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Thursday, July 21, 2005

The fig tree -Mark 11

It's very unnatural for the fit tree to produce fruits in the wrong season, yet Jesus demanded the fruit and He was quite upset by seeing no fruits produced.
It's very unnatural for Abraham and Sarah to produce a child when they were in the wrong season, as God withheld the blessings, yet by faith they went on an extra mile, put on extra effort and produced Ishmael. It's kind of like early fruit, didn't look as spectacular, but it satisfied God's hunger for extra faith.
Throughout the gospel books we see everywhere that Jesus was hungry for extra faith. Everyone's given a certain amount of faith, but those who went on an extra mile, produced fruit in the wrong season are the ones that got Jesus' attention and received their miracles, like the Syrophoenician woman in Mark7:25-30, the woman who touched the fringe of Jesus' cloak(Matt9:20-22), the man who climbed up the tree...etc. These were all examples of people who produced something in their wrong season. They stepped out, by trying to make things happen. And when the Lord sees that early fruit produced in the wrong season, although they can look funny and not even fruit like, they'll satisfy the Lord's hunger for extraordinary faith and the prayers will then be answered. If there's no extra faith demonstrated, no extra work or act (early fruit)showed, then their prayer will be like the fig tree, disappeared in passive waiting.
Reinhard Bonnke is a kind of fig tree that produced fruit in wrong seasons. When he first went to Africa, he found out that Africa wasn't waiting for him. But he wasn't just waiting for his season to come, he made all kinds of effort. He'd even pretend to be a beggar singing and playing piano accordian at the bus stations and as soon as he got someone's attention he'd preach. And this early fruit resulted the massive productions when the right season did come.

Meanwhile there are so many others that're called, but Jesus didn't see any fruit when He's hungry, and as a result their callings never got fulfilled.

So if you feel called into something and you're in the wrong season, nothing seems to work for you, just remember, Jesus is hungry, produce anyway! If you try hard enough, take an extra mile effort,do something unusual, you'll find a way to produce some kind of early fruit, and when Jesus' hunger is satisfied, your fig tree is sure to prosper.