Lying Dormant

Lying Dormant

Looking at our garden in the cold of winter, seeing the barren ground and the signs of a previous year’s effort, has always reminded me of the potential that lies within each of us. Every year, at the first hint of warmer temperatures, seeds that were buried under the snow and ice of winter, zucchini, pumpkin and tomatoes to name a few, snap out of their dormancy and burst forth to new life. In the same way, on the inside of so many men and women of God are talents and gifting lying dormant, waiting to be revived, waiting to be stirred by the Holy Spirit, and break forth and bear fruit for the Lord. A few verses in the Book of Job communicate so well a message of hope in our future:

“At least there is hope for a tree: if it is cut down,
it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.
Its roots may grow old in the ground
and its stump die in the soil,
yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put forth shoots like a plant.”
                                           Job 14:7-9

Our churches are filled with “ordinary and unschooled” men and women of God, no different from those who turned the world upside down in the early church. But far too often, for one reason or another, they are lying dormant, with unrealized potential of incredible magnitude, waiting to be energized by hope and made alive by a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit. Job described the budding that came forth at just the scent of water; a process I liken to a believer being filled with a hope for their future that has been sadly missing. But notice that Job doesn’t talk about the rain of heaven causing the new growth but only the scent of water, making it clear just how close the breakthrough might be and how open and ready so many are to being used for His glory.

My prayer for the coming year is that the dormant among us will come alive as God touches them afresh, and that the dry bones of Ezekiel, those who have lost hope and vision, will come back to life as God stirs their hearts and fills them with His Holy Spirit. If that is you, get ready for “the scent of water” that God is about to send your way. Be on the lookout for a word that is tailor-made for you, sent from heaven for the sole purpose of awakening you to all that God has planned and purposed for your life.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church