Root Downward And Fruit Upward

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Telephone number 0703-0363659, 0703-7681198. Email address lsmedia.livingseed.org or visit our website at www.livingseed.org. Let us sit back and listen as the servant of God brings forth the Word of Life. Our Father, we thank you for your love.

We thank you for your commitment. Thank you for the covenant you have made with our lives. Even though you have used Isaac as an illustration, we know that Isaac is dead.

You are not speaking about Isaac, you are speaking to us. We thank you, God, that the inheritance upon which we are standing is on the covenant you have made with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He says, sit down at my right hand until I make your enemies their foes too.

We thank you, God, that the Son of Man is the one that has sowed the good seed into the field. And we are so excited that presenting ourselves to you as a seed in your hand. Asking you to throw us anyhow you want to throw us.

We are believing that there will be an increase. There will be a multiplication. There will be an abundance that will break forth, that will overwhelm our generation.

And in every area and every sector, we will sow walking of light. The light, light that is supposed to shine forth and dispel darkness and discomfit the Midianites and confuse the Philistines. Let it break forth in our lives.

Even though Isaac appeared spineless, one man, in the midst of a whole country, but he had them to ransom. And they could have easily done everything they knew how to do. They blocked his way.

But they couldn't stop him. He was unstoppable. And every time we are appearing to him, we are saying, fear not.

All these countries, I will give it to you. Our Father and our God, we hear you say these things to us. We hear you repeat over and over again that we should not fear.

That this thing that you are doing is an unstoppable move. But Lord, we now want to pray that the wisdom to grow well, the wisdom to bring ripened, abundant fruit unto you. And as we start this series of issue paper, we ask that your Spirit will guide us.

Lord, we trust that help will come to us from this sanctuary. In Jesus Christ's name, we have prayed. Amen.

Now, the theme for this issue is Root Downward and Fruit Upward. Rooted and built up in Christ for abiding, abounding, and abundant fruitfulness. Root Downward and Fruit Upward.

Being rooted and being built up in Christ Jesus for an abiding, abounding, and abundant fruitfulness. We are going to pick Isaiah 37 and we are reading verse 31. Isaiah 37 and verse 31.

And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. And the remnant that is escaped from the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. Now, that passage gives us a thematic focus for what we want to do in the course of this issue.

We are looking at Root Downward and Fruit Upward. We are looking at the fact that if we are going to sincerely engage this robot and move to all that God is speaking to us about. And we are not just going to have a revival level that appears only to disappear after a short while.

We need to continuously talk about building, being rooted in Christ and being built up in Christ. Because we now know that the only message we have is Christ. The light that will dispel darkness of this world.

That seed that will overwhelm all the cares and the weeds that Satan has sown into our generation is Christ. Christ's light. It is that light that governs so much time.

And if that is it, then everything we must do to get rooted in Christ, to get built up in Christ, cannot be an overemphasis. The second passage we are going to refer to, you will find it in Colossians chapter 2, verse 6 and verse 7. I will read first in cadence and then I will ask them to flash for us the amplified version of it because of the issues we are going to raise there. As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in Him with thanksgiving.

Now if we read that from the amplified version, the amplified version says, As you have therefore received Christ, even Jesus the Lord. So walk, walk, and to walk means regulate your life and conduct yourself in union with Him and in conformity to Him. Have the roots, the roots of your being firmly and deeply planted in Him, fixed and founded in Him, being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving.

Now these two passages will form the anchor for our story. Two principles that we must consider in this issue paper, roots and fruits. Roots and fruits, and it is aptly combined in the Word of God for us.

The parting we have read in Isaiah says, Roots downward, fruits upward. Roots downward, fruits upward. One is of scale.

Roots generally is of scale and buried under the soil. The other is outgoing and upward and visible for all to see and perhaps for them to pluck and use for their needs. But one is the cause.

Roots is the cause. The other is the effect. Now the reason why we are going back today is because God has promised.

He has brought us to Leopold where we are going to be fruitful, where we are going to multiply. But I want you to know that fruitfulness is not something you do. Actually, fruitfulness is a derivative of something that is happening inside of you.

So he said so sharply about abiding fruit and abundant fruitfulness which will happen automatically. If the root in the matter of your roots is taken care of. If you are rooted properly and you are properly attached and connected to the vine.

Nothing will stop you from bearing fruit. Nothing will stop you from abiding fruitfulness. Nothing will stop you from your fruit becoming abounding.

Because he who will be producing that fruit in you is Christ himself. So we will not, you see, I decided that as God was leading us, let's deal with what is the cause. Let's deal with what will produce what we are looking for.

And if all of you will concentrate on doing that, effortlessly, this land will be filled with the fruits of righteousness. It will be filled with abiding, and when we use abiding, which means there are fruits that remain. There are fruits that after several years is disappearing.

We are not labelling for something that is a wind that you just come, it flows, and there has to be something at home. And by the next two weeks you come there, there is nothing there. That's what we are looking for.

We are looking for fruit that will abide. But God is showing us principles that will make it to happen. Now we are saying that the other fruits, fruits is the output.

Roots is the input. And let me lose with you, roots is the source, the input, and it grows downward. The other is the output, the outcome, and the result.

One must begin, and the other can only follow. Do you understand? Roots must begin. Fruits will just be a follow-up, it will follow.

And by God's grace, that's what we are going to explain. Roots is primary. Fruits is secondary.

We shall look in this paper and commit ourselves to the Lord as fresh in this day of his power to pursuing that which will give firmness, that which will give foundation to all that God is bringing us into in this world. And I really want you to commit yourself to this. If you are sincerely desiring that we will see revival in your nations, and that that land will be filled with the fruits of his life, the kind of life that Jesus Christ wants to use to dominate the land, and they will become abounding and abundant, then I need you to commit yourself onto this critical principle.

If we do not grow our roots and let it shoot downward to the very bed of everlasting waters, the fruits we are expecting will not last. If you have shallow roots, then we cannot expect this revival to last. Now, they will be scanty, and they will remain unripe.

