire of the streets.
From the very beginning, God
wanted to fill the earth with His influence.
Gene 1:27-28 So God created man in
his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female
created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful,
and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living
thing that moveth upon the earth.
GOD MENTIONS HIS IMAGE
AND THEN "MULTIPLY."
- He intended one in his image
to multiply, implying that His image would multiply.
- Adam was made in the shape
to fit God's spirit and manifest God's Spirit in this world.
- And this body of Adam was
to be multiplied so the Body God used to manifest in would increase.
- And the devil sought to
destroy the means God would use to spread his influence in the world.
- The devil missed Adam before
Adam was multiplied to bring forth his wife.
- The devil knew that the
woman would be the means that Adam would multiply moreso.
- So the devil went to her
and, managed to plug up the vessel for God to flow through with sin.
- And the children born later
were born with that plugging up sinfulness in them.
- They became profane and
defiled, and God threw them from the Garden/Temple.
The picture of the woman being
the means to multiply God's images in the world and being attacked by the
enemy to no longer do so, is throughout the Bible.
Jere 4:31 For I have heard a voice
as of a woman in travail, [and] the anguish as of her that bringeth forth
her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, [that] bewaileth herself,
[that] spreadeth her hands, [saying], Woe [is] me now! for my soul is wearied
because of murderers.
- Her child was a threat to
the Devil.
- The devil recalled the
prophecy: The seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head.
- Israel is that woman and
the seed is the Lord Jesus Christ.
- There is more to read about
the Daughter of Zion bringing forth a child while an enemy waits to murder
it.
We read the continuation of the
story of the woman to bear a child with murderers around her ready to kill
it in Rev. 12.
Reve 12:1-5 And there appeared a
great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under
her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child
cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared
another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads
and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third
part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon
stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her
child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was
to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto
God, and [to] his throne.
Pharoah came to kill the Hebrews
for the very same reason that Satan tried to stop the seed of the woman.
Because he had to stop the multiplying of this SEED.
Exod 1:7 And the children of
Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and
waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there arose
up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people,
Behold, the people of the children of Israel [are] more and mightier than
we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and
it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto
our enemies, and fight against us, and [so] get them up out of the land.
Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens.
And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. But
the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.
And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.
Israel was MULTIPLYING.
- During Christmas, I preached
a message entitled, YOU CAN'T STOP THIS CHILD.
- Little did I realize the
implications.
- It was as though God said,
"This child will be born, and when afflicted to stop Him from multiplying,
He will multiply even more!"
- Satan's original fear was
brought to the surface again.
- God chose to manifest His
Spirit in a vessel of His image, or in a place in man that is shaped to fit
the Spirit of God.
- And God would make that
vessel greater and greater and multiply it.
- The very thing that Satan
tried to use to stop the multiplying, was the very thing that would accomplish
the multiplying.
- Satan did not want to see
images of God all over the world.
- He succeeded in stopping
man from Getting God's LIFE in him through the fruit of life, and put another
fill in Adam instead. Fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.
- The devil is going to try
to get you to settle with an alternative fill.
- And he made it look as
good as possible.
- Knowledge of good and
evil.
- Religiosity.
- Make yourself as gods by
learning (knowledge) all you can learn about what is good and evil.
- And religion is not doing
the job today either, but is simply pumping out knowledge of good and evil.
- And it is making self-righteous
hypocrites out of people.
- They are actually vaunting
themselves up as Gods.
- GOD WANTS YOU TO HAVE HIS
LIFE.
- HE WANTS YOU TO BE FILLED
WITH THE HOLY GHOST.
This woman is ISRAEL.
- In Rev. 12 she had a crown
of twelve stars and the sun and moon under her feet.
- These were parts of a dream
Joseph had about his family, the twelve tribes of Israel.
Gene 37:9 And he dreamed yet another
dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream
more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance
to me.
While the woman was in the old
testament she was pregnant with a child to be born. JESUS CHRIST.
- After her pregnancy she
was changed and became spiritual... ISRAEL IS NOW THE CHURCH.
- Wings of eagles lifted
her up as she learned to WAIT BY FAITH.
Reve 12:14 And to the woman were
given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness,
into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a
time, from the face of the serpent.
Isai 40:31 But they that wait upon
the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as
eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not
faint.
You will get tired and you will
have to stop and give up, as the devil runs up to you, until you learn how
to live by walk.
- Waiting upon the Lord is
trusting in him to help you.
- Waiting means you ask Him
and EXPECT HIM TO HELP.
- And the result is that
you suddenly can run and never get tired.
- WE MUST RUN
THIS RACE.
Hebr 12:1-2 Wherefore seeing we
also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside
every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run
with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author
and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God.
Moses told Israel that they
must stand still and see the glory of the Lord WHEN THE ENEMY WAS CHASING
THEM.
- This is what waiting upon
the Lord implies.
- Stopping and letting God
do the work that only He can do.
Exod 14:10-13 And when Pharaoh drew
nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians
marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel
cried out unto the LORD. And they said unto Moses, Because [there were] no
graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore
hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? [Is] not this
the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may
serve the Egyptians? For [it had been] better for us to serve the Egyptians,
than that we should die in the wilderness. And Moses said unto the people,
Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD,
which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to
day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.
And after God opened the Red
Sea, as He delivered the people as Moses promised He would , God spoke and
described it very notably like this:
Exod 19:4 Ye have seen what I
did unto the Egyptians, and [how] I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought
you unto myself.
