Everybody wants increase in one or more areas of life. In these teachings, we would be discussing how to position oneself for a divine increase in life. We would be looking at the principles to follow, to activate divine increase. I am very sure we can be divinely increased if we take heed to these principles.

1Corinthians 3:6
I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

Apostle Paul here made a profound statement which is the basis of our study. He planted. Apollos watered. God gave the increase. For increase to come, therefore, there must be a planting, and a watering. If you don’t plant and water, you will not experience any increase. Furthermore, from this text, we see that for every miracle of increase, there are 2 sides – the God side and the man side. Man does the planting and the watering. God gave the increase. God will not and does not do the planting. Neither will He do the watering. His part is to give increase to what has been planted and watered. Therefore, if you are not experiencing increase in your life, check if you are doing the man side well. Miracles occur when man meets God at some point. Until Isaac sowed in the land, he never received a hundredfold blessing (Gen. 26:12). All over scriptures, you see God responding whenever man did something. If you do nothing, you will not experience increase. So the principles of divine increase are planting and watering. Let’s look at them more in depth.

The Planting

1Corinthians 3:6 (Easy-to-Read Version)
I planted the seed and Apollos watered it. But God is the one who made the seed grow.

To have an increase in life, you have to plant and water. Without these two, God will have nothing to give increase to. The Easy-to-Read version gives us more information of what to plant. It says “I planted the seed”. The first thing to do to get increase in your life is to plant the seed. What is the seed? You may think money is the seed. Well, you may not be entirely wrong, but that is not the Seed that fetches the great harvest we really desire in our lives. In Mark 4:3-20, the Lord Jesus told a parable of a sower who went out to sow. What did he sow? Jesus said, the seed is the Word of God. We are to plant the Seed of the Word of God in our lives for there to be increase. When many of us hear of the seed, we immediately think of money. Let’s get our priorities right. The seed that will bring increase in your life is not money, but the Word of God. Develop an affinity for God’s Word. Get close to your bible. Read it daily. Meditate on it. In so doing, you will be preparing yourself for divine increase. Plant the seed of God’s Word in your life today. Seed is sown in the ground. The ground where you plant God’s Word is your heart. In that parable, the Lord spoke of four kinds of ground or soil, and He stated that each was “he that heareth the word and …”. What kind of ground is your heart? There is the stony ground, the ground without much earth, the ground with thorns, and the good ground. The stony ground hear the Word, receive the Seed of God’s Word but lack understanding, resulting in Satan stealing the Word from their heart. The ground without much earth hear the Word but lack depth. They receive the Word with gladness, shout about it, make confessions but have no true revelation of the Word. So when challenges of life come, when they are tested (oh surely, Mr Devil will try you to know if you really believe the Word), when the trials come, the shallow ground pick offense with God and His Word. Then there is the ground with thorns. These thorns are the cares of this world, anxieties, pleasures and the deceitfulness of riches. These thorns get in and choke the Word. The Word becomes unfruitful because it has been crowded out. Then, we have the good ground. They hear the Word, and understand it. They keep the Word inside them and with patience, bring forth increase. So to recap what we have said so far, the seed is God’s Word and the ground is your heart. David in Psalm 119:11 said to the Lord, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee”. He put the seed of the Word in the ground of his heart. That is the way to begin to have increase. When you have the seed, and the ground has been made ready, the next thing to do is to plant. How do we plant the Word of God in our heart? One way to do that is by hearing. The Sower is the preacher or teacher. He speaks the Word to you. As you hear the Word, it is being planted in your heart. Remember our text, Paul planted. That means he spoke the Word to them. Preaching time is sowing time. Give proper and adequate attention to the hearing of the Word. Never relegate the hearing of the Word. Many people today want healing and miracles but the last thing they do is to hear the Word. No, no, no. If you want increase, hear first. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God. Sometimes hearing once is not enough. You’ve got to hear again and again and again. Before the woman with the issue of blood of 12 years got her healing, the bible she heard about Jesus (Mark 5:27). Friend, the Word is planted as you hear. In Luke 5:15, the bible says the people thronged Jesus to “hear and to be healed by Him of their infirmities”. They didn’t come to be healed only. They came first to hear and then, to be healed. When they heard Him, when the Word had been planted in them, then it produced a harvest of healing. So needful is the place of planting the seed by the hearing of the Word that Luke by the Holy Ghost repeated it again in Luke chapter 6 and verses 17 and 18 that “a great multitude of people…came to hear Him, and to be healed of their diseases; and they that were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed”. You never see great miracles until you get to meetings where the people are hungry for the Word and not just looking for some miracles. Many preachers are in a hurry today to ‘conduct deliverance’, but Luke tells us people vexed with unclean spirits came to hear Him first. I am sure by the time Jesus was done speaking to them, there was no need for Him to lay hands on them. How did I get this assurance? Verse 19 tells us that the “whole multitude sought to touch Him, for there went virtue out of Him and healed them all”. Do you know what happened? By the time He had spoken the Word to them, by the time they had heard the Word, faith rose in them that they didn’t need hands laid on them anymore. They simply pulled the anointing out of Him. I mean, the power of God was just oozing out of Jesus literally. That’s what happens when we put first things first. Do well to check all the scriptures I share for yourself, so they won’t just be information to you, but a revelation. You need money? Plant the Word. You need a job? Get to the Word. Whatever you need is in the Word of God. All you need is the seed of God’s Word. In Proverbs 4:20-22, we are to “attend to My Words, incline thine ears to My sayings. Do not let them depart from thine eyes, keep them in the midst of thine heart”. Why? “for they are life to them that find them and health to all thy flesh”. Hallelujah. God’s Word is life. You need life? Get to the Word. Also, God’s Word is health to all our flesh. The Hebrew word translated health actually means medicine. So we can boldly say the bible is God’s medicine. Anybody sick among you? His Words are medicine. What do you do with medicine? You take it into you. That’s how it will work. If you keep the drugs your doctor gives you on the table and admire them every day, you won’t get well. You will have to take those drugs and swallow them, for them to begin to work. Same thing with the Word. We can gather round and rejoice about the Word of God and say so many sweet things about it, but until we open the bible and begin to read it, until we begin to preach and hear it, we won’t be planting any seed for God to give increase to. So get addicted to the Word of God. Plant the Word by reading the bible daily, by hearing it when it is being preached. As you are reading this now, I am actually planting the Word of God in you. You may not realize it now, but the Word is being sown in you as you read. Hence, give heed to what you hear. Give heed. Let the Word enter into your heart. That’s where it should be – in your heart. Some people love to accuse the preacher, but, did you read about the Sower in the parable Jesus stated? That fellow was mentioned only once. What you do with what you hear is up to you, and not the preacher. You can’t read the Word or hear the Word preached once a week or at your convenience, and expect increase. There are principles behind supernatural increase. The first is Planting. And the Seed is the Word of God.

To be continued