And if this shallow root is the arrow of God's deliverance for his people, we dare not waste it with plants that are not perennial, and with fruits that can only be harvested once, and the plant dies with its first fruits. Brothers and sisters, I want you now to hear me very well. If you are concerned that this revival that we have prayed and we have waited for, and God is making this to happen almost at once globally, is happening in Namibia beyond your imagination, is happening even in Canada beyond what we ever thought, God is causing things to happen in Belize, God is causing things to happen in Bulgaria, God is causing things to happen even in Russia, God is doing something that we could not easily explain.

How is this beginning to break forth here and there in different parts of the world? It is because it is time. The convenient time and the convenient day has come for God to move. But we who are being called by the message of God to become custodians and carriers of this move, we must not perish it by developing shallow roots.

We must not destroy it by refusing to grow a proper root that can bear it and bear it for a long time. If God's work is not going to fail in our hands, and if it is not going to just die off and perish like several ever revival attempts that God has made over the years, and some of us who have witnessed several revivals that God brought, but in less than three years it has finished. And why did this finish? The people that were the bearers of that fire, they did not develop their roots, and they did not emphasize the message which is Christ and being crucified.

They easily got diverted onto the peripheral issues. That must not happen in this move of God in the name of Jesus Christ. Now we want to note that we are not praying that we become plants like vegetables, plants like leaves, plants like banana, plants like tomatoes and legumes, all such plants whose roots are generally shallow.

Their stems are longer than their roots, and whatever plant has its upward growth longer and stronger than its downward roots can only be temporary. It cannot endure on producing lasting fruits. It cannot be a perennial plant in God's purpose.

But when you read the Word of God, please I want you to look at the promise that God made when we started praying and laboring for this revival. I want people to remind me that God gave us words. God gave us a promise that we held on to.

We held on to it, we preached over it. We were seeking God over it. Even when we were just three, four, five of us, we would spend time, we would pray, we would seek the face of God.

And when God tells us that this is what He wants to do, He is going to overwhelm the whole world, He is going to be global, He is going to go everywhere. We were wondering, how can it be? How can God be speaking to people like us, who have no backbone, who have no connection, who have no support anywhere? Nobody supports us from abroad. God, our help, has always come from above.

How is He going to be? And God has never taught us how to do camera publicity. He simply says, stay here. When what I'm cooking in your land is properly done, the aroma of it will spread everywhere.

We have to praise God. We have to follow Him like that. Now it is now not time for us to perish what God has taken time to prepare by growing shallow roots.

Now, so let me show you what are the promises that God gave us so that you can also have the perspective of where you are looking for. Can you look at Isaiah 32? All of you, please. Isaiah 32.

In Isaiah 32, I'd like to read from verse 15 to verse 20. Unto the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field. I want you to see that there's a progressiveness in what God said to us.

Unto the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Then, justice or judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness will remain in the fruitful field. Verse 17.

And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwelling in quiet resting places. When we shall hear coming down from the forest, and the city shall be low in a low place, blessed are ye that stand beside all waters, that send forth Peter the fist of the ox and the ox.

God gave us that as a promise. You see, when we are asking God, what is going to be the dimension of this revival? What are we looking for? What are you planning to give to us? God gave us a dimension for our expectation. He said, until, and I want to repeat that until again, until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and a fruitful field is planted as a forest.

Did you see what we are talking about? The wilderness will become a fruitful field. You see, the desert will become a fruitful field, and everybody, you know, when desert becomes a fruitful field, you feel good already. You feel like, ah, wow, wow, even in this desert we can get some fruit here.

But that's not where God wants to start, to stop. He said, and the fruitful field will be planted as what? As a forest. A forest.

So the question that we are raising is that where God is going with us until this moon become like a forest. And when you talk of forest, you are not talking of shrubs. You are talking of trees.

You are talking of perennial trees. You are talking of trees that are prepared, I mean, producing fruit every time. That was the promise that God gave to us.

Now, if you go to Isaiah 41, we have quoted Isaiah 41, I can't remember how many times. Because every year, perhaps every year since 1979, God continues to point to this passage. It's just a very, very basic thematic passage for our life and for the walk with God brought us.

And it gives also a perspective of what we are supposed to expect. If I were to read this from where we normally read it, it says in verse 15, I read from verse 15, but I will get this to 20 today. Behold, I will make you a new sharp-threshing instrument, adding teeth.

Thou shalt thresh the mountains, and build them small, and shalt make the hills as sharp. Thou shalt pound them, and the wind shalt carry them away, and the wild wind shalt scatter them, and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt be holy in the Holy One of Israel. Verse 17 now.

When the poor and the needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for that, I the Lord, I will hear them. I the God of Israel, I will not forsake them. I will open rivers, I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys.

I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. Now look verse 19 and verse 20. It says, I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the cedar tree, the meadow tree, and the oil tree.

I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the bush tree together, that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it. We have believed God that this thing is what God is going to do. When we began to believe God to raise disciples and to pray and to pray, we were not looking for vegetable Christians.

We were not preparing shrubs. We were not preparing reeds that can blow with wind. God was speaking to us that by virtue of what He wants to do through the move of the Spirit that He is bringing us into, He will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the cedar tree, and the meadow tree, and the oil tree.

I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the bush tree together, that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and that the Holy One of Israel hath created it. It's not the creation of one man. What God hath said He wants to do, that's where you will begin to see that by the grace of God, every one of you that God is bringing, you are going to be trees.

Trees of righteousness, not shrubs. And we are going to be trees, and yet we are going to be together. The beauty of it is that we are going to have very strong men and women, people that, if they want to stand on their own into the blue gates, they can even be the founder of their own ministry, but God hath delivered us from individualism, God hath delivered us from self-ambition, God hath delivered us from self-life, that does not allow people, people that are strong, people that are versatile, to live all together, because they are strong neighbors, who will make a name and all of that.

God is building a team, a team of men and women that are plants, trees, trees planted by God together. And some of you are wondering, why are these brothers and these brothers planted together? It's because God planted us. It's not that each one of us cannot individually go and form a ministry and become founder, president and all of that.

No! God is looking for a team for the end time move of God. That's why none of you that is coming to discipleship is going to be a dwarf. None of you by the grace of God is planned to be a straw.

