And somehow, I just love the paradox.

I’ve heard Bill Johnson say that there was a grace upon unbelievers in Jesus’ day. He spoke in parables so that only those with a heart open to the Kingdom would perceive at least some of the meaning behind his words. To whom much is given, much is required. And so, they escaped severe accountability for a revelation their hearts weren’t ready or willing to receive.

But to those of us with open, hungry hearts, God gives in abundance.

Spiritual paralysis comes when we are afraid of making a mistake, thus the sin of the buried talent. — John Paul Jackson

Someone is READING. MY. MAIL.

This quote describes nearly a decade of my spiritual life, from the age of 20 to 28. I call it the Dead Zone, where I “worked on character” rather than gifting, because I was certain that I didn’t deserve legitimacy until I was respectable. I was all questions and fears and the answers I received confirmed this belief that I wasn’t good enough to be very useful just yet.

Father forgive me.

Ignorance is a painful thing. But it comes with a lighter price tag than rebellion. I was told when I was 19 years old that God had given me prophetic, teaching, and preaching gifts.

I certainly had no grid for growing in a prophetic gifting at that age, and I wasn’t aware of using it except for a handful of times where it came on accident. But it was the primary calling of God on my life, and I should have stepped forward and used the gift. I buried my talent because I was afraid of hurting someone or looking like a fool or ruining my future reputation. In fact, I would say that reputation is still a concern with which I battle.

There’s a difference between being Called vs being Sent. My mistake was assuming that I was merely waiting for the time of Sending, when I SHOULD have been actively preparing myself through practice, seeking, discipleship, etc. so that I was prepared to be Sent.

I saw this mistake a lot in my early Christian life. I saw a lot of people who had heard the word of the Lord on their life’s purpose, who after hearing had chosen to wait for God to do it all. This led to burying the talent and focusing on other less important details in life.

Beware the leaven of the Pharisees

There’s also a Pharisaical element at risk here. When you put people in a position to have to earn the right to use their spiritual gifts, you create a works-based traditional system. Obviously, a baby doesn’t have the maturity to mentor and guide a church family. But a baby may be the only mouthpiece willing to speak the unadulterated truth at a time when politics or tradition have blocked the way to growth. Don’t despise the utterances of the immature.

Lesson Learned: You did not earn the gift of God that resides inside you. IT WAS A GIFT! You are now a steward of that gift. It’s that simple. Nurture it. Protect it. But above all… USE IT.

What purpose and calling has God created you for?

To those who are faithful with the little they have, more will be given. To those who are not faithful, what little they have will be taken away and given to someone who IS faithful.

If God has spoken to you directly or through another a calling that resonates in your heart, grasp it with both hands and apply all your available energies to growing in that thing. He will reward your faithfulness, regardless of how long it’s taken you to get started.

a friend of mine just gave me a prophetic word that someone is going give me a car!!! What!?!?! Now i just wait for You God…

How exciting! I’m sure that was an exciting moment for her. And I don’t really have a corrective word for Gina, but rather she reminded me of a common situation I want to discuss.

What do you do after receiving a prophetic word?

I’m sad to see so many people going through life forgetting what God has spoken to them in the past. They receive a prophetic encouragement, but then a day or two passes by and they’re on to seeking the next encouragement. I should know. I did this for TEN YEARS.

But rather than hustle your friends, family, and church members for a new prophetic word every week, consider a more excellent path: Be a good steward of the revelation you already have.

Seven Ways to Be a Good Steward of God’s Word to You

1. Keep a journal. Write down every prophetic word you receive immediately after you get it. If you can, use a voice recording app on your phone and ask the person speaking to talk into the phone mic. Audio files work best – so you can hear the tone and every aspect of the word. But even then, I would record each one in a journal.
2. Pray about each prophetic word. Ask the Lord to confirm and expound on what was said. Write down what He shows you.
3. Re-read your prophetic words each week. Or throughout the month, depending on how many you have.
4. Pray your prophetic words back to God. Remind Him what He’s said. Moses did this and actually changed God’s mind about destroying the Israelites.
5. Declare God’s word to you boldly. When you have the faith to believe for it, declare the prophetic words with boldness. Do this repeatedly (weekly or monthly).
6. Write notes and testimonies in the same journal about when God fulfills His word to you. Read these testimonies as part of your routine. This is how you build your faith. This is what God commanded the Children of Israel to do. They were to bind His commands to their foreheads and post them on their door frames. They repeated God’s commands until they had memorized them thoroughly.
7. Ask God to give you revelations to share with other people. You’ve been encouraged? Great! Now spread the encouragement by asking God to give you something to share with another person. Edify, Strengthen, and Encourage!

“So we went in and had a look and thought, Oh no! This is the end of the earth! This is like as hard as you can get. This is hyper arid. And it’s ten acres of almost dead flat. Completely salted landscape, 400 meters below sea level. The lowest place on earth. 2 kilometers from the Dead Sea. About 2 kilometers from where Jesus was christened. Hardly got any rainfall. Temperatures in August that go over 50 degrees Centigrade…”

See the amazing video after the jump.

Geoff Lawton of the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia

“Everybody farming under plastic strips. Everybody spray, spray, spray. Everybody’s putting synthetic fertilizer on. Overgrazed with goats. Just like maggots eating the flesh down to the bones of the country. Literally like maggots, giant maggots, eating it to nothing.

So we designed a system that would harvest every single bit of rainwater that fell on it. On ten acres. That’s one and a half kilometers of swell, water harvesting ditch on contour. And when they’re full, one million liters of water soak into the landscape. And they’ll fill quite a few times over a winter. And then we heavily mulch those swells with organic matter which was trash from organic fields nearby.

Life in the Desert

“We put that almost half a meter deep. So we saved that, and mulched the swells, which were about two meters wide and half a meter deep on the trench. Then we put micro irrigation underneath the mulch. And then on the uphill side of the water harvesting trench, we put nitrogen fixing very hardy pioneer desert trees, which help shade and reduce wind evaporation, and help put nitrogen back into the soil. And structure the soil for us. And then on the lower side of the trench, we put fruit trees. Major date palms as the long-term over story. Then we put in figs, pomegranates, mulberries, guavas, now some citrus. Within four months,  we had figs a meter high, with figs on, which is impossible.

We trained up some locals, got a translator who has a degree in agriculture in Jordan University. He got onto his mates in the agriculture department and said, ‘Well, you couldn’t grow figs. We’ve grown figs. You better come test the soil. No matter what you say, we’re either growing in salty soil what shouldn’t be growing, or we’ve desalted the soil. And we’d like to know what we’ve done.’ They came in, and the salt levels were dropping, and they became interested…”

This is amazing. Many thanks to Geoff Lawton and staff for providing us with such an amazing and inspiring example of restorative stewardship.

Just One of Many Applications

You might wonder why you’re watching a fascinating video on restoring barren salty desert into lush green life giving soil.

“Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

I was severely tempted to make this a very spiritual post, about our “mandate” to subdue the earth and what not. But that’s artificial. That’s not where I’m coming from.

My REAL purpose in posting this is to share where we’re at as a family. There’s a family vision being formed which includes, but is not limited to, stewardship of the earth. When I saw this video, I got excited. I want to do this. It’s not ALL I want to do, but I want to be part of transforming a piece of this planet into something lush, thriving, and beautiful.

Those of you who know me know that, these days, I’m more of a thinker than a get-your-hands-dirty kind of guy. But it’s almost as though I recognize a call from the earth to reconnect to it in a way I never have before, but was intended to.