“For whoever has, to him more will be given, and
he will have abundance; but whoever does not
have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
Matthew 13:12

Faith is the ability to consider the unseen reality of God as more real than things seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

1. Growth; the plan of God. (Matthew 28:18-20)
The Bible is clear about one thing and that is that God expects His work to grow; this in turn means that the local Church should grow and multiply. The eternal kingdom of God will always grow according to Isaiah 9:7. The parables of Jesus reinforce this idea. (Matthew 13:23; 32; 25:20) Abundance is a part of God’s plan and always will be. (John 10:10) Of special note is the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes recorded in Mark 6:30-44 and Mark 8:1-10. The lesson is very clear: There will always be more baskets full left over! Growth then is most definitely the plan of God.

2. Growth in the work of God. (Matthew 16:5-6)
Jesus warns us to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. This begs the question; what is the leaven of these groups of people? The leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees is that of compromise and small mindedness coupled with self interest and protectionism. The local Church is full of Pharisees and Sadducees today! Sadly most of these people are preachers and leaders who have no desire for growth because this will challenge their comfort zones and positions. These people usually pride themselves in “small remnant” theology. It is truly time for Christian leaders to see themselves as catalysts for growth and not as mere preachers on a platform week after week.

But:
A. Numbers are important to God. (Acts 2:41; Acts 4:4)
Expansion should be constantly on our minds if we have any intention of fulfilling the Great Commission. It was on Paul’s mind since he reckoned that he was a debtor to the whole human race. (Romans 1:14-15; Romans 15:16-20; Mark 8:13-21) To be sure counting numbers is evil if we think our strength and power is in them. David learned this lesson the hard way. (2Samuel 24:10)

B. Spiritual growth is equally important to God. (Ephesians 4:11-15)
God’s children must grow up in Christ and thereby reach spiritual maturity. This essentially means that we enter into the freedom of doing the will of God and of being a slaves to Jesus. (John 8:31; Romans 6:18)

3. Growth in our hearts. (Ephesians 3:20-21)
Jesus wants us to internalize or meditate on the call to growth. Paul prays that we should have a revelation in our hearts of what God can truly do. This “doing of God” is beyond anything that we can think of or imagine!

So we should be:
A. Excited about growth. (Romans 1:14-15)
B. Prayerful about growth. (Acts 4:29-31)
C. Intentional about growth. (Acts 2:42; 2Kings 13:18-19)

This latter reference teaches us that we should want growth with every fiber of our beings. The King did not have this desire and made the Prophet angry by his lack of intent; consequently he fell short of God’s plan for his life. Sobering thought indeed.

Malcolm Hedding

©Malcolm Hedding Ministries