We are not growing vegetables here. God is not asking us to grow ordinary maize. It is not that they are not useful, they are edible, but they don't have the endemic capacity for what God is asking us to do.

And because of what God wants to do, that's why this instruction again is critical. That's why I felt that whatever the Lord is saying, we must make this input to all of you that are here now. Wherever you are, whether you are in the village, God is going to make you a tree of righteousness.

Whether you are down there, even when you are just a student, people will be wondering, what kind of student is this so strong? Where did he get his roots? That's the kind of people we are looking for. All the disciples that are going to break forth in the nation, this will be the character of their lives. This will be the way of their lives.

They are not going to be straws. That is the purpose of God. But how do we get it? That's why we need to deal with that.

Let me remind you again, one other passage that God has given us over and over again. I have killed Isaiah 60, because if you go back to Isaiah 60, you may not come out of it now. So you can always read that.

But Isaiah 61, I want you to read Isaiah 61, verse 3 and verse 4. 61, They too have pointed unto them that mourn Israel, to give unto them beauty or ashes, the oil of joy or money, the garment of praise, but the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness. The plenty of the Lord, that he might be glorified. And they shall build the old way, they shall raise up the former desolation, and they shall repair the way seeking the desolation of many generations.

Brethren, this is where this revival is going. This is what God intends it to be. So when God said, Oh, he has brought us to Rehoboth.

Our Rehoboth is not just for notice. Our Rehoboth is to continuously produce this kind that God is talking about. In Ghana, I can see several of your regions, you are all having centers, but I want you to know that from each of those centers, there shall arise very strong trees of righteousness.

There shall arise people that God is going to breed upon. When they begin to bear fruit, their fruit will be continuous. It will never finish.

And if you go back, and go and read our Ezekiel, what he is telling, God is saying that these trees, they shall produce their fruit every month. Every month. So the fruitfulness that God is promising us, it's not the one that I care.

Just a little while and go. It will continue. All of you that are listening to me, God's plan is that you will be fruitful.

Even in your old age, according to Samuels 2, you will still be fast and flourishing. You will still be producing fruits. This will be the testimony.

You will become a testimonial to the faithfulness of our God. This is the promise. But how do we get there? How do we get there? What must we focus on? What must we keep doing? As far as I'm concerned, I have found God giving us a wisdom that I could not ignore.

And the first thing was the wisdom that God personally passed to my own life. I was wondering, Oh God, how will your promises come to pass in my life? How am I going to live and die? That's not your business. All you needed to do is to grow your roots.

All you needed to do is to abide. All you need to do is to be where I am rooting you. Don't move from there.

A tree does not, a plant does not need to move here and there to become a great branch. You just need to stay growing from the source. So, we are picking the first aspect.

Roots downward. Roots downward. Fruits upward.

So, I won't talk about fruits because fruits will happen by the grace of God. We will see you bearing fruit everywhere you go in the name of Jesus Christ. And your fruit will fill the land.

And it will be ripened. It will be the kind that is sweet to taste. And people will say, Where are you getting this kind of people? That will be the story everywhere from nation to nation in the name of Jesus Christ.

Even where some of you live or where few, don't worry about that. Fear not. Unto you will I give that country.

That's the word of God. Fear not. Say, for we are just three here.

There was a time when the whole world that we are doing now was only three people. So, I have no problem that you are three where you are. It's not a challenge that you are three.

But if you have correct roots, no problem. You will break forth in the name of Jesus Christ. So, let's go on to face the issue of roots.

You remember that we read Colossians 2 study. Can I ask them to help me flash it again from the amplified Bible. Have the roots of your being firmly and deeply planted in him.

Have the roots of your being. So, when we are talking about roots, please take note. We are talking about the roots of your being.

The roots of who you are. The roots of who you will ever become. Let it be firmly and deeply planted in him, in Christ Jesus.

Fixed and founded in him. Have the roots of your being. So, your roots is the roots of all you can be.

That's the first issue I'm raising now. Your roots is the roots of all you can be. So, when he said have the roots of your being firmly and deeply planted in him.

Founded and fixed in him. It is because everything you can be. Your roots will be the roots of it.

So, the first parameter for a stable and a fruitful world with God is to be rooted in Christ. In his ordinary meaning, a root is that part of a plant which enters and secretes itself in the earth and serves to support the plant in an erect position. While by means of its fibres, it imbibes nutrients for the stem, its branches and fruits.

That is according to the dictionary, Webster's dictionary. It provides stability for a tree and also defines how tall a tree can be. How tall a tree can be is determined by the roots.

No tree can decide its height outside its roots. My brother, my sister, please hear me. How tall you can become in God, how prominent you can grow in the purpose of God cannot be separated from the roots that you develop for it.

So roots provide stability for a tree and often defines how tall that tree can become. It also determines the durability of the plant. A root could also be defined as the source of a thing, the invisible foundation of any matter.

So when we talk about roots, please take note, roots is foundation, roots is a source, roots is the defining and the determinant matrix of the full dimension of your growth. So my dear brother, what I'm listening to you say, whatever you are planning to become in God, wherever Christ is planning to make use of you, the only thing that will determine it is the roots you grow. Whether a tree is perennial or a plant is seasonal does not depend on the leaves.

It does not depend even on the atmospheric conditions. It depends on the roots. So friends, I now want you to know it's not environment that determines who you can become with God.

It is not the atmosphere that will determine how far you can go with God. What will determine it is your roots. We are able to say it is not the stem that is the main determinant matrix of the performance of a tree.

The stem of a tree is only got a derivative on its roots. You will notice that the stem of a tree does not begin to shoot out until the roots are produced. So you see, everything about you, your structure in life, your spiritual structure, your physical structure and your area of influence, they are all dependent and determined by your root system.

My prayer is that you will give attention to this. You will pray with me about it. Even if I don't finish, you will have the paper yourself but it must only give guidance on to something that I am longing for.

That's what I am doing for my own life all the time and I have not stopped and I must keep doing it if I am not planning to perish the purpose of God. If I don't want to wait this arrow of God's deliverance. If the doors that God has opened to us and to you in different places.

