FEATURE ARTICLE

Pastor Amos Dada Ph.D, P.EngThursday, October 2, 2014
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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MY MONTH OF FRUITFULNESS

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elcome to the month of October our month of fruitfulness. In defining and discussing fruitfulness which is the sweet side of bitter barrenness, I will be interfacing a mixed grill of natural, Christianity and marital fruitfulness. Of course it will help the reader also in other areas where fruitfulness is cherished, desired and pursued.

To appreciate plant oriented fruitfulness is to imagine a bitter winter season where the heap of snow will not even allow you to see the farmland and all you see is velvet white over the land. Then as Spring surfaces you imagine the blade of plants springing up. Gardening becomes more fun in midsummer when the first produce appears. Imagine spotting the tiny cucumbers, vegetables, okro and watermelons, and watching the tomatoes turn red. As important as fruitfulness is to the plant world, we need to know fruitfulness is sweet in our own physical, marital, financial and spiritual lives.

The Bible often uses the metaphor of fruit to describe the produce of our lives. Fruit can be either good or bad (Matthew 7:18;Luke 6:43). Romans 7:5 says, "For when we were in the realm of the flesh . . . we bore fruit for death." A fruitful Christian will produce better results: "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life" (Proverbs 11:30).

To be fruitful is to be able to show progress in your career, academic pursuit, business and of course your walk with God. To be fruitful maritally is to have biological children. In My Book Dream Dreams and Have Dominion, I discussed the issue of mental fruitfulness as something we should pursue more than that of biological fruitfulness. While people may not remember your children, your legacies, inventions, and patents will continue from generation to generation. Who knows the children of the Wright brother who invented aeroplane? Who cares about the Children of Thomas Edison who invented the incandescent light bulb or Henry Ford and car? In Christianity, fruitfulness is just as a baby learns to walk and gets better and better at it. We learn to walk spiritually with God as we obey what his word tells us. Another measure of fruit is how much of our self will is relinquished and our allowing of God to lead us. We grow in maturity spiritually as we do these and other things that show God we mean business and not just lip service. A further view of this relates to the analogy of the fruit tree. Just as the apple tree, for example, bears apples as its fruit, so other Christians are the fruit of a Christian. This of course is only done by abiding in Him, as mentioned in John 15. Fruit is the direct result of whatever controls our hearts (Matthew 15:19). The fruit of a life not surrendered to Jesus includes "sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage," and many more evil acts (Galatians 5:19-20). In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit of God is "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23).

Let us look at barrenness, the opposite of fruitfulness. Barrenness means not producing or incapable of producing offspring; sterile. Unproductive, unfruitful, aridity without capacity to reproduce. The state (usually of a woman) of having no children or being unable to have children. There are different types of barrenness. There could be biological barrenness, territorial barrenness, financial barrenness, professional barrenness and even ministerial barrenness. Biological barrenness is when there are no children. Territorial barrenness is when the ground becomes hard. Financial barrenness is when you struggle financially and money is never there. Professional barrenness is when promotion is not forthcoming and there is labour without fruit. Marital barrenness is when you are so handsome or beautiful with Queens English and impeccable academic pedigree and yet no spouse! Ministerial barrenness is where you have done all the things you know in the bible and the ministry is still stone dead! When the works of your hands seem not to be yielding anything.

Barrenness is a curse! Why? Because it seeks to violate the very first words of God to man! God said "Be fruitful and multiply, but barrenness seeks to violate that! This is the more reason you should never accommodate any kind of barrenness because it is not your portion. I pray for you from this day that things will turn around for you. You shall be fruitful!

Nobody in his/her right mind desires barrenness. God does not desire it. Your spouse does not desire it. How many marriages have been put asunder because there was no child? Which pastor desires a fruitless member? To the church such person becomes a liability instead of an asset. What a Pastor calls 'high maintenance low productivity.' The company you work for desires fruitfulness. If there is one thing I gained during my NYSC primary assignment (1981/82) which I observed with Lever Brothers PLC in Apapa Lagos, it was from a sticker that was posted around the company that was very visible to every worker. It simply reads- 'Produce results not reasons!'

