El Shaddai: The Almighty God who multiplies
The name El Shaddai is defined as 'God Almighty'. The title 'Almighty' contains the word 'might' which is a reference to: power, ability and possibility (all in one).
'When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El Shaddai; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.'
'And God said to him, “I am El Shaddai; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will be among your descendants. The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.” Then God went up from him at the place where he had talked with him.
'And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard even in the outer court, like the voice of Almighty God when He speaks.'
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Though there are multiple times where God is referred as 'Almighty', I will refer to 3 passages where God introduces Himself and where He is referred to 'El Shaddai':
Genesis 17:1-2
Genesis 35:11-13 (God speaking to Jacob)
In the above two passages, God introduces Himself as El-Shaddai to Abraham and Jacob. Notice as well that when He introduces Himself, He also tells Abraham and Jacob that they will multiply into people and nations. This context leads me to acknowledge the link between 'El Shaddai' and multiplication.
Many may think that it does not take power or might to multiply something. I will strongly disagree with them.
It takes power for a woman to bear children and give birth. It takes a serious amount of might to multiply 5 loaves of bread and two fish like Jesus did (reference Matthew 14:13-21).
God introduced Himself as El- Shaddai in Genesis 17:1-2 and in Genesis 35: 11-13, because both Abraham and Jacob needed to be aware that their multiplication into nations will require a serious level of might or power which could only be engineered by God-The Almighty.
In Jeremiah 51:15, the Bible reads:
'He made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.'
The earth is made of billions of atoms. Those atoms had to be multiplied and combined together by God until it reached the current form of the earth. Such multiplication requires might. The value of might is so important that God has a Spirit of Might among His own 7 Spirits (reference Isaiah 11:1-2, Revelations 4:5). And through His Spirit of Might, He made the Earth.
Let us look at the miracle of the 'the bread and fish' by Jesus in Matthew 14: 13-21:
'In verse 19, Jesus broke the loaves. In other words, He did not create bread from scratch but He multiplied several pieces of bread by using the existing loaves of bread in hand.
In scientific terms, Jesus was multiplying the combined particles in the existing loaves of bread. Such operation requires might.
In Ezekiel 10, the prophet gives a description of a vision and in verse 5, he writes the following:
(Ezekiel 10:5)
The description from Ezekiel brings an interesting element on the voice of God. This makes me think of how Jesus was able to speak to large crowds without a microphone. There is only one explanation I can think of: 'When Jesus spoke to large crowds, God (El Shaddai) would multiply or amplify the sound particles emitted from Jesus vocal cords'.
This is El Shaddai, the God Almighty , the One who multiplies.
You and El Shaddai
Having written all the above, I come to conclude that a born again Christian ,in a relationship with God, should manifest multiplication. One of the lessons from the parable of talents, refers to the obligation we have, as Christians, to manifest multiplication. And this does not necessarily mean 'biological procreation' because some of us are eunuchs for the Kingdom of God (ref Matthew 19:12, 1 Corinthians 7:8). The multiplication expected from every believer ,after encountering God, consists in incrementally producing, through the Holy Spirit, more of what Jesus did while He was on Earth. Each believer has received the Holy Spirit, His gifts and fruits, and each believer is expected to multiply on what was given.
Here is the proof:
'Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.'
(John 14:12)
(John 14:12)
'Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:19-20)
A born again believer should multiply into more disciples. Notice that I am not talking about 'confessing Christians'. I am talking about winning a soul to Christ through evangelization and discipling them to live like Christ.
A mathematical summary on God's multiplication would be presented as follow:
(Willing and obedient believer) X (EL Shaddai) = Multiplied result
(Unwilling-indifferent-disobedient believer) X (EL Shaddai) = 0 result
Though they were not perfect, Abraham and Jacob were obedient people. When a believer' submission meets with El Shaddai, there will be multiplication. But the unwilling and the indifferent believers will not yield results. Abraham would not have multiplied if he had refused to follow God's call.
Contrarily to all other earthly creatures, God gave us a will. We can accept or we can refuse God's plan of multiplication.
When El Shaddai appears, let us be willing to follow on what He says.