Topic: Forced to Produce In A Desert Place
Sub Topic: This Harsh Place Has Provoked Me To Flourish
Produce – cause to happen or come into existence
Desert – a dry barren area of land, especially on covered w/sand, that is characteristically desolate, waterless & without vegetation
Flourish – grow or develop in an impressively successful way
Forced– compelled by force or necessity produced w/effort or pressure
Wilderness – an uncultivated, uninhabited and inhospitable region
Scriptures
Isaiah 40:3-5
Isaiah 58:11-12
I was listening to some gospel music on YouTube and an infomercial came on & Dr. Gundry began to tell how he found an olive tree that was very potent with hydroxytyrosol and polyphenol which is considered to be really good. But what caught my attention was when he began to describe how the olive trees in Morocco Africa grew in harsh conditions but because of this they had the highest quality and most potent and concentrated olive oil.
According to him olive oil:
Supports your Immune System
Soften & Hydrate your Skin
Soothes Muscles & Joints
Maintain Heart Health
Loss Fat
Now let’s relate this to the Holy Spirit:
He causes my Immune System to be strong enough go go through the test and I won’t be spiritually weak and sick picking up all kinds of spirits
He hydrates me so I am not easily offended, dried up with no anointing; yet he softens me to be compassionate to God’s people
Maintains my Heart Health by convicting and reminding me of the Word of God to not allow bitterness take root and derail me from my destiny
Loss Fat cause me to drop off the weight and the sin that so easily besets me
Low quality olive oil can stall your health goals; low oil in the spirit can stall your growth in the spirit and cause you to be brittle in the spirit with no flexibility and unable to shift and move in and with the Holy Spirit.
Let’s talk about the harsh conditions:
Barely any rain
Really hot
Soil hardly has nutrition
Olive trees think they are dying which is the best thing that could happen to the trees because they go into survival mode
The trees begin to produce massive amounts of polyphenols, they are jammed packed with them; they begin to bulk up; the stress caused by the harsh conditions produces stronger and better quality of olive oil. Now the trees that grew elsewhere had olives and oil and flourished, but the oil was not as potent because they had good conditions to grow in. Right here tell the Lord thank you for my harsh conditions. We don’t want to be full of olives but our oil is not effective!
Let’s take a look at the scripture in Isaiah and John the Baptist, John was positioned in the wilderness, a not so hospitable place and he still had to produce, he had to fulfill the assignment of crying out and tell the people to prepare the way of the Lord and to repent. He still had to baptize even in a dry place, he still had to produce in a harsh place. Let’s look at the Hebrew Boys, because they would deny their God, they were thrown in a fiery furnace, a harsh place, but that harsh place caused them to bulk up in the spirit and the magnitude of their faith caused the the son of God to be seen even before he was born in the earth realm in the midst of a fiery furnace. They produced in their harsh place and had the victory in the midst of it because they were sitting down talking to the son of God! We are the olives that must grow in harsh conditions and produce effective and sustainable oil. God gives us the Victory right while we are in the midst of the harsh place. Because the word God allows this place in our lives to be a refiner and purifier to purify and purge us as gold and silver that we may offer unto the Lord an offering of righteousness =produce= causes us to produce the peaceable fruit even in this desert or harsh place, it causes us to bulk up in the spirit, causes us to pray more, causes us to fast more, causes us to produce the assignment, causes us to operate in the marketplace even in the midst of a pandemic; causes us to unlock a new dimension in Christ because our thirst and hungry has gone to another level; causes our faith to go to another level to bring that impossible thing into existence; So I would present to you that your harsh place, your desert place was necessary that it was the catalyst God used to cause the oil of the Lord to flow out of you; and the oil that comes out is undiluted full of strength and sustainability Persecuted, lied on, lied to, mishandled, left for dead both spiritually and naturally, looked like you weren’t going to make it, no one to encourage you= water you, but because God specializes in the impossible and our trust and confidence is in him, when it appears we are dead or left for dead, that’s when we bulk up and allow the transformation to take place from your flesh and soulish being to being lead by the Holy Spirit; that’s when we go into survival mode, that nothing shall separate us from the love God; that same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is dwelling in us and quickening us causing us to be made alive and allowing us to produce even in the harshest terrain giving us a sustaining anointing even in a desert place; he causes that which was rough and meant to work against us, cause us to give up and give in, he allows it to smooth something in us; he causes our low places to be raised up, low confidence, low faith, low love, low tenacity, low will to go forth, he raises it up and every high mountain he gives us the strength to climb past it or the faith to command it to be moved, mountains of unbelieve, proud, fear, selfishness, disobedience. Sometimes God will have you minister from a desert place yet cause life and strength in others. John was in the desert, but what was in him was not dry,what was in him was life changing to all those who received it to repent and be converted. God wants his Glory to be revealed even in our rough and uncomfortable place because he has given us a sustaining Grace and the power to produce undiluted oil that has not been contaminated with sin. David said, it was good that I was afflicted and I shall make the same declaration, it was good that I was afflicted, it allowed me to truly experience Christ!
So in conclusion it was necessary that I went through every heartbreak, every trial, every uncomfortable place that the thick unadulterated oil of God can flow out and through me and cause me to be productive and produce even in a desert or harsh place. The Lord shall guide us and satisfy us even in the midst of a drought and a pandemic. He’s that spring in us that water will not fail. He strengthens me to build up my old waste places. He is the repairer of the breach and the restorer of paths to dwell in. We have the power and authority to produce. Let us walk in this authority without apology! We decree and declare we shall produce in a desert and shall flourish in a harsh place because God is our source and he is that well that is springing up in us!
