Mark Marshall

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Root-bound

Many of the biblical terminology for believers are related to plants. There is reference to us as being, ‘trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord.’ So many more, and much more metaphorically as well. With this thought in mind I see many in the world today as Root-bound.

This occurs most times when a plant or tree is in a pot or limited environment. If this becomes its permanent home, the plant will almost always outgrow its environment. Another great story about us is that we are designed to shatter anything that tries to limit us or hinder our growth.

I heard the Lord a couple of months ago loud and clear: “So many are root-bound around you. It’s time for you to break the limitation that is hindering your expansion; you are created for greater than where you are at!

Symptoms of being root-bound.
1. The soil in this environment will have salt and mineral build up. The soil will actually become toxic. So at this level there are no more nutrients for the plant to thrive. It will operate in survival mode.

2. There will be wilting and yellowing. Even in the light it can not process the lack of nutrients, so I’m sure a form of depression would be a symptom.

3. There will be a need for much watering more than usual. The plant will perk up after it is watered, but because of the lack of space and good soil, it quickly starts to wilt once again.

The fruit of our lives and increase are directly affected by the roots in our lives. You have to let your dreams and purpose take root in a spacious place. You see we have to tend to our roots, and God will tend to the fruit bearing. If you are finding yourself learning more but not seeing any of the fruit of it in your life; then maybe you are just root-bound? Maybe you have shrunk your personal vision of your life down to a comfortable, and manageable predictability. I would bet that you have symptoms of being root-bound.

You see in this state no matter what kind of nutrients you feed it, the small environment has become toxic! I think that we in ministry use the term people are just getting ‘spiritually fat’. And that is always followed up with the lack of any real spiritual exercise outside of church. I totally agree that we should just live our walk daily and out loud! But in this case I like to think about the roots of a person. The expansion of those roots over time have to do with the room it has to grow.

4 Actions for a root-bound person

  1. Do nothing, doing nothing is always an option, most people do this and fight against their own selves for the rest of their days.
  2. Trim back the roots and replant
  3. Break the container and divide the roots and replant in separate containers
  4. Break the container and replant in a space in proportion to your roots!

We used to say, ‘the deeper the root, the bigger the fruit.’ I don’t know if any of that is true, but it made sense to me growing up and learning spiritual things, that if I wanted to do a great work with my life, I had better lay a strong foundation. But over my life I have noticed that I have out grown realms. By realms, I do mean relationships that had grown toxic, and revelations that become antiquated, or work or whatever it is to you. You will not finish how you started. You will progress in revelation and manifest purpose in a different way and form than when you started. This is the supernatural / spiritual order of all things alive. Living things grow!

‘The shots I never took, but could and should have; will haunt me more later on in life, than the shots I missed.’