GOD’S WORDS OF INCREASE

“May the LORD give you INCREASE more and more, You and your children” – Psalm 115:14

One of the most principal aspects of God’s Will for His children is expressed in HIS WORDS of INCREASE: “May the LORD give you INCREASE more and more, You and your children” (Psa.115:14). This was a declaration of blessing that was applicable to Israel, but also for God’s children in any generation. God’s Plan is to bless those who fear Him, both small and great; and to grant His people progressive and generational increase. The phrase “both small and great” infers that we don’t have to be spiritual superstars to receive His blessings! He takes note of those who trust in Him even though considered to be unknown or insignificant: “Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end should greatly INCREASE” (Job 8:7).

The word “bless” occurs five times in four verses (vv.12-15). This shows the importance of seeking and receiving God’s blessing, including the blessing of Increase, which is God’s indisputable will for His people. It would’ve been sufficient if the verse just said, “May God increase you,” or “God increase you MORE.” But it says, “May the LORD give you increase MORE and MORE”! God wants us to experience more joy, more peace, more wisdom, more spiritual discernment and sensitivity, more strength, more influence, more faith, love, favour, marital bliss, and material resources. Even where there is some measure of greatness, God’s Will is Increase: “You shall INCREASE my GREATNESS, and comfort me on every side” (Psa.71:21).

Increase has been primary to the Divine Purpose from the beginning. Increase was God’s plan all the way back to the Garden of Eden, and He has never changed that plan. God made man and woman in His own image, and then blessed them: “Be fruitful and MULTIPLY; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion” (Gen. 1:28). The word multiply is the same Hebrew word translated as “increase” throughout the Old Testament. This wasn’t merely a command to have children and begin to populate the world. The mandate to multiply was multidimensional. His command for them to be fruitful and increase had to do with their emotions, spiritual life, influence, insight, and understanding. God sends His Words of Increase to address diverse aspects of our lives: our persons, families, children, lands, learning, influence, and impact in life.

This is not about carnal or selfish increase. God wants us to Increase in Learning: “A wise man will hear and INCREASE LEARNING, and a man of understanding will attain wise counsel” (Pro.1:5). He wants us to increase in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, but we have to be willing to hear, to listen, otherwise we are nothing but a fool: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Pro.1:7); “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will INCREASE in LEARNING” (Pro.9:9). This is just one of God’s promises of increase to us. There is so much more that God wants to do to expand our lives and fill them with good things.

God wants to grant Increase to the LANDS of our LIVES – our marriages, homes, families, career, businesses, ministries: “Yes, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our LAND shall yield her INCREASE” (Psa.85:12). That’s why He commands the earth to yield her increase for us as we learn to praise Him: “Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You. Then shall the earth yield her INCREASE; and God, even our own God, shall bless us” (Psa.67: 5-6).

Beloved, on the premise of God’s promises, let us as His dearly loved children, seek that God Himself will increase in and through us. John the Baptist made this classic statement: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (Jh.3:30). As we spend time in His Word, He will honour our devotion and grant us  and our seeds increase in insight, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, so that we can also grow in faith, love, joy, influence, and in all good things that matter in time and eternity.