Plant in Barren Ground

Gen. 25:21 “because she was barren;”  

If you are looking to pioneer a ministry or movement, begin first with barren ground.  God loves to move among the unreached, hardened, dry, and forsaken sectors of society.  When Isaac looked at Rebekah, there was no natural hope that she would conceive. However, in this place of desperation and dryness, the Lord poured out an answer to prayer.

The church of Jesus Christ is called to the dry places of the earth.  “The gates of hell” are her target, which shall not prevail against the Gospel message covering the earth as the waters cover the sea. To birth and bring to pass what God plans in these last days, we must be willing to step into the most forgotten and forsaken places to see life come forth. 

The history of the church has been to go to the unreached.  Paul said his aim was not to “build upon another man’s foundation” (Romans 15:20) but to “to preach the gospel in regions beyond you.” (2 Cor. 10:15) Jesus was compelled to go from city to city to the lost sheep of Israel and ventured to find other places that had not yet heard the message.  “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but the sick.” (Matt. 9:12)

Martyrdom, persecution, and rejection have forever produced the most fertile soil for the Gospel, but instead we want to plant churches where life is rich, easy, and comfortable.  Perhaps the impotency and apathy of our modern church planting movement stems from our lack of desperation without God’s intervention.

A barren situation is the most fruitful scene for the supernatural to manifest.  We have seen barren works of God that turned into the manifestation of God’s power.  One of the saints of our age, Mother Teresa, accomplished her most significant work by sowing into the outcasts of India.

If you desire to see harvest, do not find an already plowed field where a seed can easily sprout and grow.  That would be a natural pattern.  Instead, our faith like that of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob calls us to find the most unlikely, impoverished, hard, and barren land and begin tilling. 

“For more are the children of the desolate and barren than the children of the married woman.”  (Isaiah 54:1)