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Prophecy
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Some
great links for you!
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To stir you up!...To good works! This month the article is about, "Sowing & Reaping - There's joy in both!" by: Shona M.Treasurer |
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www.glasgowelim.org.uk
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This is one God's main prophetic purposes of the hour in which we live. To sow seeds of hope whereever we can. SOWING & REAPING - THERE'S JOY IN BOTH! 1.What does the Lord call us to sow? a) The Word of Life: (John 6 v 63) b) Righteousness: (James 3 v 18) A righteous life is a powerful life. We don't always "feel" powerful, sometimes anything but! However, there is an Anointing to sow the Word of Life. The Anointing is the power to live a righteous life and, in turn, to help us bring life to others. In our own ability and strength this cannot be done. The Anointing is Christ's own Spirit, full of Grace and Favour (His "Smile") to help. c) Intercession: Perhaps our intercession on behalf of those in whose lives we plant the seed of the Gospel, is the "water" God uses. d) Praise: Our praise affects the spiritual atmosphere around us, much like the sun and rain affect the soil to aid the germination of seeds. Praise has also to do with faith - it is a faith building, but much more than that, it lifts our sights from our efforts to the One who can supply seed, vision and power to sow it joyfully. 2.How far does our "sowing" responsibility go? a) We are called to sow, no more...no less, but we need to pray God will water that seed. There need be no false guilt about seed that we have scattered or planted that has not taken root. God looks for us to sow from the heart, making His seed our very own. Then prayer for its successful growth will flow from us naturally. God, ultimately has the responsibility for its growth. People, in whom the seeds are sown, have the choice whether or not they want the seed to take root, and I suggest that the condition of the soil of peoples' hearts in the long term may be more a matter of choice rather than a chance state of being. Let's say, for instance, that the Good News of Jesus Christ has come to somebody who has had a rocky life experience thus far, and in order to protect themselves from further hurt have developed a harsh outer exterior. To avoid more pain, they insulate themselves from feeling anything much. They may display a harsh exterior to others. Here is where God's Grace (undeserved favour) comes in:- Who are we to say that this seemingly hard rocky soil type of heart cannot change to become good soil? We, perhaps, can unnecessarily overconcern ourselves with the state of the soil, how it looks on the surface, when God would rather that we walk by faith and not by sight on this issue. God always sees things "a little" differently from us usually! Jesus' parable on the different kinds of soil has it value, if for no other obvious and immediate reason by way of declaration that God would rather have all our hearts (not just those where the seed of the Word of Life is planted for the very first time) good, succulent and pliable! Some Christians can be very hard hearted and, as a result, rigid and immoveable, just as much as somebody who has no experience of the Living God and of church life. Humanity remains the same, and because Jesus "knows the weakness of our frame", surely we can entrust the seed we sow into the lives of fellow human beings to the loving care of our Heavenly Father? We are not to worry about the seed - Philippians 4 v 6, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God". How this verse wonderfully applies to many things in life! I think it can apply well here too because our concerns are God's concerns (though His ideas and methodologies vary greatly from ours in problem solving!). Conversely God's concerns when they become our
concerns, such as seed sowing [evangelism, if you will!] we can be all
the more confident that He has, pardon the pun, the seed "in hand" that
we sow! 3. (Ecclesiastes 11 v 1)In this concluding point and to recap,
we need the heart of reapers when we go out to sow the Word of Life! How
is this possible? This is possible because i) watering is God's responsibility. In a sense,
we reap even where we have not sown.(Naturally, there are those whom God
will use for evangelistic follow-up and for the incorporating of new Christians
into nurture groups in local churches. All such is very important. Such
support to help new believers put their roots down deep in their new found
relationship with Christ and His Word, is much needed in the churches.
Ultimately, however, only God knows what is going on in somebody's heart
and, certainly for sowers, we need to "hands off and let God" to give
the seed a chance to take root and grow. God may use somebody else in
the nurtering process, and somebody else in the reaping process). ii) Because it is God's seed we can rejoice
as though we are the reapers because the seed will grow whereever it finds
good soil. This seed is living seed...eternal life, so eternal life happens
whereever the seed is deposited. There are only two things folk can do
with eternal life: accept or reject it. There is no middle ground. What
the Father looks from us is faithfulness, not so much fanaticsm in how
we sow, as faithfulness shall suffice - being somebody who is willing
to sow and leave the results with God. iii) It is very important that we gain the hearts
of reapers when sowing, because otherwise we might "lose heart"! It is
perfectly natural to desire to see some come back on good seed you have sown, but
such is not always or immediately forthcoming. Are we going to trust our
eyes and our timescale or entrust this care and longing to God, who wants
more than we ever could to see the Word of Life go everywhere? Be reminded
that God is a God of multiplication. His words to Adam and Eve were to
go forth and multiply. It is God's nature to multiply. If you want an itchy example, ask yourself
this question, "how many midges suck my blood in summer?" Can you answer
that one? Most sane folk just would not hang around long enough to attempt
a head count! Humour aside, you can look at just about anything God has
made and you will find multiplicity, and then look at what Man makes and
you will see a poor copy, but the same principle. Only God, however, can make something
unique! God Bless
you! |
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