Toward the end of August, and the beginning of September, figs become widely available in Egypt. September falls within the season when figs are reaching their mature harvest, and while we were there, the figs were incredibly sweet, soft, and ripe. One day as we were eating them, I opened one, and instead of immediately eating it, I stopped and took the time to look carefully inside. I was fascinated by what I saw.
What appeared from the outside to be one simple fruit contained something extraordinary within it. The inside of the fig looked like an entire secluded garden filled with tiny flowers that had been growing completely hidden from sight. There was an entire world inside that fig that could not be seen from the outside. It was like a hidden garden that had developed in secret and was in its full maturity.
As I sat there, looking inside the fig and admiring it, my son asked me a question. He said, "Mom, do you know how figs are created?"
I said, "No, I don't."
He then began explaining to me the fascinating relationship between certain figs and the tiny fig wasp. He explained how the wasp carries pollen into the fig and spreads it among the flowers hidden inside, enabling them to become fruitful and produce seeds. As he spoke, something began burning in my heart, and I knew the Holy Spirit was speaking.
I looked at him in shock and said, "What? So am I eating a dead wasp?"
He laughed and said, "No, Mom!"
But after that conversation, I could not shake what I had heard. I sensed there was something hidden within this extraordinary process that God wanted to reveal.
About a week later, my husband Mina and I were driving in the car and praying concerning the prophetic word for September. As we prayed, I looked at the car directly in front of us, and there it was, the word "FIG" on a license plate, followed by a number.
Immediately, something came alive in my spirit. I knew the Lord was drawing my attention back to the conversation I had in Egypt. I knew God wanted to speak through the fig, but I also sensed He wanted to reveal something different from what I had understood about the fig in previous seasons. So I decided to study what actually happens between the fig and the fig wasp, and what I discovered was extraordinary.
What God Was Developing Secretly Is About to Become Visible
In certain species of figs, a tiny female fig wasp comes to the fig carrying pollen. She finds a small opening at the bottom and squeezes herself inside. The entrance is so narrow that as she pushes through it, her wings and antennae can become damaged or torn away. Once she has entered, she will never fly out again. She has entered a place from which she cannot return the same way she came. Yet what she discovers inside is remarkable.
Hidden within that one fig are numerous tiny flowers. Unlike many other flowers that blossom openly where everyone can see them, the flowers of the fig grow inwardly, completely concealed within its structure. The wasp moves among these hidden flowers carrying pollen, and through this remarkable process, pollination takes place and seeds begin developing. Eventually, the mother wasp dies inside, while the biological process continues and the fig matures.
What struck me prophetically was the picture. From the outside, you see one small fig, but hidden inside is an entire world of fruitfulness. Something was happening where nobody could see it. Something was developing in secret. Something was growing in the darkness. Something was quietly moving toward maturity. What looked simple externally contained an entire hidden garden internally. And I believe this is one of the messages God is speaking concerning September: what I was developing secretly is about to become visible.
A Picture of Discernment
Throughout Scripture, the fig tree carries powerful imagery. One of its most significant meanings is connected with recognizing seasons. Jesus said, "Now learn the parable from the fig tree. When its branch becomes tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near" (Matthew 24:32 TLV). Jesus used the fig tree as a picture for discernment: Look at the tree, observe what is developing, recognize what is appearing, and discern the season you have entered. The fig tree announces that something has changed.
The fig also appears very early in the Biblical story of humanity. After Adam and Eve sinned and became conscious of their nakedness, Genesis 3:7 tells us that they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. The fig is therefore the first specific fruit-bearing plant identified by name in the story of humanity after the fall. Its leaves appear in Scripture at the very moment humanity became conscious of its nakedness and its need for covering. From the earliest chapters of Scripture, the fig appeared at a significant moment of transition in humanity's story. (Photo via Unsplash)
Song of Songs gives us another beautiful picture of the fig tree. This time it is connected with an appointed season of fruitfulness: "Look, the winter is past, and the rains are over and gone. The flowers are springing up, the season of singing birds has come, and the cooing of turtledoves fills the air. The fig trees are forming young fruit, and the fragrant grapevines are blossoming. Rise up, my darling! Come away with me, my fair one!" (Song of Songs 2:11–13 NLT).
There is an appointed time when winter ends. There is an appointed time when the rain passes. And there is an appointed time when what has been developing begins to produce fruit. The appearance of the fig announces that the season has changed. Micah also connects the fig tree with restoration, security, and peace: "Everyone will live in peace and prosperity, enjoying their own grapevines and fig trees, for there will be nothing to fear. The Lord of Heaven's Armies has made this promise!" (Micah 4:4 NLT). Again and again, Scripture uses the fig tree to speak about seasons, fruitfulness, restoration, security, and what God is bringing into maturity.