Imagine how many young people are coming to listen to the word of God when you stand up to preach. Don't allow shallow roots to destroy that. Don't allow shallowness of your own life to weaken what God wants to do in our generation.

I am begging you. May the Lord grant you understanding about this in the name of Jesus Christ. The root system of a tree is reflected outwardly by the stem and the branches.

If you see a tree whose branches are spread to a diameter of about 10 meters may I tell you that that diameter you see outside is not dependent on the alpine stem. It is actually dictated by the diameter occupied by its roots. So the root of a tree is what determines the outlook of that tree.

I hope you have understood to that point and I go from there now. Therefore the first critical parameter for a progressive and ever growing and fruitful walk with Jesus is not just the outward activities you do for Jesus. Outward activity does not come first.

And dear brothers and sisters, even in level box even without coming to level box you will be active but activities on the external does not come first. What comes first is your roots. You must grow downward.

Brother, you must grow downward. Sister, you must shoot down your roots. It is your roots that will determine for you a progressive and ever growing and ever fruitful walk with the Savior.

And this root of your being must be in Christ. Please take note now. Your roots must be in Christ.

I will be spending a bit of time to explain that as I go now. Have the roots of your being firmly and deeply planted in Christ Jesus. Fixed and founded in Him.

What you will see in 20 years time is the lottery does not depend on what you are going to do externally. It depends on the roots that you are developing now in Christ Jesus. Brothers, sisters, please hear me very well.

What we have become today, please listen, is not an accident. It's not something that just happens suddenly. It is coming out of the roots that God has developed and helped us to develop in Christ Jesus.

And pardon me to say to you, and if we are going to grow taller and much more effective than what we are now, it will still depend on the root system that we are shooting down before God. So, if this revival is going to last, it will depend on the roots that each one of you is shooting down into the Lord Jesus Christ. It must be in Him.

It must be in Him. No man's ministry can suddenly be greater than the root system he laid for him. Please mark that.

No man's ministry can be greater than the root system he laid for it. So, if you are looking for an ever increasing ministry in Christ Jesus, what do I recommend for you? You must have an ever growing root downward into Christ Jesus. The more you shoot your root into Christ, the more you are going to have capacity to bear bigger, bigger responsibility for God in your lifetime.

Now, may I say to you, the soil in Christ Jesus is so deep that no matter how deep the roots of your being and of your future that you are longing for be, you will still find the inexhaustible space in Christ Jesus to grow into. The soil that Christ Jesus produced or provides for us, as you can imagine, is deep enough for any extent to which you want to shoot your roots. What it means to me now is that if I really, really just want to be growing in Christ Jesus, growing my root in Christ Jesus, there is unlimited space.

And if the root of a tree has room to keep growing anywhere it wants to grow, have seen very, very mighty trees. In our compound, we made a mistake to plant a tree that we thought was a shrub. We did not know that put that tree, now I found that if you plant it inside a small pot, it will do like this, I think it's a shrub.

And it will not grow beyond that. What limited the growth of a plant in a pot is the space. But you will notice that when that tree becomes aggressive, it will break the pot.

And you will be looking for soil, be looking for soil, be looking for soil. So we planted this tree that we thought was a shrub. And we put it where there is space.

When the root of the tree began to travel, it went underneath the soil. It went under our foundation and began to crack. Suddenly you just see that there is a root entering your closet.

You say, what is this? Before we know, it was the root of that tree that we thought we planted about three meters away from the wall. But I want to tell you, Jesus! It's an inexhaustible space. There is no extent to which you want to grow your root in Christ, and still there is no more space.

So what it means to me is that if that tree had space to keep spreading, it was just becoming mighty, mighty, mighty. Even the root itself became trunks. It became trunks.

The day I wanted my brothers to help me uproot that thing, they worked for days. Up to now they have not been able to get to the extent of the root of that tree. That's what it means.

I pray that we are going to raise believers, disciples, whose roots are so deep into Christ that no stump of life can shake them. Nothing can affect them as they are going on in the name of Jesus Christ. So I want to notice you again that there is no accident, no magic about the ministry that you can execute for God.

The ministry that you will likely execute for God in your life, in your lifetime, will be dictated by the root system you develop for your Christian life. When our brother was talking about the seeds that produce 30-fold, 60-fold, 100-fold, and he ended by noting that, why can't I? Why can't I? And one of the things I would have suggested as well, go and check the roots of that particular one that produces only 30-fold. The roots came to a point and it stopped.

If you see the roots of the one that is producing over and over and over and over again, 100-fold, 100-fold, 100-fold, go and check the roots. It has got down, down, the same soil. The soil is good, but if you have a shallow root, you produce a shallow life, a shallow ministry, a shallow result, a shallow fruitfulness.

May God help us in the name of Jesus Christ. So the roots you develop is the determinant factor for everything you can possibly become in life. So if your root is less or shorter than your outward growth, what will happen is that you will soon break down.

You will be a temporary plant. There are certain plants whose roots are very short compared with their outward system, I mean stem. And I said all such plants, without exception, are temporary.

They are plants from which you cannot averse more than once in their lifetime. All of you go and try it, you see that there's no way you can averse maize from maize plant more than once. There's no way you can averse okra from okra plant more than once.

There's no way you can averse banana from banana plant more than once. All of this, what is common to them, their root system is less. It's less than their stem.

And so they can only, their roots can only barely help them to produce a fresh fruit and after that they say I'm finished. I'm finished. I'm finished.

The root that is short carrying a long stem is overworked and overgrown and barely will produce the first fruit before everything is over. Every plant whose root is smaller and shorter than its outward appearance could only struggle to produce its first fruit. Thereafter it dies off and all the examples I've given you know them already.

So the point I've made here is that the root of everything is your root. All the other parameters for spiritual growth are only but derivatives of your roots. If you understand how to develop your roots very well, all the other parameters will follow you even if you do not know anything about them.

So I have only one assignment for you if you're careful of anything. Grow your roots. And if somebody is sitting by your side in your center, tell him, say, brother stop running up and down.

Grow your roots. Grow your roots. The root of everything you will become in life is your root.

