The Principles of Harvest

Give and You Will Receive
Focus on becoming a giver. All too often, Christians seek the Lord’s hand and not His heart. They have a “give me” mentality.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to receive the abundance of blessings God has in store for you. The problem occurs when your prayers are self-centered. James 5:16 says, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed….”

If you want to see the results of your prayers, don’t just pray for others, bless them with something tangible. Jesus said: “Give, and [gifts] will be given to you….For with the measure you deal out [with the measure you use when you confer benefits on others], it will be measured back to you.”  (Luke 6:38)

He said you can determine the measure of what is returned to you regardless of what you give – money, clothes, etc. As long as the Spirit of God leads you, you are guaranteed to be blessed in return.

Confession of Faith
If you’re determined to see the manifestation of what you pray, begin to follow these steps. They will bring results. With confidence, make your confession of faith every day:

“I declare that I will have results in my prayer life. Whenever I pray by faith, I will receive whatever I’ve prayed. From this moment, I will not remain average. I will have extraordinary results. Because I am connected to Christ Jesus, I am anointed and I am an overcomer. In Jesus’ Name. Amen!”

Child of God, you are anointed and you are blessed! Don’t ever forget that. Continually speak the Word of God daily and be prepared, results are on the way!

Expect a Harvest
“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” (Luke 6:38).

Give and it shall be given unto you. That statement came straight from the mouth of Jesus. Yet there are a great many believers who flatly refuse to believe it. In fact, they actually have the mistaken idea that it’s wrong to expect to receive when they give.

The truth is – it’s wrong not to!

What would you think about a farmer who planted seeds, then let his crop rot in the field? You’d think he was a fool, wouldn’t you? And if he did it when others were starving, you’d think he was criminally irresponsible.

Well, it’s just as irresponsible to give financial seeds and ignore the harvest God promised. Especially when that harvest could help send the gospel to people who are starving to hear it. It’s just as wrong to ignore the key to prosperity that Jesus Himself gave us as it is to let a wheat crop rot in the field.

God wants us to receive from the financial seeds that we plant. He wants us to be prepared to require no aid ourselves and to be “furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation” (2 Cor. 9:8). He wants us to have plenty-not so we can hoard it selfishly – but so we can give generously.

Next time you give, don’t be afraid to expect a harvest! Release your faith for the financial rewards Jesus promised. Then when they come, turn right around and plant them again. Keep the flow of giving and receiving going so that the Lord can bless the world through you!

What You Sow is What You Harvest
Fear destroys hope and hopelessness brings depression and despair. Without hope there is no faith and without faith, grace is not activated, and grace is the power of God that you need to defeat the problems in life.

God’s Word is full of hope while the words of the enemy are full of fear. The words that we allow into our heart through the gateway of the soul will determine our destiny.

Although it seems insignificant, the small conversations, the background music, the idle talk between friends, and what we watch on television affects the seed sown in our heart. The good seed of the Good News and the positive Word of God will produce a harvest in our heart that will change our thinking and our words and cause our faith to flourish. Our faith-filled words will command victory and deliverance. On the other hand, the negative words of the enemy sown into our heart through the gateway of the soul will produce a harvest of fear and failure. While every seed produces, we must choose the harvest we want.

Several years ago, a friend purchased a thriving business. Although he was a Christian, he surrounded himself with negativity and received counsel from non-Christians who only believed what they saw. While his business started well, within a short time he began to speak failure, and what he spoke eventually became a reality. While it takes more than just positive words to make a business a success, it takes little more than negative words of doubt and unbelief to make it a failure.

The Word of God teaches the biblical principle of sowing and reaping – what you sow is what you harvest (Gal. 6:7), and the principle of giving and receiving – what you give is what you receive (Luke 6:38). When we hear the Word of God, it brings hope and when we add obedience to hope, we activate the principles of giving and receiving, and seedtime and harvest.

The enemy deals with fear and the purpose of fear is to paralyze you and cause you to not activate God’s principles. In other words, instead of giving, you keep, which allows you to have seed, but no harvest. A farmer with seed only survives one sowing season and then everything is gone. A farmer who sows his seed reaps a harvest that he can eat and have enough to sow in the next sowing season. Although we know that God provides seed, He doesn’t provide seed for everyone. He only provides seed to the ones who will sow it (2 Cor. 9:10).

My question to you today is this: Are you surrounding yourself with the positive Word of God and allowing faith to develop that causes you to sow and reap a harvest or are you allowing the negative fear-based words of the world to make you a keeper, thus sealing your ultimate destruction?

God’s Word puts it this way: “I place before you life and death. Choose life.”

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

THE CHEERFUL GIVER
But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.  So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.  And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written: “He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever. 

Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.  For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God, while, through the proof of this ministry, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal sharing with them and all men, and by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you. 

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”

Larry Ollison