And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work. Exodus 36:7
In outworking global missions I have learned that God provides for everything He commissions. The principle of getting in the flow of God's eternal provision by faith is a key to unlocking the Father's unlimited resource and funding for Kingdom vision. Flow is about understanding and entering in to the faithfulness of God in the reality of our covenant relationship with Him. Christian leaders are appointed as stewards of Heaven's resource, and so I believe it is essential that we enter into a fresh understanding and experience of the miracle of multiplication in our ministries so that we may be instrumental in releasing transformational blessing to the nations.
God has been speaking to me recently about His desire to release the Church into a new level of miracle multiplication anointing, i.e. a season of supernatural "suddenly," acceleration and increase.
It is has been my personal experience that God has a simple "formula" for such an outpouring which has been:
Great need x great faith x sacrificial giving x prayer x God's love = miracle of multiplication!
Multiplication of Time
The multiplication anointing operates in the realm of the miraculous, outside of the confines of physics, time and space. It is the realm of the impossible made possible by God's grace, love, power and authority.
I have experienced God "stretching" time on one occasion. I had been ministering in the Central belt of Scotland some one hour and 40 minute drive from my home. I had been delayed and consequently left the meeting extremely late. I had needed to leave on time since I had to pick up my youngest son from school that day. Driving home I prayed and asked the Lord to redeem the lost minutes and to multiply my time back to me. It is physically impossible for the drive to take less than one hour and 20 minutes in good traffic conditions, but despite this I arrived in my home town just 50 minutes after I left the Central belt (in fact I was five minutes early for school). I had sown time into the Kingdom and my harvest was a multiplication of the resource of my time back to me. I had honoured the Lord and fulfilled my apostolic assignment, and God graciously met me in my need as a mother to pick up my son.
To say that leaders are busy people is the understatement of the year. Therefore, I believe it is important that we exercise faith in the arena of multiplication of our time. In this season of miracle outflow and increase, may God grant us a harvest in our time resource and time management for His glory!
Multiplication in Healing
The multiplication anointing is catalytic in releasing the creative power of God. This is why a roomful of people can suddenly experience being healed simultaneously, rather than just one at a time. When Jesus heals one by one it is still glorious, but this is more like "addition" than "multiplication." It has been my profound privilege to have been ministering in meetings in different continents whereby the miracle working power of God has flowed in multiplication and we have corporately and simultaneously witnessed bones being healed, people being delivered and diseases being healed and swept away in the flood of God's love. We honour the Holy Spirit as the means by which such miracles occur.
We may refer to this as spiritual multiplication in the realm of healing. Apostles move in signs, wonders and miracles by the grace of God. The healing anointing is also freely available in Christ to every Believer, and evidenced in miracles and healings in many evangelistic meetings and contexts. It is my humble conviction that there is a greater realm of multiplication of miracles we may access by faith in the name of Jesus in these days. God is calling us to come up higher so that we have access by faith to unlimited healing and creative miracles in the name of Jesus – for the furtherance of His Kingdom here on earth. May God use apostolic leaders from all over the world to pioneer into new realms of releasing healing blessings to the Church and to the lost, and may His name be lifted up in praise by every tongue and every tribe as millions come to know His saving grace.
Multiplication of Physical Resource
In Exodus 35 and 36 we read how the people of Israel brought their skills, resources and talents to Bezalel and Oholiab for the materials for the construction of the Tabernacle. Bezalel and Oholiab were filled with the Spirit of God and had been given skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts. God had also imparted to them the ability to teach others. Under Moses' leadership they were able to call the Israelites to partner with them in God's vision of a beautiful Tabernacle on earth which He would graciously bless with His presence. The people gave so much to God's vision that Moses had to restrain them from bringing more "because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work."
I have been privileged to witness God outwork this principle of faith multiplication in resource many times during the fulfilment of the various global ministry assignments in which God has graced me to serve Him. Truly, when we bring what we have in our hearts and in our hands and give it as a love offering to God, He multiplies it for His glory. Apostles are anointed by the Holy Spirit to catalyse spiritual gifts in others. Apostolic multiplication anointing is a blessing to be shared with the Body of Christ.
One Million Hours of Praise was a global assignment I was privileged to lead, which lasted just under three years from conception to completion. It involved the mobilisation of thousands of people in more than sixty nations. It included a huge army of volunteer team members and praise partners throughout the world. Furthermore, it raised up a prayer movement of hundreds and required a huge amount of media exposure to keep the vision momentum moving. The list of all that was required to maintain the vision through to completion was enormous, but God did all of this and more.
God provided for the vision of MHOP in a number of different ways including:
1. The Lord sent people with skill and similar heart to partner with me in the vision.
2. He provided the raw materials/resources that were needed.
3. He gave me strategy to cast the vision and favour with media, hence increasing the networking opportunity to connect with potential partners.
