If you haven’t done so already, please read Part One.
Let’s review what we have seen do far.
- Seed reproduces after its kind: you need to plant seed for the results you want
- You plant seeds with your words. What are you planting?
- Seeds need to be planted to grow, and to grow best they need to be planted into good soil. The soil needs to be prepared. In the spiritual realm, the soil is our hearts.
- There is an optimum time for planting. Farmers know the best time of year to plant their crops. They also know what kinds of crops do well in the climates they live in.
- There is a growing period. The seed needs to be protected and nurtured. It is most vulnerable when first planted. We need to guard the seed growing in our hearts.
- The growing period requires patience. In the natural you can see the crop growing, but in the spiritual you might not see anything with your eyes, you need to see it by faith. And the danger is to think nothing is happening, and give up.
Sowing in Famine
There are times when the economy looks bleak; businesses are failing, people around you are out of work, and there is lack. This is financial famine.
Genesis 26:1-6 1 There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.
2 Then the Lord appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you.
3 Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
4 And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;
5 because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
6 So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.
Isaac was told not to go down to Egypt. As I mentioned before, often Egypt was not subject to famines as the rest of the Middle East because they irrigated from the Nile and had less of a dependence of rainfall. So the people would go down to Egypt and buy food. This represents the world’s methods of getting finances – loans, etc.
Note: “going down to Egypt” is not always wrong. Although Issac was told not to, Jacob’s household went down to Egypt to buy grain during the famine time that Joseph foretold.
The world’s ways can work great blessings at the proper time, and if you are led to do so. But if God tells you not to take the natural way out, it means He has a supernatural provision for you.
Genesis 26:12 12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him.
So Isaac sowed in the specific place God told him to, even though it looked like a bad idea in the natural. And he had a bumper crop. We will always get the best results when we follow the leading of the Lord.
Genesis 26:13-14 13 The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous;
14 for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.
One of the reasons Isaac prospered so much was because he was the only one in the area that had an abundant crop. And he sold to the people around him so they didn’t have to go all the way down to Egypt.
“Oh, but shouldn’t Isaac have just given food to his neighbors?” Not necessarily.
Proverbs 11:25-26 25 The generous soul will be made rich, And he who waters will also be watered himself.
26 The people will curse him who withholds grain, But blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.
Isaac would have been wrong to horde all his grain, or change exorbitantly for it, but he was being a blessing to sell it.
Fertilizing, Watering, Weeding, and Spraying
Fertilizing is usually a step taken to prepare the soil before planting. Nutrients are mixed and tilled into the soil. This could be the preparation, study, and prayer you do before you actually begin a faith project; things like researching scriptures on the subject, etc.
And this is an area where a lot of us miss it – we don’t take the time to prep our soil to make it the most beneficial for our seed. We want to jump right in and throw seed around.
To the farmer, timing is important: there is an optimum time of year to plant seed, and that time can be different depending on the type of crop.
Watering – is something that needs to be done every day. We thank God for the answer, and remind ourselves of the promises.
Weeding and spraying – these are done to protect your crop from outside attack.
Weeding is done to protect from foreign seed; other words that would cause weeds to choke out your crop (take heed what you hear).
Spraying is done to protect from bugs; devourers that would eat and ruin your crop before harvest time comes.
Harvest Time – the time to Reap
Eventually, in due time, or due season, the time for the harvest comes. This is the reaping part of sowing and reaping.
There is quite a bit of teaching about sowing. But there is not as much about reaping.
The Bible talks about sowing AND reaping. It’s not reaping and sowing. It’s also not just sowing, or just reaping. It’s both, and in that particular order.
In agriculture, there is a proper time for harvest. If you try to harvest too early, your crop won’t be ripe or fully mature. If you wait too long, the fruit can get overripe, drop off and be wasted; or go to seed.
The worst thing is for the farmer to let the crop grow to maturity, then never harvest it at all. In the case of natural farmers, this is unlikely to happen.
But then there are unexperienced gardeners, like us. We have a boysenberry bush in our yard. One of its characteristics is that that the berries don’t seem to get ripe all at once in one day, different ones get ripe over a period of a couple of weeks. You basically have to check the plant every couple of days. We did at first, but then kind of forgot about it. Some weeks later we noticed a whole bunch of shriveled berries – a harvest we missed.
Unfortunately in the realm of faith, this happens all too often, because we can’t see our crop with our eyes like the farmer does.
Proverbs 10:5 He who gathers in summer is a wise son; He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.