Since we detest barrenness and desire fruitfulness the issue is how do I become fruitful. Recently, I was invited to minister in a church. The theme of the three days empowerment program was taking from Isaiah 48:17- I am thy Lord that teaches thee to profit. During the preparation I got these three cardinal principles of profiting 'Dream, strategize and implement. I want to submit that is what fruitfulness is about. The word fruitfulness can easily be substituted for profit in that scripture. I am thy Lord that teaches thee to be fruitful. Unfortunately, so many Christians are beggars instead of being fruitful. The bulk of the people who control the blue chip companies are not Christians. We stay in one spot, going to night vigils upon night vigils asking God to prosper us and make us fruitful. Is that what we read in the bible? Is that the example God showed us? What does it take to be fruitful? Have a dream of what you want to become, strategize on how to achieve it and implement it. Isn't that what God did? He had a dream of making the world. He strategized by causing the Holy Spirit to move upon the dark and void places and he went to work! For six days God was working. Speaking, prophesying to existence and evaluating what he has done. Let there be light, let the earth bring forth fruit etc. Six days out of seven God was working! Friends, to be fruitful you must work, not just work, work very hard! I hear people say you do not need to work hard you just need to work smart. I submit to you that working smart is a subset of working hard not a substitute. Working hard is about doing the needful, working smart is about being creative and innovative in executing the needful. Henry Omotayo wrote 'Growing up in a place where farming was the principal means of subsistence, I remember clearly the many efforts that farmers put into making their crops to grow and deliver needed fruits, including de-weeding the land, cutting down or burning the roots of the big trees on the land (so their leaves would not block photosynthesis for the crops), cultivating the land, ensuring that the crops were planted in the right season, fertilizing the land, regular weeding, etc praying for rain, harvesting, transferring harvest to where it will be sold.' I agree that instead of using cutlasses and hoes, you can engage mechanized process; that is working smart but you will still have to do the needful!

In the parable of talent which is essentially about fruitfulness, Jesus wanted to buttress the fact that fruitfulness is a function of hard work and trading. He revealed there is one steward who did not produce increase (was fruitless), and God was very angry with him. When he is called forward to give an account, the steward says he was "afraid" and hid his talent in the ground. He gives the talent back to God. But God calls him lazy (and evil), not afraid! Why? Because this steward did not want to work with God. He didn't want to use creativity and put in the work it takes to bring increase using his "talents". He was not afraid - he was lazy and selfish! You are lazy when you loot your nation dry by inflating contracts. You are lazy when you kidnap someone at the gate of his house and ask for a ransom of five million dollars! God gave him treasure, and he just let it rot under the ground. You cannot be fruitful if you specialize in burying your gifts and talent. That is why it is often said talent cannot stand alone. Add to your faith..,2 Peter 1:5

There are so many factors involved in fruitfulness but there are two more factors I want to mention - faith and integrity (purity).

Faith is not just a quotation of scriptures, faith is believing in what you are pursuing. Faith is substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith is that I believe this manufacturing company will work. I believe I can get my degree; I am not a drop out. Faith is that there is something in my 'medulla oblongata' that when I release to humanity it will profit them and I will be fruitful through the process. Faith is not an abstract phenomenon, it is real. It is the major step to fruitfulnesss. Faith caused Abraham to be fruitful.( Read my book on What is Faith?) I heard the story of a Jewish man who wanted to start a business in the US and some people asked him if he had prayed specially concerning the business. His answer: it has never crossed the mind of Jews that they would begin a business that would not succeed! That is faith!

The third component is the integrity factor. Many people are not fruitful and remain barren because of the issue of integrity. The products are good, the concept is good, but people begin to cut corners, the leaders are not truthful, the subordinates are not truthful and borrowing the words of James Hadley Chase - the cookie crumbles. Read my article (my month of integrity)

Michael OH wrote about fruitfulness and purity 'Years ago, I asked Jim Downing, one of the patriarchs of the Navigator work, "Why is it that so few men finish well?" His response was profound. He said, "They learn the possibility of being fruitful without being pure. . . they begin to believe that purity doesn't matter. Eventually, they become like trees rotting inside that are eventually toppled by a storm."

In conclusion, if we leaders of the Church will humble ourselves before God and before his people, if we will give proper focus and attention to our purity and holiness, if we will understand and live our lives and do our ministries in desperate dependence upon Christ, and if we will simply return to the power and the beauty of the gospel, not only will the Lord grant fruit, but it will be fruit that will endure and bring his name great glory for eternity. Let's live and end well for that great name.

Also, barrenness must become a thing of the past in your life! As you begin to dream, strategise, implement strategies, pray, praise, make prophetic proclamations and plant financial seed and seeds of righteousness purity and integrity, I see you becoming more fruitful; I see you moving forward. I see you gathering momentum and reaching into your destiny! I see the heaven opening over your destiny. I see every yoke of barrenness in any shape, form or fashion broken in your life. I see you stepping into the greatness and glorious destiny that God promised you. I see every storm being assuaged, I see shalom on you, nothing missing, nothing broken. I see God's mercy undertaking for you this day, and God's favour surrounding you for good. God is making a way for you. That desire of your heart that has been long standing is being resolved right now. It is your time, it is your moment, and it is your month of fruitfulness why don't you stand up where you are and open your mouth right now and just begin to declare this over your life again and again!

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