The Hundred-Fold Blessing - Is There Such a Thing?

Introduction

Hi friends, the style I have used for the article below is slightly different from my regular style of writing. What you see below is a bunch of scriptures related to the subject of Hundred-Fold Blessing with a personal commentary followed after each set of verses. I have avoided as much as possible any unnecessary commentary and tried to keep the explanation direct to point. In other words, I have not wasted any time beating around the bush but have provided the real meat, which I truly believe will feed your spirit, and soul, which will enlighten and produce a clear revelation of what I have personally learnt so far. So, go ahead, read on, feed yourself and grow spiritually.

 

Matthew 13 (MEV) The Parable of the Sower

13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 Great crowds assembled around Him, so that He went into a boat and sat there. And the whole assembly stood on the shore. 3 Then He told them many things in parables, saying, “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 While he sowed, some seeds fell beside the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 But other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up because they did not have deep soil. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched. And because they did not take root, they withered away. 7 Some seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 But other seeds fell into good ground and produced grain: a hundred, sixty, or thirty times as much. 9 Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”

My Notes: According to verse 8 and 9, there is such a thing as a 30, 60 and 100-fold blessing. This point is very important. Please keep this in mind as we proceed to the other verses.

 

The Parable of the Sower Explained

18 “Therefore listen to the parable of the sower. 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one who received seed beside the path. 20 But he who received the seed on rocky ground is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, eventually he falls away. 22 He also who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit. Some produce a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.”

My Notes: In verse 23, those who hear God’s word and understand it, produce 30, 60 and 100-fold. A study of these parable illustrates that the seed is the Word of God and the good soil is the heart which is the spirit man into whom the word is planted. Jesus explained to His disciples that it is not enough to hear the word only but to understand so that the word can be applied to bear good fruit.

 

Mark 10 (MEV) The Rich Man

17 When He set out on His way, a man came running and knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

18 He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good, except God alone. 19 You know the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.”

20 He answered Him, “Teacher, all these have I observed from my youth.”

21 Then Jesus, looking upon him, loved him and said to him, “You lack one thing: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, take up the cross and follow Me.”

22 He was saddened by that word, and he went away grieving. For he had many possessions.

23 Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”

24 The disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

26 They were astonished beyond measure, saying among themselves, “Who then can be saved?”

27 Jesus, looking at them, said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God. For with God all things are possible.”

28 Peter began to say to Him, “Look, we have left everything and have followed You.”

29 Jesus answered, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left a house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, 30 who shall not receive a hundred times as much now in this age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, with persecution, and in the age to come, eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

My Notes: In verse 29, Jesus specifically tells Peter that those who make sacrifice for the preaching of the Gospel will receive a hundred-fold blessing. But when will they receive this hundred-fold blessing? Jesus said they will receive it now in this age. Where? Here on earth, not in heaven. When Jesus says in the age to come, He is making a reference to afterlife. He told His disciples, they will continue to live after they die physically. The reader needs to understand one thing very well; there is no need for God to bless us in heaven because everything is already provided for there. There is no lack, no sickness, no disease, no poverty, no grave, no hospital, no weeping, no crying, no suffering, no evil, no need to beg God for anything there. The blessing we need is for our earthly life. There are problems, circumstances and situations here on earth which require our immediate dependence upon God. God has given us a law of sowing and reaping which works in accordance to obedience to His word. Once we learn, understand and apply this principle, no devil from hell can keep us from receiving the blessings the Bible promises.

 

Genesis 1 (MEV)

11 Then God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation: plants yielding seed and fruit trees on the earth yielding fruit after their kind with seed in them.” And it was so. 12 The earth produced vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind and trees yielding fruit with seed in them after their kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 So the evening and the morning were the third day.

My Notes: In Genesis Chapter 1, we lean a very important spiritual principle. Anything you invest in God’s kingdom, always produces after its own kind. If you invest time, God will multiply your time. If you invest in teaching, God will multiply your spiritual wisdom. If you invest your finances, God will multiply your finances. If you invest in praying for the sick people, God will take care of your health. This is called the Law of Reciprocity or in simple words, the law of Sowing and Reaping. Jesus Himself said that you can reap or harvest a hundred-fold blessing of your investment in His kingdom if you dare believe and obey this spiritual principle.

 

Luke 5 (MEV) The Calling of the First Disciples

5 As the people pressed upon Him to hear the word of God, He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret 2 and saw two boats beside the lake. But the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 He entered one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to thrust it out a little from the land. Then He sat down and taught the people from the boat.

4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

5 Simon answered Him, “Master, we have worked all night and have caught nothing. But at Your word I will let down the net.”

6 When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was tearing. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.

8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear. From now on you will catch men.” 11 So when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him.

My Notes: In this event, we learn that Peter had fished all night with his companions and caught no fish. I mean zero fish literally. Now because the crowd was pushing against Jesus, He borrowed Peter’s boat to preach the Gospel. After Jesus was done preaching, He asked Peter to take his boat into the deep and let down all his nets. I want you to notice that Jesus said nets which means many, not just one. But Peter only let down one net. In a way, he limited God from blessing him. This is the same problem with us. When God opens a big door for us to bless His work, we either get offended or complain instead of taking full advantage of the opportunity. Peter let down only one net but God was still gracious and blessed him with so much fish that the net started tearing apart. Think about how gracious God is in blessing His children. Should we not have the same attitude? Dear friends, don’t hold back when God opens a door for you to bless His work. Take full advantage of every opportunity. But be wise, not foolish in how you give, where you give, when you give and most importantly, pray and seek God’s will before you give.

