FILL THE EARTH!
Pastor Tayo Adeyemi
Senior Pastor of New Wine Church
Sunday 16 January 2011
Foundation Scriptures: Genesis 1: 26-28
Today, we continue on our journey towards a deeper understanding of our dominion mandate but first, let’s quickly revisit what we learned last week: We understood that God has increase on His mind and that His preferred method of increase is by multiplication. We discovered that multiplication involves ensuring that whatever is committed to us, is made better and made more, which involving being both creative and productive. We concluded by looking at the life of Isaac as a model for multiplication uncovering a three-stage process being (i) initial success (ii) sustained growth and (iii) diversification which began with a creative idea, the key to us enjoying increase as God intended.
Be All You Can Be in the Earth
The Hebrew word used in Genesis 9:1 where God instructed Noah to “fill the earth” means “to furnish”, “become all you can be” and “accomplish an end result”. In telling Noah therefore to fill the earth, God was essentially telling him “Become all that you can be in the earth, so you can furnish it and thereby accomplish my purpose in the earth”.
There are various dictionary definitions for the word “fill” but for the purpose of this message, I will focus on the following three which are (i) occupy available space (ii) overwhelm with your presence (as seen in Acts 5: 27-28 & 2 Corinthians 2: 14) and (iii) satisfy the hunger or requirements of another. All these definitions are intended to give us perspective but for the sake of simplicity, let’s focus in particular on the first definition.
In order for us to fully understand the mandate to fill the earth, let’s look at the concept of container and content. For example, our building, Gateway House is not New Wine Church, it is a container for the church, which of course is the people in the building, the content. By changing the content, we change the character of the container and by extension, our experience of the container. If Gateway House were to be hired for a training seminar, the building is no longer church, it is now a training venue. The container has not changed but the content has.
Every ideology or belief system is a container; your faith and your words are containers, carrying a specific content. Both content and container are important but the content is always the most important of the two. You can greatly enjoy the message contained in a book despite it being of battered and dusty appearance and by the same token you would not fail to notice if you opened a can of Coca-Cola only to discover that it was water inside. With this understanding, God’s mandate to us to fill the earth can be understood in terms of Him telling us to pour our content into the various containers available on the earth.
“We have a natural compulsion to fill empty spaces”
William Shortz
In view of the definition of ‘fill’ being ‘to occupy an empty space’, we see that in God’s mandate to us to fill the earth there are three specific spaces that we are called to fill: (i) the geographical space, speaking of land mass or physical territory (ii) the cultural space, speaking of ideas, values, lifestyles social pursuits and behavioural patterns of the people occupying geographical spaces and (iii) spiritual space, being the unseen spiritual activity as well as religious beliefs and practices. There is therefore a geographical, cultural and also a spiritual dimension to God’s mandate to us to fill the earth. Our fruit must be able to travel geographically, culturally and sometimes spiritually if it is going to fill the earth. In order to fill the earth our content must possess three fundamental qualities: (i) It must be important, having real, substantial value and carrying weight indeed, being considered to be more valuable than what people currently have. (ii) It must be invasive, able to invade new areas and able to penetrate new markets and seize control of new spheres and (iii) It must be influential – having the potential to be a trend-setter and capable of setting the pattern for peoples’ behaviour.
Every idea that has filled the earth today is the product of somebody’s mind – This is as much the truth with Coca-cola as it is with Google. First they were fruitful, producing something important, invasive and influential and then they multiplied –propagating it and making it travel from its original location and over time, filling the earth with it. The same applies to books, comedy, fashion, food, music or philosophy or poetry, political world views, religion or social media. The truth is that if you do not fill the earth with your fruit, someone else will fill it with theirs. As long as there is a space available, somebody will occupy it. If we fail to fill the empty spaces with our fruit, we have no reason to complain if a gangster rapper or Lady Gaga fills the earth with theirs!
Fill The Earth!
For anything to fill the earth, it must have the capacity to adapt, especially as you move it into new land, cultures and spiritual environments. When God scattered the people of Babel in Genesis 11, they started to migrate across the earth. They would have had to adapt in their food, clothing and shelter in order to survive. As our fruit travels across the earth from one climate to another, whether geographical, cultural or spiritual, it must be able to adapt. In order to adapt effectively, our fruit must possess four qualities: (i) Mobility – it must be able to extend, travel and move. (ii) Viability – it must be able contend, fighting off opposition and competition and survive hostility (iii) Adaptability – it must be able to amend, containing the capacity to adjust to the climate in which it finds itself and (iv) Superiority - it must be able to transcend, entering new territory and taking over, establishing itself as a market leader.
Coca-cola is an example of a product that has filled the earth because it possesses these qualities. They adjust their prices and marketing strategy to match the economy of the nation in which they are selling. McDonalds is another example, adapting perfectly to the culture in which they are selling, serving fries with mayonnaise in Holland and with salsa sauce in Spain.
Jerusalem, All Judea, Samaria And All the Earth
In Acts 1: 8 Jesus gave His disciples the strategy for the global expansion programme of His church, telling them that they would be witnesses “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” We can use this strategy in our efforts to fill the earth. Let’s look at each of these:
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->‘Jerusalem’ represents favourable territory, a local platform in which we are most well known and most accepted, where we have the greatest advantage. Jesus told His disciples to start in Jerusalem as it was here that he rose from the dead and therefore the place of their greatest strength and their greatest confidence. The people here were all Jews and therefore had the same belief systems and therefore there were not too many obstacles to overcome. Always start from your Jerusalem!
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->‘All Judea’ represents familiar territory, a regional platform. It was not a favourable environment but at the very least it was familiar.
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->‘Samaria’ represents fierce territory, a national platform. Given the tension between Samaritans and the Jews, this is potentially hostile territory in which competition is faced. It was in Samaria that the disciples encountered another Jesus and had to confront Him (Acts 8: 9-10)
<!--[if !supportLists]-->· <!--[endif]-->‘The end of the Earth’ represents foreign or forbidden territory, a global platform. Here, the people were different from the Jews in every way. The challenge here was attempting to preach the Jesus is the Son of God to a people who did not believe that there is a God. It is here that most of the disciples failed woefully in attempting to carry a Jewish gospel to a global platform, asking grown men to become Christians by becoming Jews and getting circumcised.
“Act Local, Think Global!”
Paul, however was different. He was a Jew by birth, a Roman by citizenship and a Greek by philosophy. On arrival in Athens he did not quote scripture, but spoke to the people in the language that they understood, quoting from the billboards and local poets (Acts 17: 22-23, 28) and in learning to adapt, he got the attention of the people and as he described himself in 1 Corinthians 9: 23, he “became all things to all people in order that he may save some.” From this, it is clear that if we want to fill the earth we must act local and think global. You cannot think African and conquer a global market; you cannot think American and take the world. The only acceptable paradigm is global thinking.
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