BY DR DOUG MAMVURA
It is important for us to appreciate the law of sowing and reaping in our lives. Simply stated, you reap what you sow. If you plant apples, you will reap apples, not oranges.
I know it is also a subject that has been abused by some of us ministers of the Gospel to siphon money out of our unsuspecting congregants. however, I will not focus on that today.
The first chapter of Genesis teaches us God’s principles about seed time and harvest.
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:11,12).
Everything produces after its own kind. The seed of strife is in strife itself. If you get into strife with someone, it will create more strife. If you give love, you can reap love. The seed is in itself.
The Kingdom of God works the same way. “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come” (Mark 4:26-29).
Notice Jesus said, “For the earth (the heart of man) bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear” (Mark 4:28). Sometimes people give up before the harvest. It is very important to be patient. I know one executive who has been fighting with his employer and has been fired about four times but he kept challenging his dismissal and recently he won his case in the High Court. Most people would have given up but he kept fighting. It’s a principle that I have learnt in life that you should only stop fighting at the end of the fight.
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Most of us have given up too soon because we thought the results were taking too long to come. We give up during the growth process when the seed is at ear stage. In Mark 11:23, Jesus tells us the principle of the law of faith. Whosoever shall say, shall believe, shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe what he says will come to pass, shall have whatsoever he says. That is the God-kind of faith and that is how it works.
Sometimes people think it’s going to happen just because they say it. Saying it is involved in planting it. But it won’t necessarily happen just because you say it. However, saying it is involved in working it. It’s like saying to a farmer about farming, ‘You won’t necessarily have a harvest just because you plant.’ But you will never have a harvest if you don’t plant.
Some people say, “Confessing God’s Word is just too mechanical.” But we are talking about planting seeds for a harvest. When you’re talking about the power of words, you’re talking about the power of seeds. It is the life in that seed the farmer plants, which causes the manifestation of the very thing he planted. There is life in God’s Word, in the promise itself.
It is the life God breathed into it. God’s Word is incorruptible Seed. God’s promises are seeds for a harvest. I have heard people say, “Those people who confess God’s Word and say the promises of God over and over are just trying to act like God!” Yes! That’s exactly what we’re trying to do- act as God would act in a similar situation.
We know how God would act in a bad situation because of what He did in Genesis 1:3. He saw darkness over the earth, and He said, “Let the be Light!” He spoke the thing He desired. Some will say, “But that was God.” That’s right, that was God. However, in Genesis, God also said: “… Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26). How was man going to have dominion?
God said for him to subdue it, he was to do it the same way God did — with the power of faith-filled words. He was to subdue the earth, and he was to do it God’s way. When he saw something that he didn’t like, it was his responsibility to change it. He was to change it the way God changed things, speaking faith-filled words. Jesus said: “… What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:24).
In other words, pray the desire; don’t pray the thing that you don’t desire. Speak the thing desired, when you pray.
We have been taught that we should “tell it like it is.” That is not a Bible method. The Bible method is that you say it the way the Word of God says it. If your wants are in line with the Word of God, then say it the way you want it. Say it the way God said it. When you see lack and problems in your life, speak abundance and peace. That’s the seed you are sowing.
Go to the Word of God, find the promise, and plant that seed. You are seeding for a harvest. Please note that, you don’t necessarily have a harvest just because you plant the seed. You must care for that seed. It takes time for these things to manifest. It’s not going to happen just because you say it. But saying it is involved in making it happen.
The farmer is not necessarily going to have a harvest just because he planted. But planting is involved in obtaining a harvest. There will be no harvest without planting. The law of Genesis says everything produces after its kind. But the very thing which God has designed to cause us to be victorious in life can also work in reverse for us, if we don’t follow God’s Word. For example, negative confession will yield negative results (Proverbs 18:21).
When people come to me and tell me about their problems, sometimes I ask, “How long have you been confessing the negative over this situation?” Some have been doing it for 10 years. Their major problem is just one centimetre below their nose and it’s their mouth. The problem is what they have been confessing for 10 years.
In Luke 17:5-6, the apostles said to Jesus, Lord, increase our faith. In other words, “Just give us more faith.
Jesus replied, “If you had faith as a seed, you would say . . .” The King James Version says, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say. But other translations say, If ye had faith as a seed, ye would say . . . (NASB, Wuest, Moffatt). That is a stronger statement than the King James translation. And the Lord said, “if ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you” (Luke 17:6).
Jesus did not say in Mark 11: 23, the tree would obey God, and He did not say it would obey the Holy Spirit. He said it would obey you. These are the words of Jesus. The apostles thought they needed more faith. But Jesus said to them, “Fellows, you don’t need more faith. You need to understand that faith works like a seed. Unless you plant it, it will not produce.
Faith does not come by asking. Faith comes by hearing the spoken Word of God (Romans 10:17).
What have you been sowing?
- Dr Doug Mamvura is a graduate of Charis Bible School. Feedback: [email protected] or Twitter @dougmamvura
