Spring Has Sprung

Spring has sprung and things have begun to sprout up everywhere. I am beginning to get in my gardening mode. I love watching things come to full fruition. It is an amazing cycle and comes and goes all too quickly.  One of my favorite things to do in the spring is plant the small patch of soil that I call my garden.

In preparation for the garden, tilling is a must.  If I did not break up the ground, the weeds and grass would choke out the plant. You get the analogy from Matthew about breaking up the fallow ground of your heart.  Well, if we do not break up the hardness of our heart then the seed, the Word of God, can not be rooted there.

Secondly, I must decide what I am to plant. I think about things that my family will eat and what I can grow in the space that I have like okra, tomatoes, cucumber, squash and bell pepper. Only then am I able to go to the hardware store and purchase my prizes. What I plant determines what I harvest.  Choosing the Word to meditate depends on what I want to reap.  If I want to reap love I must mediate love scriptures.

Next, I must decide which plants need more room and where they will grow. I stake out the area where the plants are to grow and follow the directions for planting. If I do not make room in my heart for growth and follow the manual, the Bible, then I will not be able to bear the fruit that I desire, even if I have purchased the seeds or plants and tilled my soil. I must have proper space and follow the specific directions for each particular plant. We as the Body of Christ are many membered and unique. Now for the real work.

Work! Tell me I did not hear that word.  I have heard it said from a very wise man that ministry is spelled, W-O-R-K. Before I can think about work I must assess the tools. Are my tools handy? Are the blades sharpened?  Am I ready to hear and to do the Word?  Spring is here and I am ready to till, plant and weed.  This is the only way to reap the harvest, both in the natural and spiritually.  Ready, set, grow!

~ Lisa Brannen

A Spiritual Raking

“In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness for God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.” ~ Matthew 6:14, The Message

I was outside cutting grass after all the rain and had to rake up the grass clippings because it had been a while since I had cut my grass. My goal was to have all my grass cut the same length, because I can’t stand to have a piece not uniform with the rest. Even though I was enjoying raking my little piles up, I started to get irritated at the grass in areas. In some places in the yard, raking produced areas that I thought were cut but actually were not. Well, I went back over these areas with the lawnmower to cut them down, but when I raked again I realized that there was another piece that needed to be cut! I finally put the lawnmower blade down one level and went back over the whole spot. I was frustrated by all the extra time I had spent on it, but I got it taken care of eventually!!

As I worked on my yard, it occurred to me that we have areas in our lives that we think are okay until we examine them closely and find uneven places that need some trimming. I could have left my yard alone, and it would have been a job well done for most people. If I had not raked up the waste left in my yard, I would never have found the areas of grass that escaped the trim. If we never exam ourselves a little closer than usual, we will overlook the little things that escape the first pass of prayer or repentance. Our spiritual landscape may pass for a while, but that one piece that we overlooked will eventually grow and raise its ugly head above all the other areas of our lives if we don’t take the time to properly eliminate it in the first place.

How often have we thought something in our life was taken care of only to find it surfacing later on down the road? It is the little things that we think we have taken care of that will sneak in and, before you know it, cause us not to walk with God the way that you should or experience the fullness of what He has for you.

So rake through, and let your spirit show you that little twig of grass that needs to be dealt with. Whatever it represents, put your spiritual mower on it and get it out of your life so it doesn’t cause you problems on down the road!

By Ronda Sullivan

You Are Special!

Most mornings I get up and go work in my garden by 6:00 am to pray in tongues, talk to God, and sing to myself as I weed the plants and water them.

The other morning, I found myself singing one of the songs we sing each Sunday morning in the nursery. It is called You Are Special and it is sung to the tune Jesus Loves Me. As we sing this song to the children, we insert their names into the song and point to them while they look at themselves in a mirror. Well, as I was singing about the kids in the nursery the thought crossed my mind to sing it and insert my name into the song.

I started to sing the song about me and found it very difficult to do. It was as if I felt that I was not special enough to have God love me just the way I am. See, I expect perfection from myself with no errors. It is easy for me to see that others are special to Him, but not as easy for me to see it about myself.

God has been trying to tell me for a very long time that I am special. It does not matter how messed up I am or the mistakes that I have made, God LOVES me just the way I am!

My challenge to you is to sing this little song using your name and looking into a mirror while you do it. It may be difficult at first, but push through and try it each morning. We all need the revelation that we are special to Him!

 

Lyrics:

Look at (name) see her/his face,

In God’s heart there’s a special place.

God loves (name) just this way.

Each and every brand new day.

Yes, look at (name) (repeat 3x)

God loves her/him just this way.

Speaking To Roots

I woke up earlier than I planned Saturday morning, and I went downstairs to enjoy a very tasty breakfast.  Then an announcement was made that our family was going outside to pull up Privet that had grown up near our garden.

I was actually looking forward to working outside, so I went out and started pulling away.  I needed to work myself up before I got to the bigger plants, so I started with the itty bitty ones.  I easily used my thumb and pointer finger to pluck the baby Privet from their resting places.

Pretty soon I was an expert with the small ones, so I decided I needed something more of a challenge. I moved over to a medium-sized Privet shrub, which was taller than me with a trunk as big around as that same pointer finger that had come in so handy earlier.  I tugged.  Nothing happened…not even a budge.  I thought Come on root!  Give way!  Now! Then my mother noticed that I was having difficultly with this tree.  She said, “Here, Elyse, let me help you.”  So together we worked that shrub’s root loose.  We pulled it free and added it to our pile.  So I thought Okay, momma helped me with that tree.  Let’s see if I can do this on my own this time. Before long, I could tackle this medium sized bush all on my own, too!

