Harvest Is Your Reward

27 Sept 2012 This morning I was reminded about something I heard on TBN during a “Praise A Thon” which has incited great excitement and definitely needs to be added in here!!! Restoration…Harvest is the Reward of the last Season: Joel 2:25 The locusts are there to eat and destroy your harvest, to keep you out of your next season and to keep you in a cycle of plowing, sowing and watering without reaping or getting your harvest (i.e. “going around the mountain again!!! or aborting your dream!!!). You see God can only “rebuke the devourer (seed eater)” Mal 3:11 on your behalf, when you walk in obedience…sin and willful disobedience (read “10 Curses that Block the Blessing” Larry Huch) will assuredly bring on the locusts in their swarms!!!! And you will not enter into your “Canaan” or your next season!!!

You see your harvest is actually a payment and reward for the years and tears of the season you have been in! It comes in between the two seasons, the one you are about to end and the new one you’re about to enter!!! And it is used to thrust you into the next season (much like a rocket needs that explosion of energy to move it into orbit). Gideon and the Israelites in Judges 6, suffered at the hands of the Medianites, who kept them improvised by stealing their harvest…just as they were about to reap it. They kept stealing their reward (and future seed) so that they had to go back to the beginning and so they never got out of this cycle! I would like to use another illustration here…just like when you’re at school, you spend the whole year studying and learning, then at the end of the year you are tested on what you’ve learned…if you give up at this point and fail the test, you have to repeat that year (go back to the beginning…go around the mountain again!!) and re-sit the test again…you do NOT go onto the next level until you pass the test!!). Wow I have just seen something else here…when your season is about to end, you first have to pass a test (remember that during a test the teacher is silent…your faith is really tested here, because you cannot hear the Teacher…you are in a hallway of transition [the birth canal], you cannot see, hear or understand, a time of great confusion…you have to mainly rely on your foundations [see Rev Ndeda’s “Solid Foundations]). This is exactly what happened to Jesus…when His season of learning obedience was coming to an end and He was about to go into ministry, He first had to be tested in the wilderness for 40 days (see Pastor Rod Parley “Living Under An Open Heaven”). Ok I just want to give you and myself some encouragement right here…if you’re in a “test” right now whatever you do don’t give up as you’re almost there, hold on and pass the test…don’t give up as your reward or harvest is just around the corner and then onto your “new season” oooh wee!!!! I just have to give another illustration here which fits perfectly…a professional swimmer wanted to break the record for crossing the English Channel…so off he went and for hour after hour kept battling exhaustion but he kept preserving!!! More drooling hours passed but then a very heavy fog set in and he and his team on the little boat could not see further than their noses, then in sheer frustration and exhaustion he decided no I just can’t do this and decided to give up and he climbed into the little boat…but to their utter horror and shock they soon discovered they were only 50m away from the shoreline…only 50m more and he would’ve broken the record, but because he had given up, because the fog had blocked his view (just like when we are in a test, we cannot see or understand what’s going on!) he now has to start again from the beginning!!!! Now the further you go into a season the harder it gets – the greater the adversity…you are getting closer to the end and to your harvest…you are on the verge of your payoff. This is where the enemy will attack the hardest, remember he wants to keep you “going around the mountain” and he most definitely does not want you to get your reward!!! I asked myself why is that?? Well it means you will have more seed to sow…remember without seed there cannot be another harvest…the way to keep you improvised is to keep eating your seed!!! There is also another reason, I’m sure you’ve heard “new level…new devil”? You are about to enter your new season but the “new devils” on that level will challenge you first and test your authority and identity “if You are the Son of God….” before you reach that level (see Lance Wallnau “Building High Performance…”). Something I have noticed in this “test” period, my identity has been under severe attack but the locusts don’t come to empty fields…don’t doubt your self worth! Don’t keep putting yourself down or allowing others to! You see without knowing who you are in Christ and your extreme value and importance in the kingdom of God, how can you exercise your authority?? When you doubt yourself, you doubt your authority and you doubt your words…you don’t believe your words carry any weight or power!!! (see Keith Moore “The Significance of Saying”). And in essence you are totally ineffective as you have no faith in your authority over the Word of God!!! But there is another reason, Joshua was fighting for new territory…when you are about to go into a new season you are entering into a new territory…there will be giants to face!!! Remember it’s all about taking dominion, possessing the land, taking territory!! The devil WILL NOT give up territory without a fight!!! Oh wow this is so exciting as the Lord is revealing things to me as I write this…I’ve just spoken on dealing with the devils on the new level but before you deal with those guys you actually have to first defeat the devils of the PAST before you can even think of going into your new season! In Josh 10:13,28, Joshua ordered the sun and moon to stand still – he spoke to his season to stay still as he wanted to destroy all his enemy before his season ended…he didn’t want to have to fight those same devils in the next season! Some examples, David and Goliath, he slew his four brothers as well! King Saul was told to destroy all the Amalekites but he kept King Agag alive, the queen escapes…they then have to fight a whole new generation later on!! If you do not deal with issues of the PAST your future generations will be fighting them too (generational curses…sins of the fathers!!). Oh wow what have I started here as this is a huge issue and stumbling block for most of us!!! Issues of my past have kept me back for years and it is impossible to move into a new season until these are dealt with! Unfortunately just being born into the human race means you have suffered great pains of varying degrees from childhood until now…it is not possible to live in a fallen world without experiencing all sorts of debilitating dysfunctions and in that process we put up walls to protect ourselves but in so doing we create a closed and hardened heart but that also keeps God out too and sometimes a door will stay closed because of a closed heart but “the key to all of this is having a pliable and soft heart, one that is willing to change Deut 10:16 “so circumcise the foreskin of your [minds and] hearts; be no longer stubborn and hardened” also Ezek 36:26-27, Isah 1:19, 1 Sam 15:23, Josh 5:9. If we resist change and stubbornly continue to cling to the old, comfortable way of doing things we will never experience God’s new and better things!....lay aside stubbornness, rebellion and unwillingness to change but rather be obedient and willing to submit to His Lordship, no matter how crazy or difficult it may seem! Soften your heart and become pliable, teachable and humble! Lay down your own way, your own plans and your own selfish desires Jn 12:24-25, Gal 2:20, Luke 14:33.” (taken from “See I Make All Things New”). “Love is what heals and opens a closed heart. Love is the oil that lubricates the heart and prepares it to receive 1 Jn 4:18. Love is what breaks the chains and breaks down the walls.” (taken from “The Open Door”). Ok just to wrap this up I want to end off with…maybe you think well you know I’ve blown it…I’ve lost my harvest, my opportunity has passed, it’s too late…OH NO IT IS NOT! Maybe your harvest was stolen but it is not lost but just delayed and the devil has to pay you back double Ex 22:7. Remember God is the God of the second chance…it’s never over until He says it’s over!!! He will always give you another opportunity to try again – so get it right this time around…keep pressing on…don’t quit just before your breakthrough…your harvest and payoff is….. JUST AROUND THE CORNER!!!!!!!