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I just want to read this Scripture. Last week I was preaching about the mustard seed and
how it looks little, but little is much when God is in it, and how if you can see the tree
in the seed, it's a matter of time before the birds of the air are going to be nesting
in the branches of the blessing that sometimes you can't even perceive when it's in the beginning
stage.
I got stuck on that in my own personal life, and the phrase that really was recurring in
my heart was, "Yet when planted, it grows." I want to back up a little bit from the branches,
where we ended last week in Mark 4… I want to go back to verse 26 of this same chapter
of Scripture. Have you been enjoying the Functional Faith series? I had some people who have heard
me preach for 10 years now tell me, "This is my favorite one you've ever done." That
felt good to know I've still got it.
What we want to do today is stay on this theme of faith as analogous to a seed and use this
agricultural metaphor that Jesus seems so keen on in Mark 4:26 to illustrate some lessons
for our own life and illuminate our understanding of the kingdom.
"He also said, 'This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground.
Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does
not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then
the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because
the harvest has come.'"
Wow. I want to talk to you today with an encouraging word. I want to tell you that the seed is
on schedule. The seed is on schedule. We want to dig into this. Let's pray one more time.
God, I ask that you would give me what these people need. You know good and well that I
don't have what they need, but I know good and well you do, so make a transfer through
my mouth. In Jesus' name, amen.
Ground work. Jesus is helping his disciples to have a perspective of patience as they
await the kingdom of God to be fully manifested. He knows they want a militaristic rule and
reign of the kingdom of God, and yet contrary to their expectations or desires, he's letting
them know the kingdom of heaven is going to be revealed in stages. So he gets into probably
the most accurate presentation of what it feels like in our own lives as we're waiting
on what was planted by faith to produce a harvest. He talks about different stages of
faith.
I think if you can realize that one thing about the nature of faith, that everything
God will reveal in your life is going to be revealed and accomplished in stages, you'll
be much better off than expecting some sudden shift in your life that fixes everything.
I've preached all over the world now enough to know that you can get a reaction in any
room if you announce a shift. "There's a shift. God is shifting something in your life."
If you say it's a sudden shift, well, the whole room will go off with that announcement.
Jesus said it's a little bit more like what a seed does in the soil. He wants you to know
that, and he wants you to know that some things just take time. Warren Buffett said that.
He was talking about people who want to get rich quick or build a business quick. He said,
"No matter how much talent or effort one possesses, some things just take time."
Is anybody pregnant? Congratulations. Pregnant as well? Congratulations. Holly, you'd better
not even look like you're about to raise your hand right now. I will come down there. Anybody
else? I saw two here at Blakeney. Yeah, that's great. I'm sure at Uptown… That's a very
young youthful campus. I'm sure they're all doing their part for church growth, repopulating,
replenishing the earth.
So you're pregnant. That's great. I think it's interesting. Warren Buffett said that
if you want to produce a baby, you can't produce a baby in a month by getting nine different
women pregnant. I'm going to let that sink in. He was trying to say that some things
just take time.
Touch your neighbor and say, "I know you want it yesterday." I know you want Jesus to be
your Burger King. I know you want it your way right away. I know you thought this was
a drive-through, but some things just take time. How many know that destiny is not a
drive-through, where you place your order and pick it up three minutes later without
pickles? (I don't like pickles.) Some things just take time.
We have to get into this flow with Jesus if we're to expect him to work in our lives.
So he talks about stages. I would say that in this sermon I see three different stages
we should look at, and one is the scattering stage. He said the kingdom of God is like
a man who scatters seed on the ground. Then he mentions the sprouting stage, where the
seed sprouts and grows. In the scattering stage, you have to plow the ground or the
seed is not going to go down.
In the sprouting stage, you have to harvest the grain or it's going to go bad in your
field. I am not a farmer, nor am I the son of a farmer, nor have I ever planted a garden,
nor do I even like to eat vegetables, but I want to follow the analogy as closely as
I can today. Bring out my tools. This sermon is a farm-to-table sermon, okay? Hello! This
sermon is organic.
We want to use these illustrations. Do you see the way he put those tools in front of
me? This is a scythe. Have you seen this before? This is a spade. Have you seen this before?
Okay. The way he put these tools down, I think, with this one first and this one second, illustrates
the way many of us want faith to produce in our lives.
Jesus is giving us a parable to illustrate an invisible kingdom, utilizing visible terms
so we can relate and understand. The spade always comes before the sickle. Can you help
me preach this? I sure would appreciate it if you didn't look so confused. Maybe the
reason you look confused is because we live in a world that wants to harvest before we
plow.
