WHAT HAPPENED TO MY HARVEST? THE BASIS OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE LAW OF SEEDTIME AND HARVEST
In this sermon series, we will be discussing the burning question, "What Happened To My Harvest?"
I happen to believe that the answer to that question, "What Happened To My Harvest?" is rooted in the law of the seed.
The answer to that question is rooted in an understanding of the law of the seed which incidentally does not only govern the issue of giving and receiving, but also governs everything else when it comes to receiving a harvest for everything that we have sowed, whether it’s a relationship, whether it’s a time, whether it’s a job, the law of the seed governs your harvest in those areas.
I believe that an understanding of the law of the seed is crucial to fulfilling our assignments on earth.
The law of the seed does not just determine our productiveness, it determines how successful we'll get in life.
The law of the seed determines how much love, how much healing, how much happiness we will get.
As a matter of fact, the law of the seed is central to creation. When you look in the book of Genesis 1:29-30, you notice something curious there. God actually gives us only seed-bearing plants and therefore expected us to plant it for our harvest.
While on the other hand, God gave all other living creatures complete fruit, green plants for them to eat. We were only given a seed-bearing plant. It is important for us to know how to plant this seed for an effective harvest regardless of what it is that we are trying to achieve. An understanding of the law is what will determine how much harvest we actually get.
Unfortunately, people often get uncomfortable when discussing the law. Some people get upset when a pastor discusses the principles of the law of the seed.
I've always been amazed by that. People pray for prosperity, they pray for healing, they pray for happiness, they pray for love but they are not willing to learn the law of the seed that is central to receiving answers to their prayers.
As a matter of fact, a lot of pastors are persecuted and hated for actually talking about money. Honestly, I've always thought that's one of the most curious things in Christendom. We all go to work just to get money.
We work 40, 60 maybe 80 hours a week sometimes to get money, and yet we get angry when somebody wants to take 30 minutes or one hour to talk about how we can actually get it. That is one of the mysteries in the Christian walk. Well, you are in the no spin zone: we're going to talk about it.
We are going to start talk about some of the principles that we need to understand and follow if we ever hope to get our harvests. Either in terms of giving our money or in giving our time or in giving our love or in giving anything. The analogy, we are going to be using as we discuss this question of what happened to my harvest, is basically going to be the analogy of somebody who is farming. We all know how the farmer plants the seeds which determine exactly the type of harvest he's going to get.
Effective seedtime determines how effective the harvest is going to be because Genesis 8:22 was very clear. It said as long as the earth remains, seedtime and harvest shall never cease. If there's the seedtime, there's bound to be harvest but the type of harvest you get would be determined by how well you executed your seedtime. So, let’s start from the very first important principle in the next chapter.
WHAT HAPPENED TO MY HARVEST? PRINCIPLE #1
THE PRINCIPLE OF INVENTORY
The first principle we are going to be looking at is what I call THE PRINCIPLE OF INVENTORY.
This basically means you must do an inventory of the seeds God has given you before you start planting like a farmer.
A farmer doesn't just go into the field and start planting without first looking into the storehouse and see what seeds he has, what seeds he can plant.
He has to look in-house to see what kind of seed he's going to plant before he goes into the field. Remember, we are talking about the law of the seed which is central to creation; and this goes far beyond the issue of giving money. It covers every area where we are expecting the harvest.
The first step towards realizing a harvest in any area of your life, whether it is in giving, relationship, or in a career is for you to obey the Principle Of Inventory.
You must do an inventory of the seeds God has given you because it is when you know what you have been given that you can plant it to get what you need.
When you know what you have, then you can plant it to get the harvest you desire.
"A seed is a tiny beginning with a big future." That was what someone said and I do not agree any less with that definition. A seed is anything you have that can be multiplied. It is something you possess that can be used to get what you need.
A seed can be Money, an Idea, or a Talent,.
It can be an Attitude, Color of Skin, Country Of Birth, etc but you must do an inventory of your seeds so you know what you have that you can be planted for a harvest.
You cannot expect a harvest when you don't even know what you have, because if you don't know what you have, you cannot plant it, and it will be futile for you to be expecting a harvest.
Your attitude is a seed that can be planted.
Your aptitude is a seed that can be planted.
Your positioning in the society, at your job, in your family, are seeds that can be planted for a great harvest.
Your race or your color is a seed. It always amazes me how people try to run away from that.