May God help you to pay attention to this and not to play around with it. Now, what next do I want to say about your roots? Roots only develop in dark and humid conditions and not in the limelight. Please note that.

Roots only develop in dark and humid conditions and not in the limelight. One peculiar thing about the roots is that it does not need sunlight to develop. Sunlight is destructive to root development.

Exposure, publicity and platforms are all injurious to root development. Please hear me. This is very important.

Many of you, I know you are eager to show up. You are eager for people to hear you. And that is why you are going to be short-lived.

That's why your anointing cannot endure. You are too much in haste to shoot up when you have not shot down your roots. The thing you are trying to attain, you don't have the roots to dare it.

The height you want to reach, there is nothing under you to carry it. This is where the problem is. All the people that love to be seen, to be known, to be heard and to be celebrated, they love to be publicized, they love the limelight.

But once you start looking for limelight, root development slows down and eventually stops. Do you hear what I'm saying? Maybe you were brought on the platform too early. You became a pastor too early.

And that is the problem. That is why you will not last in the ministry. Because by virtue of your position, you are always in the limelight.

And the church is always too much in need. I always say they are greeting for attention. That they need you so much in the limelight.

All the time. And not to give you space to attend to your personal root development. When you should have baby glossy, it is quickly exposed.

What makes roots to develop very quickly is darkness, is obscurity. Some of you will wonder, when you come into discipleship and a disciple who is concerned about your future is insisting, don't go out yet. We don't want to publish you yet.

You are too, no, no, no, no. Grow, grow your retina. I have already grown.

When I meet disciples that say they have already grown. And they have just told me to establish it for one year, two years, three years. They feel in their head they have already grown.

And that there is nothing they need to make in that they don't know. What can I do to a man who doesn't want to become anything in life? What do I want to do with a man who is only planning to appear in order to disappear? Sometimes we allow them to go. We know that in three, four years' time we won't hear about them anymore.

They will just litter the place of saved plants. They will just dry up. You say, but this brother used to shout here.

Where is he? He has gone. He has gone. May God deliver you from that kind of thing.

My prayer is that you will take time to recognize that root development does not happen in limelight. If you have opportunity to be under the shadow of people, they are not oppressing you. They are not trying to kill your, oh my God, they want to kill my staff.

Who can kill your staff? If there is a staff in you, nobody can see it. It will shine. But we know that before a staff shines, it comes from a very powerful source.

But if you are just a wandering staff here and there, as the Bible says, there is nothing. You will soon finish. But if you are the one that God is looking for to carry His fire of revival, and you are refusing to grow your roots for an enduring ministry, it means you want to waste it.

It means you want to waste the opportunity of your own people. Don't do that. Don't do that.

I beg you. Bury your head and let's get to where God is taking you to in the name of Jesus Christ. Now, roots, they need darkness to develop.

That is why plant seedlings are placed in black plastic bags. Transparent containers that allows rays of the sun or rays of light to penetrate it, they only destroy roots' growth. Look, I pray you understand.

The Bible says in Psalm 91, those that dwell in the secret place of the Most High, they shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I wonder what does that mean? Why is God always looking for secret place for those He wants to use? It is crucial to opt for authority so as to develop the roots for the future that you are looking for. One thing that many people do not know about those who seek their generation for God is their years of authority.

This is because it is not acceptable. The root of their life is necessarily hidden away from the public view. What people usually see is their manifestation, their scent, their leaves and their fruits.

That's alright. But let your roots that is producing that, that is releasing that, let it continue to shoot down. The Lord will help us in the name of Jesus.

So sometimes, you may suddenly hear that there is a man of God who God is shooting massively and everybody is going to him. But people do not often find out how many years he has been, he has been in authority without being noticeable, developing roots. They only suddenly see that now, when he preaches, things happen.

There is some young people who do not understand how he got there and start coming to him to appreciate with him and take photographs with him. We have been speaking about this. Don't go and copy nonsense.

That's not how you can become anything in the hand of God. Association with a big tree will not make you big. What makes a big tree is its roots.

So if you try to associate with a great man who has developed his roots over the years and you do not bend down to develop your own roots, you will never become great. In fact, you may even just wither out. The best you will be is a parasite.

You love the limelight and you are too much in haste. You love attention, you want to be seen. All those who love to be seen cannot wait to have a strong root system.

That is the truth of it. Since the root is the strength of any man's life and it is what determines and defines your future, your durability, the capacity and the divine possibility for you. Anybody who longs for a durable anointing cannot postpone root development.

If you are desiring an enduring anointing and you want God to protect you and shoot you out, like I ended yesterday and said, the mustard seed is the last of all seeds. But when it is planted, what the mustard seed does under the ground is that it begins to grow roots, grow roots, grow roots. You will not even know.

In fact, you will have partners say, what is this man? What is here now? They will take you for granted. They don't know that you are, they don't know that something is breathing inside. When this thing begins to shoot out, begins to shoot out, begins to shoot out, birds of the air from all over the world, they will be coming there.

You spend too much money on publicity because you love land life. If you take time to grow your roots, it is the outburst, the hour of your life that will fly everywhere. We say, oh, there is one tree there.

We can go and nest on it. We can go and get that. You will see them coming all the way.

Don't be encased as not to grow your roots. They are gone. See, the root is the strength of any life and it is what determines and defines your future and determines your durability, the capacity, the divine possibility for your life.

You cannot afford to postpone your roots development. The reason why many believers never become strong and great throughout their Christian life, please mark that. The only reason why many never grew to become strong is not because God limited them.

It's not because God said you, you are going to be a dwarf like this. It's not that God said you, you are supposed to be arara in our local language, a dwarf that cannot grow beyond here. No.

It's because they stopped their root development. They thought that it would not be necessary and when they should have buried their lives in obscurity for root development, they were being celebrated here and there. I have seen so many of us, so many brothers, so many pastors, they keep doing anniversaries.

Anniversary, one year anniversary of ministry, two year anniversary and I'm looking at them, what are you talking about? What are you celebrating? What is the meaning of this? And there was so much money, so much publicity to advertise what has just happened for one year. And they are not planning how to make opportunities. How do we grow it? Why is it you yourself that is arranging anniversaries? If you are a correct man.

