The world is fast turning into a barren field where once fertile lands of the soul now lie cracked and hardened by neglect. Nations are running on empty tanks of morality, individuals are living on recycled habits, and communities are surviving on dried wells of faith. The voice of the ancient prophet still echoes: _“Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord” (Hosea 10:12). In this one sentence, heaven diagnoses both the sickness of humanity and the cure. The sickness is hardness; the cure is repentance.
We are living in an age where men polish stones but leave their hearts rough. Where governments plant skyscrapers but uproot justice. Where religion wears a garment of piety but the body underneath is sick with hypocrisy. Bishop David Oyedepo once warned, “Christianity without spirituality is nothing but religious entertainment.” When the soil of the heart is left uncultivated, weeds of pride and corruption take root, choking the destiny of nations and individuals alike.
Breaking fallow ground is not a slogan—it is warfare. It is the painful act of returning to conscience, of uprooting the thorns we have tolerated. Prophet T.B. Joshua used to say, “The heart is the communication point with God. If your heart is not free, you are wasting your prayers.” That is why nations pray without progress, churches fast without fire, and leaders build without wisdom—because the ground is fallow, untouched by genuine repentance.
Look around our society: our schools are full but wisdom is scarce; our mosques and churches overflow yet sin multiplies; our markets are busy but hunger grows louder. Miles Munroe once cautioned, “The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but life without purpose.” Purpose is buried under the soil of hardened hearts, waiting to be dug out by brokenness. Without breaking fallow ground, potential remains like yam seed unplanted—it rots instead of feeding generations.
An Igala proverb says, “A hoe that fears the earth cannot harvest yam.” In the same way, a soul that fears repentance cannot harvest destiny. Nations too must break their fallow ground—confronting corruption, dismantling injustice, and planting righteousness. For what use is oil wealth if it lubricates only the engines of greed? What use is democracy if it produces dictators in disguise? Unless hearts and systems are ploughed afresh, progress will remain an illusion.
Dr. Paul Enenche declared, “No system survives when truth is buried.” Truth is the plough that breaks the ground of denial. When a man faces his sins, when a family confronts its secrets, when a nation admits its failures, that is the breaking of fallow ground. Only then can rain fall, seed grow, and harvest come. Until then, prayers rise like smoke that the wind scatters.
This call is urgent because the world is cold. Love has grown thin like soup stretched with too much water. Trust has broken like calabash in the market square. The very word renewal has been commercialized, reduced to slogans and conferences. But God is not calling for conferences; He is calling for contrition. The late Archbishop Benson Idahosa thundered, “Christianity is not a religion of convenience; it is a call to die daily.” That dying daily is the plough digging into the soil of pride.
The message is simple yet piercing: break up your fallow ground. Leaders, break the ground of corruption. Parents, break the ground of negligence. Youths, break the ground of addiction. Preachers, break the ground of hypocrisy. Nations, break the ground of injustice. Until this happens, no policy, no election, no economy will truly yield lasting harvest.
The Bible is clear: “Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unploughed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you” (Hosea 10:12). The showers will not come on fallow ground. Rain only blesses the soil that has been ploughed.
The hoe is in our hands, the field before us, the season upon us. Let us break the ground, before the ground breaks us.
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah – Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state.
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