 

Genesis 26 (MEV) Isaac and Abimelek

1 There was a famine in the land, in addition to the first famine that was during the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. 2 The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land of which I will tell you. 3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you; for I will give to you and all your descendants all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 4 I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of the heavens and will give your descendants all these lands. By your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” 6 So Isaac lived in Gerar.

12 Then Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; the Lord blessed him. 13 The man became rich and continued to prosper until he became very wealthy. 14 For he had possessions of flocks and herds and a great number of servants so that the Philistines envied him. 15 For the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father by filling them with dirt.

My Notes: Pay attention to verses 1 and 12. Verse 1 clearly states that there was a famine in the land. Now during famine, it is very difficult to grow anything. But verse 12 says that Isaac sowed and reaped (remember the law of reciprocity) in the same year a hundred-fold because God blessed him. If God is your source, it does not matter how bad the economy is, you can be fully confident that God will surely bless you a hundred-fold if you faithfully invest in the preaching of the Gospel. Invest and expect the hundred-fold blessing. It is biblical and it works. Remember, God is not a man that He should lie. Those people whose source is God and their priority is the preaching of the Gospel, live and operate under God’s economy and kingdom. This world’s system does not affect them. Why? Because they are in this world but not of this world. Let us get our priorities right and we can also experience this hundred-fold blessing that the Bible talks about.

 

1 Kings 17:7-16 (MEV) The Widow of Zarephath

7 After some time, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. 8 The word of the Lord came to him, saying, 9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there. I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” 10 So he got up and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and said, “Please get a small cup of water for me to drink.” 11 As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”

12 She said, “As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, but only a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a jar. I am gathering two sticks, that I can go in and make it for me and my son, so we may eat it and die.”

13 Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make a little cake for me first, and bring it to me, and afterward, make some for your son and you, 14 for thus says the Lord God of Israel: The barrel of meal will not run out, nor will the jar of oil empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.”

15 She went and did what Elijah told her to do, and she, he, and her household ate many days. 16 The barrel of meal did not run out, nor did the jar of oil empty, according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke by Elijah.

My Notes: In the above scenario, we learn a very important lesson about obedience and blessing that many would rather question than believe. To obey a servant of God is to obey God. Why? Because the servant of God is the channel through which God works in people’s lives to bring forth abundant blessings. This is the reason we need to be careful not to judge too quick when a servant of God gives us specific instructions from the Bible to adhere to which may be totally against our philosophy of life. Think of it like this; if the widow had decided to disobey Elijah’s instruction, death would have been the definite result of the widow and her son. But praise be onto God, she had enough commonsense to obey God’s servant and live. Now keep in mind that when I say servant of God, I am referring to the Pastor (Spiritual Leader) of the church (Spiritual Home) where God has placed you. From the above scripture, we learn this astonishing fact that the widow and her son survived the famine which was for three and half years. If we did the math and threw in one hundred days of food for her act of obedience, that would have been fair according to the one hundred-fold blessing. But here we must stop for moment and pay our full attention. The blessing is far greater than one hundred-fold. Even if God had promised a full year of food, that is still a three hundred sixty-five-fold blessing which once again would be far more generous. But three and a half years of food is surely a sign of God’s infinite blessing on those who choose to obey Him (in this case His servant) despite the circumstances. All glory to God for His limitless grace. I sure hope this excites people to change their attitude and mind about investing in God’s kingdom. Please keep in mind that this happened in the Old Testament where the people were under the law. Right now, we are under grace. Since we have a better covenant now, surely God will not hold back His hand if we learn to open our hearts and our hands to bless His work on earth.

 

Hebrews 2:10 (MEV)

10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

My Notes: Here we learn something very important about sacrifice. In this case, the self-sacrifice of Jesus according to the will of God, the Father which is a picture of pure obedience to the Eternal Supreme Being. In one way, we feel emotionally staggered to think that God almighty, the maker of all beings and this universe would even allow such a terrible, unthinkable thing to happen. But the truth is that we really need to put aside our emotions because for God to hold back His Son is to doom the entire humanity to the pits of hell. This is a far scarier picture as you may have already let your thoughts wonder off to that horrible place. It is very interesting to note that the above verse is pointing onto a wonderful ending stating that God sacrificed one Son in order to adapt many. God gave one Son and in return received many. So many that the hundred-fold blessing has actually turned to millions and millions.

 

Conclusive Statement

I would like to conclude this teaching on the subject of one hundred-fold blessing by saying, “Do not limit God’s blessings in your life. As we have seen from the above scriptures, that His blessings are infinite (has no limit; keeps on going forever). I believe the reason Jesus said one hundred-fold is to create a mental picture in the believer’s mind to understand how great His abundant blessings are for those who make sacrifices for His kingdom. The truth is that we can limit it to zero or we can push it to infinitely by obeying the spiritual law of Reciprocity (Law of Giving and Receiving; Law of Sowing and Reaping). God gives us a choice. We are left to make the decision and act upon it. Make the right choice. Team up with God and receive what His word promises.”

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