Fountains, Springs, Fig Trees, and Honey    

Key Verse to Read and Treasure

For the LORD your God is bringing you into a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, and a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. (Deuteronomy 8:7-10, ESV)

For Insight

Have you ever been under the impression that if things are not going in a way you expected after you had done all the things you felt God leading you to do, that it must not be God’s will for you (after all), or that you must be doing something wrong, or you had heard God incorrectly so you backtracked, went back to the drawing (prayer) board or completely let go of the dream/vision you felt in your spirit was what God was telling you?

Most of us who have had that kind of vision or Spirit stirring will say yes. I can remember when we were getting ready to leave our hometown so my husband could attend seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Even though we were applying all the logical steps and doing all the things we felt God telling us to do, nothing was coming together right. The time for him to report for the fall semester was getting closer and we still needed housing and I still needed to secure a job and we didn’t have a penny in our pocket to even buy gas for the transition. So each weekend we would go downtown to the main library and I would pour over the newspapers in that area (those were the days before internet and google access).

Week after week nothing happened. As a family we had to determine we would not delay and just because things didn’t seem to be working in our favor was not a sign that God was telling us to abandon our plans or that we had gotten our signals crossed. We determined we were not going to hold off another semester or year. The time was now, and we were to keep pressing.

It was not until a few weeks before time to leave that God caused all the things we needed to fall into place. Breakthrough: our housing was secured! Breakthrough: I was interviewed over the phone and got the job I had applied for! Breakthrough: the money we need to put new tires on our car was provided! Up until the very end the enemy was trying to delay us by sheering the bumper off our car when we attached the trailer, but God put my brother-in-law in place to hook our trailer to his motor home and off we went at midnight. Tired but happy.

We barely had time to get all our belongings into our apartment, but we were running off spiritual energy that comes after you experience breakthrough and have cheated the enemy out of a victory. We all had to report to our jobs and school bright and early that morning and we all made it on time. We were exhausted but happy. This testimony of faith has given my husband a wealth of sermon material and me a lot of material for teaching and writing.                 

Like the Israelites, sometimes all we will have is the promise of God and the good he shown us but that is to be enough. The Israelites had to learn to abide in the promise of God even when their enemies were fighting them and their troubles came in multiples and we must learn to abide in the True Vine when nothing is going right or smoothly and everything seems pointed against us. As we abide in the True Vine, the Spirit will keep us on track to make sure God’s plans are manifested in our life. Because God’s promises to bring or deliver us are set in stone and written in blood we can go forward in strength with a smile on our face and joy in our heart. We have a destination not even the devil can keep us from reaching.     

Father God, bumpy roads, delays, and struggle don’t mean we’re not going in the right direction. As we abide in Jesus we will stay encouraged because your promises don’t fade nor lose their power. Amen

For Application

What promise of God are you holding onto? What bumps or trouble are cropping up? Are you abiding in the Vine?    

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