We live in a world that wants to buy it before we can afford it. We live in a world that
wants to sleep with it before we put a ring on it. But Jesus said if you want to be in
this kingdom, first the spade and then the sickle. Why in the world would you go out
to a field with a sickle when you didn't plow up the ground with a spade?
Why in the world would you expect a fruitful marriage when you haven't sown seeds of love?
Why in the world would you expect a date from a woman at Elevation Church if you're not
even on the greeter team looking for one? Oh, that got a response. I just turned this
into a single's conference.
He said there is the scattering of the seed, and I love that part. Don't you? The scattering
of the seed. Don't you love when God just scatters the seed of his Word over your life?
Don't you love coming to church, where you can just get some good seed and some thoughts
of inspiration and some… Just throw it out there, man.
Even on social media I try to scatter seed. That's my job. That's what I do. I am a farmer,
a spiritual sharecropper. So what I'm trying to do is just hit you with some inspiration
in the middle of your day when you're feeling sorry for yourself and give you a little kick
sometimes to get you to the next place you have to be to at 3:00 on Tuesday, because
sometimes I can't make it off of Sunday's seed. I need some fresh seed scattered on
my life. So he scattered the seed. This is the third
of three different seed parables Jesus uses that Mark has collected in Mark, chapter 4.
It's a compilation that he's using. He talks about the seed in different ways. He has given
an illustration of a reality we can all relate to. So he talks about that stage of scattering,
where possibility is eminent.
That stage of scattering, where you get really excited about something God can do in your
life. That scattering stage. The interesting thing about this farmer is he doesn't seem
very educated about the process, because Jesus said the man goes out and scatters seed, and
whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he doesn't know how. He
doesn't even know how it's happening.
A reporter asked me a couple of months ago, "Did you ever envision that all of this would
happen? This ministry, this church. Did you ever envision all of this?" I said, "Well,
kind of. That's kind of why I started it. I hoped anyway. I didn't know for sure, but
I hoped." Her next question was, "How did it happen? To what do you attribute it?" It's
in those moments where I can tell you something and I can make something up and I can point
you to some factors, but really, if you want me to be honest with you, I don't even know.
Have you ever had God do something in your life where, if you're honest, you don't even
know? Touch somebody next to you and say, "You don't even know." You can act like you
were intelligent enough to get that job, but the fact is you know you weren't qualified.
You can act like you were smooth enough to get that woman, but the fact of the matter
is you don't even know why she said yes. You don't even know why she was attracted to you.
Put your hand up. You know I'm preaching to you. You don't even know.
Touch somebody and say, "I don't even know." Just some kind of way, God did it. I have
to be honest about it. There are some things in my life I don't even know how I made it
through. I thought I'd be down on the canvas too. I don't even know how I got up and faced
another day. I don't even know how I made it through the death of my mother.
I don't even know, but somehow, someway, when it was all said and done, he brought me through,
and I'm still standing. I don't even know. I don't even know why he has blessed me like
he has blessed me. I don't even know why my kids turned out good. I did enough stuff to
screw them up. The truth is they should have been a mess. I don't even know how they turned
out on the honor roll. I don't even know how I got to college. I don't even know why I'm
in this place.
I don't even know how I live in this house. I don't even know how I drive this car. I
don't even know how my dad, who never made it past the eighth grade, opened up his own
business and taught me some principles, where now I can stand today and be a pastor. Sometimes
you look at the size of the seed and judge it against the size of the harvest, and if
you're honest about it, the only reasonable response is to throw up your hands and say,
"I don't even know!" For everybody who's living in a ridiculous blessing that you don't even
understand, give him some praise!
Holly asked me last night, "Where did that sermon come from?" You know what I said? "I
don't even know." I don't even know. He didn't even know. He's like a little child who opens
up the refrigerator. The refrigerator is full of food. "How'd the food get there?" "I don't
know." Like a child who flips on an electricity switch, and here come the lights on. "How
do the lights come on every time I flip the switch?" A child doesn't even know.
There's a sense in which faith is childlike. Faith like a child. Just to trust God and
to know that you don't have to know. Can I prove it to you? If I can prove it to you,
say, "Prove it to me, Pastor Steven." Come on, say, "Prove it to me right now, Pastor
Steven. I dare you to prove it to me right now, Pastor Steven."
All right, watch this. I want to welcome today all of our locations who are joining me across
many different cities in 13 locations and on the Internet around the world. Let me tell
you something. I don't even know how what I just said is showing up on a screen in Rock
Hill. I cannot explain it to you.
