You will harvest tomorrow what you sow today.

Harvesting the fruits of our labor is much the same in the spirit as it is in the natural. You have to put in effort for the reward. Sometimes God will jump a season and go straight to the blessings of harvest, but most of the time, we have a responsibility to do our part.

For instance, tithing now will allow God to bless your finances down the road. Your generosity now will open up blessing later. Time spent in praise and worship now will arm you for warfare when you need it. Reading the word will plant it in your heart for the times when you need to use it.

The seeding and reaping is all about growth and maturity. Putting forth the effort to grow spiritually and act as we’re called to act matures us and allows God to bless us. The more we grow, the more we can seed, the greater the blessings.

If things seem silent and barren, look back to see how much work you put into seeding for harvest. When you neglect the things of God, you’ll have nothing to show for it when you expect it. The blessings your enjoy now is the harvest for your generosity and obedience.

Another post on harvest: Prepare For Harvest

Related articles

• Divine Harvest

Seek first the kingdom of God.

Seek first the kingdom of God. This has to be central to everything that we are. What is the kingdom of God? It righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Rom 14:17) It is loving God with all our heart. (Luk 10:27) It is loving others as ourselves. (Mat 22:39)

The kingdom of God should perfume everything that we do. All our goals and motivations should come from 1. We are hearing the Holy Spirit. 2. We are honoring God in what we do. 3. What we do will bless others somehow. If we can live like that, then God will bless the desires of our heart.

But there is a balance to believing that God will bless our desires and how we live today. We may get a prophetic word about promises that God has given. The very thing we have asked for, He has promised to fulfill. All we have to do is trust Him and wait for His timing. If God said it, then it has been done in heaven. We just need to see it done on earth.

So we live in this longing to see our prayers and promises answered. We fight against the enemy who whispers that nothing is going to happen to make us lose hope and give up. Standing in faith takes courage, and God blesses that.

But where are our eyes right now? Are we always looking forward to finally seeing promises fulfilled? Or are we looking at today, to what God has put in our hands to do? It’s so tempting to be lured by promise that we miss the blessings of today. When we are so focused on what we hope to get, we fail to see what we have.

Seek first the kingdom of God. Love God with all your heart. Love other people as you love yourself. Live like that today. When you can love God with all your heart, you long for more of Him. When you look to bless other people during the day, your interests are off of yourself.

It’s not that you give up believing for answers, it’s that you don’t allow that promise to take your eyes off of what you need to be doing. The promise is there. It isn’t going anywhere. God’s word is still true. He will still come through when you need Him. But right now, what is going on? Where is your heart? Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Balancing Heaven And Earth

**************************************************************************The Key of David, by Diana Symons                                                                                             A story that’s been told for thousands of years…  The Bible’s Book 1 Samuel tells the story of David’s life – from an obscure family to an unlikely king, from shepherd to warrior, from champion to king-maker. What does it mean for a man to love God and be loved by Him? This book explores what it means to be human in the light of the Kingdom.

Related articles

• Thinking about the Kingdom

Grace is the doorway to forgiveness.

Understanding grace can take some work. And that’s almost a pun, because grace means that we actually can’t work to earn it. We are conditioned to work for what we expect. If we do a good job, we expect a compliment, payment, or a smile. If we do something bad, we expect to be punished or receive anger. What we don’t expect is complete forgiveness when we didn’t ask for it.

God’s grace defies definition because it comes from His heart of love that we don’t have the capacity to fully comprehend. He is so very forgiving. No matter what we’ve done, He’s always delighted to forgive. And then He forgets that thing immediately. All He wants is for us to be safe in His care so we can live in love with Him. That’s an aspect of God that is so foreign to us that it’s hard to believe.

Just thinking of the grace we have in God is enough to make you thankful for the rest of your life. All you have to do is confess your sins to Him and receive Jesus into your heart, and your life in eternity begins. Grace is the doorway to His forgiveness. And it’s an amazingly beautiful doorway.

How To Grow In Grace

Related articles

• Embracing Epic Grace

Feed your faith and it will grow.

Remember how you learned to do something for the first time? You probably messed it up.  You probably messed it up a lot for a while, depending on how complicated it was. But that’s all part of the learning process. No one faults you for that, because it’s expected. Neither does God fault us for not be perfect.

Some people come to Christ out of very rough lifestyles. The transition can be difficult if perfection is expected. In fact, it can be downright humiliating. Trying to measure up against other people is always a mistake, but for new believers looking at those more mature in Christ, the difference can be depressing.

It’s ok. You’re not expected to be mature when you still have lots of growing to do. The only one who thinks otherwise is you. Give yourself some slack. Growth takes time. Of course some will grow faster than others because they will give themselves completely to God. Other people will never grow because they refuse to get past the gates of salvation.

Read the Bible. Spend time talking to God. Be encouraged by other believers. It’s all part of the growth process. Pretty soon, you’ll look back at how far you’ve come and have so much to thank God for.

Growing Pains Take You Higher

Related articles

• Time to Grow Up?

God is a God of great blessing.

God has always been a God of blessing. In the Old Testament, blessing was dependent on the laws being obeyed. In the New Covenant, we live under grace, but the idea is similar. If you walk in love and kindness towards God and people, you will be blessed. It’s automatic.

I love the blessings of God. He knows just how to touch our lives with goodness.

“And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.  And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.” Deut 28: 11-13

That pretty much covers your family, your job, your whole life. I don’t know about you, but I’ll walk with God if the good treasure of heaven opens to me.

You Determine Your Level Of Blessing

Related articles

• choose: blessing or curse

Pick yourself up with grace and God will be open new doors.

