Key verse: Jeremiah 4:3: “For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: ‘break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns,’” (NKJV).

Breakup your fallow ground is a call to release the greatness in you. It is a call to challenge your present level and move to the next level. It is a call to rise from mediocrity to stardom.

A fallow ground is a ground that has not been plowed or cultivated. It is an unfruitful land and a land that is unexplored for a very long time. It is an untilled piece of land. God used a farming metaphor to speak to the people of Judah through Prophet Jeremiah to illustrate how to prepare unfertile land to be fruitful. This farming metaphor used in Jeremiah 4:3 can also be applied to our general situation.

Fallow ground is hard and dry, especially in the terrain that Jeremiah operated in, which was in the Middle East.

“Fallow ground” can be a land that has never been plowed before or a land that has been plowed before, but left to fallow. “Thorns” talks about hostile or unfriendly atmosphere. When the land is left uncultivated for a long period of time, it will grow weed. In the days of Jeremiah, it doesn’t just grow weed, but thorns. Thorns are piercing, hostile and painful. In the Bible, God uses the thorns as something that frustrates productivity.

To “Breakup” means to split a large item into smaller parts. It means to exert some level of strength to break something. To break up the fallow ground is to release the potentials lying dormant inside of us.

To awaken greatness requires unearthing your potential that lies dormant within you. It is to step out of our comfort zone. It’s no secret that optimal performance is gained outside your comfort zone. You seldom achieve success when you’re comfortable, because everything is familiar. There is little need to draw on your mental faculties when you’re in your safe zone. You must commit to taking bold risks if you seek to become the finest version of yourself. Breaking your fallow ground is critical. Breaking the fallow ground is the key to breakthroughs in business, ministry, career, profession, among others. Until you break your fallow ground, you will stay at the same spot in dryness and in limitation.

Each of us has a fallow ground and we have to break it to make progress in life. As a businessperson, your fallow ground could be to explore new areas of business. As an individual, your fallow ground could be to advance into the next level of your career, profession, marriage, calling, and so on. Until we break the fallow ground, there will be no sowing into the land; until there is sowing, there will be no germination and until there is germination, there will be no fruitfulness. When a ground is not broken, sowing a seed will be like sowing among thorns. The hindrance to our fruitfulness is your fallow ground.

Breaking your fallow ground means pioneering new things; doing things that you have never done before and breaking into new areas.

Breaking fallow ground is like where somebody gave you ceiling and you are breaking the ceiling. It is breaking off the limits. Isaac told Esau, his eldest son in Genesis 27:40: “By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; and it shall come to pass, when you become restless, that you shall break his yoke from your neck.” To break your fallow ground is to become restless until you receive what you ought to have.

• Today’s nugget: Fallow ground is hard and dry. Phone contact: 07032361509. E-mail: [email protected]. Joel Ejiofor, business coach and strategist