Mensa Otabil - A Fruitful Effort (11/05/2025)
Exodus 36, verse 8: Then all the gifted artisans among them who worked on the Tabernacle made ten curtains woven of fine linen and of blue, purple, and scarlet thread with artistic designs of cherubim. They made them. This is a verse describing how the Tabernacle of God was built by Israel in the wilderness. God gave the pattern, He gave the idea, He gave the concept, and then He called people. Throughout Exodus chapter 36, there is mention of what they made.
We have talked about having fruitful thoughts and also speaking fruitful words, but it doesn't end with thinking and speaking alone; it also has to include making or doing something. So, if we want to be fruitful, we have to build something, we have to make something, we have to bring something to reality-an idea that becomes a reality.
Everything around us-just take a look around you-everything from vehicles to buildings, bridges to cameras, to the clothes you're wearing, to the toothpaste you brush your teeth with, and the bed you sleep on, including the bed sheets-just think about everything you use in life was made by somebody. It's either that God created them in their original state, or somebody took the things that God has created and manufactured something for you to use.
Each one of these started as an idea. Somebody had an idea; the thought was in his mind, and they spoke about it. They probably wrote about it, they submitted a proposal, and they convinced people that this idea could become a reality. Then they got to work and produced it. That's the process everything goes through.
So, if we're going to be fruitful, we have to think fruitful thoughts-that's great-we have to speak fruitful words, but we must also build something; we must produce something fruitful. So, the question you have to ask yourself is: What have I built? What have I produced? What have I done with all the thoughts I have, all the words I have, all the grace God has given me, all the ideas God has given me? Where is my fruit? Where is my building?
Because usually, the first thing people assess you by is what you have built. If you go for an interview and you submit a nice resume-probably, you present a very colorful resume and you use flowery words and all kinds of adjectives to describe yourself, how goal-oriented you are, how task-oriented you are, and how you are a great team builder-in the end, what the interviewer is looking for is not just those descriptions. What have you done? What have you built? What have you achieved in the places you've worked? What are your footprints? Where is the fruit of your work?
That is what God wants us to do. When God inspects our lives, He is not just looking for reassurances from us and encouragement from us; He is looking for what we have done with what He gave us. Experience is not about how long you have lived. It's good to live long, but it's not about how long you've lived. Experience is about how well you have built. Because there are people who live very long and produce nothing; there's nothing they can point to and say, "This is my achievement. This is something I started and finished. This is what I did in that company. This is what I did when I was in that place." They just walk through, accumulating a lot of history but very little fruit.
But here, God did not just leave His people at a thinking stage or at a planning stage; He got His people to start working. The structures you build, the things you are able to construct - I'm not just talking about building tables; I'm talking about everything you build: a business, it could be an idea, it could be whatever-a book you wrote, a song you composed- whatever you produce reveals the gifts that God has given you.
It is on that basis that God decides whether to add more to you or take away from you. And I pray that God, when He visits you, will add more and more and more to your gifts because you keep producing and building. For that will be your testimony.
Let us pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, You made me to also make things. Help me bring the ideas You give me into reality. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.