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The Light
Dr David Wood
THE LIGHT
SEEDTIME AND HARVEST – THE FIFTH SPIRITUAL LAW
By Dr. David R. Wood
We at Eastern
Gate Ministries International Incorporated greet our partners and friends
everywhere. It is my distinct privilege and pleasure to bring The Light to you
each month. I encourage you to read, meditate and if you have questions feel
free to contact me through the website. This month we are moving into another
extremely important Spiritual Law, that of Seedtime and Harvest. It is
important to know these laws because they are operating whether you are aware of
them or not. When you become aware of these laws than you can work them to your
advantage or more accurately we work them to the advantage of the kingdom of
God. Remember we are children of God, sons of the King, kings in the earth
under the King of kings; we are caretakers of the Word of God as priests in the
earth under the High Priest.
People get
nervous when preachers go to talking about money. They say stuff like, “all
they want is your money”. Of course that is all Wal-Mart, Sears and the grocery
store wants as well. The difference being that a seed (money sown) into the
kingdom has an unlimited potential. A $100 at the grocery store is still $100
at the end of the shopping trip in goods. We need to think of everything that
we do as a seed which will transform your thinking and bring you into the
supernatural realm day in and day out. Sow it unto the Lord, into the Kingdom
of God. The rate of pay you receive from your job is a beggary amount compared
with what God wants you to reap from your efforts. So sow that time into the
Kingdom expecting the unlimited favor of God. Expect 30, 60, 100 fold and
beyond from the Lord. If your job pays $15 an hour and your check is $600, God
does not have a problem with you reaping $60,000 (100 fold). The question is;
what are your motives. Are you seeking Him and His righteousness for the stuff
(Matthew 6:33) or are you looking to be a blessing, to lift burdens and
destroy yokes? Are you a conduit or a repository?
God spoke to
Abram about the very issue of the blessing. Before we read those Scriptures let
us examine the meaning of the word bless, blessed or blessing. This is a study
in itself. The primary meaning of the word bless is to kneel. The word also
means to speak well of another such as the grace of God going before us
preparing our way. Third it is an empowerment or anointing. I want to make it
clear that the blessing is a person, the person of the Holy Spirit. This is
quite clear from the following verse.
Proverbs 10:22 (KJV)
22 The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow
with it.
When the blessing
is upon us and with us we are empowered for success in any and every area of our
lives that is in the plan of God. Forget it if you are on your own plan. The
Holy Spirit prepares peoples hearts to receive us. We sometimes refer to this
as the favor of God. Well just who is the favor of God? He is the Holy Spirit
of God! Now let us deal briefly with the primary meaning of the word bless
which is to kneel. Absent this primary meaning the second two are inoperative.
Examine the following Scriptures. You will quickly see that they both are
making the same point.
1 Peter 5:5-8 (KJV)
5 Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all
of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God
resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he
may exalt you in due time:
7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a
roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
James 4:6-10 (KJV)
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the
proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you.
8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your
hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double
minded.
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to
mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you
up.
Both of these
passages are telling us to submit or humble ourselves before God i.e. to kneel.
In time God will lift us up. We sow humility, the bended knee, and after a
period of time God himself will lift us up or exalt us. You thought I forgot I
was teaching on Seedtime and Harvest. We are to cast our cares onto Him and
focus on His work in the earth. You are the only one that can do His work in
the earth! But with your permission, submission to Him, He will take care of
your earthly and spiritual needs so that you accomplish His mission (2 Peter
1:3). So long as you are trying to be your own God, He must stand back. We are
to keep ourselves pure and resist the temptation to waver but be single minded
concerning God. The imagery of our adversary used here is of a roaring lion and
he (Satan) is looking to steal from you, kill you and destroy you (John 10:10).
