Are You a Factory

Arthur Burke, that wonderful out-of-the-box thinker and teacher of the Word, talks about believers being factories in his series on Leviathan. What he means is that we should be taking the things placed inside us by God, together with our God-filtered experiences in life and things outside us and weave them together with the help of Holy Spirit to produce usable truth, fresh new transformational resources that can benefit fellow believers.

When facing spiritual problems, we often find ourselves in one of two groups: we are consumers, consuming others’ fruit, only hearing and applying other people’s truths while never producing our own. Or we are re-sellers, attending conferences and meetings and bringing truth learnt there back to others. We should however also be producers, discovering our own truths about solving our problems and sharing that with fellow believers. Factories, in other words – using the raw products we find deposited inside and out and producing something new out of them, displaying God’s principles that will uncover the root issues of our problems.

One obstacle we face in becoming producers of fresh new truth revelations, is that we might have grown up in certain religious groups that do not encourage looking for truth that might be different from the truths they themselves are teaching. Another problem could be fear – fear of what I might discover about myself, or fear of man, not wishing to be branded a misbeliever.  A bigger problem would be laziness, it takes effort to set up a factory and to learn how to learn.

We were made to produce fresh, wholesome new fruit. The process starts with us viewing ourselves as decidedly different from other believers – we were uniquely made by God, no two of us are the same! (Ps 139:13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.) Nobody shares the same physical characteristics; the same spiritual giftings; and also the same life experiences with you. It then becomes important to search for the raw materials inside and outside of you that are uniquely yours.

For instance, how do you read your Bible? Do you write out the verses? Do you ponder over a section all day long, or meditate word for word? Did you know that you can listen to recordings of the Word throughout the night with your earplugs underneath your pillow because your spirit never sleeps? Do you ever read a chapter over and over again, maybe for two months or more? What about fragrances, do they play a role in how you worship God? Do you find that you feel closer to God if your body is in motion? What role does the environment around you play in  drawing you nearer to God – the waves in the ocean, the wind in the trees, the sound of a gentle stream? How does your diary work for you – which periods of time in the day would be optimal for either Bible study or worship or prayer or meditation?

We are not the same, therefore what works for the one, does not necessarily work for another. Become passionate about finding your own unique raw materials, orchestrated by God for your own unique purpose and destiny, and start pursuing them today – invest time, energy and resources to learn how to run your own factory!

Points to ponder: Start this journey by first assessing where you currently are. Do not choose to just respond to second-hand information. Trust God that He has already placed the resources that you need to solve problems inside your spirit. Repent of any laziness to study the Word of God to look for His answers there. Ask Him to indicate to you which problems you are supposed to own, as opposed to the problems everybody else wants you to own. Firmly believe that the answers are there, even if it takes years to find!