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[Mar 4:26-29 NASB] 26 And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; 27 and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows–how, he himself does not know. 28 “The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. 29 “But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
Go Ahead, Sleep! It is working for you!
This is how the kingdom of God works. This is how God accomplishes His work in our lives and this world. These verses of scripture give us the revelation of what our part is in experiencing His will in our lives.
It Starts With A Seed
Everything, outside of God Himself, starts with a seed. Notice it a “man” or human who releases the seed. The human is limited in knowledge (he himself does not know). We are this human. This human (you and I) obtain seed, then release seed. That is his/our part.
Two Seeds
The Bible lists two things as seed. The first thing listed as a seed is the Word of God. “The sower sows the word. These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.” (Mar 4:14-15 NASB) Notice, the birth started with the seed, then Satan comes. Unfortunately, in this case, He is successful. Keep in mind he always comes. Therefore, in the other soils, Satan was ineffective. Satan can win, but he does not always win. He won’t win when you stand in your faith in Jesus Christ.The second thing listed as a seed is money. Notice what the Apostle Paul says, “Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.” (2 Corinthians 9:6,10 NASB) The context suggests that people are not giving agricultural seeds but financial seeds.
Apply This
The more seed you have in the ground, the more harvest or birthings you can expect. Speak the Word of God (word seed) over every area of your life. Give financially to the work of God (money seed). Expect new things.
Then Sleep…
He/we then sleep. We have to trust that the seed is working while we go about our day. While he/we are relaxing the seed is working. We are to plant the seed and trust that the seed brings about the harvest.
I Don’t Know How
The human in this passage did not know everything as to the process of the harvest. He knew enough to put the seed in the soil. He did not know specifics of biology that was going on in the ground to shoot a root down and a stem up. He just did what he knew.We do not need to know everything. When it applies to how the miracle will come in your life, you will not know precisely how it will happen. We just know it will come when we plant the seed.
What we do know is that when we plant the seed, it is working.
We love you. We are looking forward to seeing you at Evangel North Church Sunday 9 AM & 11 AM, and Wednesday at 7 PM.
Also new service: Saturdays 6PM, at Evangel World Prayer Center (6900 Billtown Road).
Pastors John & Erin Carmichael
Evangel North Church – A multi-generational multi-ethnic church reaching a region with the Gospel of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of God.
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Watchers
13:17). An evangelizing community gets involved by word and deed in people’s daily lives; it bridges distances, it is willing to abase itself if necessary, and it embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others. Evangelizers thus take on the “smell of the sheep” and the sheep are willing to hear their voice. An evangelizing community is also supportive, standing by people at every step of the way, no matter how difficult or lengthy this may prove to be. It is familiar with patient expectation and apostolic endurance. Evangelization consists mostly of patience and disregard for constraints of time. Faithful to the Lord’s gift, it also bears fruit. An evangelizing community is always concerned with fruit, because the Lord wants her to be fruitful. It cares for the grain and does not grow impatient at the weeds. The sower, when he sees weeds sprouting among the grain does not grumble or overreact. He or she finds a way to let the word take flesh in a particular situation and bear fruits of new life, however imperfect or incomplete these may appear. The disciple is ready to put his or her whole life on the line, even to accepting martyrdom, in bearing witness to Jesus Christ, yet the goal is not to make enemies but to see God’s word accepted and its capacity for liberation and renewal revealed. Finally an evangelizing community is filled with joy; it knows how to rejoice always. It celebrates every small victory, every step forward in the work of evangelization. Evangelization with joy becomes beauty in the liturgy, as part of our daily concern to spread goodness. The Church evangelizes and is herself evangelized through the beauty of the liturgy, which is both a celebration of the task of evangelization and the source of her renewed self-giving.