God’s new thing

In Isaiah 43:19, THE LORD SAYS, “Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
As we are coming into a new era in South Africa, I really feel the Lord has already started to do a new thing. And as farmers, we have to be progressive. Many years ago I remember speaking at an agricultural hall in the Western Cape and while there, I met a beautiful Christian family who were very successful farming with fynbos. I was told that when the young men had finished university they’d returned home and said to their father, “We want to farm.”
Their father was an engineer who had a successful company in Cape Town. His interpretation of farming, like most people, was land with tractors, ploughs, dairy cows, sheep, crops, chickens, pigs, etc on it. The young men said, “Dad, we want to sell every tractor on the farm, every plough, every vehicle. We want to build tarmac roads right through the farm so Greyhound buses can go up into the mountains. The most lucrative part of the farm is the mountains, which are untouched. We’re going to cultivate Proteas and wild flowers and let nature take its course again.” Initially their father was dead against it and there was almost a fight in the family. However, he was a Christian man and he soon allowed them to go ahead.
The one brother flew to Amsterdam and secured some flower contracts, the others went and bought a whole lot of bakkies, employed men and women in the district and they began collecting fynbos. They dried some, made them into bouquets, while others were kept fresh and put on containers and sent overseas. The last time I heard, they were the biggest farmers in their district and were still growing. So they had done a new thing and it had worked.
I think the most deadly thing farmers can do is become set in their ways, because it can ruin them. Farming is moving at a tremendous pace and you need to move with the times. But a word of caution – a good idea is not always a “God idea”. We need to pray about every decision. We need to seek counsel from some of the older farmers in our district and they will show us the pitfalls. Then we can go ahead and execute our idea with all of our hearts.
Once you have committed yourself to that new venture, don’t look to the left or the right and definitely not behind you. And never forget to give Him the glory of your success and He will honour you. In John 7:38, Jesus says, ”Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
So it does not always depend on your circumstances, or the economy, but on hearing clearly from God. When He gives you that green light, go for it with all
your heart, mind and soul. – Angus Buchan     |fw