Did you think that when you came to Christ He’d make you perfect? That’s actually a lie of the enemy. If we think we’re supposed to be perfect, then the first time we fail, and we will, we’ll be seriously disappointed in our faith. That’s exactly what the enemy wants us to feel.

The truth is, we are human and that’s not a surprise or revelation to God. He’s very aware of our humanity, and He loves us for it. He knows what our challenges are. He knows how hard they are, and He is compassionate when we fall. He’s not as judging as you may think.

Remember the story of the prodigal son. The father ran to meet his fallen son and love on him. God is always kind to us. We have so much grace as His sons and daughters. He can take what ever we’ve broken and breathe life into it in ways we never see coming.

The question is, how will you react to your own failure? Will you beat yourself up because you agree with the enemy that you shouldn’t be human afterall? Or will you ask for favor and start again? Don’t allow failure to guide your life or your decisions. You will fall, it’s part of life and growing, but you don’t have to dwell on it. Learn and go on.

There’s a lot riding on how you deal with failure. People you are not even aware of are watching. If you can take a face-plant and get up graciously, then you communicate more than volumes of sermons ever could. The ability to pick yourself up in humility, without a bruised ego, is the work of God in you.

If you can admit your mistakes with grace, ask for help where you need it, and move on to the next thing in the peace of God, you show the kingdom in a way that is usually never seen by the world. They are used to tantrums, depression, and finger-pointing. Honesty and humility go a very long way to showing how amazing God is in us.

And when you move on in grace and humility, you free God to do exactly what you need. If you blame other people or berate yourself, then you actually prevent God from helping you. He needs your faith that He can be all you need Him to be–in your successes and your failures.

The Smart Ones Know How To Be Corrected

Related articles

• Grace

Ask God to help you communicate in love.

Why is it so easy to blurt out something unkind in the guise of telling the truth? We think we have to tell people the truth no matter what, but we forget to do it in love. All we end up doing is making a mess messier. We haven’t helped anything.

The first rule of truth-telling is to stop for a bit and think about what needs to be said, and how it can be said in kindness. You can still get your point across, even a very sharp point, but it doesn’t have to leave people bleeding and in pain.

The Holy Spirit is there for you. Ask for help. He will know exactly how to give you the words and tone to communicate effectively and bless the other person without hurt. It’s easier than you think, but you have to pray into it first. If you have a heart to love the other person, you can say what needs to be said truthfully, but kindly.

Too much damage is done when words are said in haste and emotion. Don’t create a reason for division. God can fix anything the enemy has broken. Just take it to Him first.

It takes A Lot Of Strength To Be Meek

Related articles

• If it feels unkind, stop doing it

Don’t allow the enemy to rob you of your peace

Peace belongs to you. When you have the Holy Spirit in you, He comes fully loaded. Everything that is His is yours. It’s totally cool. But you have to receive it and keep it. Think of it like receiving a birthday present. Until you unwrap it and use it, it doesn’t benefit you.

The enemy also knows of your gifts in the Spirit. He will work tirelessly to rob you of your peace, joy, love, etc.  Don’t let him. When stress starts to creep into your life, claim your peace. Be active about it, because the enemy is active in trying to rob you. Rebuke stress. Tell God that you are claiming His peace. Release it into your life.

You may have to do this over and over again until the enemy gets the point that you’re not going to give in. It will be awesome to go through the situation in peace instead of stress. You will function with calm instead of fear. You’ll be able to hear the Holy Spirit advising you when you’re not stressed out.

If you claim your peace and it doesn’t seem to be working, do it again, and again. It’s yours. Don’t be robbed. It’s a precious and amazing gift, so hold on to it.

Why Live In Stress When There Is Rest For Your Soul?

Related articles

• Peace I Leave with You

Doing what God has not asked will make you stressed.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4.13) This is a great promise to remember when you’re faced with a situation you just don’t think you can manage. God promises to be there to give you everything you need when you need it. But what about when you’re trying to do stuff God hasn’t asked you to do?

Everything done in the name of “ministry” isn’t sanctioned by God. We do an awful lot because we think we’re supposed to. Even good things. But even good things can take us away from what God really wants us to do.

Don’t be guilted into doing what seems right if you don’t feel God’s peace in it. It may be busy work the enemy has to keep you from being far more effective somewhere else. If you think you’re on the wrong path, listen with your heart. Ask God to confirm His will. See if you feel uneasy about something that’s taking up your time. Maybe you need to let it go.

Be honest with God. Don’t drop everything because you don’t feel like working, but be sensitive to do what is right for you. Don’t allow the opinions of others rob your time.

Another post on trusting God: Avoiding The Big Mistakes

Related articles

• The goodness of Christ in us will silence the foolish

Find humility and you will find God.

Living in the kingdom of God is not for the faint of heart. You can’t do this on your own. You can only do it with God. Living the “Christian” life without the Spirit of God leading you only creates religion. God calls for true humility, and that can only come from Him.

The disciples were horrified at seeing Jesus kneel down and wash their feet. They didn’t understand what He was doing. They respected Him as their leader, they didn’t expect Him to be their servant. And they really didn’t expect to copy Him. Our ego always wants to be raised up, not pushed down. But Jesus said to serve others in humility–willingly, out of love.

Ask God to show you His love for people. Get a glimpse of His compassion, and you’ll serve others easily. It will be a joy to bless. And when it’s hard to do, God will bless you for doing it in kindness. Look for opportunities to be a servant and you’ll find the heart of God.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see God.” Mat 5:8.

Another post on humility: Gotta Love Stinky Feet

Related articles

• Humility is Beautiful