CHAPTER 18
SOWING AND REAPING
Jesus compared speaking the Word of God to planting seeds of wheat. See Matthew 13. When we speak God’s Word, we are planting a seed in our spirit and in every spirit that hears us speak God’s Word. The Word of God that is not spoken is like a seed not planted. If a seed is not planted and if God’s Word is not spoken neither the seed nor the Word will produce any fruit. However, if we speak and hear God’s Word and wait patiently with faith, eventually the Word of God will bear fruit. Each seed bears a specific type of fruit and every Word of God also bears specific fruit.
Therefore, if we want health, we must speak God’s Word concerning health. If we want joy, we must speak God’s Word concerning joy. If we want peace, we must speak God’s Word concerning peace. If we want prosperity, we must speak God’s Word concerning prosperity. If we want love, we must speak God’s Word concerning love. If we want salvation for a loved one, we must speak God’s Word concerning salvation. We may receive a bumper crop by speaking God’s Word, but we should not expect it to last forever. I will give you an example in my own life.
When I was a boy, I read my Bible almost every day. However, I did not have the same revelation about God’s Word as I do today. I was a baby Christian. One day I suddenly became terribly sick, I started having seizures. My mother took me to several doctors and none of them gave me much hope for a cure. We were told that if I took medicine, I could “manage” the illness. We were told that I would probably have to live with the illness the rest of my life because it could not be cured. I very nearly lost my faith in God.
I cried out to God, “Why have you allowed this to happen to me?”
My relationship with God went downhill pretty fast. I definitely did not have the patience of Job. However, when all the doctors told me there was no cure, eventually I had to turn to the only place that gave me some hope, God’s Word! I searched through the Bible and found every scripture verse I could find concerning God’s promises to heal, and there are many. Then I wrote them in large print on pieces of paper and taped them on my bedroom walls. Every night, I would speak God’s healing Word out loud, praying that he would heal me. I did not have a great deal of faith at the time, but I was persistent.
I continued to do this for many years and I don’t mean to brag, but I was probably in nearly perfect health by the end of that time. All by speaking the Word of God! I wasn’t even living a very righteous or obedient life, but I eventually did believe God’s Word concerning healing. I finally went to a new Doctor and I told him that I wanted to stop taking my seizure medication. Surprisingly, after giving me some tests, he said, “Go ahead.” I did quit taking medication and I have never had to take medicine for that particular ailment ever again.
However, I made a mistake. When I was confident that I was healed of that particular ailment, I took all of God’s healing scriptures off my bedroom walls and stopped praying God’s healing Word every night, then slowly, but surely, I started losing my health. I began gaining weight. I hurt my back. I had colds every winter and an assortment of other minor ailments. Then it finally dawned on me. I need to start doing what I was doing when I was so healthy. I need to continually plant the Word of God in my spirit, if I want to continue enjoying good health. I need to speak God’s healing Word just like I did when I was young and sickly! I need to continually sow God’s Word to my spirit if I want to continually reap his promises in my life. Our physical reality is only a reflection of our spiritual reality.
The same is true for all of God’s promises, we need to continually memorize and speak God’s promises to ourselves and to anybody who will listen. Speaking God’s Word is the only way to set the captives free, including ourselves. If you are sick, you want to be healed of course, but do not limit yourself only to God’s healing Word, also speak God’s Word concerning love, righteousness, hope, joy, peace, and prosperity. You will be amazed at the results.
My little sister was also stricken with a chronic illness, I told her how I was healed by praying and speaking God’s Word to myself. A few months later I asked her if she had been speaking God’s healing Word to herself. She said, “I tried it, but what you told me doesn’t work.” I don’t know how long she “tried it”, maybe a week, maybe a month, maybe a few months, but we cannot try Walking in the Spirit, we must live Walking in the Spirit continually! My sister made the same mistake that I made, she thought that what I told her was some kind of formula to make God heal her.
