insight
It began with what God said to Abram,
“Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s
house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great
nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall
be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse
him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall
be blessed.”
Genesis 12:1-3
Salvation is God’s blessing promised to all humanity - to all
nations, peoples and families. The promise came through the
seed of Abraham, which is Christ (Galatians 3:16). In Christ, the
church inherits this blessing of Abraham (Galatians 3:13-14). We
are going to see multitudes from all nations come into the church
of God. Our calling is a mirror image of the call of Abraham.
The ultimate blessing of Abraham is influence through
fruitfulness, as the promise in Genesis chapter 17 shows.
I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of
you, and kings shall come from you.
Genesis 17:6
Blessing always leads to multiplication, but the order is
important. First God blesses, and then we become fruitful and
multiply. Genesis 1:26-27 shows this principle was embedded
in the original Creation Mandate and it is certainly evident in
the New Creation Mandate of Matthew 28:18-20. The blessing
of Abraham is given to us through God’s promise of his Spirit
(Galatians 3:14). The crowds that followed Jesus were
the firstfruits of the multitudes that would ultimately come
into the church.
Jesus taught the multitudes (Mark 6:34) he provided for them
(Mark 8:2-3), he healed them (Matthew 14:14) and he gathered
them (Matthew 9:36-10:1). He set in motion his principle of 12,
reaching the multitudes through training and releasing a small
group of leaders and commissioning them to do the same.
The multitudes began to come on the Day of Pentecost. The
Spirit was outpoured, the gospel was proclaimed with signs and
wonders and 3,000 were added to the church. In Acts chapter
five, another 5,000 were brought in. Then the Word of God
spread and the multiplication of believers kicked in (Acts 6:7).
After that, the churches began to multiply (Acts 9:31). In the end,
thousands and thousands in Jerusalem from every section of
society had come to Christ and the whole city was evangelised.
10 Revival Times January 2017