Reaching the Point of No Return
As I continued praying about September, my attention was not simply drawn to the fig itself. I felt the Lord drawing my attention specifically to the journey of the wasp. The first thing that struck me was that the wasp loses her wings. She enters a place from which she will never return the same way she came. The wings represent the means by which you carried yourself through the previous season—your ability, your independence, your familiar methods, your control, and the things you relied upon to get where you were going. The extraordinary part is that the wasp needed her wings to get to the fig, but once she entered the fig, she no longer needed them for what she was there to accomplish.
Your wings could represent your own strength—your ability to make things happen, solve problems, open doors, and keep yourself moving. They could represent control—your need to know where you are going, how you are getting there, and what happens next. They could represent old methods—something God genuinely used in a previous season but is not the method for the next one. They could even represent security. Wings give the wasp mobility. If something becomes dangerous, she can fly away. But once she enters the fig and loses those wings, there is no flying back to where she came from.
There is something incredibly powerful about this kind of surrender: you cannot fly out of this one. There are seasons when God allows us to keep options open, but there are other moments when following Him requires us to say, "Lord, even if there is no way back, I am Yours." There comes a place in our journey with God where surrender means we are no longer maintaining an escape route. We are no longer following Him while secretly keeping the old life available in case the new one becomes difficult. We have crossed the threshold. We have reached the point of no return.
What Brought You Here Cannot Always Take You There
This immediately reminded me of Elisha. When Elijah called him, Elisha did not simply leave his oxen somewhere in case ministry did not work out. 1 Kings 19:19–21 tells us that after Elijah threw his cloak across Elisha's shoulders, Elisha returned to his oxen, slaughtered them, and used the wood from the plowing equipment to build the fire which he used to cook their flesh. Then he gave the meat to the people and followed Elijah. His old means of livelihood became the sacrifice announcing, "I am not planning my escape route." He destroyed the very equipment that could have carried him back into his former life. There was no plan B. There was no secret exit. There was no going back.
Sometimes losing your wings is not evidence that you are losing your future. Sometimes losing your wings is an indication that you are entering a new season. What brought you here cannot always take you there. There may be things that served you faithfully in one season—methods, relationships, positions, expectations, opportunities, and even ways you thought God had to move—but they may not be able to enter the next season with you. September can represent the narrow entrance into something new. You may be looking at what you lost, while God is looking at what you have entered. Perhaps the wings were never meant to function inside the place to which they carried you.
Something else about the wasp fascinated me. The wasp carries pollen from where she has been. She does not enter the fig empty. She carries something from her previous environment into the place of her next assignment. As she moves among the tiny flowers hidden inside the fig, she transfers the pollen she carries, allowing fertilization to take place and seeds to begin developing within the flowers.
Prophetically, I believe this gives us a beautiful picture of what Christ deposits within us through our union with Him. You did not come out of your previous season empty. You may have come out tired. You may have come out wounded. You may have lost some wings along the journey. You may have lost things you thought you needed for your future, but you did not come out empty. God deposited something inside you.
You thought the previous season was only about what happened to you, but God was putting something in you that you would carry into your next assignment. Every encounter with Him, every revelation He gave you, every prayer prayed through tears, every lesson learned in the wilderness, every battle through which you discovered His faithfulness, every moment when you chose obedience over comfort, and every season when you continued walking despite not understanding what He was doing deposited something within you. You are carrying something from where you have been. (Photo via Unsplash)
This Fruitfulness Will Not End with You
What you carry is about to touch things that have been hidden. There are gifts inside you that have not yet reached their full expression. There are dreams that have remained concealed. There are promises that seemed dormant. There are callings you have carried quietly for years. There are things God planted so deeply inside you that perhaps even you forgot they were there. But when what God has deposited in you touches what God has planted in you, something begins to awaken. The hidden flowers begin to become fruitful. Seeds begin to develop. Life begins to multiply.
And because seeds carry the potential for multiplication, this fruitfulness will not end with you. God is not simply producing something for your enjoyment. He is producing something through your life that will carry life into others. What began as hidden fruitfulness will become generational multiplication. One seed carries the potential for another tree, another harvest and another generation of fruit. What God was doing secretly within you may ultimately affect people you have never met and places you have never imagined.
Much of this happens where nobody can see it. That is one of the great mysteries of the fig. Its flowers are hidden inside. Before mature fruit becomes visible externally, an entire reproductive process was happening internally. What appears suddenly was actually developing secretly. That concept connects beautifully with Song of Songs 2:13: "The fig trees are forming young fruit" (NLT). Before others recognize the harvest, God was already watching the fruit form.