Do you not know that it is when your life has been so enjoyable, the people that have been eating from your life over the years, they are the ones that will come here and say ah, I met this one ago when I was in the secondary school. And I've been following, I've been eating and drinking from the sky. Now, I am a grandmother.

That's why I'm bringing all my children and I'm telling them that this is my source. That would be an anniversary. It is the result of your life that should come and celebrate the years in which they have been drinking from your life.

It's not you who just started one year ago and you are doing anniversary of our ministry. Anniversary of our ministry. Well, if you like to die young, you can go on doing that.

But if you want to live long, can't you keep your mouth in the dust and keep growing your roots? May God help us in the name of Jesus. Maybe it is possible that you had a spectacular conversion. There is a good testimony about your conversion.

Eh? Like some people say, well, there used to be the girlfriend of a of a Lutheran. And because of that, there is a good story. People are telling them, come and see the former girlfriend of Lutheran.

And because your conversion experience is a good story, people who do not understand the secret of spiritual growth, and they are not looking for a lasting future for you, they will start calling you up and down to give your testimony. They organize like a cow. They say, well, his sister here, Lucifer was her husband.

She struggled with the water. But now she was miraculously converted during one of her ministries. So we ask her to come and give you a testimony so that you can know what God is doing.

Let's jam our hands together and just call Sister Jennifer to the pulpit. They will not allow your life to be buried for roots development. They are calling you here and there to go and give that story, and that story doesn't grow until you begin to exaggerate it and tell more lies.

And what does that do? They use you to gather the crowd for themselves, and after that, they discard you because your story is no more new. That is the fastest way to kill your spirituality. They don't love you from their hearts.

They just want to use you and dump. There are some preachers who rose up powerfully some time ago, and multitudes were following them and going to them. But a few years down the line, everything finished.

Why? There was no roots. Whatever you have managed to become, you must grow the root for it today. Move away from empty publicity because limelight and spiritual root development are mutually exclusive.

They don't go together. Whenever God wants to raise a man and make him great for God, he first takes him to an obscure place for his life to be formed and for him to grow his roots that way. I won't have time to explain to you how God raised John the Baptist, but you can read his story.

30 years he was in the desert, growing roots. When the voice of the Lord now came to him in the wilderness, in the desert, there he was the voice of him that cries in the wilderness and come and see thousands that are running from the city, from the town, everywhere because God is a root. And they'll say, what did you go to the wilderness to see? Is it a root? No! You don't go to the wilderness to look for roots.

And what makes a root a root, excuse me, what makes a root a root? It is lack of roots. That's all. That's all.

If you see any man that is dangling here, dangling here, dangling here, any wind of doctrine will blow him there, blow him down there, go and check. He has a shallow root. That's what is causing it.

Roots must grow downward. John grew, he grew his roots and he became strong in spirit and he was in the desert in the day of his manifestation to his tribe. Now, you are the one who is in haste.

Any tree that plans to live long is never in haste to shoot out. It is ordinary flowers and ordinary vegetables like spinach and tomato that are in haste to shoot out. Within three or four days, they are already shooting out because they do not plan to live long.

But if you look at a heavy, mighty tree like an oak tree, before you see any little shoots of an oak seedling coming out, it has probably taken years to grow its roots underground. Those who plan to live long for God, they do not mind how many years they stay under to grow their roots. It will take time for you to develop a root system that has the capacity for the future you anticipate.

Today, our streets and our internet are full of advertisements of instant tea, instant coffee, instant this, instant that, instant anointing. Unfortunately, we have come to a dark age where people also advertise their own anointing as instant, instant power, instant miracle, instant everything. They offer you a diploma to be ordained in six weeks in their Bible school.

Instant, just coming after New Year's Day when the anointing is pouring like water. One week, something is going to happen to your life. Just come for school ministry for one week, you become a non-forgettable minister.

That's a lie. You would have asked the man that they are advertising there, so if one week made him a non-forgettable minister, so what is it all about? May God help us in that. Let me say, roots do not develop in hate.

And I wish to invite all of you to follow me into the nursery where God will place you in a purity to grow your roots. This is because roots, your roots don't compete with anybody. And that would be the next point I should raise and hoping that I'll be able to come to the conclusion of roots for today and then I'll go on from there tomorrow.

Your root is peculiar to you. Please take note of that. Your root is not in contrast to another person's roots.

Your root is peculiar to you. The only thing that people can compare and contrast is the stem. They say this tree is stronger than that tree.

This tree is bigger than that tree. This is not so with the roots because you cannot even see my roots as to compare it with yours. So there is no competition in root development.

When you are developing your roots, it's peculiar to you and it is private also to you. No two plants compete about their roots. Every plant is focused on developing its own roots.

When you look at the fallible of the sower that we have been discussing even though we are not studying it deeply, in Matthew 13, the seed that fell on the stony places is one who hears the word of God and immediately receives Him with joy. It immediately stands up because it has no death of heart. He has no root in himself but endures only for a little while.

When tribulation and persecution arises because of the word of God that he has heard, immediately it stumbles. The only thing that makes a man to immediately spring up on hearing the word of God is that there is no death of heart where he is growing his roots. If this message I am giving you is affecting you well, it is to send you downwards.

It will make you to dig your roots. At the end of the message all you can do is to say Hallelujah and then you clap for the man of God and shake your body and he goes with him. You have wasted that man's message.

He will come there tomorrow and he will not find anything. In fact, when he asks you Oh, how did that message touch you? What did you learn? You say, well, the man said many things, many things. I just like the way he was speaking.

Because there is no root to collect anything that will keep you going. The only thing that you require to develop roots is the death of thoughts to receive the ungranted word. He only refracts it up only to himself.

Perhaps to someone else because there is no death in his own heart. His excitement is superficial. There is no root behind his standing.

He will soon realize what a waste. What a waste. In my own personal life when I became, you know, born again the body to serve the Lord I wanted souls to be saved, I wanted to go everywhere, I wanted to be moving everywhere, I was very eager, which is normal for a correct believer.

