In the parable of the mustard seed, Jesus said the man took the seed.Identifying your seed-gift must lead you into taking hold of it. This is the second step to fruitfulness. To take hold of your seed-gift, three things must take place.
You must:
– Accept the seed
– Own the seed
– Believe in the seed
God’s primary responsibility toward all of mankind is to provide each individual with a seed to work with. Part of our response is to accept what He offers to us with pride. Beyond accepting the seed-gifts that God gives us, we
must own the seed in order to be good stewards of it. Owning our seed requires that we protect it, guide it, and nurture it as if it is our child. We must also have confidence in the seed and believe that it is able to produce its potential fruit plant. Many times after we have the seeds of God in our lives, we continue
crying to Him to give us something to work with, when in fact it is already there.
When God called me into the ministry, all I had was a deep desire to serve Him and to make a difference in people’s lives. In addition to that, I also recognized that I had the ability to explain things and to help people understand.
That ability to explain things and to help people understand was the seed I started with. Beyond that, I did not have much by way of physical or material evidence to encourage me that I could do the work of the ministry. I did not have a congregation, a meeting venue,public address system, or chairs. I did not even have a decent suit and tie! But inside me, I knew I had a seed to plant, and in the
eye of my mind I could see that seed feeding many people who were desirous to have the word of God made simple and applicable to their day to day lives. At first, I was the only one who could see the value in my seed. My natural
temperament as a quiet person did not help the matter much. Because I could not vehemently defend what I had, I spent most of the early days of my calling,praying and nurturing the intense desires within my heart. I continued that way in prayer and preparation until the time came when I boldly stepped out to do
what I had felt for a long time to be my life mission.
In those early days, if I had tried to convince many people to appreciate what I had within me, they would have mocked me to scorn. As a matter of fact, when I told one of my friends at that time about the stirrings in my heart and the desire to quit my job in order to enter the ministry, he looked me straight in the face
and told me, ‘you are a fool.’ Looking back now, I know he meant well and I can understand his concerns for my wellbeing. Because I was a quiet person and did not say too much, he did not know that I had the attributes for ministry livinginside of me.
Without belief in your seed, you can be talked out of your destiny. Someone may only see your current fruit, not the seed potential within. At the seed stage,only you know the nature and future of the seed you carry, so take hold of it, and sow it.
– Pastor Mensah Otabil
– Active Word
