How Yielded are You?

By Jamie Tennant

“Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy;

Break up your fallow ground,

For it is time to seek the LORD,

Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.”

Hosea 10:12

Fallow ground is ground that has become dormant or inactive. It’s ground that has been left untilled or unsown after plowing. In Matthew 13 the condition of our heart is compared to the ground/soil.

“We must break up our fallow ground. The fallow ground is the hard soil that was useful in a previous season, but through weathering and time, it has become hard, immovable, weedy and stony. The only way to make that ground useful again is to release the tiller and break it up, pulling up the soft soil below the surface and replacing the hard topsoil that won’t allow any new seeds to be sown into it.” The Gift of Tears, Corey Russell

“Plow your uncultivated ground [for a season], And do not sow among thorns. Circumcise (dedicate, sanctify) yourselves to the LORD And remove the foreskin [sins] of your heart…”

Jeremiah 4:3-4 AMP

Uncultivated means it’s not useful for growing crops. What worked in the previous season is not going to work in the next season. We need to clear those things out to prepare for what’s next.  Maybe there’s disappointment and pain from the last season that needs to be dug out in order for this next season to be fruitful.

“Don’t mistake his tolerance for acceptance. Do you realize that all the wealth of his extravagant kindness is meant to melt your heart and lead you into repentance?”

But because of your calloused heart and refusal to change direction, you are piling up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed.”

Romans 2:4-5 TPT

 

So how do we break up the fallow ground?

 

  1. Ask God to reveal the hard places in our hearts:

“God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting way— the path that brings me back to you.”

Psalms 139:23-24

 

  1. Saturate those hard, calloused places with the Word. For example, if God reveals that unforgiveness has hardened your heart, repent and then find Scripture to soften your heart:

“Tolerate the weaknesses of those in the family of faith, forgiving one another in the same way you have been graciously forgiven by Jesus Christ. If you find fault with someone, release this same gift of forgiveness to them.”

Colossians 3:13 TPT

 

  1. Keep your heart watered.

“Then on the most important day of the feast, the last day, Jesus stood and shouted out to the crowds— “All you thirsty ones, come to me! Come to me and drink! Believe in me so that rivers of living water will burst out from within you, flowing from your innermost being, just like the Scripture says!””

John 7:37-38 TPT

 

“…just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,”

Ephesians 5:25-26

The Word sanctifies (sets apart/declares holy) and cleanses us! The Word will keep our hearts from getting hard with weeds, stones and thorns.

“The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.”

Psalms 51:17 NLT

It feels like the church is in a season of breaking up the fallow ground. The women are breaking up the rocks of difficult emotions in their hearts to make room for healing and connection. Pastor is leading us and encouraging us to break up the hardness in our hearts to make room for God’s mercy to grow. It will require us to humble ourselves and look at our hearts and see the sins, wrong beliefs, and missteps for what they are – fallow ground holding us back from what God has in the next season.  Once we acknowledge those things, we can repent, dig those things up and bring up the soft soil that is underneath all the junk. The soft soil is able to receive God’s rain of righteousness.

If you feel like you’re in a season of ugly, hard things in your life being uncovered and revealed then know that maybe this breaking up of the fallow ground has begun. Don’t run from it. Don’t fight it. Recognize it and invite God into the process. It’s uncomfortable to see the calloused and hard places in your heart surface. It’s painful to dig those places out. But, in the end: “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

Ezekiel 36:25-26

God wants us to prepare our hearts because He’s coming with rain. The rain WILL come. It will fall on the uncultivated hearts AND the cultivated hearts, but only the hearts that have done the work of preparing for the seed will receive it and be fruitful. Hosea tells US to sow righteousness, he tells US to break up our fallow ground, he tells US to seek the Lord. And then God will come and rain righteousness on us. We have a part and God has a part.

In my studying I read this commentary of Matthew 13: “The greatest amount of fruit produced was not determined by how rich the soil was, but how yielded to the plow it was. The soil in each condition received seed, but not all produced quality fruit. Everyone receives seed, the Word of God. Everyone has potential for the harvest, living a fruitful life, but the ones who will produce the most fruit will be the ones most yielded to cultivation.”

How yielded to the plow are you?