PRODUCTIVITY

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply…” GENESIS 1:28

“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of The Father in my name, He may give it you” JOHN 15:16

 

Productivity is a divine institution. It is a blessing and a command, it is a charge to keep. It is the first God given blessing and obligation man received. To be productive is to be fruitful. Every creature of God has the blessing and power in them to be productive. You can pick a grain of corn and put it in the earth, and you get a whole plant which in turn produces various corncob with kernels. One corn produces a thousand, the power to be productive coming from God. When God wanted the earth filled and replenished, he never had to create a billion people, all He did was create one and out of one came the rest. The blessing and obligation to be productive is in every area of our lives and whatever we do. It is also to do with the work of our hands. Productivity is measured in input and output. What you put in is what you get, is a fundamental law of nature. You can only reap what you sow (GALATIANS 6:7). Everything is supposed to reproduce after its own kind. Since productivity is not just a blessing but also an obligation, necessity is laid on us to be so. It is safe to say that every living soul has something productive, something capable and worth multiplying. We may differ in our abilities and endowments but everyone has something productive and for that we will be held accountable. One day God is going to require whether that charge was kept or not, whether we used or abused it, and whether we were diligent or slothful. God been so good and by His grace has furnished us with all we need to be productive and will come looking for fruits ” Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes…” ISAIAH 5:1-2. What ever your hand finds to do, whatever your endowment is, do with all your might. we have been chosen and ordained by God to go out and bring forth fruit and that our fruit should remain. When you are long dead and gone, your fruits should remain, your legacy must remain. Your fruits must transcend your generation to that which is yet unborn. We cannot deny that we are beneficiaries of the fruits and legacies others left. What will your legacy be when you are long dead and gone? If we become productive and our fruits remain, we have a blessing from God, if not, the axe is laid to the roots of every tree, that which bears no fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire “For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned” HEBREWS 6:7-8.

If you had an animal farm, and there was this particular breed which is unproductive despite all the time, effort and money you put in, what do you do? If you had business ventures and there was this particular one which yielded no profits but loss despite years of input of hard work, time and energy, what will you do? Shut it down I guess! God is coming for His fruits, do what you can possible with what you have, and God will bless the works of your hands. May He reveal Himself to you and prosper you, may He cause His face to shine on your, may He open your eyes to see what He’s endowed you with. Your life will never be the same again. In The Name that is above all names, Jesus Christ, Son of The Living God. Amen and Amen

THE BELIEVER PUT TO WORK

“And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it” GENESIS 2:15

“Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him. And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great” GENESIS 26:12-13

 

Work and it’s ethics are in God’s nature and it’s something He instilled in man right from the beginning in the Garden of Eden. He is a worker Himself “But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” JOHN 5:17. God has been working from the beginning and still works as revealed by Jesus to the Jews. Jesus Christ The Son of The Living God Himself worked during His time here on earth. His ministry on earth began at the age of thirty but before He embarked on His spiritual work, He had a secular job, He was a carpenter “Is not this the carpenter…?” MARK 6:3. He was a diligent worker also when He started full time ministry “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work” JOHN 9:4. Work is a responsibility and charge by God, again it is a privilege given us by God and as long as we are fit and well able to work, we must work with all our might. A time will come when this blessing and privilege will be there no more. What ever your hands finds to do, scripture says to do with all your might “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest” ECCLESIASTES 9:10. Paul the Apostle was a tent maker before his calling and still wrought the same to support himself in ministry, so was Priscilla and Aquila “After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them.And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tent makers” ACTS 18:1-3. God has a strict way of looking at and dealing with the sluggard. He commands the sluggard not to eat “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat” 2 THESSALONIANS 3:10.God never condones the sluggard, the first thing He does when He calls a man is to put him to work. In one of Jesus’ parable on the Kingdom we find out how God moves around looking for people, hiring them and paying them. He also go about looking for those who are idle and put them to work “For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive” MATTHEW 20:1-7

