Increase or Decrease?

Increase - to become greater in size, amount, degree, etc.; grow

Decrease
SYN.—decrease and dwindle suggest a growing gradually smaller in bulk, size, volume, or number, but dwindle emphasizes a wasting away to the point of disappearance [his hopes decreased as his fortune dwindled away to nothing] Web.

You will either increase and grow or decrease and shrink.
Increase takes time and effort.
Increase comes from obeying God.
We are to honor God with the first fruits of all our increase.
The Lord will bless and increase those who fear Him.
To increase you will need to maintain the tools of your gain.
If you are seeking happiness in increase you will never find it.
When goods increase so do those who consume them.

I believe it is God’s will for us to increase. The entire creation, seedtime and harvest are outward evidence of this. Increase is the result of applying good farming principles. If we understand the way the system is set up and apply the laws of increase, we will prosper. It’s not to difficult to understand but the process takes time and so most people waste a lot of trying to cut corners and take short cuts. But there are not really many short cuts a farmer can take. It’s - Seed – Time – then Harvest. Then when you harvest you have to save some of the seed to replant and continue to maintain your gain. If you eat more seed than you plant every year it won’t take long until you are going hungry and looking for work in someone else’s field. And if you spend more than you make and save none one day you will find yourself wanting and wondering why when God promised increase. It’s not fault, it’s really just a lack of discipline and self control. God does not just give us the harvest He gives the seed and the ability to increase. If we apply the process and sow, and tend and keep then God causes increase according to the laws of the universe. If we violate the principles we can pray and give and believe until we are blue in the face but we will not increase. Imagine a farmer who eats all of his crops and more and keeps borrowing to try to satisfy his appetites. Then he gives his little token gift to the church or some ministry and says “God will increase me, I am a sower.” And it is true in the sense that he has increased in ignorance and will grow dumber still trying to increase by applying the principles of decrease. Lot’s of people like to hear about sowing and reaping and rejoice to just throw their seed away and expect God to take care of the rest. But it is not often emphasized that between sowing and reaping comes PLOWING, planting, watering, weeding, tending and keeping. If you are as just as smart as an old farmer and you WORK HARD then God will bless the work of your hands and you will increase but if you don’t He won’t have anything to bless and you won’t. There is no blessing and bail out plan for poor stewardship. As a matter of fact God’s system is set up to take the resources away from those who squander them and put them in the hands of people who will do something with them. So God seems to be saying to me, “if you really want to be blessed stop being an ignorant, whining and insatiable consumer, repent and change your ways and become a producer. Then I will bless the WORK of your hands and you will increase.”

Mark 4:26-29
26 And He said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, 27 and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. 28 For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."
NKJV

Deut 28:1-14
28 "Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:

3 "Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.

4 "Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.

5 "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

6 "Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

7 "The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.

8 "The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

9 "The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. 10 Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. 14 So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
NKJV

Ps 115:13-14
13 He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great.
14 The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children.
KJV

Prov 3:9
9 Honor the Lord with your possessions,
And with the firstfruits of all your increase;
NKJV

Prov 13:11
11 Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished,
But he who gathers by labor will increase.
NKJV

Prov 14:4
4 Where no oxen are, the trough is clean;
But much increase comes by the strength of an ox.
NKJV

Eccl 5:10-11
10 He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver;
Nor he who loves abundance, with increase.
This also is vanity.

11 When goods increase,
They increase who eat them;
So what profit have the owners
Except to see them with their eyes?
NKJV

Eccl 5:10
10 Whoever loves money never has money enough;
whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.
This too is meaningless.

11 As goods increase,
so do those who consume them.
And what benefit are they to the owner
except to feast his eyes on them?
NIV