This Year’s Word for 2025

 

When the year began, I asked people on my WhatsApp status to share what their church’s word of the year was. I received several themes for the year, and I decided to seek out my personal word/theme for the year.

My theme for the year is “RESULTS!”

So, I noticed that the Bible speaks a lot about results, and sometimes we miss it. In most biblical references about results, they are referred to as fruits. The fruits of your labour, the fruit of your loins, you will know them by their fruit. Now substitute the word “fruit” with “results” in all three of those phrases. 

See my point?

Towards the end of last year, people in my phone book who have WhatsApp status viewing privileges started expressing concern that I might have gone cuckoo for coco pops in relation to my walk with Christ. Listen, I don’t blame them. I gave away all my clothes, removed my multiple piercings, gave up artificial enhancements of my body and decided to adopt a baby. I and the five dresses to my name made a change, and people don’t like change. So of course they had things to say because how dare I? And my only response to them was, “all you’re focused on is what I gave up, but you’re missing the results that I have yielded from giving up those things.”

If I’m yielding any fruit that you aspire to by any chance, doesn’t it make sense for you to ask for the seeds or the tree graft that got me that fruit? For example, on the internet we see memes of people asking Ciara for the prayer she prayed to get such a marriage, such a husband. Seek out people who are bearing the fruit you need and observe how they are sowing for that fruit. You can fight me all you want about my views on Maverick City Music, but your fruit and my fruit will show us what’s what. In fact, what did you hear from God as your personal word for the year?

One verse that I have always taken seriously especially when picking out who to listen to when it comes to the things of God is, “you shall know them by their fruits” meaning you shall know them by their results. I remember leaving a church once because the lead pastor got divorced. Should he have stayed in that marriage? By no means, but as someone who wanted to break a generational curse of divorce and choice assorted children in my family, his results were not matching the results I was aspiring to. Because think about it, if marriage got hard, and I went to that guy for counselling, he would have had a previous disposition to divorce. And you know how fickle people are, “if divorce is good enough for me, it should be good enough for you.” 

Matthew 12:33 “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt.” 

My word of the year is also a call to introspection. What fruits am I bearing? Am I happy with the results that I’m getting? Because if I’m getting bad results, that means I’m doing something wrong to get those results. We reap what we sow, don’t we? So why am I experiencing stunted, rotten outputs in some aspects of my life, what went wrong and where? What changes can I make to yield a better harvest?


Fruits are RECEIPTS!

Numbers 13:23 When they came to the valley of Eshcol, they cut down a branch with a single cluster of grapes so large that it took two of them to carry it on a pole between them! They also brought back samples of the pomegranates and figs.

Results are evidence. Results are V11s. When they went to spy on the promised land, they brought back fruits as receipts that they had gone there and as proof of what they had seen. Imagine describing to someone that the grapes were so big it took two men to carry them? I wouldn’t believe you because how is that even possible? What if you’re exaggerating? I need to see the grapes with my own eyes. Our testimonies are the fruit/result/evidence that people need to see in order to verify that we are a trustable source. My testimony is how you know that I went through hell and I came out on the other side. And when I offer you advice, it’s because I’ve been there personally, and I have the fruits (testimony) to prove it. 

You can’t hide the fruits 

Psalm 128:2-4 AMPC For you shall eat [the fruit] of the labour of your hands; happy (blessed, fortunate, enviable) shall you be, and it shall be well with you

My husband and I were renting somewhere, and I told him we needed to pray for good fruits and for us to be able to eat the fruits of our labour. Of course, he needed more info, so I took him outside into the yard and showed him the orchard. The trees bore fruit yes, but no, nobody could eat it. Either it fell off the tree, got eaten by birds, started rotting while on the tree or something of that nature. Bottom line was, no one could enjoy the fruits of that orchard. There was plundering, pilfering, devouring, scattering and corruption. And it showed in the way the people who owned that yard lived. They were always getting scammed and service providers would do strange things in their service delivery. They just couldn’t catch a break. Something was always in need of repair. Their resources were being devoured and scattered so that they couldn’t enjoy the fruits of their labour. You can tell a lot about the spiritual standing of a place by its vegetation or flora. 

It’s a curse to not bear fruit

Psalm 1:3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season.

“A generational curse is the disapproval, absence, and judgment of God that spans across generations.” – Tiffany Buckner

So, God instructed Adam and Eve to be fruitful and replenish the earth. He also said we should reap what we sow. So that means every person should be bearing some kind of fruit, good or bad, but good is preferred. Jesus cursed that fig tree because it wasn’t bearing fruit. In the Old Testament, when God was displeased, or He cursed a place, it stopped bearing fruit. If you aren’t bearing fruit, something is wrong. God is big on wanting you to HAVE, but Satan wants you to HAVE NOT. That’s why Jesus says I came so that you may have life more abundantly, but with Satan the wages of sin is death. God says ask, and I will give, but the thief comes to kill, steal and destroy which leaves you with nothing. Are you seeing it now? You work your butt off but instead of a bumper harvest you are paid peanuts. To be fair, peanuts are technically fruits (legumes). 

Proverbs 5:10 Strangers will consume your wealth, and someone else will enjoy the fruit of your labour.

When you read the preceding verses, it shows you how or what would have happened for you to lose out on the joy of eating the fruits of your labour. 

The fruits of the Spirit

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.

I always wondered how a person can tell if they are truly rooted and grounded in Christ, and the answer was, they bear the fruits of the Spirit. One thing I love about the fruits of the Spirit is that they can’t be bought or performed. You can’t pretend to have peace, joy, or happiness. We can tell without you even having to say. Sometimes we get misled by people because we search for the wrong fruits. For example, false prophets will perform miracles, signs, and wonders, but even magicians can do that. The fruits we should be checking for are the fruits of the spirit. Even people who go to sangomas or have tokoloshes can have riches, wealth, and abundance, but they can’t shortcut their way into bearing the fruits of the spirit. Now, ask yourself, “am I bearing the fruits of the spirit?” 

If you’re not bearing the fruits you would like, I think the First Aid you can tend to is your heart. For example, if you have the root of bitterness, it will surely bear fruit. Good fruit? Sweet fruit? What kind of fruit will bitterness produce? If your heart is right, everything else gets easier with God. Doesn’t love cover a multitude of sins? That’s why David asked the Lord, “create in me a clean heart.”