It has been a while since I wrote on this blog. I’m bursting at the seams with things to say. I hope to reignite the voice that I once had, the voice that I wrote with once upon a time, when I poured my thoughts without sieving them; when I wrung my heart on the clothes line of these keys and laid it bare. Yes, once upon a time the words I wrote were like a fire in my heart; it wearied me to keep them shut up. I perceive that spark igniting once again, a torrid heat in my bones.
I want to bear fruit. When I first received that word of fruitfulness through the Holy Spirit, I thought fruit was financial. When 2023 ended, I felt that the last few months of the year I had been fruitful; yet, I pondered on how exactly I’d been fruitful when the year ended worse than anticipated.
But Holy Spirit reminded me that I was given work to do and I committed. I focused. I sacrificed. Not just in whatever I thought was important, but in the work that I’m supposed to be doing.
Strangely, these first 6 months of the new year, it’s almost as though my mind is at war with me for continuing in this work. But once more, I’ve decided to commit. To focus. To sacrifice.
I don’t want to do work that is meaningless; and worse, haphazard. I no longer want to get by as though I lack ambition, purpose, desire, gifts and talents. In committing to the work that I desire to do, I find my mind balanced; my confidence is higher, and I’m back to the me that I know. And the more that I till my land, the more seed I discover to plant.
Years were spent traversing the wilderness when the answer was in commitment, in discipline, in focus. Years spent building up my faith but where were my works?
When you have a seed, you ought to plant it; in the process of planting, or tilling the ground, you’ll discover along the way that you have more seed to plant; or you’re given more seeds to plant. More ideas will flow, and you multiply what you’ve been given.
You’re bursting with so much; how could there not be any seed to plant?
I think of stories I’ve read of people who believed in a dream that they mortgaged their homes; lived in their cars, etc. They believed for a harvest that was not going to come in 24 hours, 36 hours, or a week. They planted still; did the work, put everything on the line. Laboured. Sweated. Ate little. Invested everything. For a great harvest.
Faith without works is dead.
That scripture used to rub me the wrong way. I couldn’t stand it. I felt it convicting me but I didn’t understand why it felt so personal when clearly I loved the Lord, and believed him. But the works that I ought to have been doing were not what was getting me saved. My works proved my faith. My works reflected my faith. Faith was not something that I said only. My faith needed evidence. It wasn’t enough to say that I believed. Where was the proof of my belief?
Children of God, we labour much to grow and build ourselves in faith. We are given a measure of faith that we are to develop. But there must also be evidence of that faith. Our evidence of our faith is not us birthing Ishmaels, despite God still being able to bless it. Our evidence of our faith needs to be like Father Abraham, who was ready to sacrifice Isaac. It must be like Jonathan, with his armour bearer going against an army, believing God can save by many or by few. It needs to be like the two servants given 5 and 2 talents respectively, and were able to multiply what they were given. Develop the talent. Refine it. Invest in it. Time, money, resources. Pray on it. Walk in how you are led. Believe God.
We are good at being fruitful at things that help us get by. We are good at being conscious of others’ expectations of us; what decorates us in the eyes of people; what is palatable and comfortable for others, even as it decays our bones. We commit to doing work that, at the end of life, is accounted to us as meaningless.
Our works ought to be intentional, deliberate, in line with what has been placed before us. Our works have to be in line with what we are believing for. Our works have to be the evidence of our faith. Abraham believed God, that he was able to fulfill his word, even as he advanced in age; that he could raise the dead, and thought nothing of sacrificing the son that God had promised.
The working of your gifts and talents, the stretching of your faith may lead you to make sacrifices that look foolish and absurd. At God’s instruction, you may have to make unconventional, unpopular, unusual, and inexplicable risks that can even have the people of the same faith look at you sideways. But if it’s of God, you’ll certainly tap into that blessing of Abraham, you’ll truly be of Abraham’s seed. For all of us to enjoy that privilege, he proved his faith through his willingness to sacrifice, believing in the God that had called him out of his father’s house into a foreign land. If I am Abraham’s seed, I, too, am able to manifest the same faith that he did. A precedent has been set.
Your investment to build your faith is not in vain, your works of faith will not be in vain. Your investment in what God has placed in your hands will not be in vain. Your labour in the Lord will not be in vain. The steps you take in obedience to what he has said to do will reap benefits. You are the seed of the person who exercised a great faith that activated a great promise in an impossible situation. Your situation is not impossible. You were given a measure of faith needed to execute what’s in your hands.
Although your strength fails, and your heart is weak, always remember that God is the strength of your heart, and your portion forever. Put your hand to the plow and don’t look back. What is ahead is better than what is behind you. You’ll certainly bear fruit if you don’t give up.