You remember the account of Daniel in the lions den and how he was not
devoured. Why? He honored God above all else. He honored the King but he
honored God above the King. Scripture tells us that friendship with the world
is enmity with God (James 4:4), that is you put yourself in the position of
opposing God. Just how bright do you suppose that is? Many of you are honoring
other people and situations above God, quit it! So, Daniel kneeled before God
and he was not devoured and was promoted by the King. This is the most powerful
position of all, submitting, to kneel, before God. A man or women submitted to
God have no limits. So with this in mind let us look at what God told Abram
concerning the blessing.
Genesis 12:1-3 (KJV)
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew
thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and
make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth
thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
God said when you
obey me, cast your cares onto me, I will make you rich and famous. As a result
“thou shalt be a blessing:” You notice that being a blessing is a command not a
nice suggestion of fairness. If your heart is not lined up with God it is not
going to happen. God is going to watch your stewardship in small things before
you get the big things. If you won’t keep the floor clean in your 1000 square
foot home why would He give you a 10,000 square foot home?
Luke 16:10-13 (KJV)
10 He that is faithful in that
which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is
unjust also in much.
11 If therefore ye have not been
faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true
riches?
12 And if ye have not been faithful
in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
13 No servant can serve two masters:
for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the
one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
When you sow,
where is your focus? Is it to build the kingdom, serve God or is it the
mammon. Who is your master? Is it mammon or is it the Lord Jesus Christ? It
is the love of money (1 Timothy 6:10) or servitude to mammon that keeps people
from giving and tithing. Remember God knows your heart.
Hebrews 4:12 (KJV)
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper
than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and
spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart.
Whatever we sow
we will reap, God will see too it. You will reap or not reap based on the
intent of your heart not what you told those around you. Your heart is the
ground into which the seed was sown. When we sow a seed there is the husk which
is the money and it accomplishes things in the natural realm but we also sowed
words of faith or not into the soil of our soul. What kind of soil do you have
in your soul? Is it parched from no Word and thus no faith? Make the soil rich
and the harvest shall be rich.
Galatians 6:7-9 (KJV)
7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap.
8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption;
but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall
reap, if we faint not.
Sounds like those
passages from Peter and James don’t you think?
You have heard of
the golden rule, it is simply this; he who has the gold makes the rules. That
is why many of you are in bondage to the man. God fully intended for you to
have the gold, and the method is seedtime and harvest. The Bible talks probably
more about money then any other single subject. Without money you can do very
little for the Kingdom and are very limited. God wants you to have the money!
Give and it shall be given unto you!
Luke 6:38 (KJV)
38 Give, and it shall be given unto
you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall
men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall
be measured to you again.
What kind of
measures are you using, are you hedging your bets? Are you sowing or giving for
the running over or are you giving just what you think to be absolutely
necessary and perhaps not even expecting a harvest. If you are the latter keep
the money in your pocket. How stupid would it be of a farmer to just go out and
throw some seed around and never go to check on the harvest? Like you, he did
not prepare the soil (Word of God), he did not water the soil (Word of God) and
he did not expect the harvest promised by the Word of God. If you sow according
too God’s heart you will reap. Meditate the following passages.
2 Corinthians
9:6-8 (KJV)
6
But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and
he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
7
Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not
grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
8
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always
having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
Do you give
sparingly or bountifully? Are you sowing sparingly and hoping for bountiful?
Notice that you purpose in your heart how much and the attitude with which you
will sow. Will the attitude of your heart be one of love for God, love for your
fellow man and of great joy or will you sow begrudgingly or of some perceived
necessity? Notice that when you purpose in your heart to sow bountifully with a
cheerful heart that God makes all grace (all that the Holy Spirit is and has)
abound toward you. Meditate on this in the Amplified version.
2 Corinthians 9:8
(AMP)
8 And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly
blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all
circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough
to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and
charitable donation].
Is this your
heart? Commit yourself to His purposes and fight all other errors of the heart
with all that is within you.
Until next month
this is my prayer for you;
Ephesians 3:14-21
(KJV)
14
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
15
Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
16
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be
strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and
grounded in love,
18
May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and
length, and depth, and height;
19
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled
with all the fulness of God.
20
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or
think, according to the power that worketh in us,
21
Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages,
world without end. Amen.
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