* Die in Order to Live

Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.  

Galatians 6:9

If we are faithful, God has promised we will reap the harvest. We should not become weary in the tasks He has given us to do.  If God has given us the vision, He will also give us the provision.  The key is to stay in the timing of God.  In God, there is a season called ‘Due’.  When we are faithful to obey the voice of God, our efforts are rewarded.  Often times, we are almost there; just a few more steps to go, but out of hardship, frustration and impatience, we faint.  But the bible tells us:

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain.  James 5:7

When we are faithful to obey God, we can also sow where we do not reap and reap where we do not sow.  

And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey;  . . . Exodus 3:8

When Israel entered the Promised Land, God said they would eat of vineyards which they had not planted. They would reap a harvest which they had not sown.

And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.  Joshua 24:13

The same is true in the spirit world. We can reap the harvest others have sown; 

And herein is that saying true, One sows, and another reaps. I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.   John 4:37-38  

We enter into their labors when we reap where we have not sown.

As we near the return of the Lord, the sowing of those that have gone on before us is bringing a great harvest in the nations of the world. I often think of my father who is deceased and how he sowed into the lives of my brothers, sisters and I.  Though he did not live to reap or see the harvest, the seed was sown and we, his children, are benefiting from it today.  That which he poured into us is now being poured out of us to the glory of God.

You may also be part of the sowing process but never see the result of your labor.  Apostle Paul put it this way:

I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters; but God that gives the increase. Now he that plants and he that waters are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God . . .   1 Corinthians 3:6-9

You may not be around, as in the case of my late father, to see the harvest reaped from him sowing into our lives, from the hard work, the well doing of living a life pleasing to God despite all of life's negative circumstances.  But it doesn't matter in the end, rather you are the planter or the one who waters, patience is required in both. In order for the harvest of our sowing to be reaped, the seed must first die. 

A natural parallel for a spiritual truth: In order to reproduce, the seed must die. A seed looks dead. There are no green leaves, no tender shoots or branches. In order to grow, it must be buried. This is a natural parallel of a great spiritual truth. Spiritual life depends on sacrificial death.  Every time we plant seed, we sow something that does not come to life (germinating, springing up and growing) unless it dies first.

But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?  Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:  1 Corinthians 15:35-36

In order to bring forth life it was necessary for Jesus to die on the cross. His ministry seemed to be in vain because it ended in death.  But it was His sowing time. What an abundant harvest has resulted from His death from that one kernel of wheat which fell into the ground! 

Through Jesus death, millions have found life!

Spiritual life requires sacrificial death. It requires death to sin. It requires death to worldly influences, desires and pleasures.  It requires death to our self and our whims.

In natural life, the ultimate contradiction of life is death because death brings eternal life to the believer. 

Be sure, the thing you are living for is worth dying for.

At times there will be no visible evidence of harvest. It may appear we are losing our life for a vision which is dying, but Jesus tells us: 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit.   John 12:24

Jesus did not die in vain. 

Through Jesus's death came life. 

Through His death, salvation came to all nations as others stepped forward to to carry on the mission He began and reach the world with the Gospel.

The seed is not dead. Within it is the life force of God. But in order to bring forth life it must die. Hosea speaks of the results of investing your life in this manner:

And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.  Hosea 2:23  

This verse summarizes the purpose of applying the strategies of spiritual harvest. We labor so God can say to those who were not His people:  "Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God." 

For as the earth brings forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.   Isaiah 61:11

Don't give up hope when it seems that you are in a famine. Keep working for and serving God, doing those things that He has directed you, either through His word or directly to you. Knowing that our efforts are not in vain if we don't become weary in our well doing; if we don't give up: due season is on it's way!

(Biblical Studies)

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