the harvest

After we have worked the ground, planted, and waited, we see an amazing thing; we see the harvest start to come in. Now is the time for excitement, and thanksgiving. If we have put in the work, and have waited instead of forcing it, we will see more than we ever imagined. It is much like the parable that Christ told of the sower. In Luke 8: 5"A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. 6Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown."

If we do it right, there is a hundred fold waiting on us. Now as always I need to put the disclaimer out there, when I say a hundred fold, and talk of being prosperous I am not talking about getting rich. That is not the purpose of farming our souls, that isn’t the end result we are after. I am talking about the important things we will harvest. Love, peace, hope, faith, the seeds we decided to plant will be what we harvest.

Do not be fooled though. This season is not easier than the others. It takes work to go out and harvest. You still have to get out in the field, and put in the work to get the harvest into the barn, or to the market; and in respect to your spiritual harvest, the harvest is really just the beginning. While you are out there in your field receiving all of the wonder and gifts that God is showering on you; you now have a greater responsibility that just getting it in to your barn. Now comes the prep work for the continuation. Now you realize that part of your work is not just in your field, but you have to harvest in the Lord’s field as well. That field is ripe, and bountiful. Just as Christ told his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Once we get our own field producing good crops, we have to go out and help others in their fields. We have to show them how to till the ground, and remove the rocks. Just when we think we are finished, we find that the real work has begun! It is not enough to tend to our own fields, and let our neighbors crop die on the vine. The great commission put us squarely in our neighbor’s field working side by side to get his harvest to come in as well as ours has. The beauty of doing that is the more we help others, the fuller our crops become! What we end up with is spiritual land as far as the eye can see; bursting at the seams with love, hope, faith, and generosity. These are the crops that we are to tend. This is what it is to be a farmer of the soul!

Peace,
Brian