ACE #134: When We Ask For Increase

Gospel artist, Vicki Yohe, sings a song called, "Increase Me" that is derived from 1 Chronicles 4:10.  The words are:

This is my prayer that you would bless me
This is my prayer that your hand be with me
This is my prayer from evil you'd keep me Lord (oh yeah)
This is my prayer that it would not grieve me
Enlarge my territory

Chorus: No Limits, no boundaries
I see increase all around me
Stretch forth, break forth
Release me, enlarge my territory
No limits
Can you see it
No limits
Can you feel it
No Limits
Can you see it
No Limits
Go and Get it
Can you see it, No limits

I read the book, "Prayer of Jabez" by Bruce Wilkinson more than 10 years ago.  And I prayed the prayer every week for an entire summer.  I was in no way prepared for what would follow.  God imparted a vision in me for a Women's Ministry, which was in addition to the work I was already doing with the music ministry at my church.  The vision was crystal clear.  Everything I needed was supplied.  Everybody I needed was prepared.  When I'd asked for increase, I thought it would be a financial blessing or something tangible.  But it was so far beyond that.  It took me some time to realize what it really meant then, and what it still means now.

What the request really meant was not just that God would increase me, personally, but that the God in me would increase (or be magnified) so that I could be a more effective witness and instrument of praise and worship for Him. 

To this very day, what strikes a chord with me is that verse 9 is often left out of the prayer; most people skip straight to verse 10.  Sometimes I wonder if we want the prayer request answered, but we don't want to be what Jabez was, which is HONORABLE.  We also don't want to go through what his mother went through to birth him, which is PAIN.  Some of my "best work" has been birthed out of painful life experiences.  It's in those moments that I've sought after God the most...and He responded in the loudest way so that I could know that it was definitely Him that did it.

Pray the prayer if you desire, but be sure to position yourself to receive it...the blessings and the ministry work that will follow.  Increase births more increase.

 

1 Chronicles 4:9-10
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request.