As we travel around the rural area where I live, there are hundreds of barns to see.  Some are top of the line; huge, with fresh paint and a new roof.  Others look like they have been neglected for years.  If you had a barn, what would it look like?

 Is it large, with many attached buildings or small and efficient? Does it have fresh paint; white or red?  Is the roof in good repair or do bats and swallows find a way in?  Are the barn sides in disrepair so that little creatures can come in and make their homes there?

Barns are used for many things.  Among them, storing equipment, storing harvested grain, storing, seed grain, fixing farm machines, and playing hide and seek.  Barns are used for shelter for the animals one has; cows,pigs, sheep, goats, horses, llamas, or even camels.

Some barns have milking rooms where the dairy cows are milked.  Some have coolers and egg crates for all the eggs the chickens lay.  Some even have on sight slaughter houses to butcher their own beef, pork and chickens.

What do you use your barn for?  Your spiritual barn.  Is it in good repair?  Does it need some fresh paint?  Our spiritual barns are used in much the same way the natural ones are.  We store our good seed; ready for planting.  We keep our equipment in them; things like our knowledge of the Word, our testimonies, our hearts of compassion, and our love for people.  This is where we keep our giftings in good repair and practice to keep the anointing flowing.

When harvest time comes our barns should be swept and clean, ready to recieve the new souls we have brought into the kingdom.  Although we don’t stuff our new converts into a barn, we should have a place in our lives ready to love and counsel them; to encourage and guide them.  Otherwise, they may fall back into their old lifestyles.  Our barns are a place of nurture and safety.

So, keep your barns in good shape so we can do our jobs with excellent and bring glory to our God in all things.