“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” Gen 1:28

OK. The basic business model is laid out in four parts…

1. Be fruitful: Create a self-replicable product or service of high quality and value.
2. Multiply: Create the systems necessary to efficiently and effectively recreate that model in multiple markets.
3. Fill the earth: Develop effective and reliable methods of distributorship. This should involve symbiotic and mutualistic relationships.
4. Subdue it: Dominate your market. Control the sphere in which you do business. Lead. Set your vision to be the head and not the tail in the markets you are in.

Now, here’s the bonus lesson. It’s actually in three parts. After God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, He adds the idea of having dominion over three other areas. I do believe we are to take that text literally. However, I am also looking for an application to help me succeed in the first four steps.

Consider this… Have dominion over the fish. I believe fish which are in the deep places can be a picture of our deeper, lower nature which we are to have dominion over. This would include appetites of all kinds which are very real and must always be held in subjugation lest we throw our lives away or become ineffective due to poor health.

Consider well the words of Jacob on his death bed when he called his sons together to speak a blessing over them. When he came to Reuben, he said, “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: Unstable as water, you shall not excel; because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it: he went up to my couch.” Jacob had great hopes for his firstborn, but because of Reuben’s lack of control over his lower nature (Gen 35:22) he would never amount to anything. Selah.

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“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it:” Gen 1:28

You’ve just read the best summary of a business model I’ve ever read. I know some of you got hung up on literalism as if I were somehow suggesting otherwise. Let me be clear, I take the Scripture literally where intended to be literal and allegorical where we are told the text is allegorical as in many of the parables Jesus told.

What I am doing here is encouraging you all to look at a passage of Scripture that is meant to be taken literally and then ask what other applications can be taken from it. For example, what is leaven in the Scripture? Is it something good or bad? It’s both. Jesus used leaven to describe the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and to describe the growth of the kingdom of God.

So while I understand that being fruitful in the above text is a directive to procreate, it can also be applied to creating anything. In business, that could be a product or service. If so, make sure it’s good. Then multiply and distribute it (fill the earth). But how far should you go? May I suggest you subdue your market? That’s the fourth phase. Bring it into subjection. Dominate your sphere. Your sphere doesn’t have to be large, but whatever sphere you are operating in, make it your goal to have dominion in that sphere.

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it:” Gen 1:28

There you have it. Four things every business person should have in view and remember when building their business. Rule number one: Be fruitful. Create something that is useful or beneficial. Find a need and create a solution. See what should be and make it so. The fact that you see it when others don’t is a clue to your assignment.

If you want to succeed in business, be sure to create a working prototype. Fruitfulness is measured in part by the good that your product or service does. If the thing you create is of little value or doesn’t work well, you have not created something that reflects the glory of God. You have not been fruitful.

Before you mass produce your product or franchise your service, make sure the prototype works. Create something of excellence. Work the kinks out. Creating something that works well, serves a purpose and meets a need is foundational to success. Test your assumptions. Do this well. Pass the test. Then you will be ready to multiply…