In the same way we attend doctors’ offices annually to get a physical checkup, YEM was my spiritual checkup. The program really caused me to analyze my heart, spirit, and soul, by questioning whether I was producing fruit for God. At some point I was broken because I wondered If Jesus were to come would he find anything in me, or would he cut me off me like he did with the fig tree because it was not bearing fruit?

Three key points I learned:
God is expecting us to be fruitful. The first thing he told Adam and Eve in the garden was to be fruitful and multiply the earth. God wants us to be productive in every area of our lives (ministry, education, career, etc.)

We cannot be fruitful unless we remain in Christ (John 15:4).
If we are not dwelling in Christ, staying connected, and keeping our personal relationship with Him consistent, we might as well say  goodbye to fruitfulness.

One fetter to fruitfulness is sleep and love of sleep. “A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.” Proverbs‬ 24:33-34‬ NLT

As someone who likes to sleep, this was a wakeup call from the Spirit of God through Pastor Stephen Aryitey. He emphasized that sleep is good and extremely important, but too much sleep can have a negative effect on our ability to be fruitful.  It resonated with the words of Brother Prince (YEM president) when he was ministering in the session prior and said “Christians are the only watchmen who sleep when they are supposed to be watching and are the only soldiers who sleep when they are supposed to be fighting”. I came to a great realization that as Christians God does not want us to be idle but He wants us to be productive in every area of our lives (especially soul winning).

It was definitely a weekend that I will always be grateful for!

– Akua A.

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