Feeling pretty good about myself, I decided to tackle the biggest  Privet tree near me.  You know, the kind that has 6 trunks sticking out from its root and is twice as tall as an average adult.  I tugged to test the strength of the root.  Nothing.  I pulled.  Nothing.  I pulled harder.  Still nothing.  Come on Elyse!  You got this!  Pull! I pulled again and again.  Still this tree wouldn’t move.  I realized that this pesky tree’s roots were firmly planted.  I looked over at my brother and father as they yanked a tree this size out of the ground. They were making this thing look easy.  Darn it! If they can do it, you can do it!! Then I heard, “Elyse, do you want us to help you?”

“No,” I refused.

“You sure you don’t want us to help you?”

“NO!  I CAN do this!  I don’t need your help.”  Now, I can be pretty hard-headed at times.  I knew I wasn’t as strong as my brother or dad, but I HAD to do this on my own.

I spent 20 minutes tugging, pulling, moving the tree side to side.  Nothing happened.  I started speaking to the root saying, “You will come up!  I tell you, I will pull you free!  Come out!!!!!”  My family looked at me as if to say, “Elyse, give up and let us help you.”  I was getting a little discouraged myself, but then………. I saw something that gave me hope.  I saw the ground around the root move.  Excitement stirred in me!  I COULD do this!

After about 5 more minutes  of me working that root, it came loose.  Success!  Victory was mine!  But when I thought back on it, I realized that root didn’t budge one inch until I started speaking to it.

Suddenly, I remembered how Apostle David  taught about problems in our lives that have taken root in our soul.  By working on those Privet trees, I discovered that there are different levels of difficulty when it comes to roots.  The new problems, or the baby roots, aren’t very strongly rooted in the soil.  These are problems or challenges that haven’t been around long, but if you aren’t careful, they will become bigger quickly! If you are really tired of seeing junk in your life, then sometimes it takes starting with cleaning out little things.  This is usually easily done on your own through prayer.

Once you have the little things  cleared out, then there are bigger challenges to tackle.  Like those medium-sized Privet trees, these problems have taken  root in their surroundings.  In order to break bad habits, you have to start good ones.  Sometimes you need others to help show you how to break free from these problems through prayer.

Then there’s that pesky thing that has been growing for years and years.  It’s constantly fed by the one thing that has hurt you the most or affected you to the highest degree.  To get rid of deeply embedded problems, you have to find the roots and work them loose through your own fervent prayer and faith that God will help you through it.  Take authority over those roots.  Speak to them in faith!  Your words carry authority and power, and God is faithful to see you through and give you the victory!

What problems are in your life?  Which kind of root are they?  Whatever they are, SPEAK to those roots!  Continue to work on them; don’t give up!  You CAN do this!  God is faithful to give you the victory!

In Between

I gazed at the beautiful photograph as summer-time childhood memories danced in my head. The hydrangeas contrasted beautifully with the rustic fence. The blooms were bright and full, so inviting I could almost smell them.

“This bush finally had blooms about 5 years after I planted it,” my friend said. “I don’t know whether to say I was patient on waiting for it to bloom or stubborn because I wanted to leave it planted there. Turned out nice, though.”

I wondered how many of us would have left the bush there for that long, when it seemed like it wasn’t producing. Still, she left it there because she loved the plant. Five long years had passed with no blooms, but now the plant is flourishing. The photo was beautiful, but no one saw the waiting period. That plant was getting ready to blossom in the midst of the dry spell. Anyone can marvel at the bush’s beauty now; only a gardener could appreciate the process.

You may be like that hydrangea, feeling dry and lifeless with no blooms to show that you are growing. Don’t pull up your roots just yet! You could be on the verge of something great and miss out because your life doesn’t match the picture you had in your head. Just because you’re in a seemingly lifeless spot where time ticks by slowly, doesn’t mean what God told you in the previous seasons has changed. His Word is still the same!

How many times have we wanted to move from where we’re planted? If we do, we will miss our opportunity to bloom.

~Madison Sanders

God’s Plan for Gardening

This is God’s way of planting. God’s looking for the harvest; He’s not just looking at the plant. He’s not looking at what’s growing there right now. He’s looking at what you will produce in the future. You need to be like Him and get your eyes off of what you thought it was going to be or how you thought it was supposed to look. You need to stop being discouraged because you don’t see fruit the same day you plant. Become like Paul and begin to say, “I have learned wherewith to be content in whatever stage God has me in.”

You may say, “I am just here and this is not what I thought ministry was going to look like. I just didn’t think that. I thought ministry was going to be being in the pulpit and traveling on the road.” It’s not the end yet. It’s not the harvest yet. Oh but see, there’s a growing time, a time of maturing, a time of getting stronger, a time of standing still.  This time changes the amount of fruit you will produce in the end because the longer you’ll stay and put the roots down, the more harvest will come. It won’t just be just a little bit. It won’t just be a small amount. Some of you got to a place that you thought you saw the one little bud and you were so excited that you were fixing to bear some fruit; God said if you would just get pruned up a little bit and get your roots down, He can cause many, many buds to come out and He can cause you to be multi-faceted. You will have things growing and you will be producing things that you never thought you’d produce and you will do it in such a way that you never thought could be possible.

A prophetic word delivered May 23, 2010 by Prophet Kenneth Hendrix of Gateway Believers Fellowship