You know that God's Word is true and He promised to open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings you wouldn't have room enough to receive. But...you still have plenty of room. You can't figure it out. You're wondering, Where is my abundant supply? What happened to my harvest?
When God began teaching me about the laws of increase, He showed me there are reasons why some people fail to reap a harvest and why others reap only a small one. If we'll give attention to those reasons - and make adjustments accordingly - we can enjoy a bumper crop of God's blessings every time!
The first reason people fail to reap a harvest is simple and obvious. But we can't pass over it because it's the most common mistake people make. It's amazing how many people want to reap a harvest when they haven't even sown yet. Jesus said, "Give, and it shall be given unto you" (Luke 6:38).
The Apostle Paul wrote, "He which sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully" (2 Cor. 9:6). Again and again in the Scriptures, we see that sowing must come before reaping. Yet the number one reason why people fail to receive a harvest is because they haven't sown!
They'll make confessions. They'll turn in prayer requests. They'll call hot lines. But when all that is said and done the fact remains, if they haven't planted anything, if they haven't given anything, they're not going to reap a harvest.
Genesis 1:11-12 plainly tells us that every seed produces after its own kind. That's not only true in the natural, it's true spiritually, too.
Galatians 6:7 says it this way, "Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap." If you sow money, you'll reap money. If you sow jewelry, you'll reap jewelry. Whatever you sow is what will grow into a harvest in your life.
As soon as my wife and I started practicing this principle, things began to happen in our life. For example, we helped someone pay off their car. We made a payment for them every month for a year. Just a few months later, we were able to pay off our own car. We sowed a $3,300 debt repayment and reaped a $15,000 debt repayment in return!
Your tithe does affect your sowing, however. In fact, it's the key to your sowing being blessed. Malachi 3:10-13 says, when you tithe, God will open the windows of heaven, rain on the seed you've sown and multiply it many times over.
The second reason why people don't reap is that they get tired of waiting for their harvest and give up. God warns us about that in Galatians 6:9. He tells us not to "be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."
We have, however, a hard time waiting for "due season" because it almost always comes later than we want! Our flesh is impatient. It expects to plant a seed today and reap a harvest tomorrow. But that just doesn't happen.
Spiritual things work just like natural things. A farmer knows it will take a certain amount of time for his crop to grow. He doesn't try to rush the ground. He doesn't get on his tractor and drive around yelling, "Hurry up, crops. I need a harvest now!" He just waits patiently because he knows his harvest will come in due season.
Many charismatic Christians, on the other hand, seem to think that the moment they sow, the ground will quake, lightening will flash from the sky, and suddenly a massive harvest will shoot up from the ground. When that doesn't happen, they just shrug their shoulders and say, "Well, I guess I'm not going to get anything."
Take your sowing seriously. Remember when and where you planted seed. Every time you think about it say, "I've sown in that area and I'm expecting a harvest!" Then constantly watch for it.
Proverbs 10:5 says, "He that gathers in summer is a wise son: but he that sleeps in harvest is a son that causes shame." Don't be a sleeping son at harvest time. Stay awake and reap the rewards!
Reaping takes work. It requires action on our part. Just as a farmer doesn't sit around at harvest time expecting his crops to march out of the field and into the barn all by themselves, we cannot expect our harvest to come in without our help. Maybe you were hoping God would take the responsibility for it all. But He won't.
If you'll read the Bible, you'll see that even when God supplied spectacular, miraculous provision, He still required His people to go out and gather it.
When the Israelites were in the wilderness, for instance, God poured food down on them from the sky. But they couldn't just sit in their tents and wait. It fell in little flakes like snow and they had to take their pot and pick up these little specks until they had collected enough to make bread. They had to reap the harvest!
Spiritually speaking, you will have to do the same thing. You have to thrust in your sickle of faith and lay claim to the provision that's yours by right of the seed you've sown. You have to say, "I believe I receive my harvest in Jesus' Name. Now go, ministering spirits, and cause my money (or whatever it is) to come in!" (see Hebrews 1:14).
In other words, you must reap by faith just like you sow by faith. Instead of just sitting around "waiting on the Lord," you must become aggressive. You have to go after what's yours.
Mark 11:24 tells us how to do that. It says, "What things so ever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."
Look again at that verse. It says you're to believe. Believe that you receive. It's not enough for you to believe God is good and wants you to prosper. It's not enough for you to believe that your harvest is out there. You must believe that you receive. In this passage, the word translated receive literally means "take." You can't be a timid soul and be successful in the Christian life.
The Apostle Paul told Timothy, "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life" (1 Tim. 6:12). When it comes to enjoying the blessings of God that are provided for you, you have to wade in and lay hold - you have to be bold to possess what God said belongs to you.
So get busy. Plant some seed in the specific area where you need a harvest. Stand strong, stay alert, and awake until due season comes. Then put in the sickle and take what God has given you.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Keith Moore is the founder and president of Moore Life Ministries and Faith Life Church of both Branson, Missouri and Sarasota, Florida. Two of the greatest emphases of Brother Moore's ministry are the importance of the written Word and the necessity of being led by the Spirit.