But I soon discovered that God's will is that for me to be a lasting person in the hand of God that zeal, that initial zeal, oh I want everybody to know let that zeal let it push me down to want to grow my roots, to want to discover, discover, discover deeper, deeper, deeper so that when I begin to stand up, no matter the storm, it cannot. So I want to say to you, the urgency of God's call on your life the urgency of souls that are perishing that you have saved must be the urgency for you to grow your roots. Must be the urgency for you to develop yourself so that your roots grow downward first so you can get fruits upward.

May the Lord help us in the name of Jesus Christ. Now finally, roots do not grow upward. Roots only grow downward.

The growth of roots is unidirectional. You will not see a correct root turning to start growing upward. If a root no longer finds deeper soil to grow under, into, it will only be spreading but under ground, still under the ground.

Roots are great diggers. Tough roots have the characteristic feature of digging deeper and sharpening far into the soil underground. They go below and find their own resources to keep the plant ever growing and ever fresh.

The growth of your inner man must be your priority. Whereas men look at the outward appearance, God is more concerned about the inner man and what is and that is where your root development actually focuses upon. When a man wants to grow his roots, he spends more time with things that are invisible to human beings.

He digs deeper and deeper still into the word of God and into the understanding of divine mystery so that he can have and own that to his own standard. Unfortunately, there are rifts. That is where the devil also loves to attack.

The greatest attack that kills any tree is not the attack on its branches. If you attack the branch of a tree, you have only really done nothing to it because you are only giving it opportunity to shoot further and better branches. When a woodworm finds its way to the root of the plant, it has got a firm hold of the plant so bring it down.

Your root is where the devil himself attacks you. If the devil cuts my leaves and my branches, he has done nothing to me because the more you cut my branches, the more you give me opportunity to grow better branches. But if the devil gets at it to attack my roots, I am finished.

That is why if you discover that the soil on the top of the root of your tree is being eroded, as a good plant maintenance manager, what do you do? Get more soil to cover it. If a man wants to live long for God, he must continuously protect his root by covering it. Anytime erosion is coming around your root, there is danger ahead.

There are many things that seek to erode the inner life, the secret life, the root system of a man of God. As your roots are getting exposed, they start dying. So in order to keep your roots ever functional, you must keep it ever covered.

I am dealing with the root as a parameter for spiritual growth and for tenacious and progressive work with God. This is a critical matter. I must keep covering my roots because if it gets eroded as to be exposed, when the enemy comes he knows where to attack.

He goes for it. And whenever God also wants to deal with a problem in the life of anyone, he lays the axe not on the branches. He lays the axe on the root of the matter.

The axe is laid on the root of any tree not planted by my Father and shall be hewn down. It is the same principle for genuine deliverance gets to the root of the problem. And when the devil also seeks to attack a man of God, he seeks very desperately to cut down his roots.

If you see any man of God whose nature has collapsed, the enemy has found his root and has gone for it sharply and strongly. He has gone for the root of the secret prayer line. Prayer is wonderful but not all prayers are powerful.

The prayer that is powerful and effective is the prayer you pray in the secret. The secret of a powerful prayer line is the secrecy of it. The Bible says, Your Father who sees in the secret shall reward you openly.

When you get this paper, I would like you to please take time to finish up to the point at which I am ending with your roots. And all that you are saying about how to grow your roots, how to develop it, how to maintain it in the secrecy, I want you to mark it. Now, I want to now finally say that no two trees can share the same roots.

No matter how close two trees are, each one can only stand on his own roots. Even as we are relating together as brothers and sisters in the work of God, each one of you has to develop your roots. The root of a disciple cannot become the root of the disciple.

You must grow your roots as an individual because no two trees, and I want to say, even your husband does not share the same root with his wife. If you don't allow your wife to develop her roots, she will be a liability to you. And if your husband is not developing his own roots, he cannot provide leadership for your life.

He will be a ridge that is blown up and down, here and there. So, the question I want to raise with you is that every one of you listening to me today, are you a wife? Begin to pray and say Lord, I must develop my roots. Are you a husband? You must develop your roots.

Are you a disciple? Is that a wonderful disciple? You must develop your roots. Your roots is unique to you. It's pertinent to you.

No man can develop it for you. Every tree develops its own roots. And so, if you are planning to grow well, your roots is the very strategic thing that you must spend time to develop.

So, I want to stop now. Be rooted in the context of this scripture that we have been dealing with. It must happen before we talk of any other thing.

It precedes ministry. It precedes even being built up in Christ. If it's been established in Him, it must happen before you can abound with thanksgiving.

It's a priority and priority must be given to it. Begin from now to get your roots defined in Christ. Begin to prayerfully develop the roots of your future, the roots of your marriage, the roots of your ministry, even the roots of your career.

Being rooted is not only something that has happened, but something that should be happening continuously. One thing that used to really happen is that, even when you go to a very big tree that has been there for 50 years, if you did this thing, you will still see that on that, it is still chiseling out those tiny, tiny things because the big tree says, I'm not ready to die now. I must keep growing.

So, for me to stay with you, I don't ever think a correct man of God should graduate from shooting down. I will continue to grow my own roots. I'm developing my roots day by day.

Just as I really have grown, I am still growing. What you see me today is not a climber that I climb for. There is still a future for me that you don't know.

You have not seen it before. Where we are right here today, I saw you many years ago. And God was saying, I'm taking you somewhere, I'm taking you somewhere.

I said, so Lord, do I need to be globetrotting everywhere? He said, no, no, no, you don't need to be globetrotting. You just need to be digging deep here. I counsel you, my dear brothers, I counsel you, dear sisters, there is no end to growing your roots in Christ Jesus.

And whether you will say, yeah, I'm growing, I'm growing, that is a wrong statement. The right word I wanted to use for your life is, I'm growing. I'm growing.

Don't let me hear you say, I have grown. I have grown, I'm settled. No correct man that wants to continue to produce fresh fruit every month, every year, ever stops growing roots.

