There is a huge push right now to become self sufficient. Of course this concept is subject to the culture in which we live now and has a variety of applications and names. Some call it prepping, off grid living, small farming, simple living, big brother awareness, tiny houses, homesteading, the list goes on and on. I have found that most of the information driving these concepts are based in fear.  Fear of GMOs, people, money or lack of money, world population, imposing government, and economic crashes this list is longer than the first.  I would like to introduce you to becoming a producer with faith.  Faith that this creation was given to us with a divine purpose and we have a divine job to “be fruitful and multiply”.

Faith based producing doesn’t look much different from old-time homesteading on the surface but it has a huge difference in the long run. Having a true and honest reason for why you are doing something can affect the way you do it, but also the drive to keep doing it. Most don’t know this but the life of growing things is much harder in some areas and easier in others that you wouldn’t expect. Why keep doing it if you don’t truly know why? You wouldnt. It’s easy to fall off a band wagon, its much harder to change your core beliefs to accommodate a different lifestyle. This is why the Lord showed me that our family is not becoming self sufficient, we are becoming producers.

When we first started this journey I thought we were heading in the path of self-sufficiency. The Lord is so gracious that He showed me that is not at all what He wants from His people. He says do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching (Heb 10:25). If we dig deeper he also says two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up Ecc 4:9-10. This means that we cannot run away from people and rely only on our own efforts for us to survive. This is not healthy both physically and spiritually.

If we dig deeper into the meaning of “self-sufficiency” we see that the emphasis is on our own ability to supply all our needs. This directly contradicts how we were made. We were made to need Jesus and we were made for fellowship with others. Now, that being said, in regard to cities the Lord also talks about woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! (Isa 5:8). What this means to me is that its ok to take a field and make it produce, as long as we are including Jesus in the process. This keeps us from depending on the strength of a fortified city (physical walls are not the only thing that “fortify” a city) or the false security of a country home.

It also means not just producing for you, but for others also. Why? Because He says… Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, For I was a hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in, naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? The King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me (Mathew 25:35-40).

You can be a producer right where you are! It doesn’t matter if you live in an apartment, city house, country acre or hundreds of acres. I know people who grow more on a patio than those that have an acre and those that grow more on an acre than those with hundreds. We are here to help you grow and enjoy producing from any amount of space you have and  also give you new tricks and encouragement and insights on creation you may have never seen!  A love for Jesus and a little hard work and you’ll be producing and learning from it in no time!

Amen