I believe the Lord is saying, "What I was developing secretly is about to become visible."
Sometimes Death Is Part of the Pathway Into Greater Fruitfulness
Then comes perhaps the most dramatic part of this illustration: the mother wasp eventually dies inside the fig. There is something striking about death and fruitfulness existing within the same process. Something dies while something else is being brought into maturity. Immediately, I thought about the words of Jesus in John 12:24: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (NASB1995). The Kingdom repeatedly confronts us with this mystery: death is not always the opposite of fruitfulness. Sometimes death is part of the pathway into greater fruitfulness.
Perhaps something had to die in your previous season? Maybe it was an ambition, an old identity, your own timetable, an expectation, a relationship with the past, your need to control the outcome, or simply the picture you carried of how you thought everything was supposed to happen. You may have mourned it, because you interpreted its death as evidence that something had gone wrong. But what if something was dying because something greater was becoming fruitful? What if what looked like an ending was taking place inside the very environment where God was forming your next harvest?
Do not mistake what died for what God is producing. The death of one thing does not mean the death of everything. Sometimes what looks like an ending is happening inside the very place where fruit is forming. Something can be dying while something else is multiplying. Something can be ending while something else is reaching maturity. What you called loss may have been part of a much greater process that you could not yet see.
When the Sacrifice Disappears Into the Fruit
Perhaps this is one of the greatest mysteries of the fig: When the fig finally reaches maturity, your attention is no longer drawn to the wasp. You see the beautiful fruit. You see sweetness. You see abundance. You see what looks like an entire hidden garden that has finally reached its appointed time. The sacrifice disappears into the testimony. The surrender disappears into the fruit. The narrow entrance becomes part of the story, but it is no longer the focus of the story. What remains is fruitfulness.
This reminded me immediately of the language of Song of Songs: "You are my private garden, my treasure, my bride, a secluded spring, a hidden fountain" (Song of Solomon 4:12 NLT). There is a garden inside you that God Himself has been tending. It has been private. It has been secluded. It has been hidden from the eyes of people. Some looked at you from the outside and could not understand what God was doing, because they could not see the garden. They could not see the flowers. They could not see the seeds. They could not see what was developing beneath the surface, but God could. He saw every flower. He saw every seed. He saw every hidden place. He saw every surrender. He saw every tear. He saw every moment when you continued believing despite having no visible evidence. He saw every moment when you thought nothing was happening. Heaven was watching an entire garden coming alive inside you.
Then comes the invitation: "Awake, north wind! Rise up, south wind! Blow on my garden and spread its fragrance all around. Come into your garden, my love; taste its finest fruits" (Song of Songs 4:16 NLT). The garden that was once secluded begins to release fragrance. What was private begins to affect the atmosphere around it. What was hidden begins to be experienced by others. And then the Bridegroom declares, "I have entered my garden, my treasure, my bride!" (Song of Songs 5:1 NLT). This is not simply fruitfulness for the sake of success. This is the fruitfulness of intimacy. This is what happens when a life belongs completely to Him.
You Are Entering a Season of Mature Fruit
I believe September carries this prophetic picture: you are entering a season of mature fruit. You have passed through the narrow place. You have surrendered things that could not enter the next season with you. Some of your wings were lost along the journey, and at times you wondered how you would ever move forward without the things that once carried you. But perhaps you did not lose your wings because your assignment was over. Perhaps you lost them because you had arrived at the place they were designed to bring you. (Photo via Unsplash)
You do not need your old wings for your new assignment. You carried something from the previous season that you did not fully recognize. God deposited revelation, wisdom, endurance, faith, compassion, and authority inside you. Now what you carry is touching the hidden flowers. Gifts are awakening. Dreams are awakening. Promises are awakening. Callings are awakening. Seeds are forming. What seemed dormant is becoming fruitful. What seemed buried is coming alive.
Do not despise the hidden years. Do not despise the narrow entrance. Do not despise what had to die. And do not keep looking backward for the wings you lost. You are not going back. The wings were necessary to bring you here, but they are not necessary for what God is about to accomplish through you here.
The Lord is saying, "Look again at the fig tree." The winter does not last forever. The rain does not continue forever. There comes an appointed moment when the fig tree announces that the season has changed. What was hidden begins to appear. What was developing begins to mature. What seemed delayed reaches its appointed time.
I believe September will be a month of mature fruit. You have passed through the narrow place. You have surrendered what could not enter the next season with you. What God deposited within you during the previous season was working where nobody could see it. Do not mistake what died for what God is producing. Look again at the fig tree. The hidden work is becoming visible. The fruit is reaching maturity. You are entering the season for which you have been prepared.
