Learning to Breathe Again

As we said earlier, the cuckleberry can completely take over a field planted for harvest.  We know that in the parable in Matthew 13 where Jesus talked about the sower and the seed that these seeds fell in four different locations.  Only one out of the four actually produced a harvest.  Even in the one productive field, there were three levels of harvest that were produced.  

How do I have a hundredfold harvest?  In Genesis 26:12, Isaac received a hundredfold return in the same year he planted.  A hundredfold return speaks of maximum yield.  How does that happen?  Well, the first thing that we have to take into consideration is that Isaac heard from God.  He, like a lot of others, was about to make a big mistake in going down into Egypt, had God not stopped him.  After stopping him from going down into Egypt, God commanded him to plant in a certain place.  God determines the location that growth will take place. It is He who will bring the increase though one plants and one waters.  It is He that causes increase to come forth.

Receiving a hundredfold harvest requires that the Christian hears from God first and is then obedient to what God is saying.  It is impossible to receive a hundredfold if your field (your mind) is covered with weed (your problems).  The ground has to be cultivated.  The difference in the parable that Jesus told and the harvest was because of the soil, it's cultivation.  The soil is your heart.  A lot of us, and I believe that even this farmer, did not take time to cultivate the soil and rid it permanently of these weeds.  

Taking more time in soil preparation will produce big dividends down the road.  We have to take time in preparing our hearts to do the will of God.  A lot of us get in a hurry and we do not take the necessary time to prepare ourself.  I learned a long time ago that God is big on preparation.  God took 80 years to prepare Moses for a 40 year ministry.  Notice that the time of preparation was twice as long as the time of ministry.  Jesus waited 30 years to minister for 3 1/2.  We are short on preparation and long on ministry.  We want to take a short period of time to minister for a lifetime.  We get in a hurry and this is where we fail.  Preparing your mind and preparing yourself to do the will of God is where you must start if you desire to stop repeating the same pattern of failure in your life.  

Preparation can be difficult because it feels like you are not doing anything productive.  You will also find yourself in a state of obscurity, hidden, going unnoticed, unrecognized, undetected.  But that is what preparation is for you.  It is a part of the process.  God will never thrust anyone out into their place of destiny unless they have taken the time to prepare their mind.  The waiting game is the most difficult part of preparation.  There is some suffering in preparation.  Moses had to flee for his life.  David, too, during preparation, faced the wilderness tending his father's sheep.  He had to be faithful at it.  In Luke 16:12, the word tells us that if you haven't been faithful in another man's who will give you of your own.  We want our own without proving our level of faithfulness in that which belongs to someone else.  You will never get yours until you help somebody else get theirs. 

 I know of a girl who was very talented and God led her to our church.  It was very obvious to me that she had leadership potential, but I could never get her to trust me with what she had.  She kept talking about "my ministry"..."I'm going to do this when I get my ministry". This went on for months.  Finally, as she was talking with me and talking about "my ministry" I stopped and corrected her by saying: "You don't have a ministry".   "Everything that you have is God's".  I don't think that she ever got the concept.  Not much longer she felt led to leave our church and eventually started her own church thinking that she was going to reap a hundredfold return.  She later found out that she had never really cultivated the ground.  So, "her ministry" never produced.  The pesky weeds came up and choked the seed and she began Gagging for Air.  After a year or two she lost hope and gave up. Why did this happen? The answer can be summed up in four words:  The Lack of Preparation.