This post is a continuation.  If you wish to read the first part “The Preparation,” click here.  If you wish to read the second part, “The Planting,” click here.

III.  The Produce

That brings us to the third step, “The Produce.”  I believe that if you were to ask any Christian the question, “Are you hungry for revival?” their answer would be “yes.”  God’s people will, by nature, be hungry for revival.  By revival, I’m not just talking about a series of nightly meetings where we invite an evangelist to come and preach every night.  The revival I’m talking about is a soul-stirring, life-changing, fruit-bearing revival.

I probably don’t have to tell you that the world needs us to have that kind of revival as much as or more than we need to have that kind of revival.  The longer we live without it, the more desperate the world is going to become.

The whole purpose of The Preparation, the breaking up of the fallow ground, and the whole reason why we have The Planting, those seeds of revival, is to experience The Produce.

One of the most exciting things I hear in the spring is when one of the wonderful ladies in our church starts talking about getting her garden ready.  She gives me a play-by-play of everything she is planting in that garden.  It has been my experience that after her preparation and her planting, that, in due time, I will get to experience the produce from her garden.

Spiritually, it has been my experience, that if we will be diligent in The Preparation, and if we will be careful in The Planting, God will allow us to experience The Produce in our lives. 

I don’t want to live in the past on memories of great revivals.  I don’t want our young people to have to rely on our testimonies of great revivals.  I want us to have revival in our day.  I want to experience it afresh and anew and I want our young people to experience it for themselves.

I firmly believe that God is looking for men and women, young and older alike, who are willing to get down to business with Him.  If the church of this day is going to change the world, we’re going to have to do it the same way the early church did it.

They prepared the ground.  The Bible says they were all with one accord in one place.  We need to understand that being in one accord doesn’t happen by accident.  They had to find a place of common purpose.  They had to reach a place of common passion.

Then they planted the seeds of revival.  I know there were other things that happened in the upper room while they were waiting on the Promise of the Father.  But I believe that much of the time they spent there was spent worshipping and magnifying the Lord and waiting…just waiting.

And when the conditions were just right, when the Day of Pentecost was fully come, the roots of that revival reached down to be established on God’s Truth.  Then that revival sprang up to produce fruit in the lives of those in the upper room.  The Bible says they turned the world upside down.

I heard Rev. Brent Gabbard preaching a camp meeting earlier this summer.  He told of his anguish and distress at how many people were sick in his church.  He was crying out to God asking for the reason why there are so many who are being prayed for and are not being healed.  He was reminding God of the promises in His Word, “…these signs shall follow them….”  He asked God the question, “Why aren’t there signs following us?”  He said God smote his heart with these words, “I said those signs would follow you.  The church isn’t going any more so how can signs follow.”

I’m convinced that if we’ll get hungry enough that we’re willing to put everything else on hold.  If we will determine to wait in His presence until… just like they did in the upper room.  If we will wait in His presence until we are endued with power, power to become witnesses, power to stand against the evil of this world, and power to become His ambassadors to this world, we will experience The Produce.  We will experience the fruit of revival in our lives, in the lives of our families, and in our community and beyond.

The question is simple.  How Does Your (Spiritual) Garden Grow?  Are you experiencing The Produce of revival in your life?  Does the world see the evidence of His power in your life?  Maybe I’m oversimplifying it, but I don’t think so.  If we will do The Preparation by breaking up the fallow ground of our hearts.  And if we will do The Planting by planting those seeds of revival in our lives, we will experience The Produce.  Revival will break out in our life, our family and our community.  What’s more important than that?  I’ll answer that for you – Nothing!!!!

This post is a continuation of  “How Does Your Garden Grow? – The Preparation.”  You can read that post here.

II.  The Planting

The next step is the planting.  It’s important that we do not use just any seed.  It must be the right seed.

I have a feeling that if you were to walk into your back yard and find a bucket of seeds just sitting there and you had no idea from where they came or what kind of seeds they were, you probably would not want to plant them.  From those that I have known that have an annual garden, they are very particular and specific about what varieties they plant and grow.  It is not easy to talk them into anything else.

My point is that we must be careful with the seeds that we plant in our spiritual garden.  Because the enemy will do everything within his power to plant tares and thorns in our life.  We must do everything within our power to keep that from happening.  We also must do all that we can to make sure that the seeds we plant are pure and right.

Several months ago, I preached a message entitled, “The Seeds Of Revival.”  I used that verse that is so often referred to as God’s recipe for revival.

 2 Chronicles 7:14
 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

There are very important seeds found in that verse.

The first seed is Humility.  God told Solomon, “If My people which are called by My name, shall humble themselves….”  It is impossible to over-emphasize the importance of humility in a Christian’s life.  We must humble ourselves before God.  We need to realize who He is, and who we are in relation.  That revelation ought to bring about the proper response which is humility.

The second seed is Humger.  God went on to tell Solomon “…and seek My face….”  Hunger is such a blessing.  How sad it would be if we were to sit down to a banquet table with every imaginable culinary delight and we weren’t hungry.  God wanted us to know that it is important for us to hunger after Him.  Jesus even said that those who were hungry were “…blessed…”

Matthew 5:6
 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

 The more we hunger for God, the more likely we are to do whatever is necessary to allow Him to bring a spiritual harvest in our lives.

The third seed is Holiness.  God let Solomon know that we have to turn away from sin and turn toward Him; “…and turn from their wicked ways….”  We must be seeking to be holy.  I understand fully that our righteousness doesn’t save us.  I know that we absolutely cannot be good enough to be worthy.  But if we are hungry for Him, that hunger will naturally draw us to set ourselves apart from the world and draw us closer to God.

