“Don’t Break The Law Of Sowing & Reaping” by Nancy Dufresne

  Genesis 8:22 reads, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

     Seedtime and harvest is a law that God set in motion. When we sow a seed, that seed will produce a harvest. It’s a Law – GOD’S LAW! It’s the “Law of Sowing and Reaping.”

     Many of us have been taught from God’s Word the importance of giving, and there are many generous people in God’s family. Being generous is an important spiritual quality to have. But God doesn’t want us to only be good at giving, He wants us to be good at receiving also!

     Through the years, I have heard many say, “I don’t have a hard time giving, but I have a hard time receiving.” If someone is generous to give, but struggles with receiving, that’s still a poverty mentality! Faith is for both directions – giving AND RECEIVING!

     God put the “law of sowing and reaping” in place. He didn’t put just the “law of sowing” in place, and He didn’t put just the “law of reaping” in place. God put the “law of sowing AND reaping” in place! One flow is incomplete without the other. God has joined these two flows together, and what “…God hath joined together, let not man put asunder(separate or divide)” (Mark 10:9).

     To be good at sowing, but to resist reaping is to break the law! You’re rejecting and resisting God’s law – His “law of sowing AND reaping!” And it won’t bless us to be lawbreakers!

     My dad was a cotton and wheat farmer in southwest Oklahoma. He sowed seed expecting a harvest! He intended to reap – not just to sow! He never went to his field and saw the harvest from the seed he sowed and thought that he shouldn’t receive the harvest, or that he didn’t deserve such a big harvest. He sowed expecting the harvest!

     Complete the cycle of God’s law – sowing AND REAPING. Don’t abort the cycle of that law by refusing to receive.

     To struggle with receiving means that you are struggling with obeying the “law of sowing and reaping.” To not receive is to disobey the “law of sowing and reaping.” To not reap is to break the law!

     We must renew our minds to not just sowing, but also to reaping. Just as we are to release our faith when we sow, we must also release our faith to reap. The harvest on our sowing belongs to us, but we won’t reap it automatically – we must release our faith.

     When my dad sowed his seed, the harvest didn’t just show up in his barn. Just as he had a role in sowing the seed, he had a role in reaping the harvest – he had to go and gather the harvest out of the field. He had to show up to sow his seed and show up to reap his harvest!

     Likewise, we show up in faith to sow our seed, and we show up in faith to reap our harvest!

     Galatians 6:9 states, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” When is “due season”? When the harvest is ripe. How do we know when our harvest is ripe? Only by the Spirit. The Spirit of God will lead us as to when to harvest. Sow a seed, then pray in the Spirit so that you will recognize how the Spirit is leading you to reap. The Spirit will give divine ideas and open doors of financial opportunities.

     Mark 4:28 & 29 tells us, “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 blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” This shows that the maturing of our seed is a process. The Spirit knows when that process is complete, so we are to follow His lead.

     One pastor was going to buy an airplane – he had the cash for it. But the Spirit of God said to him, “Don’t reap the blade – wait for the full corn in the ear. I have a better plane for you.” A short time later, he found that better airplane, then someone gave him the cash to purchase it. The Spirit led him to when it was time to reap the “full corn in the ear.”

     God’s law is that we sow and that we also reap. When we do both, we honor God, and we obey His law. Let’s be good at sowing, and let’s also be good at reaping! Let’s not break the law!