When in doubt, head downriver
Have you ever felt like you’re giving all you’ve got but it’s just not bearing much fruit? Jesus tackles an interesting angle of why this is sometimes so, presenting us with an equally interesting invitation.
I’m not talking about the fruit of the Spirit, that kind of fruitfulness comes by being full of Holy Spirit (Galatians 5). But I talk here of fruit like changed lives as a result of your work, disciples made, people empowered, healings, prophecies that are accurate, miracles happening when you pray, etc. Of course there are a number of reasons for this, like the number 1 reason being a lack of abiding, “abide/remain in me and you will bear much fruit” John 15:4. Sin hinders fruitfulness too, but true abiding leaves little room for sin anyway.
Returning to the interesting angle Jesus took: everyone was impressed with how well Jesus spoke but were surprised at His presumption to speak as a prophet and so they started saying to one another, “who does he think he is? This is Joseph’s son who grew up here in Nazareth” Luke 4: 22.
Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’” Vs 22
“Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” Vs 24-27
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way. Vs 28-30
Who have you been sent to?
I have been asked many times, why would you go minister in America when we have need here? Why do training in Mozambique when we need training here? Why care so much about the Navajo in America or the orphans in Uganda when we have our own oppressed people and orphans? Why minister in various churches and not just the church you grew up in?
I know that God has called me to South Africa and I will spend my whole life doing all I can for South Africa, but He has also called me to many other peoples, tribes and tongues and I would do well to serve them equally. Sometimes I find that more healings happen there than in my “hometown”, the training is eagerly drunk in like water, the prophecies clung to for dear life, and the freedom taken with both hands. Sometimes God calls us to be a child of nations, sometimes we must be a minister to the body and not just one denomination, sometimes like He sent Elijah to a specific widow in a specific place, He sends us to a group of unlikely people in another place, even though we have our own poor, hurting and oppressed back home. Sometimes this is because your own people cannot receive from you, sometimes it’s because of unbelief (“and so He did only a few miracles there because of their unbelief” Matthew 13:58), sometimes it’s because as you go to serve another people to whom He is sending you, you must believe He is also sending someone from somewhere else to your people who would not hear you but just might hear another. Sometimes it’s because as an heir of the kingdom you have the responsibility to love more than just your own.
The people of Capernaum clung to Jesus pleading with Him to stay with them, but Jesus answered, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” Luke 4:43
This life we live is not for ourselves, but for another who gave His life for us already. Where He sends, we must go. In all things, trusting, believing, and hoping. Sometimes our own would throw us off a cliff rather than admit they are in serious heart-condition trouble, but be like Jesus lol:
If they said of Jesus “who does he think he is?” and “heal yourself”, if they could react in rage to His response and want to throw the Saviour of the world off a cliff; then we can know that we are in good company if we are rejected by men.
When in doubt, head downriver
Sometimes you are not fruitful now, but if you would just go a little further off and do the exact same things you will bear more fruit than you can count. And that’s the invitation- to arise from your discouragement and dare to go downriver on an adventure with God! We read about Ezekiel’s river which gets deeper the further away from the temple door it goes, often the explanation is that if you get out of the four walls of church and head “downriver” into the streets, the townships, the malls, the hospitals you would see healing and miracles happen often as you take risks. Take it a bit further away geographically and sign up for a mission next year- local or international. Let it take you beyond your own comfort zones as you trust God for finances, as you minister to people who are not like you and in ways you never knew you could, and as you pour out love and worship from deeper places than before in the face of everything tough and miraculous. There is something amazing about going on a mission to somewhere else. Its draws on your faith and connects with the people’s openness, miracles happen, and the both of you are changed forever. God in His wisdom wrote that into our stories so that we might enter into His joy as we co-labour with Him.
Hometown
We should not underestimate the ability of the places we minister in to affect fruitfulness. Often we think we must have messed up when there is no fruit, and without diluting the fact that we may well have messed up and need to go to God to process that, there can be legitimate unfruitfulness when you are not received or accepted. In this case it is better to pray that God will send your “hometown” someone who they can receive and to ask Him where He would like to use you. I see no point in people choosing to remain ineffective and then blaming God for it.
Let us balance this again with the fact that not all unyielding ground means we must go, sometimes the spirit of breakthrough rests on you to break through said unyielding ground so that it will yield to you and eventually bear fruit. I love the Spirit of Breakthrough! It makes me excited just thinking about God our breaker who goes before us. But even when you know that you are called to stay (which you and God must talk about so that you know it’s a call), getting out for some fresh air and perspective will encourage and re-charge your heart as you see that the problem isn’t with your ability to produce fruit in general. And then, you can go back after that week of mission, or a refreshing gathering with like-hearted people, or that outreach, freshly inspired to break up the fallow ground. And please, if you feel graced to break up the unyielding ground, take time to rest and remember to do it from rest, “unless the Lord build the house, the labourers labour in vain” Psalm 127.1.
Reflection
Some questions to ask yourself and chat to Holy Spirit about as you near the end of 2017 and prepare for 2018,
- Do I have fruit of the Spirit? (Always a good place to start.)
- Am I fruitful? But maybe this question needs to go one step back to, “Holy Spirit what does fruitfulness look like in my life?” I wrote here about miracles, healings and such, but God clearly showed me one day that while these are some of the fruit we can all bear, some fruit does not look the same for everyone. So we need to ask Him what the fruit from our unique lives and calls look like or are. God does not necessarily call fruitfulness what we call fruitfulness.
- How can I be more fruitful in 2018?
- How am I doing at abiding? “No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me” John 15:4.
- What is the “soil” of the place I’m working in like? What is God saying about my calling or assignment concerning this place or other places?
- Is there a training, outreach or mission I could sign up for in 2018?
- Is there anything I need to change about what or how I am building?
- Am I at rest?
- Do I want the nations as my inheritance? What will that look like for me? God has wired us to extend the Kingdom and impact people and nations in unique ways, it will help you to know how He has wired you. Knowing this will also protect you from the elder brother syndrome and competitiveness.
You were created to be fruitful
Too many have become disappointed in themselves and God, when the truth is that neither are to blame but perhaps the problem is with the soil of the place you are working in. This is not always the case, but perhaps by my addressing this truth today that it is sometimes the case, it will lift the unnecessary yoke off someone’s shoulder, fill their heart with the hope that perhaps just a little further down the river the water will be deeper and they will come alive with the feeling of fruitfulness. I believe we were all created to know the pleasure of fruitfulness.
“ And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion…’” Genesis 1:28
I’d love to hear your thoughts and perspectives.