Hello, friends! I trust that you are still continuing to “march into March” and believe God for miracles this season. I believe this Word today is going to bring a blessing to your life, as we learn about ants together.
Related: Prophetic Word: Marching Into March
Did you know that the Bible says we should study ants?
Ants are interesting creatures. For example:
The smallest ant is the Pharaoh ant at 2mm long, which is the size of the tip of an ink pen. That’s tiny! A mature colony usually contains around 3,000 adult ants, but the colonies of some species have been known to contain up to 100,000 ants.
Scripture uses the ant to show us how to live a diligent, Christian life in a very simple way.
Proverbs 6:6-8 says:
“Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer, or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.”
When we study ants, we see 5 character traits they have that we should copy.
Specifically, ants are:
social;
strong;
synergetic;
sensitive; and
savvy.
Why do these ant characteristics matter?
1. First of all, ants are SOCIAL.
They live in highly organized colonies that have divisions of labor which benefit the whole community. There is a queen ant, along with male and female worker ants, soldier ants, and male drone ants. These ants can be all sizes and can vary in color. They work in harmony with each other and have great communication while they quietly build their nest, solve complex problems, and even fight together as an army.
Doesn’t that sound like a great example for the church? We should be highly organized and led by the Spirit in order to benefit the whole community. Or as Paul, using the example of the human body, states:
“that we are fitted together perfectly … as each part does its own special work (helping) the other parts to grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing” (Ephesians 4:16, see NLT).
We should also notice that ants have three body segments: head, thorax, and abdomen. Like the ant, we also have three parts: body, soul, and spirit. (We are spirit that has a soul–mind, will, and emotions–and we live in a body. God has given us these to communicate with each other as we build the kingdom of God.
We in the church also have multiple body parts in Christ’s spiritual Body. Paul says to the Corinthians that we all have different gifts, ministries, and activities “for the profit of all” (1 Corinthians 12:7).
2. Next, ants are STRONG.
Did you know that an ant can lift twenty times its own body weight? I know I have seen ants carrying big pieces of “cargo” to their respective colonies. This reminds me of the scripture in Daniel 11:32, which says:
“… the people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits.”
Ants work, and they work hard.
Together, ants build homes, tunnels, and roads. They work together to keep their environment clean. In addition, ants are mighty warriors. They will fight until death protecting their young and their queen from enemies.
We need to be strong, too–both in our working and in our fighting. We have an adversary the devil, who goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. But the Bible tells us to resist him, staying steadfast in the faith, and the devil will flee (1 Peter 5:8, 9; James 4:7).
3. Also, ants are SYNERGETIC.
In other words, they work together as one team, in unity.
Most of the time when we see ants, they are busy going and coming on some task. If we drop a piece of food on the ground, it doesn’t take long in hot weather for a line of ants to form, busily coming and going. They take that food apart, piece by piece, and carry it to their mound. Then, they come back for another load. If you disturb them, they will work together to find an alternate route and continue their work.
What if we as the body of Christ worked together like that? What if we built the kingdom of God together and fought the enemy together–no matter our race, gender, ethnicity, or even our religious label or denomination?
The Apostle Paul proved that he was synergetic because he could say:
“to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law … that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:21-23).
We in the church need to pull together for our common cause of advancing the Kingdom and winning souls for Jesus.
4. In a positive way, ants are SENSITIVE.
Ants don’t pout or wear their feelings on their sleeves. Just the opposite is true: ants are sensitive to each other’s needs.
Ants sense by smell and by vibrations. When they sense danger, ants signal by releasing pheromones (which are various chemical substances they excrete externally to convey certain information and to solicit certain responses). Isn’t that interesting?
A good friend of mine told me a story regarding how sensitive ants are.
She was in central Arkansas on vacation and had been lying out by the pool. It was a rather sunny, hot, muggy day. On her way back to the condo, my friend noticed great and prolific activity by some very large black ants. These ants were everywhere. They were on the porch, on the roads, on the sidewalks, and even in the kitchen area.
In the 3 or 4 days she had been there, she had not seen any sign of these ants before that moment. About 2 or 3 hours after she saw them, though, the most intense thunderstorm moved in. It carried high winds, heavy rain, and loud thunder. After that storm, there was no sign of the ants for the rest of the week.
Those ants only came out that day because of the approaching storm. They were sensitive to the approaching storm, even when it was sunny, hot, and muggy. They were busy preparing in advance.
In the same way, we can sense things by the Spirit of God–and therefore begin to intercede for certain situations or specific individuals.
I have heard testimonies where someone cried out to God, and then He answered by using another saint to intercede when they sensed that specific need and acted upon it. Remember, Paul sensed that he would face danger on one of his sailing trips. When he did, he warned the captain and the other sailors–and his intervention resulted in zero loss of life.
One time, I heard about a study conducted on ants. It had a control group and an experimental group. Both groups of ants were given certain tasks to do. One group was rewarded for their success, and the other group was not. The rewarded group intensified their efforts, but the other group became less and less ambitious.
5. Lastly, ants are SAVVY.
Our main scripture in Proverbs tells us to take a lesson from the ants and learn from their ways. Ants work hard building their homes and gathering food during warm weather because they know that winter and hard times are coming. For this, they are even called “wise.”
Jesus told a story of a wise man as well. He used this story as an example of someone who would hear what He said and do it. Jesus told of the man who built his house upon the rock–and of another man who built his house on the sand. One house stood when the storm came, but the other house fell.
In life, we will face storms.
Those storms will come with heavy rains, floods, and high winds. (Hmmm … sounds a lot like the weather-ant story!) But Jesus says that the one who built his house upon the rock was wise; the storm did not destroy his works or his house. That “rock” was the Word of God.
How do we know where the “rock” is? How do we know where to build our houses?
You can find the rock by reading God’s Word. That is the first and most important answer! Going to church and hearing His Word being taught is also very important. When we learn what Jesus says, we get His wisdom–and we need His wisdom; we cannot rely on our own. We are not to be wise in our own eyes, but wise in His estimation.
So, people of God, let’s begin to march into March by:
Being social (don’t forsake assembling together);
Being strong (in the power of His might);
Being synergetic and showing unity (remember the song that says “They will know we are Christians by our love”);
Displaying sensitivity (if one suffers, all the members suffer; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it); and
By being savvy (as Paul prayed for the Ephesians saying, “may God give you the spirit of wisdom”).
No wonder Peter told us to “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He might exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:6). There is wisdom in obeying God! And when we study the ant, we see a lot of that wisdom.
In what way do you need to be more like the ant today? Please tell me in the comments below!