DO YOU REALLY WANT TO BE FRUITFUL?

Manasseh And Ephraim

Joseph had two sons born to him after his release from captivity and his exaltation to a place of power in the land.

"And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house. And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction" (Gen. 41:51, 52).

This is God's order: Manasseh, then Ephraim. God must cause us to forget, before we can become fruitful. You and I are not going to be fruitful until we can forget our past; and this includes our victories, as well as our defeats. This could be particularly difficult for those who have known a lot of success in the past, and have thoughts of greatness; but if God is gracious toward them, they will find themselves in the King's Prison, and will have the opportunity to know what this is all about. There has to be a FORGETTING of the past before we are going to know true FRUITFULNESS in the Kingdom of God. Consider the achievements of the great apostle Paul, and the mighty ministry that flowed from his life... and hear him saying many years later, because of the Vision he had caught of the high calling of God:

"But this one thing I do, FORGETTING those things which are behind, and REACHING FORTH unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling..." (Phil. 3:13, 14).

You are going to have to forget past achievements if you are going to WIN Christ; but you are also going to have to forget past prisons, past hurts, past difficulties, past defeats. The memories of the past, whether they be of successes or of defeats, can he equally destructive to a fruitful walk with God. But the prison house can erase the memory of it, if we will accept the grace that He has for us in this hour.

You will remember that when Joseph brought his two sons to the bedside of his dying father for the patriarchal blessing, how Joseph brought Ephraim in his RIGHT hand toward Jacob's left, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Jacob's right. In this way he was making it easy for his blind father to stretch forth his hands, and put the right hand of pre-eminence on the head of Manasseh, and his left hand on the head of Ephraim. After all, Manasseh was the firstborn. But Jacob, even on his deathbed was moving in the prophetic anointing, and he deliberately crossed his hands over the heads of the two boys, giving Ephraim the blessing of the right hand, and Manasseh the blessing of the left hand. This displeased Joseph, but Jacob gently reminded him: "I know what I am doing, Joseph... Ephraim must have the pre-eminence.

The past would have its rewards; but the past must give way to "those things which are before." By way of experience we have Manasseh first, and then Ephraim. But God puts the SIGN OF THE CROSS over the heads of Manasseh and Ephraim! Ephraim means double-fruitfulness. There are greater things ahead, a greater measure of fruitfulness for God's people. But the SIGN OF THE CROSS must be applied to our past as well as to our future, if we are truly going to pursue the pathway to the "high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

- George Warnock