Diaspora: Scattering the Seeds of Promise

In my journey more recently, I have felt prompted by God to not just write about the pictures and insights He gives me, but to also put them into picture form. The material for this blog comes from two such incidents with the Lord.

The first was reading James 1, where the word “diaspora” jumped out at me. Its root meaning is to scatter, and the painting is a representation of what I sensed. The second situation was making marmalade from some grapefruit I picked up from a food swap. Three small grapefruit were full of more seeds than I’ve ever seen, in fact, by my reckoning, there were probably around 100. As I have sat with these two messages about seeds, this is where I have landed.

DIASPORA – The Scattering

Many of us have felt scattered in the last couple of years. However, I believe the Lord is within the scattering, and if we are willing to partner with Him, He is using it so His people can take the DNA of His Kingdom out with them to wherever they land. It may be uncomfortable and not what we would really like, but it is time to let go, just like the seed in the seed head. To stay is counterproductive.

We may have thought we were blooming where we were planted, but this was just the beginning. That season has ended, and now a new one begins.

And the seeds we are carrying are abundant in number and extremely fruitful, “bearing one hundred, sixty or thirty times more”, (Mark 4:20). The growth in productiveness will be exponential. The words He gave me were that these were “Seeds of Promise”. Romans 8:24 also came to mind: “But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?” The promise will come because “He who promised is faithful”, (Hebrews 10:23). The seeds are not the end product, but hold promise for what will come (the fruit) and these seeds (His blueprints, ideas, new placements) come with a promise of great fruitfulness, if we are willing to step out into the new.

So, don’t fight the scattering, little seeds, but go out, knowing He is with you and He is for you, and where He takes you, He will provide. He is expanding His people explosively. The stretching can feel painful and scary, but in the stretching there is multiplication. And while you might feel like a little shrivelled seed, and while it might feel like dying, remember two things. First, our Lord Jesus said “Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies it bears no fruit” (John 12:24). Secondly, while we might be able to count the number of seeds in a piece of fruit, no one knows how many fruit are in each one of those seeds. His call to each of us is, “Go forth and multiply!”

Sour lemons

A number of years back, I had a dream I was looking for lemons on my lemon tree. To my astonishment, I suddenly found lemons the size and shape of footballs where there had been none. At the time, I felt God promising me a time of fruitfulness where I would be astounded by the size of the fruit that “suddenly” appeared.

Shortly after this dream, we moved that lemon tree into a different place in the garden. Over the past couple of years, we have been waiting for it to produce any fruit at all. Last year we got some flowers, but they never quite held on long enough to give us lemons. However, this year we SUDDENLY have a bumper crop of lemons growing on our tree, and guess what? Some are the shape of footballs! (Although not quite that big – but they are big.) Added to that, I am picking my second crop of raspberries and they are also enormous.

There are two things I am sensing from God in this.

The first is that a time of great harvest and great fruitfulness is coming. As you might recall, my word for this year is “abundance”. Well, we have definitely had abundant rain so far this year, and now, an abundance of lemons on the way! With a number of prophetic words that we are heading for a massive spiritual harvest in the next little while, I am taking this as an affirmation. The work of the past is about to bear fruit!

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Gal 6:9)

And then I was thinking about the significance of lemons. Although I really like lemons and use them a great deal, they are not a fruit many people just peel and eat. Being sour, some people reject them completely. We have a saying when something is bad or useless, particularly around cars, that it is a bit of a “lemon” – it doesn’t do what it should very well. However, when lemons are combined with other ingredients, many delicious and health giving foods can be made: honey and lemon tea; so many lemon slice recipes; lemon and sugar on pancakes; lemon chicken – are you hungry yet?

It reminds me of the saying:

What do you do when life hands you lemons?

You make lemonade.

And then I remembered of a third aspect of lemons. Every now and then you get one that seems full of pips/seeds – the sign of new life! Every seed has the prospect of become a new lemon tree, which in turn may produce many more lemons, each with their own seeds, and so the cycle continues.

While many may feel we are in a time when “life” has handed us a truckload of lemons, we could see it as a time of great sourness. However, when we combine those lemons with the good God has already given us in terms of our other resources, time, energy and gifts and abilities, we are also being given an amazing opportunity to be producing a great deal of quality lemonade. And who knows how many seeds might come from them, too?

If you are not sure what to do with those things that potentially leave a sour taste in your mouth, the “lemons” you have at this time, ask God and dream big – you may be surprised at what He and you together can bring out of this time!

CAST OUT YOUR NET AGAIN!

For the last couple of days, the sense of “try again” has been nudging at me and today it landed with the words, “CAST OUT YOUR NET AGAIN”.

For numbers of us, we have been trying to press into something we have believed is from God, trying to see the way forward, try to get some traction or fruit from what we have believed God has been calling us to, but it has been hard labour for little, if any evidence of productivity for our work. Sometimes it has seemed completely fruitless, a waste of time and it would have been better to have stayed in bed, BUT, today, I have such a sense of urgency around these words:

CAST OUT YOUR NET AGAIN!

You may recall that there are two stories, two times that Jesus said something like this to His disciples. The first time was at the beginning of His ministry, when He was speaking to the crowd on the shore, teaching them the word of God, from Simon Peter’s boat.

“When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

(Luke 5:4).

If you remember the story, Simon Peter says yep, been there, done that, all night, caught nothing, very tired, but I will humour you and have another go”. (Paraphrased by Ruth)

The second time was after the resurrection (see John 21:6). This time there was no questioning, but simple obedience - they suddenly knew who the stranger was: it triggered their memories to the other time. This time Peter didn’t bother waiting, but jumped out of the boat to get to Jesus. His response was immediate, with no uncertainty or reservation.

Both times, obedience in the face of weariness, hopelessness, despair and past failure led to an ABUNDANCE of fruit. Don’t miss out!

If you have been in a place where you have believed you are following instructions, following what Jesus has called you to, but have been feeling as though it is all just hard work and it is never going to be different, then the challenge is laid here before you:

CAST OUT YOUR NET AGAIN!

It may be in applying for that job or course, it may be financial investments, it may be trying for reconciliation in a relationship, or healing in your family, or using a gift or ability God has given you, or any number of other dreams you have been pushing into. It may be praying again for a situation you have all but given up on. You may have experienced disappointment, hurt, rejection or just plain fruitlessness in the past, but today, Jesus calls out to you:

CAST OUT YOUR NET AGAIN!

Don’t let your weariness, disillusionment or hurt hold you back.

NOW IS THE TIME!

It may be for this very day, very moment, or it may be as you are seeking Him for His plan for your year. Don’t give up, don’t turn away, don’t believe the lie that it will never work, or that you heard wrong, or did something to mess it up, or prevent it from happening, turn back, pull out your net, muster all your strength of will and throw it out again. I believe Jesus has a wonderful surprise for you when you do!

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9