Speaking God’s Word is not a formula, it is not magic, we must speak God’s Word as a way of life. If we do not continually Walk in the Spirit and continually speak God’s Word, we will eventually lose any progress that we have made. Speaking a promise from God once and expecting to be healed forever is similar to believing we can eat one meal and then expecting that we will be full forever. It is also similar to planting a crop of wheat only one year and then expecting a bumper crop of wheat every year. The Holy Spirit just does not work that way.
In the Book of Hebrews, the Apostle Paul tells us why most of the Israelites who left Egypt never entered into the Promised Land, but died in the Wilderness. The reason the Israelites failed to reach the Promised Land is the same reason many Christians also do not enjoy the abundance of God’s promises. Entering into the Promised Land represents entering into all of God’s promises for the Church. Entering into God’s rest, which He has prepared for us from the foundation of the world, requires faith! God does not want us to wait until we die to enter into His rest, God expects us to enter His rest right now!
LET US THEREFORE FEAR, LEST, A PROMISE BEING LEFT US OF ENTERING INTO HIS REST, ANY OF YOU SHOULD SEEM TO COME SHORT OF IT.
FOR UNTO US WAS THE GOSPEL PREACHED, AS WELL AS UNTO THEM: BUT THE WORD PREACHED DID NOT PROFIT THEM, NOT BEING “MIXED” WITH FAITH IN THEM THAT HEARD IT.
HEBREWS 4:1-2
MIXED. 4786. Soong-kat-an’-noo-mee; to commingle, i.e. (figuratively) to combine or assimilate: - mix with, temper together.
The Apostle Paul was telling the saints in the Book of Hebrews not to make the same mistake as the Israelites did by wandering in the wilderness. The ancient Israelites could not enter into the Promised Land because they did not mix God’s Word with faith. They believed God enough to escape Egypt, but they were found wanting when it came to appropriating all that God had promised them. They heard the Word preached, but the Word was not mixed with faith. Remember that mixed means to assimilate or to make it a part of our faith.
How do we mix God’s Word with faith?
Faith commeth by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. We must memorize God’s Word in order to assimilate it with our faith. We have to speak God’s Word over and over. We must hear God’s Word over and over. Once a week is not enough!
Paul is basically telling us that the Word preached to the Israelites went in one ear and out the other. The Word did not get down into their spirits. If Warren Buffet wrote you a check for a billion dollars, you would probably rush down to the bank and try to cash it, but if a beggar on the street wrote you a check for a billion dollars, you would probably toss it in the trash. Then you would walk away and forget it.
Why? Because you see the beggar’s circumstances and you do not believe the beggar has the resources to keep his promises.
This was how the ancient Israelites and many Christians treat God today. They treat God like a beggar, they do not believe God is capable of healing them or keeping His promises! They really do not believe God can make them prosperous, or wise, or happy. They really do not believe God has the resources or power to deliver them from sickness or to deliver them from debt or to deliver them from sin. They would have more faith in a promise from Warren Buffet than from God.
What is wrong with this picture? The main problem is not that God is unable to perform His promises, the main problem is the believer’s lack of faith in God’s ability to perform His promises. Therefore, the believer cannot appropriate what God has promised them. If somebody gave you a ten dollar check, you would probably have faith that there was enough money in the bank to cash it, but if somebody gave you a billion dollar check, you might doubt that the money was really in the bank?
I’ll bet most people might frame it, or they might throw it in the garbage, instead of taking it to the bank because they simply could not believe a billion dollars was available to them. That is how a lot of Christians treat God. They can believe in God’s little promises, but they just cannot believe in God’s big promises. They can believe God will heal a cold, but not AIDS. They are just like Abraham when he heard that he and Sarah was going to have a baby in their old age.
THEN ABRAHAM FELL UPON HIS FACE, AND LAUGHED, AND SAID IN HIS HEART, SHALL A CHILD BE BORN UNTO HIM THAT IS AN HUNDRED YEARS OLD? AND SHALL SARAH, THAT IS NINETY YEARS OLD BEAR?