God is not interested in lazy folks, He calls the idle and put him to work and then give him his wages. Everyone God called and used in the bible was a hard worker prior to his or her calling. Elisha was plowing when he was called of God, found by Elijah and anointed with oil as a prophet (1 KINGS 19:19). David was on the wilderness taking care of his fathers flock when he was called and anointed by samuel in the presence of all his brethren (1 SAMUEL 16:11), Amos the Prophet was a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit “Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit: And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel” AMOS 7:14-15. Peter, James, and John were busy fishermen (MATTHEW 4:18-22). Go through the whole bible and is hard to find God overlooking being idle. God does not hand out anything on a silver platter. The wife of the prophet who in the days of Elisha came and besought Elisha with her financial problems was not just handed the money to pay the debts, she was put to work even after the miracle of multiplying the oil “And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest” 2 KINGS 4:6-7. My Father work hitherto, and I work, Jesus said. God works even till now and we His children must work as well. We must carry the same work ethics our Father in Heaven has and be diligent in all our labours. There is this saying which goes like “there is dignity in labour”. Diligence in labour is a virtue which is not overlooked but rewarded by God. Adam in the beginning, after creation, before the fall when everything was prosperous was put to work. He was again sent out of the garden to till the earth and eat out of his sweat even after the fall. Isaac in a time of famine and drought was commanded by God not to go to Egypt but stay in Gerar. He obeyed God, he stayed and planted, and in that same year reaped hundred fold. God is always looking for something to multiply and He blesses and multiplies the works of your hands. If you don’t plant anything, you don’t reap nothing. God cannot be mocked “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” GALATIANS 6:7. It is time to arise and build for God will prosper us just as Nehemiah said. He who gives seed to the sower, and bread to the eater blesses the works of your hands as you do all things with diligence, in The Name of Jesus Christ His Son.Amen and Amen!

INCREASE AND PRODUCTIVITY COMES FROM GOD

“I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building” 1 CORINTHIANS 3:6-9

“Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that He might humble thee, and that He might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.” DEUTERONOMY 8:11-18

 

God is Life and the fountain of it. Before there ever was anything He Is, and everything that has life sprung out of Him. We are the offspring of God, Paul the Apostle told the Athenians (Acts 17:29). Wherefore scripture says that, let everything that has breath praise the LORD (PSALM 150:6). After creation He blessed everything that have life in them not just the man and the woman, everything with life, both plants and animals and gave them the power to be productive, the power to reproduce after their kind. He told the living to be fruitful and multiply (GENESIS 1:28). It is this blessing to be fruitful and multiply that gives creation that ability to do so. Without the blessing which is the power to reproduce all attempts are futile. We have over six billion people on earth today and all sprung from one person. All God had to do was create just one, bless him with the power to reproduce, and the results is what we have now. Productivity is not by choice but a command, we are required by God to do such. The earth receives rain from God and it’s empowered to be fruitful, that which brings forth fruit receives more blessing from God that it produces more, but that which waste the blessing by bringing forth thorns and thistles are cursed,” For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned” HEBREWS 6:7-8. Knowing God as The Fountain of Life, The Giver of Life, The Sustainer, and Source of all blessing and power therefore lays the foundation for this knowledge that all are His and were created for His pleasure. Whether we live or die scripture says we are His (ROMANS 4:18). Since everything belongs to Him and are sustained and empowered to reproduce by Him, blessings without which there will be no productivity and no increase, we are warned to see Him as God of the increase. We are to bless Him and ascribe all praise to His name. There is the tendency to think and act like, what our hands have achieved were as a result of our own hard work and ignore God. There could be the mistake of not appreciating God by heaping praise on you but God. Have you ever heard of people claiming to be self made? Yes, a lot of people make this claim, and it is a dangerous one. No success of man is ever self made, all success is God made and we must ascribe all praise and glory to Him. Remember the story of the foolish rich man who ascribed glory to himself and not God when his field gave an increase? His problem was ‘self’. He said, I will say to myself, not I will say of God and that was his downfall. That same night God required his life and took it from him,” And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” LUKE 12:16-21

Paul warned us against such mistakes of seeing increase as our own doing and by our own strength. He points us to the fact that though we may plant and water as men, the increase is from God. He cautions us to know and understand that is neither the planter nor he that waters that matters but God who gives the increase. Though we are involved in one way or the other as workers together with God, He sanctions the increase. The Israelites were warned by God before entering the Promised Land not to think to themselves and ascribe praise to themselves when they have the increase but to remember the fact that it is God who gives the power to make wealth and to increase productivity. May God grant us the humility to see Him as our source of increase when we are enlarged. Amen and Amen!