Chapter Three: You are a Work-in-progress

Chapter Three: You are a Work-in-progress


Every one of us is still a work-in-progress in the hand of God. If we were all perfect, then Jesus would not have sent us the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, Teacher, Helper, who sees us through the journey of our faith. I am yet to come across a human being who knows it all, and there is no record that such a human has ever existed. We are still here on earth so that we can continue to perfect our lives by beholding ourselves in the light of the word of God.

However, the fact that we are a work-in-progress does not absolve us from working towards perfection, nor does it preclude us from doing what God expects of us. We are meant to look unto Jesus, the Author, and Finisher of our faith.

Jesus made it clear that He would not leave us without a Helper. He knew the journey was not going to be easy, and that we would face attacks from the enemy of our heavenly Father who has also become our enemy. The enemy’s plan is for us to fail on earth and spend eternity in hell, but God has a better plan that is why He sent us the Holy Spirit who stirs us in the right direction, helping us to become all that God designed us to be. The Holy Spirit is ever willing and ready to provide us with the skills, wisdom, power, and enabling that we need to fill the position of a vinedresser.

We are not created to be perpetual work-in-progress. Jesus expects us to do greater things than He did through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. We ought to give the Holy Spirit room to operate in our lives.

All over the world, businesses handle partnerships with utmost care. We see businesses failing when there is a breach of trust between the partners. But if we partner with the Holy Spirit and trust Him to take the reins of our lives, then we will find ourselves thriving. If He is an active partner in the business of our lives, you can rest assured that you will experience tremendous progress. However, when we make Him a silent partner and do not seek His opinion, wisdom, or insights, there will be chaos.

Whether in our businesses, homes, schools, even churches, we must begin to allow the Holy Spirit to be our teacher, helper, advocate, and counselor. If we let Him in and give Him control of our lives, our relationships with everyone around us will improve and because of its ripple effect, the world will be a better place. All that is required is our submission to the Holy Spirit.

The church is not meant to operate without His presence. We are supposed to recognize and accept His person knowing that we cannot do anything by ourselves; when we try it, the Father is not glorified. If our existence does not glorify the Father, then what is the essence?

We are created to give glory to God. He brought us out of the darkness and into the marvelous life of His dear Son so that we might give Him glory [1 Peter 2: 19].

Being a vinedresser or a vine destroyer is all a matter of choice and is not tied to geographical locations, age, wealth, or educational qualifications. The Lord does not expect you to leave your Jerusalem, your nation, your neighbor, colleague, wife, children, business associates, students, and everyone brought into your life, and start looking elsewhere for who to prune and nurture. If you are given the grace to go worldwide, why not? But charity must begin from home.

I was privy to hear of a female boss who bullied her subordinates, using foul language on them; she could not tolerate any mistakes and would not proffer any solutions. She was a vine destroyer. Everyone kept mute because it might bounce back on them, but her closest friend who felt she had nothing to lose as her senior colleague, chose to report her to Human Resources. She was so ashamed of herself she could not come to the office the next day and, as at the time of writing this, she was awaiting further actions to be taken on her case.

NB: An excerpt from my new book Now selling on Amazon Kindle store and Okadabooks