GENESIS 17:17
One reason for unbelief is because the average Christian does not know or has not heard the promises of God in the first place. They might go to church every Sunday, but for whatever reason, the Word of healing has never been preached, so they continue suffering from sickness. The Word of prosperity has never been preached, so they continue suffering from poverty. The Word of wisdom has not been preached, so they continue suffering ignorance.
What should they do?
They should search the Bible and see for themselves what God says about sickness and poverty and they should appropriate God’s promises for themselves. They need to mix God’s Word concerning healing and prosperity into their spirit with faith. They need to assimilate God’s Word into their spirit with faith. They need to be transformed by the renewing of their minds.
AND BE NOT CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD: BUT BE YE TRANSFORMED BY THE “RENEWING” OF YOUR MIND, THAT YE MAY PROVE WHAT IS THAT GOOD, AND ACCEPTABLE, AND PERFECT, WILL OF GOD.
ROMANS 12:2
RENEWING. 342. An-ak-ah’-ee-no-sis; renovation: - renewing. (The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, James Strong, LL.D., S.T.D., Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1984.)
You have to picture the unsaved mind as an old house that is in complete disrepair and falling apart. Also visualize that the old house has been infested with mice, rats and all kinds of vermin, bad thoughts and ideas, which were never meant to use the house as a residence. God wants to put the flesh to death, but He wants to renovate your mind.
Have you ever seen the before and after pictures of an old house that has been repaired and renovated?
Sometimes you can hardly believe it is the same place. The Holy Spirit is more than able to make your mind a brand new place. The Holy Spirit can replace fear with faith; He can replace selfishness with love; He can replace pride with meekness; He can replace strife with peace; He can replace foolishness with wisdom; He can replace despair with hope.
LIE NOT ONE TO ANOTHER, SEEING THAT YE HAVE PUT OFF THE OLD MAN WITH HIS DEEDS;
AND HAVE PUT ON THE NEW MAN, WHICH IS RENEWED IN KNOWLEDGE AFTER THE IMAGE OF HIM THAT CREATED HIM:
COLOSSIANS 3:9-10
So we see that the new man is renewed in knowledge.
What knowledge? The knowledge of Jesus Christ renews our minds.
As we become more and more familiar with the LORD, we are transformed into His image. As we speak the Word of God, our mind is renewed. We begin speaking with authority, we begin speaking with wisdom and we begin speaking with faith.
Why do so many people hear the Word of God and continue on as before, in bondage to the world, full of doubt and disbelief, while only a few become mighty warriors of faith and enter into God’s rest? Why do so many people remain dead wood, while so few catch on fire for God?
The answer is unbelief, their mind is still focused on the world and their circumstances instead of the Almighty Word of God.
Prior to salvation, the spirit is dead and the soul(mind) is controlled by the flesh(body). A person’s spirit, soul, and body look like this:
Prior to salvation, the spirit is dead and has no power; therefore, the flesh is in control of the unbeliever and the unbeliever is being led towards death and away from God. After salvation, the spirit is alive, but the soul(mind), by force of habit and lack of knowledge, is still being controlled by the flesh:
The key to becoming a mature Christian is renewing our mind. We need to train our mind to start following after the desires of the spirit instead of following after the desires of the flesh:
After we become mature Christians, we understand, by the Word of God, that our flesh is dead, but our spirit is alive and our soul(mind) must be renewed and controlled by our spirit, which in turn is led by the Holy Spirit. We begin a journey in the opposite direction. We begin Walking in the Spirit toward life with our eternal companion, the Holy Spirit.
How do you get your soul(mind) to begin following the spirit toward life?
We begin feeding our spirit with the Word of Life. We strengthen our spirit with the Word of God. We speak God’s Word to ourself and build up our faith. Eventually, our soul(mind) becomes congruent with the spirit and not with the flesh.
