When God created mankind in His image and likeness, He commanded man to be fruitful and multiply. Fruitfulness and multiplication, although it goes beyond mere reproduction, is as a result of the system God created. The family system ensures that there is always flesh and blood on earth to take care of His creation. One advantage we have over angels is that we are all intertwined into one family whereas angels are standalone creations that cannot reproduce after their own kind.
Yes, we are all one family. Inasmuch as we find a way to chasm each people group, we are all one big family tree (people who lived, people alive and people who are yet to live). No one can be human without subjecting themselves to this system created by God. Thus, when God became man even He had to be born of a woman. The family system overlooks 4 areas I have identified; reproduction, accountability, inheritance and discipleship.
Inheritance
God designed our lives to move from faith to faith, strength to strength and glory to glory. God intends that our personal victory becomes a corporate blessing. Moses had to go through rigorous training to sustain an extraordinary walk with God. Since he fathered Joshua through the process, God promises to now walk with Joshua like He walked with Moses. This is what a family system enables.
If you die with your blessings and your children have to work for the very things you worked for, what good were you to them? A righteous man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children. The next generation should enjoy the benefits from the battles of the previous generation while also battling new wars for the next generation. Don’t live for yourself. Leave for a generation you will never see.
God did not intend to just bless you. The end goal is to make you a blessing. In Judges 8:28, because of the presence of Gideon alone, there was peace in the land for 40 years. Inheritance has a system on its own that makes sure that whatever portal someone opened in times past is still kept open. May you be an open Heaven of wisdom in your territory. May your presence alone in the land cause an outburst of unusual breakthroughs for even strangers.
Discipleship
Discipleship is a system on its own but it is better seen in the light of a family system than a mentorship system. Naturally, a child cannot mother a child. Nature has ensured that anyone who can parent a child is past childhood age. Therefore, you can’t be a father until you are fathered. Why is this generation calling some brothers “Papa”? How is a man who is only 5 years into being born again be your spiritual father?
Until we are under authority, we will have no right to wield authority. Because the goal of discipleship is that the student becomes like the teacher; the son becomes a father. Being a Christian (little Christ) is a journey. We are nurtured by our fathers and mothers until Christ is formed in us. Gone are the days when the main pastor was so high in stature spiritually while the rest of the congregation were babes, leaving them to totally depend on the man of God like babies do.
Have you realised there are apostles, evangelists, teachers and prophets but in this era, God has made each of these offices also have the office of a pastor? You may be an Apostle but people call you Pastor more than anything else. God has also given you a shepherd’s heart. Do you know why? Because we are getting ready for the biggest harvest from the biggest revival and greatest awakening this end time. Churches all over the world are going to be filled with zealous first timers and they will need a pastor to disciple them. Any Christian who is not being discipled is already a burden to the Kingdom.
Accountability
When your friend gives you a gift, they have little to no say on how you use that gift. However, it’s not so with your parents. Growing up, if your parents bought you, say, a watch; they had 100% say on how you kept the watch. God is not going to judge as a friend on judgement day by the way. God has already put everyone in a family system that holds you accountable for your actions. You can’t do what you want, in reality. Your family will make sure of that, even as an adult.
You will always be your mother’s child, no matter how old you become. After all, the age difference will never reduce. Your siblings will have a say in certain decisions you make. When you start your own family, your spouse will be your accountability partner. That’s God’s system in place so you don’t lose guard. Without accountability, the best of us will begin to fool. God will hold you accountable for every gift He gave you. He is not shy to ask youhow you used it.
Grace is free, and you can ask as many times as you want. However, you will account for how well you used the Grace. God gave you your mouth and you will account for every idle word you said with it. God gave you your body and He has promised to destroy anyone who destroys the body. Even Jesus had to account for the disciples God gave Him. You will account for your children, disciples, ministry, every opportunity and every action. So next time your mother is advising you to stop that bad behaviour, remember that it is God’s system to ensure that you don’t fail.
Reproduction
There is a major difference between producing and reproducing. If I produce a biscuit and I create a system that makes the biscuit able to produce after its own kind, that is reproduction. Reproduction means one is sourced from a parent. A river, they say, cannot rise higher than its source. Everything we see came from a source, and that source is from above. Even a spiritual father has a spiritual father. Nobody becomes their own source. If we cannot trace you to someone, you are in error.
This is why we are one big family tree. There’s a system that interconnects us. It is the same system that made us all subject to death when Adam sinned, and it’s the same system that makes us all alive in Christ as 1 Corinthians 15:21 says. Once I disciple and leave an inheritance for the ones I have reproduced, I have already fulfilled half of what is written in my books. If I fail this part, I have done the next generations a great injustice. Whatever I become, my true success, if there is any, is that I reproduced one in my image and likeness. Since my image and likeness conforms to the Image of His Son, who is the visible Image of God, I have made another man in the image and likeness of God.
If we align to the family system of God, this is the fruitfulness and multiplication that will be evident. Selah!
