Ben Peters: "Be Fruitful and Multiply"

I hear the Father crying out to those He has recreated in the Spirit with resurrection life. Once again His Spirit is brooding over His creation, even as He did over the earth, and as He did over the virgin Mary two thousand years ago. He is wanting to impregnate all who are willing with His precious seed—the seed that will produce His fruit. Yes, God is calling us once again to "BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY."

The Early Church and the Manifestation of the Holy Spirit

The early Church knew what it meant to be fruitful and multiply. They were full of the Holy Spirit and manifested both His fruit and His gifts. You can check it out in the first few chapters of the book of Acts. Every gift was manifested, but so was all the fruit. You can go down the list from Galatians 5:22-23 and see that they powerfully manifested unselfish agape love, off-the-charts radical joy, and the peace that passes all human understanding— even in the face of life and death persecution. All the other fruit manifested as well. They demonstrated long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

So, the early Church clearly manifested the Holy Spirit dynamic duo—fruit and gifts—in His preordained, double-barreled shotgun approach. The excitement from the first outpouring on the day of Pentecost attracted the multitudes, who were served God's agape love in a spontaneous message by Peter, resulting in the Church immediately multiplying from 120 to 3,000. It was also a multiplication of the joy of the Lord which became their strength to face the coming persecution. Then the dramatic healing of the crippled man at the temple gate increased the love, joy and peace, etc. throughout the city and region. The response was more multiplication, and thousands more came into the Kingdom. (Photo via Pixabay)

By chapter five of Acts, the Church had manifested incredible, unselfish agape love in the sharing of resources and the meeting of the needs of all the disciples. When the gift of knowledge revealed the sin of Ananias and Sapphira, the holy fear of God fell on everyone, seeing the fruit of sin and the power of the Holy Spirit among them. This stimulated the saints into the knowledge that God was truly moving in their midst, and the gift of faith came into operation as people brought multitudes—probably thousands—of sick and demonized people from Jerusalem and nearby cities. The result was that every single sick and demonized person was healed.

You can imagine the joy and excitement as more and more people wanted to get in on this amazing move of God's Spirit. Of course, the enemy, who used the religious leaders, hated what was happening. Persecution began but the angel of the Lord delivered them more than once from prison. While some were martyred, the Church got stronger and continued to multiply.

God Wants to Do it Again

Today, God wants to do it again. He wants you and I to BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY. If we obey Scripture and ask the Father for the Holy Spirit, He will pour Him out on us. He reminds us to abide in the vine. Jesus said in John 15:16, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain..."

I hear the questions being asked about America and other nations. There have been many positive words released declaring a great and wonderful visitation with many miracles, signs and wonders and many people coming to know our Savior. So why are there still so many battles going on and seemingly so little progress? The swamp seems to be getting deeper and the critters are still hiding in it. This is what I heard the Lord say:

"My Church is still half awake and half asleep. Many have been waking up and rising up to speak My thoughts and reveal My heart, but many more are still content to let the wicked rule as long as they are taken care of in some way. Others are afraid to speak out for fear of loss of favor with people they believe they need.

"But I am allowing more shaking, as one shakes a friend that needs to wake up. The shaking that I am bringing will wake up many more of My people in the months ahead. Then the tide will be turned and My people will join forces in a unity they haven't had since the early Church.

"My glory will be seen upon them. They will abide in Me and become very fruitful. Then I will cause such multiplication that will amaze those who think they have seen everything already. For I will do a NEW THING. NOW it will spring forth. Do not fear the shaking. It will produce an abundance of fruit and you will rejoice with exceedingly great joy." (Photo via Pixabay) (To Subscribe to the Elijah List subscribe here.)

Ben R. Peters
Kingdom Sending Center
Email: ohmint@gmail.com
Website: www.kingdomsendingcenter.org

Ben and Brenda Peters have said "YES" to the call of God to challenge, equip, and send dedicated lovers of Jesus into the harvest fields of the earth, including the seven mountains of society. Together they have ministered to tens of thousands of individuals in several countries of the world. After establishing and serving churches and Christian schools for almost thirty years, they began a traveling ministry in September 1999 under the name Open Heart Ministries. This ministry consisted mainly of speaking, teaching, preaching, and prophesying in conferences, camps, retreats, churches, ministry schools, and homes. More recently, they also founded an Illinois-based ministry called Kingdom Sending Center. Ben began writing revelatory books in 2000, and has published 23 of them since then. His newest book is THE KINGDOM BUILDING CHURCH – Experiencing the Explosive Potential of the Church in Kingdom Building Mode. Ben and Brenda now live near Sacramento, California, close to most of their five children and twelve grandchildren.

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