HOW TO HARVEST (Part 6)

Do you believe in God?  Do you believe in sowing and reaping?

Is reaping automatic?  No!  Why would we think it is?  It’s certainly not that way in the natural.  Why would we presume it’s that way spiritually, when He gives us the natural example of sowing and reaping to teach us about spiritual sowing and reaping?

In passage after passage He compares the two. Doesn’t He?  

Let’s get more established in the truth we are talking about.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

If you’ve thought wrong for a while, you don’t need to leave thinking this is my idea, something I came up with.  You need to see this in the Word of God or else not accept it.  We’ve already looked at scriptures that say very plainly that we can sleep through harvests.  Looking at the wrong things and not reap your harvest.

Jeremiah 5:24  They do not say in their heart, “Let us now fear the Lord our God, Who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season.  He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.”

The Young’s Literal Translation (YLT) says, And they have not said in their heart, `Let us fear, we pray you, Jehovah our God, who is giving rain, the sprinkling and the gathered, in its season, the appointed weeks of harvest He keepeth for us.'

Sowing is for us to do!

Harvest is for us to do!

In Psalm 104:27, it talks about How God meets their needs. “These all wait for You, that You may give them their food in due season.”

When are we able to reap?  In due season.  Not before due season.  You can’t go out and reap tomatoes until they are on the vines.  You can’t produce the tomatoes.  That’s the part that is God’s responsibility.  But you can pick the tomatoes.   Say that.  I can pick the tomatoes. Certainly you don’t expect God to pick them, do you? Everybody knows that we pick the tomatoes. But there would be no tomatoes except that God had created them. They never would have existed.

We look at the creation and marvel.

Tomatoes came out of God.   Bananas, string beans, watermelons….  We take all these for granted because it has always been around before we got here.  But, there was a time when none of this was here.  This all came out of God.  The reason we can still eat ice cold watermelon is because of those little black things (the seeds) we spit out.  Because in those little things is the watermelon.  It’s in there.  Isn’t it amazing?  It’s a miracle.

Imagine this.  We take this amazing thing that God has given us and we put it in the soil (which is amazing) which God created, and this seed does its thing. And the vines spread all over, and the watermelon grows and grows.  It’s ripe now!  We don’t sit at home and cry because God didn’t bring us the watermelon.  Do we?

He gave us the seed.  He gave us the ground.  Do we really expect Him to do everything for us?  We know we can go out and get the watermelon.  That’s something we can do.  Actually, it’s a privilege.  He has allowed us to do that.  He’s allowed us the privilege and responsibility of sowing and the privilege and responsibility of reaping.  Both are ours.

Psalm 104:28  What You give them they gather in; You open Your hand, they are filled with good.

HE GIVES WE GATHER.  Say that aloud.  He gives, we gather.   

He said, You open your hand and they are filled with good.

The reason we have something to gather is because He opened His hand.  He multiplied it.  He increased our sowing but He doesn’t harvest it for us.  He doesn’t reap it for us.  He doesn’t gather it for us.  
Remember when He rained angel’s food, manna. Supernatural food fell out of the sky. They still had to leave the tent to pick it up.  They couldn’t stay in the tent and make confessions and wait on God or His angels to bring it to them.  He gave them instructions on how to do it, how not to do it.

Why?