You are black, yellow, or mixed skinned: that is a seed God has given you. Rather than condemning it or running away from it, or fighting it, you want to consider how you can plant it to get the harvest that God intended for you to receive from it before He made you a person of that color.
Your experiences are seeds. What you have gone through is something that can actually give you a huge harvest in the future if only you do an inventory of it and plant it intentionally.
Your thoughts are seeds. What you think could actually be a source of great harvest for you. If you understand this, you would count it as such and plant it. Thoughts are very powerful. Albert Einstein is considered the greatest scientist of the last century. But he was mostly a thinker. He thought about the law of relativity. That law was sown as a seed to create the atomic bomb!
Your thoughts are powerful seeds. Some of the greatest things that we have received in discoveries in the world were products of people thinking, and putting those thoughts on paper. Your thoughts are powerful seeds that can be turned to great harvests.
Your seed is anything you have received from God that can be traded for something else. Make no mistake about it, we are all full of seeds. Don't condemn yourself into thinking that you are not getting a big harvest in many areas of your life because you don’t have anything.
That's not true.
We were all created with special seeds. We are a walking warehouse of seeds. The tragedy is that most of us are not even aware of this, and God will not give you any more seeds until you plant some of what you have been given.
Many of us are too busy looking for what we do not have, or coveting what we do not have, to the extent that we overlook the potential in what we have were given by God.
We need to stop focusing on what we do not have and look closely at the things we have been given. I strongly believe that the secret to every harvest we have ever desired is in the seed that we have been given. Our desire should be to pray and ask God to show us how we can transform every seed that he has given us into the bounteous harvest to achieve everything that we need in life.
Case Study Of Moses And His Excuses In The Burning Bush:
Moses, for instance, had the rod with which he shepherded his sheep for 40 years. When God showed up in his life, he complained about who he was. He whined that he could not talk smoothly as a stammerer; he complained about not having the power to deliver the people of Israel but God asked, "What do you have in your hand?" He told God, "I have a rod." God said, "Throw it on the floor."
In other words, ‘sow that rod’. Put that rod to use. When he did that, the rod became a powerful instrument in his hand.
Moses used that same rod to do wonders in the court of Pharaoh.
Moses used the same rod to part the Red Sea for Israelites to cross.
He used that same rod to bring water out of the rock.
Yes, that same rod he had been carrying around with him for years was a mighty seed in his hand, and God showed him how to turn that seed into a powerful instrument for a deliverance harvest.
The tragedy is that many of us never get to use 10% of the seeds that we have in our lives because we just simply never asked the person who gave us the seed, which is God Almighty, to show us how we can transform those seeds into powerful harvests in our lives.
Your power of imagination is a seed. Too many of us use it to bring down others instead of using it the way the owner of the seeds intended us to use it.
Your power to influence others is a seed. Too many of us are using it to disrupt God's work instead of building up God's work. You must recognize all the seeds God has stored within you and plant them for your desired harvest.
Stop wondering what happened to your harvest? You need to begin doing the first thing you need to do to be on your way to seeing harvests in every area of your life: which is following the principle of inventory.
Again, remember, your seed is any gift, any skill or talent that God has provided for you to sow into the lives of others around you for the harvest that you are praying for. You must do a thorough inventory of the collection of your seeds today by doing the ‘SHAPE ANALYSIS and then in the next principle, I will show you how to qualify your soil before you sow it into people or into anything.
S.H.A.P.E. stands for SPIRITUAL GIFTS, HEART, ABILITIES, PERSONALITY AND EXPERIENCES.
It's a very analytical way to help you think about and analyze your individual characteristics (seeds) that God has invested in you for all the harvest you would ever need.
This is the first principle of the law of the seed.
If you can follow this first principle, you are well on your way to answering the question “WHAT HAPPENED TO MY HARVEST?” because if you do not recognize the seed, how would you sow it for your desired harvest?
Invest time in prayer to know the seeds God has given you for the harvest that you were meant to reap in this life.
Ask God to show you what you have been given physically and spiritually to harvest the fruitfulness God expects from you.
The truth is you can see something nobody else can see.
You know something others do not know.
You see problems others do not see and you can solve it to get the harvest that you need.
Lots of people do not know what the seeds in them are and they do not get to receive the harvest from it because it is not planted.
You must stop asking yourself, “What happened to my harvest?” today by beginning to do an inventory of the seeds God has given you because the secret of your harvest is in the seed that you have.
That is the first principle of the Law Of The Seed as we begin to look for solutions to the question, “What happened to our harvest?”