Proverbs 10:5 Living Bible What a shame to see a lad that sleeps away his window of opportunity.
Ecclesiastes 11:4 He who observes the wind will not sow, And he who regards the clouds will not reap.
Is it possible that someone could sleep through a harvest? Do all the work of sowing, but not benefit because you miss the harvest.
If you are waiting for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. That is what Ecclesiastes is talking about. When it is time, you have to move.
Honor God with the First Fruits
Another principle we see in God’s word is that the Israelites were to bring the first fruits of the harvest to God. This is the tithe, the first (and best) 10% of what we earn.
Tithing is technically not sowing. Sowing involves giving something that is yours, and the tithe belongs to God. You don’t give a tithe, you bring the tithe.
Tithing is the key to your sowing being blessed. Remember the blessings of the tither from Malachi 3? God said He would open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing. Well, rain is one thing crops need to thrive, and rain is something that comes from the windows of heaven.
Malachi 3:10-12 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.
11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field,” Says the Lord of hosts;
12 “And all nations will call you blessed, For you will be a delightful land,” Says the Lord of hosts.
He also talked about rebuking the devourer – that would be bugs or birds or animals that come and eat your crops before you could harvest them.
Have you ever read the verses right after the tithing verses?
Malachi 3:13-15 13 “Your words have been harsh against Me,” Says the Lord, “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’
14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God; What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, And that we have walked as mourners Before the Lord of hosts?
15 So now we call the proud blessed, For those who do wickedness are raised up; They even tempt God and go free.’ “
The people’s words were against God. How so? They were complaining that their prayers and efforts seemed to go unrewarded, and yet the wicked prospered and even when they opposed God nothing happened.
I’ve felt that way at times. Looking at all the crazy things going on in this world, seemingly unchecked. But there is so much we don’t know and can’t see, where God is working.
These people were giving up, and complaining. That is definitely one way to stop your harvest.
Reaping is not automatic
Mark 4:26-29 26 And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground,
27 and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.
28 For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.
29 But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
These verses tell us that kingdom of God operates like farming. How does that go?
- A man casts seed onto the group
- He sleeps night and day – passage of time
- The seed grows – He doesn’t know how. The earth produces the crop
- There is progressive growth – the blade, head, full corn in the head
- When it’s ripe, he puts in the sickle
Question: who sowed the seed? The man
Who caused the seed to grow? The earth – the principles that God set up.
Who reaped the harvest? The man
Many people think that once they have sown, that the reaping is automatic. No! The crop is not going to jump out of the field and into the barn. And even if you do get it into the barn, you can eat it, but it’s probably way too much, and you need other things besides just corn. You have to sell it.
You are responsible for the reaping as well as the sowing, and it usually means work!
Proverbs 6:6-11 6 Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise,
7 Which, having no captain, Overseer or ruler,
8 Provides her supplies in the summer, And gathers her food in the harvest.
9 How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep–
11 So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, And your need like an armed man.
Even the manna from heaven, which God supplied miraculously – the people still had to go out and gather it. They couldn’t just sit in the tent and make confessions. Even when their provision fell out of the sky from heaven, there was still work to do.
As soon as Israel entered into the promised land, the manna stopped. That’s because from that time on, God expected them to operate in the regular laws of sowing and reaping.
God will do things miraculously for you to get you out of a tight spot. But you’re not supposed to live like that all the time.
Expect a return
People when they give something, they think it’s gone. It is a law that you can’t spend money twice. But, you need to look at sowing is an investment – you should expect a return on it. The farmer sows in the hope of the harvest. You should be looking for a return on your giving.
Yield
Mark 4:8 8 And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.
Even when you do get a harvest, there are degrees or extents of that harvest. This is the yield – all the way from a small harvest to a bumper crop. This is even when it is sown into “good soil”.
You Must Discern Your Harvest
Many people only reap a small harvest because they don’t discern their harvest.
John 4:35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!
You have to know where your harvest is. Where is the field you sowed into? You have to go there to get your harvest.
You have to know when to harvest – timing is also a huge part of a good harvest. Too early, and you’re picking unripe fruit / grain that is not of good quality – it won’t taste good. Too late, and it can rot and perish and be unfit for consumption.
A farmer has a rough idea of when their crop will be ready, but when that general time comes around, they are checking it every day.
So when will we know when it is harvest time? God will let you know in your spirit. “Harvest time is coming near!” But it will still require a step of faith to go get it.
