STAGES (The Fruitful Stage)
Hi folks I am excited to be back, as I promised in my last edition,
today we are going to look at the final stage called the “The Fruitful stage”. As I have already mentioned in my previous
post, fruitfulness is the desired stage of everyone. Infact, it is also God’s
heart desire that everyone comes into fruitfulness; as humans we were wired
among other reasons to be fruitful. The first mandate God gave Adam reads “And God blessed them, and God said unto
them, Be fruitful……………….” Genesis 1:28 (KJV).
Jesus Christ the second Adam
came to accentuate the importance of fruitfulness in God’s scheme of things by
saying that “Every branch in me that
beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring
forth more fruit.” John 15:2 (KJV). What made the whole issue of
fruitfulness serious was when Jesus Christ cursed the fig tree for not being
fruitful, according to Mathew 21:19(KJV)
“And when he saw a fig tree in
the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto
it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. And presently the fig tree
withered away.”
Our savior’s disposition towards the fruitless fig tree has
always deepened my inquisitorial roots. The interesting thing about this week’s
edition of the series is that, it coincides with the farmer’s day Celebration.
Here in Ghana, every first Friday in December is set aside as a national
holiday to celebrate our hard working farmers who have worked tirelessly to
feed the nation; this celebration is
climaxed with the national farmers day durbar where the president of the
republic of Ghana honors the overall national best farmer.
The truth is, when
it comes to the criteria for choosing the National best farmer, the yardstick
is, one who has been able to produce more fruits or farm products to feed the
nation. The best farmer is decorated with a national award and given a hefty
price of a house at his chosen location in any part of the nation among others;
the national best farmer is celebrated and the media wave and the front-page of
the national dailies and other newspapers are always awash with the success
story of the best farmer.
At this juncture of the celebration, the stages or
the processes he went through to attain this level of success is normally not highlighted,
but the uncelebrated truth is that the celebrated farmer attained this level of
success on the back of going through a difficulty sowing stage (nursing his
seedlings, weeding and preparing the land among others) and the most
excruciating dying stage where legions of life-wrecking forces such as fall
army worms, climate change, rodents, weeds, birds among others are unleashed on
his farm. But his ability to survive this stage and become the most fruitful is
the distinguishing factor here.
As I said in my introduction to this series, the fruitful stage is
where you and I will be celebrated, but before I jump the gun, let’s go to our
key scripture for this series, John 12:24(KJV)
“Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if
it die, it bringeth forth much fruit”. My emphasize is on the latter part
of this passage of scripture which is “it
bringeth forth much fruit” this is the ultimate and the most exciting stage
of all the stages.
As a matter of fact, we all want to do well in life, as a
pastor I want to see my church and ministry grow in depth and in number, as a
blogger I want to reach out to wider audience in and beyond the shores of Ghana
and as an entrepreneur I want to see my small business grow in terms of my
customer base and profitability besides expansion.
I know you equally want to
see massive improvement in your life – as married couples you want a lasting
marriage with a lot of blessings, as a student you want to do well in school
and come out with good grades, as career person I reckon you want to climb to
the pinnacle of the corporate ladder, as a rising footballer I know you want to
one day wear the jersey of real Madrid and play at the Santiago Bernabéu ; as
a parent I know you are praying and working hard so that your kids succeed and
do well in life; as a principal of your
school I see you working hard to ensure
that your school produces top quality students. I know your ultimate goal to is
reach the point of success.
As we crown and celebrate the national best farmer here in Ghana, I pray
and prophesy over your life – you will reach the finishing line with lots of
fruits, kings will come to the brightness of thy rising, God will fill your
mouth with laughter, Jehovah God will fatten your life with the fatness of the
earth, many will say of you “blessed are you among your peers”. I say to you
those who once looked down on you, will look up to you, those who never noticed
you, will run to the glow of thy lifting.
Folks, I just want to encourage you
not to be discourage because of what we are going through today - “ For our light affliction, which is but
for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” 2nd Corinthians 4:17
(KJV). The celebration and excitements that accompanies the “fruitful stage” should always strengthen
us to defy the odds, rise to the challenges each stage of our lives brings.
I
am sure today’s National Best farmer might also have been affected one way or
the other by the fall army worms that have invaded and destroyed a lot of
crops, yet in the midst of that he chose to be much fruitful. The presence of
difficulty and problems should not perturb you and me to coil into a shell of
mediocrity and underachievement.
I cannot bring the curtain to a close on this stage without mentioning
the testimony of Dr. Alex Awuah, the founder of one of Africa’s emerging
innovative Universities called the Ashesi University. I listened to a talk he
gave at the IB (International Baccalaureate) conference in The Hague,
Netherlands this year. He talked about the initial challenges he encountered
when he started what is now a prestigious Ashesi University – He rented a house
at Labone, a wealthy neighborhood in Ghana’s capital as his university campus,
he then placed an advert in the National Newspaper seeking to recruit faculty
staff, lecturer and other supporting staff.
To his disappointment not s single
university lecturer applied for a job; infact nobody regarded his initiative.
He then chose to work with what he had, he had to rely on some few friends in
the USA who believed in his dreams, these friends and associates came as visiting lecturers to kick start the
university with 30 initial students. Although, along the line some of the 30
students dropped out of the school, he was never moved, he kept working hard
and after 10 years and counting the success story of Ashesi University has
caught not only the academia community in Ghana, but beyond.
The lecturers who
once ignored and looked down upon him when he started the university are now
rushing for lecturing appointments at Ashesi University. The quality of
products graduating from Ashesi University has caught the attention of
industries and the corporate world, beyond the shores of Ghana, thereby Ashesi
University has become a preferred choice for thousands of students who want a
top class university education. Today, Ashesi University with its magnificent
and beautiful permanent campus on the Berekusu Hills in the Eastern Region of
Ghana has become a prestigious university with students from over 25 nations.
But this success was not without, the initial challenges of starting and
convoluted accreditation process among others. I hope you have been blessed and
fired up unto fruitfulness. God bless you for listen and reading, if you have any questions or comments you
can leave it below, or you can also send me an email via- wisafawubo@gmail.com or send me a WhatsApp message on 0233868205.
Watch out for the next edition entitled “Some facts about stages”. See you as we round up next week.
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