Faith EnergizersVzorec

LESSON 24

The Law of Seedtime and Harvest, Part 3

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Genesis 8:22

God wants His people to be prosperous! Throughout the Bible, He promises that if we hearken to His Word and obey His laws and ordinances, we will live in abundance.

God has some major plans that are going to stagger the minds of men in the world. He is raising up an army of New Covenant Abrahams! A people that are blessed abundantly and are faithful and diligent like Abraham. These people will be responsible for financing the greatest revival this planet has ever seen.

God not only wants you to have your needs met, but He also wants you to reap an abundant harvest all of the time so that you can reach the world. You can become as established in that fact as you are in your salvation. If someone were to tell me that I am not going to heaven, he would be wasting his time. I KNOW I am going to heaven. Likewise, you can’t tell me that it is not God’s will for me to prosper. It is too late to tell me that – I am already prospering.

The laws of seedtime and harvest cannot be changed, and GOD CANNOT LIE. His Word promises that whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Galatians 6:7), so we reap a harvest from whatever we sow.

Some of God’s people have been sowing their seed among thorns. Remember what Jesus said in Mark chapter 4 about the sower, 3Behold, there went out a sower to sow…7And some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit (Mark 4:3,7). You cannot plant beautiful flowers and weeds in the same garden. The weeds will choke out the flowers and overtake them, and eventually, you’ll have a garden of weeds. Flowers and weeds are not compatible. When you plant them together, you are sowing your field with mingled seed. Don’t sow your field with mingled seed. When you sow your financial seed into your local church as a tither sow seed into a ministry as an offering, or give an offering to the poor, don’t go home and start talking about not having enough money. When you talk about lacking finances, you are planting weeds on top of all the good seed you have just sown.

What you confess over your tithe is a vital part of tithing. Tithing is an ordinance of God, and we are to confess, according to Deuteronomy 26, what the Word states. Don’t just toss your tithe into the basket and then talk about not having enough to pay your bills. Make a confession over your tithe, and believe in your heart that it is a seed planted that will bring forth an abundant harvest according to God’s Word.

Many people are not consistent in their tithing. They tithe for a while, and because they don’t see an immediate harvest, they start to withhold their tithes. They become ensnared by the enemy because the devil doesn’t want them to tithe. If you decide to tithe only when you have enough left over, the devil will make sure you never have any money left over. When you withhold your tithe, you are robbing God.

8Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 9Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. 10Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 11And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.

Malachi 3:8-11

This is the only place in the Bible where God tells us to prove Him and see if He’ll not do it. He promises that if we keep His ordinances, we are going to have such an abundant harvest that we won’t have room to contain it all. If you are not receiving that kind of harvest right now, then God said in Haggai 1:5 to consider your ways.

Jeremiah 4:3 tells us to Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. If your garden is not producing the kind of harvest you want in life, plow it up and start over. The Bible describes the Word of God as a two-edged sword. One side of the sword is for you, and the other one is for the devil. It takes a sharp instrument to dig weeds out of a flowerbed. The Word of God is the sharp instrument we use to dig up the doubt, unbelief, and sin in our hearts. The soil is now turned over and ready for new seed.

I give God and His Word all the praise, honor, and glory for this has happened in my life since I was born again in 1969. I tried to attain success through worldly ways, and I was a failure. Then, I chose God. The Word of God purged out all the negative, unsuccessful seeds and created new, rich soil, and I am not a failure anymore.

Faith requires diligence.

But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Hebrews 11:6

Laziness is a lack of diligence. It will cause poverty and a miserable life. The Bible refers to one who is lazy as being slothful.

30I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; 31And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.

Proverbs 24:30-31

Many times I have seen people come to crusades and get turned on to the Word. They immediately begin to plant good seeds. But when they don’t see their harvest right away, they get discouraged and lazy. Before you know it, they are sowing those thorns again. Their zeal and diligence are gone, and they can’t seem to understand why they are not reaping a harvest. You can’t let your field grow up in thorns and expect a harvest. Farming requires much work, and an idle soul will suffer hunger. The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat (Proverbs 13:4).

Slothfulness is an enemy of faith. Laziness will steal your harvest from you. The Bible tells us that the thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness (Proverbs 21:5) – they see only abundance. A diligent man will look beyond the problem and see the solution, and he will make a steady effort to accomplish it. He doesn’t even think of quitting because all that he can see is victory.

10For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. 11And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: 12That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Hebrews 6:10-12

Being patient means to be constant and consistent, never changing no matter what the circumstances.

Don’t get discouraged when it doesn’t look like you are reaping a harvest. A farmer doesn’t plant his seed one day to go out and reap his harvest the next morning.

3To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 2A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not (Galatians 6:9). There is a due season for your harvest. If you will not grow weary and stop planting and keep obeying God and His commandments, then you are going to reap much.

God will perform His Word and honor it. He is not a respecter of persons, and He honors all who obey Him. Disobedience, however, will result in a poor harvest. In the book of Malachi, God rebukes His people for not obeying Him. Even though they disobeyed Him, God still told them that He loved them. I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? (Malachi 1:2). They began to get weary in their faith walk because they couldn’t see any blessings. Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts (Malachi 1:13).

Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

Malachi 2:17

In other words, they say, “Look at all those sinners. It looks like they are doing pretty good. God is blessing them, but what about us? We’ve tried to live right, and what good has it done?” When people start comparing the sinner and what he has with what they have, and it looks as if the sinner is better off, that attitude is stout against God.

13Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? 14Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?

Malachi 3:13-14

I’ve heard people say, “I had it better before I got all of this.” When you say things like that, you are speaking words against God. The devil wants you to get weary and give up. He tries to channel all the wealth into the sinners’ hands in order to keep it out of our hands. The Bible, however, reveals to us that the wealthy people living in the world are just reservoirs. The Amplified says: …The wealth of the sinner [finds its way eventually] into the hands of the righteous, for whom it was laid up Proverbs 13:22.

Even when we foul up, even when we disobey God and fail to keep His commandments, all we have to do is repent and say, “I’m sorry. I repent; forgive me,” and He will wipe our slate clean and treat us as though it never happened.

Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.

Malachi 3:7

The day of your harvest is coming. Don’t get weary and dig up your seed. KEEP PLANTING good seed in your field; then you are going to fill your storehouse.