Multiplication
Mark 4: 8
Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.
In this passage and its accompanying verses, Jesus explains how the Kingdom of God works. It turns out that God multiplies. Why is this important for you and me to know? Consider the story of the widow in 2 Kings 4. This widow went to Elisha complaining of her financial need and telling Elisha that the creditor had come to her door to take her two sons so that they might be his slaves in order to satisfy the debt. This woman was broke. She had no funds to give to the creditor in order to save her sons. And yet Elisha’s response to her was, “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” I bet she wanted to say, “I don’t have anything you old fool. That is why I am here.” But she didn’t. Instead she answered; I have nothing “except a jar of oil.” So, Elisha said, “Ok, go get every kind of jar, pot and vessel that you can borrow and don’t get just a few.” So she went to her neighbors and borrowed every kind of container she could. When she had obeyed that command, Elisha had her pour out her little bit of oil into the first container. Behold, after the first container was filled, there remained oil in her jar so she poured out into the second container. The oil remained until every vessel was full. The miracle was only limited by her obedience to collect many pots. Fortunately she did obey and she ended up with enough oil to pay off the creditor and live on the proceeds after that.
The widow in 1 Kings 17: 12 had a little bit of flour and a little bit of oil. She was gathering sticks to make a fire. Then she was going to make a pancake for her and one for her son and then they were going to lie down and die. She was really destitute. She didn’t know about the law of multiplication. She didn’t know it but she was wealthier in seed than Elisha’s widow because she had some flour and some oil. The prophet Elijah told her; make me a little bread before you carry out your plan. See God often has a different plan than ours. She did as Elijah required and God multiplied her bowl and her jar so that from then on she ran out of neither flour nor oil.
Maybe you need a breakthrough in some area of your life. Well, you need some seed. Maybe God is requiring you to sow some seed. Like Elisha said to the widow, “What do you have?” Maybe you need to give into someone else’s life so that God can multiply your seed thirty, sixty or a hundredfold. Maybe you don’t have much. Maybe you are like one of the women in these stories but understand that God gets your miracle to you by multiplying the seed that you sow. You’ve got to give him something to work with. Then he will make your miracle.
