Most believers are struggling with many challenges and fail to live a victorious life. We are living defeated lives and yet we are supposed to be more than conquerors (Romans 8:37).
We are failing to partake the benefits that are associated with the finished work of Christ which is healing, deliverance, prosperity and forgiveness of sins.
I believe the main reason for this is our failure to make God’s Word paramount in our lives. God Himself has exalted His Word above His name (Psalm 138:2).
This shows how important and powerful God’s Word is. God’s Word abides forever and is the foundation of our faith (Romans 10:17).
A true revelation of God’s Word is essential for a victorious Christian life.
The Word of God often refers to itself as a seed. There are a total of forty-four verses in the New Testament where the Greek word “sperma” was translated “seed.”
This is the same word from which we derive our English word “sperm.”
To conceive and give birth to the miracles you need, you must first plant God’s Word like a seed in your heart. Conception cannot take place without first planting the seed.
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I constantly meet Christians who pray and believe for God’s intervention in their lives, but remain frustrated with the results. It’s because they are missing the seeds of conception; they just don’t know God’s Word.
In Mark 4, the Lord taught three parables which illustrate that the Word is to the kingdom of God what a natural seed is to a harvest. The first of these parables, the story of the sower, is the key to unlocking the Word of God (Mark 4:13). If we don’t understand these truths, Jesus said we won’t understand any of His other parables.
There are many life-changing truths in these parables, but one fact must be understood to get the full benefit of this teaching. The Lord used the comparison of His Word to a law of nature that is unchangeable, not an institution of man.
You can cheat or manipulate nearly all systems that men have created. The legal system can be beaten, letting the guilty go free. Our educational system can be beaten, passing students who haven’t really learned the material. But you can’t change seedtime and harvest.
What if a farmer waited until he saw his neighbours reaping their crops before he sowed his crop? Regardless of how sincere he was, or the justification for not sowing his seed at the proper time, he would not reap a crop overnight. The law of seedtime and harvest cannot be violated.
This is why our Lord chose to compare the way His Word works to a seed. There is a germination process of the Word of God in your life that takes time and can’t be avoided. In the second parable of Mark 4, Jesus said in verses 26-29,
“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.”
The seed is the Word of God (verse 14), and the ground is our hearts (verse 15). Our hearts were created by God to bring forth fruit when His Word is planted in them. Just as a seed has to remain in the ground over time to germinate, so the Word of God has to abide in us.
Jesus said in John 15:7, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”
What would happen if you planted a seed in your garden and then dug it up each morning to see if anything was happening? It would die and never produce fruit. You have to have faith that the seed is doing what God created it to do.
Some people put God’s Word in their hearts for a day or two, but if they don’t see fruit almost immediately, they dig up the seed through their words and actions and wonder why it didn’t work. You have to leave it in the ground over time. Then, there are also different stages of growth.
Mark 4:28 says, “First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.”
Many people are impatient, wanting to bypass the growth cycle and get the full ear right now. I’ve actually had to tell people that what they were believing God for was not going to happen, not because the vision wasn’t good, but because they were expecting a complete ear of corn immediately.
God’s kingdom operates on laws, like the laws that govern the fruit-bearing process of a seed. God will not give you the full ear of corn if you haven’t seen the first blade.
That’s the way God’s kingdom works. And this is precisely the reason most people don’t see God’s best come to pass in their lives. They think that since God loves them, He will just grant their request regardless of whether they put the miracle of the seed to work or not.
Look at what happened after Jesus taught His disciples these principles of the seed.
Mark 4:35 says, “And the same day, when the evening was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.”
In a sense, Jesus was giving them a test. On the same day that He taught them the principles of God’s Word as a seed, He gave them a seed. He said, “Let us pass over unto the other side.”
He didn’t say, “Let us go halfway across and drown.” The disciples had a seed from the lips of the Creator that gave them authority over the creation.
What happened? A two-hour trip turned into a fight for the disciples’ lives. Instead of using the seed the Lord had given them, they did all they knew to do in the natural and then got put out with the Lord.
They said in verse 38, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?”
How did Jesus respond? Did He apologise and say, “I’m sorry guys. I was really tired”? No!
Instead He said, “Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?” (verse 40).
Jesus was telling them that they should have stilled the storm. If they would have operated in faith instead of fear, that’s exactly what they could have done.
The Lord did His job by giving them the seed of His Word. Their job was to take the seed and make it work. Instead, they doubted Jesus’ love for them and thought He wasn’t pulling His weight.
God has done His part; He has given us the Word. For example, the Lord doesn’t give us money directly. Deuteronomy 8:18 says that the Lord gives us the power to get wealth. The power is in His promises, His Word. As we plant those promises in our hearts, the truth of His Word germinates and prosperity comes.
Healing operates the same way. There are numerous scriptures that get the point across that God’s Word is health to all our flesh. Here’s two:
“For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh” (Prov. 4:22).
“He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions” (Ps. 107:20).
Yes, a person can get healed without planting God’s Word in their heart. It comes through the prayers of others with the gifts of healing (1 Cor. 12:9), but it is not God’s best. The proper way to get healed is to take God’s promises of healing and plant them in our hearts until they release their life-giving power into our physical bodies.
This law of seedtime and harvest operates in every area of our lives. If we will plant God’s Word in our hearts, then allow the seed to germinate and the plant to grow to maturity, we will reap the fruit of a harvest. That is God’s best!
n Dr Doug Mamvura is a graduate of Charis Bible School. Feedback: [email protected] or Twitter @dougmamvura