What appeared to be loss was surrender. What appeared to be burial was preparation. What appeared to be hidden was development. What appeared to be death was making room for fruitfulness. And what appeared from the outside to be one small fig was carrying an entire hidden garden within it.
Your hidden garden is coming into maturity. The season of hiding was not the absence of fruit; it was the development of fruit. The season of surrender was not the destruction of your purpose; it was preparing you to fulfill it. The loss of your wings was not the end of your journey; it was evidence that you had entered the place for which the journey had prepared you.
The fragrance of the garden is beginning to rise. The hidden flowers are becoming fruitful. The seeds are multiplying. The fruit is becoming sweet. The winter has passed. The season has changed. What God planted in secret is coming into maturity, and what He developed where nobody could see is beginning to produce fruit that others will taste.
September has come, and the hidden garden is coming into full maturity.
September Prophetic Word: Your Season of Abundant Fruit Is Upon You
The Lord says, "You are crossing into a season of extraordinary fruitfulness, where the gifts I planted deep within you will awaken, flourish, and come into full expression. What I placed inside of you long ago will no longer remain hidden. The purpose for which you were born will be fulfilled.
"This will be a season of resurrection. My resurrection power will breathe upon the places that appeared dead, and the fragrance of My love will sweep through your garden. What looked buried will rise. What appeared dormant will awaken. What seemed barren will suddenly blossom. You will flourish. You will blossom. And fruit will appear in abundance—all at once.
"For I have watched your journey of love for Me. I watched when the enemy came against your wings. I watched when the old means by which you lived were stripped away. I watched the battles against your health, your strength, and the things that once carried you. Yet through it all, you never stopped loving Me. You did not turn back. You did not abandon Me. Instead, you cried out for more of Me. (Photo via Unsplash)
"You continued moving forward until you reached the place of no return—the place where you knew there was nothing behind you worth returning to, because I had become everything before you. Like the wasp that enters the fig and loses its wings, you entered into a place where the things that once carried you could carry you no longer. But what looked like loss was preparing the way for fruitfulness.
"You never counted the cost of your calling. You simply said 'YES'—yes when it was easy, yes when it was costly, yes when you understood, and yes when you could not see what was ahead. Nothing else mattered, because I became everything to you, and you became precious to Me.
"You have abided in Me, and you have allowed Me to abide in you. Therefore, the time has come for you to bear much fruit. My breath will move through your garden. My love will spread like pollen over every hidden place, and the seeds I planted within you will suddenly begin to awaken.
"For you have become My garden. I hold the keys to this garden, and now I am coming into My garden. My Spirit will breathe upon every dormant gift, every buried promise, every forgotten dream, and every seed that has been waiting beneath the surface.
"What has been hidden is about to flourish. I will cause the fruit that developed in secret to become visible. And I will invite others to come and taste the fruit that My Spirit has produced within you.
"The milk and honey will overflow. The new wine will run over. The fragrance of My presence will fill your garden until others recognize that I have been here.
"Get ready, My child. Your garden is about to flourish. Your garden is about to blossom. I will cause new fruit to grow—fruit you did not even know was inside of you. Gifts you did not know you carried will emerge. New expressions of My grace will arise. And a fragrance that many have never encountered before will be released from your life.
"The wings that were lost will no longer define your story, but the fruit that came, because you surrendered them, will. You thought you were entering a place of loss, but I was bringing you into a garden of multiplication. You thought something was ending, but I was preparing resurrection. You thought you had lost the means to fly, but I was teaching you how to abide. And because you remained in Me, what I have cultivated in secret is now ready to be revealed in abundance.
"Get ready, My child. The hidden season has served its purpose. The dormant season is coming to an end. The garden is awakening. The fruit is ripening. The fragrance is being released. For your season of abundant fruit is upon you."
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Yvon Attia
Celebrate Freedom Ministries
Email:Â info@celebratefreedomministries.org
Website:Â www.celebratefreedomministries.org
Yvon Attia is a radical lover of Jesus and His Word, fully dedicated to His purposes and His call. Yvon is an author and a powerful, passionate speaker who preaches the Word with the power of God's Spirit, and the manifestation of His presence. She unpacks the Word from a Middle Eastern perspective, explaining its depth in terms of culture, context and power. Yvon is married to her high school sweetheart, Mina, and they have two beautiful children, Esther and Raphael. Both Yvon and her husband are ordained pastors under the spiritual fatherhood covering of Apostle Guillermo Maldonado Of King Jesus International Ministry in Miami. Miracles of healing take place during their meetings as God faithfully confirms the Word through signs that follow. They are also the founders of Celebrate Freedom Ministry, which is part of the supernatural global network of King Jesus International Ministry.
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