Mensa Otabil - Multiply (11/07/2025)
Genesis 9:7, and as for you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it. This is the instruction that God gave to Noah after Noah had come from the flood. If you know the biblical story of the flood, everything is gone; only Noah and the people with him in the ark have survived. Noah comes out, and I can imagine he surveys the Earth, and everything is gone-buildings are gone, people are gone, civilization wiped out. He makes a sacrifice to God, and God speaks to him and says, «As for you, Noah, be fruitful, multiply, bring forth abundantly.»
So, God looks at Noah and the bewilderment on his face as he sees a devastated Earth. Many times, when we are confronted with devastation, we are so overwhelmed by what has gone wrong that we think nothing can be done. But God says, «Yes, so much has gone wrong; so much has been destroyed, but as for you, my assignment for you is to bring forth abundantly. Be fruitful.» He wasn’t just talking about the number of children that Noah should have-he meant that that was included, but he was talking about the fact that all the buildings that have gone down must be rebuilt. Civilization has to be rebooted; things have to start all over again. Every industry that went down has to be built back up, and that is still God’s attitude toward us when we have come from great calamity.
When everything is lost, so much is gone. Instead of sitting and wailing and crying and bemoaning our own lack, God says to you, «As for you, be fruitful.» That is what I believe God is speaking to you today: that as for you, be fruitful. Though you may not have all the resources you need, be fruitful. You can be fruitful, and though people may try to pull you down and discourage you, you have to be fruitful. And though your money is not available and you don’t have the right capital to do the assignment in front of you, you still have to commit to being fruitful because that is what God is saying.
You don’t wait for the perfect environment to be fruitful; he who observes the wind will not sow. We don’t look at perfect environments to try and do something; we are fruitful because it is a season. It is a day God has given to us, and we must act in it. For us as Christians, in the valley, we will be fruitful; on the mountain, we will be fruitful; in the dry season, we will be fruitful; in the rainy season, we will be fruitful because God says, «As for you, you must be fruitful.» That’s what I want to encourage you with as you face the world, as you face your destiny, as you face the challenges ahead of you.
God will still work with you, and the gifts you have, the talents you possess, will speak for themselves. You will build again, you will construct again, and you will be fruitful again. As for you, be fruitful. Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, you have made me fruitful. I boldly declare that as for me, I will be fruitful in all that I do. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»