The Multiplication of Prototypes and Models
March 11, 2006
I believe that we have come into the season where God is taking the resources that have been developed over the last number of years of preparation time, and is making the connections for multiplication. Not only has God prepared our hearts to walk with Him in His ways, but also He has prepared us to enter this new season with an excitement that He will take what He has inspired us to develop and multiply it for His glory.
I say this because we are seeing two common factors with the projects and people that God has been sending us. The first factor is that each project has developed a prototype or model of something unique that can now be multiplied.
A friend of mine once said to me, “unless something can be identified, it cannot be duplicated or multiplied.” As he had been in the publishing industry for many years it was something that was obvious to him, but it struck me in a new way. God’s nature is to multiply and He wants His sons and daughters to engage in His supernatural ways to express His nature.
This was most evident when Jesus identified the five loaves and two fish and they were multiplied to feed more than 5000 (Matthew 14:13-21). The catalyst was the supernatural activation of God’s intervention. Jesus took the loaves and fish “and looking up to the heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples and the disciples gave to the multitude” (v 19). According to Jewish custom, at the beginning of a meal the host or head of a family takes bread and blesses God for the meal. Here, beyond the actual blessing, Jesus relies upon the Father for the miracle that will meet the needs of the people.
It is this complete dependence that I see as the other common factor. Each person has blessed God for providing the revelation and resources for the prototype or model, and recognizes that God is the complete source of their project. These stewards know that it is only God who knows exactly what the resources are designed for and what He has called them to do. They do not run ahead of Him but offer it back to Him and wait for His instructions for what to do. This humility shows a complete dependence on God and His ability to intervene supernaturally to develop the resources in the intended manner and for its intended purpose.
It is wonderful to see the new strategies that God is releasing to those who are asking. Strategies about the multiplication of the resources He has placed in the hands of His stewards that have the seal of God on them – their potential is limitless!
In our finite minds we have tried to extrapolate from our past and present into the future to develop a plausible scenario of where we will be in 5 years or 10 years. God is removing all limits! He is saying, “Don’t limit Me! I cannot be contained in your finiteness and I am looking for those who will partner with Me to demonstrate My miraculous abundance. Leave all future projections to Me and be obedient to what I tell you today and tomorrow you will find yourself in a place that is beyond your comprehension.”
I remember a Kingdom finance teaching by Gary Carpenter (www.garycarpenter.org) on sowing and reaping in the field of our endeavor. He explained that too often people are asking God to bless them in a field that is limited. For example, a 9 to 5 worker is limited by the two major limiting factors; time and wage rate. Their “field” is limited to the number of hours they work in a week and a defined hourly rate, whether a wage or salary. To engage the fullness of God in our lives as entrepreneurs, we need to expand our “field of endeavor” so there are no limiting factors. This is where the beauty of entrepreneurship comes in, as everyone can partner with our creative God in an endeavor that will have His seal of infinity on it.
As I counsel business people I ask them to identify their field, which includes the seed they will sow (or have sown) in that field. I then ask them to identify the two limiting factors and seek the Lord to remove them. Many of you may not feel that you can enter into the infinite blessings of an entrepreneur, but there are many ways you can participate. One such way that is generally overlooked is the way of the dreamer. With the mind of Christ and being sensitive to your environment, God can use you to show you new inventions, ways and systems that often seem so simple you overlook them. Then months or years later, you see something in the marketplace that you thought about. The burden of developing your idea may not be yours, but you could partner with others to bring about your idea and be free to dream for others. We need dreamers who God can use to bring His ideas from heaven to earth – are you one? Can you see how that is limitless?
Once the two limiting factors of time and the rate we get paid for our time are removed, then we see that all else can be supernaturally supplied by God. For example, God has an endless supply of people with the needed skill-sets (management expertise), finances, and ways to exploit geographic expansion and multi-cultural or social adaptability. God has the wisdom for all these, and more. Partnering with God is extremely exciting as it allows Him to open new markets and develop new strategies to produce supernatural results. He wants to be our God of wonders and shower gifts upon His sons and daughters as we partner with Him.
So as God confirms to you the prototype or model that He has been developing within you (and your business), start to thank Him for the multiplication factor! That means taking what you have, blessing God for giving it to you, and watching it multiply as you go about your daily tasks, being led by the Holy Spirit. In the story of the feeding of the 5000, after Jesus blessed the loaves and fish, the food multiplied in the hands of the disciples as they were distributed to the multitude. That is divine partnership – God working His wonders as His people serve others!
We know that the projects God is involved in will change whole industries and nations, systems and mind-sets. We know God’s glory will be manifest in the hands of those who partner with Him and allow Him to multiply their prototypes and models. There is a principle that says, ‘He who does the work gets the glory’, and God is coming to earth to work through our hands in the marketplace so His glory will cover the earth.
Let’s pray:
Most wonderful creator and heavenly Father, we acknowledge You as the source of all. We come into Your gates with thanksgiving for all that You have prepared within us and our businesses. We bless You for giving us these ideas, prototypes, models and systems, and offer them back to You for Your supernatural multiplication so that Your glory may be manifest in the marketplace. We proclaim Your provision for all that we need to carry out Your project and praise You for choosing us to partner with You for Your glory. May people all over this earth be touched by Your ways, and see Your glory in the hands of Your sons and daughters and they serve those in need with the truth of who You are – our Lord Most High. Glory be to You in the precious name of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
If this has been a blessing to you, please forward it to others. If you have any comments or feedback I would be delighted to hear from you.
Four Winds Strategic Insights is a publication of Four Winds Enterprises, an international economic and business consultant that provides resources for Kingdom ventures. www.fourwindsstrategicinsights.com