He referred to their experience
of standing still and waiting for God to rescue them from the pursuing enemy
as being borne up on eagle's wings.
- That is precisely what Isaiah
40 said.
- WAIT ON THE LORD
- STAND STILL and you will
mount up with wings of eagles.
- The Lord is right there
to give you eagles' wings if you will only have FAITH.
- So we see the picture of
the woman who trusted in God and was delivered of a child, while she was
given eagles' wings to escape the enemy.
- God delivers us from trouble
only when we learn to wait upon Him...
- That means not worrying,
but gathering together our faith and making ourselves cease from trying to
save ourselves and believe God to move in on the scene.
- When we do that, He comes!
God told Abraham that His seed
would multiply and be as innumerable as the stars of the heavens and the
sands of the seashores.
- AFTER the Lord was risen
to the throne, did the woman get faith to have eagles wings.
The very thing Satan used to
annihilate the multiplying of Jesus Christ so that there would be many images
of God and therefore many vessels of God, was the thing that actually brought
about the multiplication.
John 12:24 Verily, verily, I say
unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
You would have thought the devil
would have caught on and stopped the execution of Jesus!
Even the night before the very
crucifixion, we read...
Matt 26:26 And as they were eating,
Jesus took bread, and blessed [it], and brake [it], and gave [it] to the
disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.
Jesus showed them that He would
multiply.
- The single loaf of bread
was indicative of HIS BODY.
- And He told the disciples,
who were presently not regenerated and not yet part of his body, to eat bread
that represented His body so that the one loaf would be in each of them and
together they would be the one body, AFTER they put it into them.
- Jesus was saying "I will
multiply myself and be in all of you. Therefore will my body increase and
complete the will of God that Adam failed to fulfill."
- "You will be images of
God when you are conformed to my image."
- They drank the wine which
is blood, and blood is the LIFE of the body.
- So they not only would
become His body, but also have HIS LIFE/SPIRIT IN THEM.
The whole picture of Eden came
again.
- Jesus was next in a Garden
(Gethsemane) and Jesus was tempted to not go to the tree, the cross, as Adam
was in the Garden of Eden and tempted to not go to the tree of life.
- A serpent got in there
in the form of JUDAS.
- Satan possessed a serpent
in Eden, and possessed JUDAS in Jerusalem.
Luke 22:2-3 And the chief priests
and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people.
Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the
twelve.
And when the
devil used Judas to take the Lord to the cross, Judas KISSED the Lord.
- Satan was cunning.
- He was so sly.
- Judas was so much an actor.
- And Jesus even commented
upon it.
Luke 22:47 And while he yet spake,
behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went
before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him.
It was like the serpent telling
Eve she would be as gods.
- It was a thing that looked
so good.
- A kiss!
- An act.
- A lie.
Satan was sly, but he was soon
to find out that his very means of stopping the multiplying would actually
bring it about.
- Like the bread being BROKEN
and put into the disciples...
- Like the bread broken and
blessed on the mount, and multiplying so that 5000 could be fed...
- The breaking of Jesus on
the cross would actually cause Him to multiply.
- When he died, out flowed
water and blood.
- The very materials used
to make the church.
- Like the rib taken out
of Adam's side to make the woman and multiply Adam.
THE TEMPLE MULTIPLIED.
John 2:19 Jesus answered and said
unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then
said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt
thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.
What happened to things that
died and were buried?
Jesus said the temple would
be raised up.
- His body was His temple.
- They destroyed the BODY
and buried it.
- And when they destroy anything
of God's and plant it, it is only going to rise again and MULTIPLY.
They destroyed the temple.
- Jesus warned them what would
happen.
- He would raise it up.
- They were too carnal to
understand.
- He warned them that if
he was killed He would bring for many fruit like a seed planted in the ground
would grow into a plant with many seeds.
After only one person was known
to be the temple of God, after Jesus resurrected we then read...
1Cor 6:19 What? know ye not that
your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have
of God, and ye are not your own?
Where there was only one who
was the temple, now we read that every single christian was called the temple.
- They buried the temple and
it multiplied and grew like a plant.
Read about the multiplying that
occurred...
Acts 1:14-15 These all continued
with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the
mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. And in those days Peter stood up
in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together
were about an hundred and twenty,)
Acts 2:4 And they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues,
as the Spirit gave them utterance.
All 120 were filled with God's
Spirit.
Acts 6:1 And in those days, when
the number of the disciples was multiplied,
Acts 6:7 And the word of
God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied
in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to
the faith.
Acts 9:31 Then had the churches
rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and
walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were
multiplied.
The persecution that the devil
sent to stop the multiplying actually enhanced the multiplying and the people
preached everywhere they fled to.
Acts 11:19 Now they which were
scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as
far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word....
Satan sends hardships your way.
- Why do you think God lets
him do it?
- Why do you think the Lord
left the devil running around in this world?
Mica 7:8 Rejoice not against
me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness,
the LORD [shall be] a light unto me.
REJOICE NOT AGAINST ME, ENEMY.
- God makes use of the attempts
of the devil to stop His work, since it only enhances His work due to the
Law of the Harvest for the increase of the Body of God in this world.
- "WHEN I FALL I WILL RISE
AND THAT MEANS THAT I WILL MULTIPLY."
- THE TRIAL YOU GO THROUGH
WILL ONLY TURN YOU INTO A SOURCE OF HELP AND ENCOURAGEMENT FOR OTHERS TO
BE HELPED.
- Thereby the work of God
is increased.
- His influence spreads further
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