Now I stop at this and commit you to God's hand that because we are looking for a level up that God has brought us into, that will bring increase to the body of Christ, that will bring abounding fruitfulness, that will make the fruit abundant, and these fruits will not be the one that are there to disappear, they will be abiding with me, perennial plants, and God has promised. He said, I will set in the desert, then a cedar tree, a sheet of the earth, the rock tree, these are trees, and they will be together, which means by God's grace, we will all have our roots into Christ Jesus. Each one of our brothers, they will be people that are of inferior caliber, but growing in Christ Jesus, and yet they are not seeking independence.

They are not seeking to be on their own. We are still going to flow together. We are going to be a team, a team of men and women, everywhere, in any country.

We are going to have teams of people that each one of them can hand to God's Word, and He said, Carl, even the one that was our senior pastor does not know the Bible like this brother. But why is he still in discipleship? Why is he still flowing with all these people? That's what young people that don't have understanding, they will be baffled about. God is raising a team.

God is raising an army. He's a religious army. God is raising a people.

A group that will march over the length and breadth of the land. When God Jesus started singing this morning, and said, all over the world, the Spirit is moving. I could not but agree with him that yes, God is doing this all over the world.

He's planting trees everywhere. And I'm trusting that each one of you will accept this responsibility to grow your roots. Even if you see it as if it is not personal benefit, I want you to know that to grow my own roots is a benefit to the kingdom of God.

I don't want to become a discarded plant. And he said, this brother used to shout, see, he's finished. Those of you that say you are following discipleship, discipleship, see your God, he has fallen down, he's forgetting.

No, let it not be so. Until I die, I will still be fresh. I will still be flourishing.

I will still be producing fruits even in my own age. And I will still remain a testimonial, according to Psalm 92 verse 15 says, they are a testimonial to the faithfulness of God. That God is good to those who follow him.

God will use our lives to be a testimony. Will you want to take that step this moment? Will you like to stand and pray with me? From Nyarra, Nyarra bless the Lord, to the cross, where I was born. From Nyarra, Nyarra bless the Lord.

Oh, from Nyarra, Nyarra, Nyarra bless the Lord. Oh, to die fresh in Moshe, Yehoshua. He comes to me, Yehoshua.

Yehoshua, Yehoshua, Yehoshua. Have you been shadowed? Ask God to change that for you today. Have you been carried up and down? Your inner life, your secret life, your life under the shadow of your mighty is not there.

I want to ask you, are termites attack your roots? Hey, are you still looking nice outside when the root of your being, the root of your connection, the root of your life has been attacked by the termite of sin? By the termite woodworm that just comes to attack. And on the outside people think you are still standing but inside, inside, hey, you are finished. I want you to pray with me.

Time has gone but I cannot but ask you to check what's happening under me. What's happening under your ground? What's happening under the roots of your life? Can you take a step and say, oh God, I don't have anything else now, my root is my problem. My root is my problem.

Are you more popular than your inner life? Hey, you are speaking louder than your inner life. Are you planning to die young? Will you lift up your heart and say, God, draw me nearer. Draw me nearer.

Take me to where you build me. Cut my roots, oh God. Make me to focus on root growth.

Root development, please help me to focus on it. Help my life now, help my life now. Thank you Father.

I don't know what you want to do, whether you want to carry that to God. Whether you want to run to Christ and say, ha, this is the secret. I have become stagnant for few years now.

I didn't know that it's my root that was attacked. I was looking for environmental issues. I said, is that demon, is that demon? No, it is your root.

It's your root. Can you bring it to God and say, God, deal with my life. I want to be rooted in Christ Jesus.

Wherever you are, take a step. Take a step and step out and say, God, I can no longer keep quiet. They made me Sunday school teacher in my congregation, but my own root has died.

I'm still a pastor, but my root has been attacked inside. The kind of thing that is happening to me, people must not know that I'm losing out. Lord, today, forgive me.

Please step out and I'll pray with you. I don't have time to wait again. If you want to make your roots a priority for your life, especially those of you that the devil has attacked.

He has laid an axe on the root of your life and you are almost finished. Heaven is willing to re-culture it. God is willing to dig around it again and pour manure to your life.

But it will depend on you. Do you want that? If you do, wherever you are, stand up. Come up and say, God, my root is the matter now.

My concern now is not what people say on the outside. It's my inside. God bless you.

I've seen your hand be set up and I've seen you saying, Lord, my root is my need. My root is my need. Now, can I ask you just take a step out and just shake that hand before God and say, Lord, grab my hand, oh God, and draw me to where roots are developed.

God bless you. God bless you. There are still more that want to do that.

Do it. Do it. Do it in any place.

Even if there is a nun in your room. This is the time to say, oh God, now this is the real issue. The root of my problem has been my root.

The root of my difficulty has been this root that has been attacked. People thought of something outside, but my root has been eroded. Today, Lord, have mercy on me.

Thank you. God bless you. God bless you.

Let's pray together. Holy Spirit, thank you for this hour. Thank you for the help we are receiving from you right away.

Thank you for your children everywhere. And all those that are hearing you speak, that for this trouble to be made, to bring fullness of resolve, our roots cannot be shattered. Please heal us of every shattered root.

For Lord, I pray now for all those whose roots have been attacked by the Samaritans. By those inside, inside woodworms that have found a waste of their roots. The outside is looking green, but the inside has become dry.

Today, oh God, come down. Come down and help us. Come down and intervene in that case right now.

The young man, oh God, that Jeremy is about to cut down, because he has got at the root of his life. Lord, stop it for us and deliver him in the name of Jesus. There are people that look big outside, but their roots are so tiny inside.

They are just about to fall off. Lord, I ask, respond to our cry. Step into their lives now, Lord.

Let them not be a waste. They have capacity to become something, but the root they presently have cannot carry them far. Some, oh God, have died with their first fruit.

Some, the first miracle you gave them, finish them, because they have no roots. Lord, I ask this moment, step into their face. Whether a Malawi, oh God, that man that is crying to you, respond to his cry.

Do a new thing in our midst in the name of Jesus Christ. I ask, Lord, that we will see the hand of God stretched from one village to another, from one city to another, from one country to another, and let, oh God, for yourself, plants of righteousness, trees of righteousness, trees, perennial trees that are producing fruit every month. Lord, please do it for us.

Thank you for that. In Jesus Christ's name, we pray.