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Several years ago, I was given a prophetic word from a pastor who headed a thriving Charismatic church in a large, East Coast city. What he spoke over my life resonated with my spirit, despite the oddity of the word picture he was painting. It was the first time I had ever been told that God wanted to use me as a pollinator—like a bee or hummingbird or butterfly in a field of brightly-colored flowers—to help inspire life.
Today, as I was hiking the craggy mountain path, now dotted by vibrant yellow wildflowers of spring, I began to think about that word again.
And God dropped several key points into my spirit that I believe might help you if you are called like me to be a catalyst for God to encourage, inspire, and empower those around you who are growing but need that extra push to activate their fruitfulness.
Pollinators are absolutely instrumental. This is the first key. Without them, lots of flowers would not get pollinated and would not bear fruit. Fruit is reliant on pollinators to do their job. You might think your gift of encouraging and bringing refreshment and inspiration into another person’s life is no big deal, or that everybody does it. But you are wrong. I am telling you, sometimes at those moments when you release God’s flow, you are just the lifeblood that person needs.
In order to do the job, pollinators must anticipate the season of fruitfulness. They must be ready and able to recognize the right time to get to work. Too early, and the work is a waste of time; too late, and the blossom has died and pollinating isn’t possible. There must be discernment of the correct window of time. Pollinators need to be alert for the coming harvest. If you are a pollinator in people’s lives, ask God to reveal when the skill sets, character, talents, maturity, attitudes are right in season. And then, don’t be afraid and don’t be lazy to be the catalyst!
You are going to be pollinating lots of flowers, not just one. It’s a season, not a one-day event. God will orchestrate it so you won’t just be speaking into one person’s life, but many. Be prepared. Seek God for wisdom and energy as you anticipate your next assignment.
Remember: you aren’t the only pollinator out there, so don’t get weary in that busy season when you are tasked many times to bring encouragement to many different people.Have you ever seen a flower garden in its peak? Bees and butterflies are all over those plants! One bee does not do all the work. There are no maverick pollinators in God’s plan. The work is done through the action of many bees with the same goal— releasing fruitfulness by dropping a morsel of truth and encouragement wherever those bees go.
God created a variety of different kinds of pollinators. God uses bees, birds, butterflies, and other insects to do the job. So, if you aren’t of the bee variety, it’s OK. Maybe you are more gentle like the hummingbird or more lighthearted like the butterfly. Perhaps you are even more hardworking like the bee. Whatever your personality and talent mix, God can use you in a unique way to deposit His life into other’s hearts. Don’t try to be a bee if you are a butterfly. Be yourself!
It’s not about you. Before you get a big head about being Mr. or Ms. Life Giver, just know that you couldn’t bring anything good and life-creating without your connection with Christ. It comes first from God and then to you. And it comes to you not for you, but so that it can get transmitted through you.
Flowers also have a responsibility. True, pollinators need to recognize when flowers are ready. But the flower has to likewise be receptive, open, and ready to be activated. So, once again, it’s not all up to the pollinator. You do your job of bringing encouragement, but if growth doesn’t happen as it should, know that the flower also has to take responsibility for some level of fruitfulness. It is not all up to you.
Bring the next level of life to what is already living. Don’t waste time on what is not growing. Pollinators don’t try to pollinate plants that are dead. If you have tried to bring life to someone who you thought God wanted you to encourage and there is no fruit in that person’s life after repeated attempts to minister, don’t despair. Leave it for the Lord to refresh that person. God is the one who brings life back from the dead. Pollinate living things, just as the bees and butterflies do. Pray for those who are enduring a dead season that God would breathe His life into them. And then perhaps He might use you or another pollinator to rekindle something.
Hope this helps you as you continue on in the work of the Lord. Be encouraged today. Keep doing what you are doing in faith. Keep blessing others as the Lord blesses you. And what you can’t do, God will do. He will finish the work.
– Laura J. Bagby
I hope that today was a glorious reminder of what Jesus has done for you today. I pray that you are reminded of God’s salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
If things still look dead in your life, if you are barely hanging on, recall that God was able to bring life from death. He did it through His Son, Jesus. And He does it daily with each one of us who is trusting in Christ.
Our hope is resurrected because Jesus lives! And I don’t just mean in some grand scheme kind of way. I mean it personally, too. Because our Lord lives, we have access to the same power that raised the Savior back to life. And that means we live, too!
Did you know that you have eternal life right now if you profess Jesus as your Lord and Savior? It doesn’t happen when you get to heaven. You have full access to life and life abundantly right now.
I am grateful that though we sometimes walk through valleys, we go through hard places, we slip into pits, God comes to life us up and out. He is the Lifter of our Head. He is our confidence and strength. He is our Deliverer.
Perspective is a funny thing.
We cry out to God to get us out of the sameness we have slipped into. We want desperately to leave the old behind, say good-bye to the past, and walk into our new season. And then, when the opportunity comes and we walk through the door into something completely new, we can sometimes falter. We want our old life back! Read the rest of this entry »
I was reading over the comments from yesterday’s Twelfth Hour Answers and something dawned on me. I kept thinking about the word emergency. And suddenly, I saw something. If you creatively break the word down into its parts, you get “emerge and see.”
And that is exactly what happens in the story of Lazarus later in the book of John chapter 11.
We learned yesterday how Jesus weeps with us when we mourn a loss, even when His greater purpose is to bring a miracle of life into our dead circumstances. We see Him do this with Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus. And we experience the same thing in our own lives when He suddenly shows up right when we think it’s too late for a dramatic change.
Now, we get to the rest of the story – the part where the emergency turns into the “emerge and see.” Read the rest of this entry »