The fourth seed is Hope.  This seed is the motivation for the whole process.  God did not give Solomon a list of things to do without a promise of a Divine response.  We must hold on to the hope that when we humble ourselves,  and when we seek after Him, and when we turn away from sin, God “…will…hear from Heaven, and will forgive…and will heal…”

We can rest assured in the hope that if the ground has been prepared properly and those seeds of revival have been planted with care, something amazing is going to happen.

In the natural, when you plant a seed, that seed is alive but dormant.  It is waiting for conditions to be just right for the seed to germinate, take root and start to grow.  Once that seed is in the ground, the moisture and the soil activate the seed.  First, it starts growing a system of roots establishing it’s source of life-giving nutrients and moisture.  Then it starts it’s journey toward the top of the ground.

In the spiritual realm, a very similar things starts to happen.  Those seeds of revival have been dormant, just waiting for conditions to get right.  Once the ground has been prepared and the seed has been planted, the rain of God’s righteousness rains down and waters the ground.

Did you notice the end of verse 12 in our text?

Proverbs 12:12
 … but the root of the righteous yieldeth fruit.

The roots are absolutely necessary if we ever want to bear fruit.  So, first of all, the roots of revival reach down to the Rock to be established, and then it starts the process of breaking out of the ground and rising up for the purpose of bearing fruit.

(Continued here…)

Proverbs 12:11-12
11 He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.
12 The wicked desireth the net of evil men: but the root of the righteous yieldeth fruit.

I need to start out with a disclaimer. I readily admit that I know very little about gardening…at least in practical experience. So I’m probably opening myself up to criticism from some the gardening experts out there, but that’s a chance I’ll have to take.

What I do know is that to have a successful garden, you have to be committed to it. You have to stay right on top of the needs of that garden. Whether it is weeds that need to be hoed, bugs that need to be sprayed, or wildlife that needs to be kept out, every task must be carried out in a timely manner in order to maintain a good garden. Otherwise, it won’t have a chance to be productive. There are so many natural enemies to a garden and you have to protect your garden from each one.

There was a man in Karnak, IL that planted a garden in my wife’s parent’s back lot every year. You could find him in that garden almost every day doing something. He was diligent in working in that garden hoping for a harvest. He was usually well rewarded.

I started thinking about the basic tasks that are involved in gardening.  Knowing that there are so many details involved, I wanted to focus on 2 basic tasks and the final result.

I. The Preparation

The first thing I want to talk about is the preparation. The ground has to be prepared. During the winter months, there has been freezing, thawing and even the sun shining down on the surface of the ground making it so hard and crusty. If the ground hasn’t been properly prepared when the spring rains start to fall, the water won’t be able to soak into the ground.

Solomon told us that “…he that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread….” I believe that the opposite of that is also true. He that doesn’t till his land shall want for bread. It is of utmost importance that the ground is prepared.

God spoke to the men of Judah and Jerusalem through the prophet, Jeremiah. He was trying to get them to turn away from the wickedness of idolatry.

Jeremiah 4:3
For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

Don’t plant the seed on sun-baked, hardened ground. Don’t plant it among thorns. In other words, your ground isn’t ready. You need to get all of the thorns and brush out of the land. Get rid of all of those things that can potentially limit or prevent your harvest.

Break up your fallow ground. That word fallow simply means untilled or uncultivated ground. Judah, Jerusalem, get your ground ready for the planting. Get your ground ready for the rain. He was telling them to get rid of their idols.

In another place, God spoke to Israel through the prophet, Hosea with a very similar message.

Hosea 10:12
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

You can’t make it rain or create a harvest.  No one has the power to cause the seed to sprout or grow or the ability to multiply the harvest.  But there is something you can do. You can till the land. You can break up your fallow ground and get your heart ready for His rain of righteousness.

When you look at verse 13 of Hosea 10, God made it clear why it was so important for them to break up their fallow ground

Hosea 10:13
Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.

You have plowed, planted and reaped iniquity because you were trusting in your own power and leaning on your own ways. You trusted in the multitude of your mighty men when you should have been trusting in Me. And that iniquity, that misplaced trust, has hardened the soil of your heart. You need to break up the fallow ground and seek the Lord until He sends the rain and soaks you through and through with His Spirit.

That task, breaking up the fallow ground, may very well be the one thing that’s standing between you and the blessing you have been desiring. It may be the thing that’s preventing you from receiving the baptism you’ve been seeking or the healing that you’ve been needing.

Think about it for a minute. Have you been experiencing the joy of His rain as His Spirit moves in the house of the Lord. But it seems like there’s no lasting effect in your life. The very next day you sense that nothing has really changed. You need to consider that it just may be that the ground of your heart has been hardened.

Maybe it was hardened by the hurt of people that have stepped all over you. Maybe it was hardened by the burdens of life that are weighing you down or simply the cares of this world. You look around at all that’s happening in our country and in the world and you feel yourself getting harder and harder.

I believe it’s very possible that you need to break up your fallow ground. Take the time to dig deep into the soil of your heart through prayer and God’s Word. Let God turn over the hardness of your heart. Allow Him to point out those things that need to be removed. Surrender to His searching Spirit to show you every hardened area of your life. And then pray until you pray through and break up that fallow ground and get your heart ready for the rain of His righteousness.

And The Preparation is just the first step. There’s more. (Continued here)