4. He provided financial gifts from time to time through ministry donations/partners.
5. He gave me increased faith to pray for every need to be met in His goodness.
Every time we had a need, I found myself on my knees praying with fervent faith, and many times necessary breakthrough came when I released a sacrifice of praise/prayer to the Lord. I quickly grasped that I didn't have to pray for money; all I had to do was pray for God's miracle-working flow of goodness to provide for the need and God came through in wonder-working ways every single time. Our final budget on paper showed that we had spent the ludicrously low amount of £1,623.74 (approx $2,546 in U.S. dollars) to execute the vision from beginning to end! The reason the figure was so low was because the people of God all over the world who were our partners sowed sacrificially and generously, giving of their time and talents just as the Israelites had done in their day, and there was more than enough. All leaders have a responsibility before God to love, pray and invest in their team and partners. When apostolic leaders experience blessing and breakthrough, those with whom they partner with partake in the synergy of blessing from Abba Father, too.
In the last few years, I have been surprised by grace and elated to witness the Lord multiply money in my hands several times and in numerous currencies, including Euros, pounds Sterling and Kenyan shillings. On one of these occasions the multiplication happened in a foreign exchange bureaux in Kampala. The Holy Spirit instructed me to count the money (pounds sterling) and it multiplied as I counted it. Full of joy, I handed the money to my young aide Rachel and asked her to count it again. I told her the Lord had just multiplied it in my hands and instructed her how much was there. When she counted the money, it multiplied again in her hands. This is an important aspect of multiplication – it just keeps multiplying because we keep on giving! When we receive a blessing, it is multiplied as increased blessing when we give it away. Multiplication causes a continuous flow of blessing!
This money was exchanged in Ugandan shillings and was (in part) sown into a ministry in Masaka, Uganda. The miracle seed was shared with an apostle who had come close to giving up on ministry. He was so weary when we met him, but it was our privilege to wash his feet with prayer and words of apostolic encouragement. I sowed in love, sharing that Jesus was giving him miracle seed, and I prayed for increase and acceleration and apostolic blessing. Within two days the man was gifted a new car, and by the end of one week he had established a wonderful Bible School. He now invests in other leaders to raise them up as sons and daughters of God, and the man of God, the Bible school and the students are flourishing. God took the blessing and made it to be an even bigger blessing that produced both physical and spiritual resource. Multiplication brings the life of Christ into situations and releases testimony of God's goodness and miracle working power.
Multiplication of Spiritual Resource
Apostle Paul longed to visit the Church in Rome so that he might impart some spiritual gift to them. God still uses apostolic leaders today to take the Church to the next level in her ability to lay foundations, build and advance God's Kingdom on the earth. Apostolic leaders are mobilisers who are entrusted by God with divine blueprints to build the Kingdom.
I am delighted to say that One Million Hours of Praise reached and surpassed its target in 2005, and since 2007 I have had the privilege of spearheading a new global initiative, GGM 7 Million Souls, working with partners from all around the world. One of the greatest treasures in my role as the overseeing apostolic leader is to serve the wonderful men and women of God who partner with us to reach the nations and make disciples. My heart is to invest in the emerging generation of leaders, especially young leaders, and help them to reach their full potential in Christ. To raise up spiritual sons and daughters is one of the most precious aspects of apostolic ministry. Although I recognise that programmes have their place in the strategic outworking of vision and ministry in the Kingdom of God, I believe that people and relationships are much more important to Jesus than programmes.
I am compelled by Christ's love to continue to nurture others as I read Charles H. Spurgeon's words, "To do the Lord's work must be as necessary as food to us. His Father's work is that in which we also are engaged, and we cannot do better than imitate our Lord. Tell me, then, how Jesus set about it. Did He set about it by arranging to build a huge Tabernacle, or by organising a monster Conference, or by publishing a great book, or by sounding a trumpet before Him in any other form? Did He aim at something great, and altogether out of the common line of service? Did He bid high for popularity, and wear Himself out by an exhausting sensationalism? No; He called disciples to Him one by one, and instructed each one with patient care."
I ask God to bless each one of you in whatever field of ministry and capacity He has called you and graced you to serve Him. May we each walk in increased intimacy with Christ and with each other and release His fragrance in the nations, and may God multiply His grace and glory in, to and through us for Christ and His Kingdom.
Part of this article has been adapted from Catherine book, Kingdom Building – Realising Vision and Developing Leaders.
Catherine BrownFounder/Director, Gatekeepers Global Ministries
Co-Founder, Scottish Apostolic Networking Enterprise
Email: admin@gatekeepers.org.uk
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