Breaking Up Your Fallow Ground
(week 48/08)
Olubi Johnson

Hosea 10:12 MKJV Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground. For it is time to seek Jehovah, until He comes and rains righteousness on you.

Here the scripture tells us to ‘break up our fallow ground’ so that we can sow in righteousness, reap in mercy by receiving the ‘rain of righteousness’.

What do these symbolic terms mean?

Our ‘fallow ground’ is our uncultivated soul: wills that are still stubborn, minds not renewed and not enlightened by revelation knowledge and emotions not dominated by the fruit of the spirit.

Consequently the Word of God that is sown on this fallow ground does not bear fruit. For instance if you put a seed on a concrete floor and water it daily diligently it will not bear fruit because the seed has not been sown in fertile soil. You will have to break up the cement floor and dig until you hit fertile soil in which you will now plant the seed, which when properly watered and guarded from weeds will bring forth fruit. Similarly, our souls need to be ‘broken up’ and ‘cultivated’.

How is this done? By the power of the Holy Spirit:


Here Paul shows us that as we pray in the Spirit with tongues (unknown supernatural languages) and deep groanings (like the sounds made when a woman is in travail giving birth: pushing out the baby from the birth canal) we are pushing out the power of God from spirits into our souls to ‘break up’ the ‘fallow ground’ and so cause the Christ nature to be ‘formed’ in our souls: mind, will and emotions. This is what transforms us or makes from just being ‘children’ to becoming ‘sons’ of God, just like a caterpillar metamorphoses into a butterfly.


Isaiah 66:8 MKJV Who has heard a thing like this? Who has seen things like these? Will the earth be brought forth in one day? Or will a nation be born at once? For Zion travailed and also brought forth her sons.


In particular, the Holy Spirit through this intercession in the spirit breaks the stubbornness of the human will:

Leviticus 26:19 And I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heaven like iron and your earth like bronze. He enlightens the mind with spiritual knowledge, understanding and wisdom:




He will empower in the soul the fruit of the Spirit to totally dominate the lusts of the flesh, lusts of the eyes and the pride of life:




So as we pray regularly with tongues and groaning as a daily, weekly and monthly habit, over time our ‘fallow ground’ will be ‘broken up’ and the seed of God’s Word which we plant and water daily by hearing, reading, speaking and practicing the Word will begin to bring forth much fruit in us!

In our article next week we will see that this kind of praying provides ‘underground irrigation’ for our souls causing them to become and remain fruitful ground and this is why and how Jesus prayed when He was here on earth.