CONGRUENT. a. [L. congruens. ppr. of conguere, to run, together, agree.]
Our mind must begin to agree with the Holy Spirit and God’s Word instead of with our dead flesh.
This is why it is so important for a Christian not to be unequally yoked to a non-Christian?
Imagine trying to run an obstacle course with a dead body strapped to your back. Worse yet, imagine somebody fighting you every step of the way. Many Christians marry non-Christians, and enter business partnerships with non-Christians, and then they wonder why their circumstances never improve. The unequally yoked Christians then wonder why God does not bless them like He blesses other Christians.
If you want to enter into the Promised Land, you must be spiritually mature, and you must not be unequally yoked to an unbeliever. Please listen to me young people. If you marry an unbeliever, you will be stuck until the day one of you dies or until the unbelieving spouse gets saved or until the unbelieving spouse freely leaves you. That is a pretty scary predicament!
Now some people might say, “Hold on, my poor old Grandma is the most saintly person I know and she barely has money for food, she has arthritis, and she is always crying ‘cause Grandpa died and left her with a mountain of debt! My poor old Grandma has been faithfully goin’ to church every Sunday for the last fifty years!”
If you know somebody like this poor old Grandma, you are not alone. There are plenty of Christians that are in the same boat as poor old Grandma. They are Christians wandering in the wilderness. Many of them will never reach the Promised Land. The Apostle Paul calls these weak believers “carnal.” These types of believers continue to be motivated and controlled by their circumstances and not by the Word of God. They continue to rely on their own wisdom and their own strength. They have never matured into spiritual men and women because they do not know the power of God’s Word. Mostly, they are trapped because no one has ever explained to them how to grow up and become a spiritually mature Christian.
There are also many Christians who believe God can deliver them from sin, and they truly are saintly, but they do not believe God’s Word (Jesus Christ) has delivered them from poverty and sickness.
I put a lot of the blame on the church leadership today. Many church leaders do not have faith. Many church leaders should not be in charge of a lemonade stand, let alone the spiritual health of a congregation. A lot of people are probably not going to like this, but I need to warn Christians about those who they entrust their spiritual health to.
Would you want to drive over a bridge designed by an engineer who has never finished college, or have brain surgery from a doctor who attended medical school for a month?
I know everybody has to start somewhere, but nobody should be put in charge of a congregation unless they are spiritually mature.
Nobody should hold any position of authority or any office in the church unless they are spiritually mature. If I wanted to learn about anything, whether it was being an engineer, or a doctor, or a carpenter, or a spiritually mature Christian, I would look for a teacher who has been doing it for a while and is acknowledged to be an expert by their peers.
Our spiritual growth is the most important subject in this world and in the world to come. Please do not put yourselves under the authority of a carnal Christian, or even worse, a pretender to the faith. A lot of churches and church leaders are telling their congregations touch not; taste not; handle not; after the commandments and doctrines of men. Many church leaders are wolves preying on the flock.
SET YOUR AFFECTIONS ON THINGS ABOVE, NOT ON THINGS ON THE EARTH.
COLOSSIANS 3:2
Although church leaders are responsible for the immaturity of a lot of Christians, a lot of immature Christians do not want to be mature. They are similar to the kid who refuses to leave home. It is comfortable to attend a church once a week and then forget about God.
Why bother getting intimate with God when the pastor, priest, or preacher can do it for me?
I am afraid there are a lot of Christians who will be in for a big surprise when they stand before the Judgment seat of Christ. The officers of the Church were never meant to be rulers, they were meant to build individual believers into mature Christians and to edify the Church. The Church should be producing mature kings and priests, mature spiritual saints. The Church will be without spot or wrinkle when Jesus comes again. The Church has a mission and Jesus Christ did not ask, he commanded that we attend to our duty.
GO YE INTO ALL THE WORLD, AND PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE.<