Birthing Multiples

Birthing Multiples

We serve the God of multiplication. He said from the beginning “be fruitful and multiply”. His seed multiplies. The single cell, divides and yet multiplies. The union of the single egg and single sperm, triggers multiplication that cannot be contained. The hollow womb expands, to the point it must burst forth!

My wife gave birth to more than one, to multiples! From the beginning it was like God showing us that He wanted to multiply, what He had put inside of us.

When God gives, He gives pressed down, shaken together, running over! His gift overflows in our hand, when we receive it, and pass it on. The five loaves and two fishes, multiplied in the disciples hand, as they gave it to the five thousand. It was given by faith, with expectation that there would be would be more than enough. From the place of lack, He overflowed!

He gives more than enough, in exchange for your not enough, but you must first give it up, not hold on to it! Position yourself in the birth position. Praise is the birth position. When the limitation or confinement or restriction presses against us, treat it like a contraction. For when you push through the pain, there is expansion on the other side of it!

Designed to contain His seed, His Spirit, His Word but from the hollow place to then give birth to His fruitful abundance!

Some have complained recently, that they had sought the Lord, they have prayed earnestly, and yet they are still to receive the promise, the dream. They walk around in the dungeon of disappointment, like a prisoner choosing to stay in the cell, when they have the key of escape in their hand. They look down at the broken fragments of their lives, their dream, rather than look up to the God of all hope! We hope against the hopelessness of our circumstance, trusting in the God of ALL hope!

It occurred to me that it took 8 years of trying to have children, and pushing through and praying through, and walking through the valley of disappointment, the loss, the brokenness, to arrive at the place where our only hope was God! I remember praying, and now just realising at this moment, that I prayed for multiples! It was then that He answered! Wow! Doesn’t that just mess you up! When we get in alignment with His word, and pray His words, He agrees with Himself, and brings it to pass!

Then He deposited so much inside my wife, that she was hospitalized and was on the brink of disaster. Having spared not she was spent! But again we prayed and she came through it! Again He was showing off, how much He wants to multiply what was inside of us!

Last year, after 8 years in business together, we were again in the place of barrenness, without work, and on the brink, but again we positioned ourselves in faith to multiply, and prayed in agreement with His word. We responded to a tender for a large opportunity, hearing that God wanted us to gather up the fragments, and to define a seed, a package comprising all the components of what had been built in the past into a single offering. I’m looking at the fragments, and I see all the pain of the lost opportunity in each case, but chose to shake off disappointment and to obey and bring them together.

Even the fragments are valuable to him, in fact I’ve learnt that that He does his best work when you in faith, gather up and give Him the broken pieces.

John 6:5-14 Jesus looked up then, and seeing that a vast multitude was coming toward Him, He said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread, so that all these people may eat? But He said this to prove (test) him, for He well knew what He was about to do. Philip answered Him, Two hundred pennies’ (forty dollars) worth of bread is not enough that everyone may receive even a little. Another of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, There is a little boy here, who has [with him] five barley loaves, and two small fish; but what are they among so many people? Jesus said, Make all the people recline (sit down). Now the ground (a pasture) was covered with thick grass at the spot, so the men threw themselves down, about 5,000 in number. Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed to the disciples and the disciples to the reclining people; so also [He did] with the fish, as much as they wanted. When they had all had enough, He said to His disciples, Gather up now the fragments (the broken pieces that are left over), so that nothing may be lost and wasted. So accordingly they gathered them up, and they filled twelve [small hand] baskets with fragments left over by those who had eaten from the five barley loaves. When the people saw the sign (miracle) that Jesus had performed, they began saying, Surely and beyond a doubt this is the Prophet Who is to come into the world!

Don’t you just love that word. “When they had all had enough.” If you feel like you have had enough, and I’ve felt this often, you need to gather up the fragments, value the fragments as He does, and give him the broken pieces. For it is in the place of brokenness that the breakthrough comes.

The water breaks before the birth!

At this stage I’d love to tell you that we won the tender, but they told us we would have won it, but they chose a competing platform because the competitor gave it to them for free! We later found out that it cost them $1.4M more than it would have with our solution to implement! What the heck! But God had bigger plans for us!

My God is not into addition or subtraction but loves to multiply. Even when cells divide it is to multiply.

When He says to me “I’m birthing multiples” and to the barren in Isaiah 54 “build a nursery” it is because he creates something from nothing. He declares that which is not as though it is, and at His declaration it comes into being. “Let there be light, and there was light”. He declares to the barren that they will have more children (plural not singular!) than those of the married wife!

God commands a blessing, declares a blessing, can we agree with and act in preparation for this blessing to come?

Can we build the nursery when we can’t have children? Can we feed on His faithfulness when we are lacking faith?

Can we possess the land of the promise when it is inhabited with Giants?

All these questions were in my thoughts at the time, and yet we persevered!

First the word, then the agreement, then the overflow, multiples of multiples, multiplied abundance in the presence of the multitudes!

Isaiah 66:5-14 Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at His word: Your brethren who hate you, who cast you out for My name’s sake, have said, Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy! But it is they who shall be put to shame. [Hark!] An uproar from the city! A voice from the temple! The voice of the Lord, rendering recompense to His enemies! Before [Zion] travailed, she gave birth; before her pain came upon her, she was delivered of a male child. Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Or shall a nation be brought forth in a moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the [moment of] birth and not cause to bring forth? says the Lord. Shall I Who causes to bring forth shut the womb? says your God. Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn over her, That you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breasts, that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance and brightness of her glory. For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; then you will be nursed, you will be carried on her hip and trotted [lovingly bounced up and down] on her [God’s maternal] knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. When you see this, your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like green and tender grass. And the [powerful] hand of the Lord shall be revealed and known to be with His servants, but His indignation [shown] to be against His enemies.

God has taken that set-back and positioned us to provide a solution to the whole industry! It was also the genesis of a broader package that has now been birthed and agreed to by a client. The first of many! The Forerunner! Some nine months after we conceived the package it was birthed! As if God was again reinforcing the point!

Be encouraged, give him the broken pieces, obey and trust him, use His word as a key to release, to breakthrough. Worship Him like Paul and Silas in the prison cell, until God sent an earthquake to literally break through the walls, and spring open the cell doors.

All praise be to Him, as we expect and plan for the multiples, feeding on His faithfulness.