DIG AND DUNG

God often compares people to trees. “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon” (Ps 92:12). “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper” (Ps 1:3). Prosperous trees need some attention.

 I was reading in the Gospels last weekend and the Holy Spirit directed me to this passage:

He [Jesus] spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.

Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?

And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. (Luke 13:6-9)

If our lives are spiritually dull, not vibrant, and not producing the kind of fruit we desire, then it’s probably a good time for us to do some digging and some dunging.

I have a fig tree in my yard that I’ve had for 13 years. I’ve been pretty good about fertilizing it every year, but this year when I thought about doing it, I remembered how hard it was last year to dig up the ground around the tree to even be able to put some fertilizer in there. After a period of time, the ground gets so compacted that it’s a difficult job to put anything new into it.

That’s how our spiritual lives get sometimes—compacted and hard. We need to stir things up, breaking up some of our old ways of thinking and old ways of spending our time. We need to ask some questions as to why do we think the way we do? When a person digs around a tree, he or she aerates the ground and gets things moving. That’s what we need to do spiritually. Paul tells Timothy:

Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2 Tim 1:6-7)

We can never be afraid of digging. It may be exactly what’s required to get rid of old thinking patterns.

Then there’s the matter of dunging. I thought about what it means to dung a tree. Dung is manure, a type of fertilizer. It’s organic, alive, not watered down, not genetically engineered, but good, rich, hot manure. The dictionary defines “fertilize” as “to make fertile; make fruitful or productive; enrich.” Fertilizer is “any material put on or in the soil to improve the quality or quantity of plant growth.” 

 

When a person fertilizes a tree, he gives it an extra boost. Right now is the time to give our lives that extra boost of the Word of God, whether in study or application. We can read new sections of the Bible we’re not familiar with or do a word study on something other than the usual things we look at.

 

How about testing out a new principle like the laying on of hands for healing, or confronting a devil spirit with the name of Jesus Christ? Whatever we see Jesus or any other believer in the Bible do, we can ask the Lord to teach us and help us to do the same and He will be perfectly willing to help and guide us into it.

There are choices we make every day on how to spend our time. A good gardener digs and dungs at least once a year. The man in Jesus’ parable hadn’t done either in three years, so his tree quit producing fruit. Let’s be diligent to take better care of our spiritual trees, digging and dunging a little more often with the result of more fresh delicious fruit in our lives.

Love, Carolyn

QUESTIONS FOR PONDERING OR DISCUSSION

1.      Do some digging by asking the questions: “What do I really believe about Jesus? God? Holy Spirit? Angels? Devil spirits? Healing? Miracles? Wonders? End times? The Bible?” And, “Why do I believe this way?”

2.      What new sections of the Bible do you think you’d like to look at this week?

3.      When was the last time you took a word from the scriptures and did a word study on it? Did you look up where it was first used? What did you learn?

4.      Have you taken some time in the past six months to go to a bookstore, Christian or otherwise, to look at some new Christian inspirational books? What about new Christian websites? Have you ordered any new CDs or DVDs on subjects you may not know too much about?