I can't explain to you about the Internet lines that carry it to somebody's iPhone who's
watching it in Topeka, Kansas. Why Topeka? It's the most random thing I could think of
to say. I don't even know how this sermon is getting from Charlotte to Kansas. I don't
have to know. All I have to do is sow this Word, because somebody is working on a switcher
somewhere who knows…
I wish you would shout about the fact that you don't even have to understand it to walk
in it. You don't even have to know how the car works to drive in it. You don't have to
have a degree in electricity to have light in your house. You don't have to understand
all the ways God is working in your life for him to be working beneath the surface.
Somehow the message is getting out. Somehow Verizon or AT&T or Time Warner or somebody
is carrying this message on the wings of the Internet angels, and it's going out somehow,
someway. That's how God is going to bless you. Somehow, someway. That's what it means
to be a person of faith. It's to know that somehow, someway, it's going to work together
for the good of those who love him and are the called according to his purpose. I don't
even know how.
Now that my introduction is out of the way, it said he scattered the seed. In the scattering
stage, a spade is required. You have to plow the ground. In the stage where the grain…
The grain didn't come up all at once, remember. It came up…how? As soon as the gran is ripe…
Notice the order. First the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel.
The disciples were expecting the kingdom of God to come all at once, the reign of God
to be revealed all at once, and Jesus said, "It's coming in stages, but don't get nervous.
When it seems like it's off schedule…" Because throughout all of the stages of the seed's
growth, it stayed on schedule.
Our challenge as people of faith is to synchronize our faith with God's schedule. That's the
challenge. It would not be a challenge if God would mark harvest season on your schedule.
It wouldn't be a challenge, because you could keep yourself occupied until that point. "Don't
even worry about it. You'll be married by 27." "Well then I'm good. I'll just enjoy
myself till 27, and then my man will show up. Is it October of 2020?" Because, Lord,
we could be ready with the sickle if you would let us see the schedule.
Talk to me, people of faith. Talk to me, men and women of God of great faith. I could be
ready with the sickle if you would synchronize… In our office, my schedule is synchronized.
They synchronize my schedule to Holly's schedule, to my assistant's schedule. It's helpful,
because now she can know where I'm going to be and what I have to do.
She can keep a surveillance system on my schedule to kind of know what she needs to pray about
me with and when I'm going to be in a bad mood because I had to meet with Chunks. (I'm
just kidding. Chunks is amazing.) She has all that on her schedule, and it helps us
to be in the same flow when we're on the same schedule. So let me ask you a question. How
do you relate to a God in patience who won't show you the schedule he's working off of?
The Scripture says the man scatters the seed on the ground, and the seed sprouts and grows,
but the real test of the seed… This is my message. All the other stuff wasn't my message.
This is my message. The real test of the seed is…Can it survive the soil? He says the
seed is scattered, and you can see that. You can see the beginning of a thing.
It might not be easy. I have a long way to go, and my muscles might be sore at the end
of the day from the sowing process, but at least I can see that the ground is being broken
up. I can see it. The harvest season is a season of joy, because I'm going to be eating
from the field I'm working in real soon.
He says the seed sprouts and grows because of the work of the soil. I think that's where
most dreams die: in the soil. I think that's where most marriages fail: in the soil. I
think that's where most good intentions give way to apathy: in the soil. I think it's somewhere
between changing diapers and sending them off to college that most parents wonder, "Did
anything I taught you take root in your heart?" Hello!
I mean, it's one thing to be the farmer in this passage. He had to sow the seed, and
he had to reap the seed. But what about the times where you're not the farmer but you're
the seed? Can I preach this like God gave it to me? I hope you'll understand that sometimes
you're going to feel like that seed that goes down into the soil. The soil is a very strange
place to be, because when the seed is in the soil, it cannot see the intention of the one
who sowed it.
When the seed is in the soil, there are times where it feels like it's not going to get
enough oxygen or water to make it. I know I'm personifying an inanimate object, but
your life is a seed. Your dream is a seed. Your vision is a seed. Your purpose is a seed.
We talked about it last week. It seems insignificant, and it takes a lot of faith to see the purpose
in what seems insignificant. Do you know what takes even more faith? To
believe that the purpose is still working when the process is invisible. In the soil
stage. Yes, it takes faith to sow. Yes, it takes faith to reap, but what takes the most
faith is to be buried in the soil of uncertainty and keep growing, but that's exactly what
you have to do. The kingdom of heaven is like a seed.
The man scattered it, and it went in the soil, and it stayed in the soil, and it stayed in
the soil, and it stayed in the soil. Every stage of faith I find myself to be pretty
proficient in at this point in walking with God. I don't mind sowing. I don't mind working.
I don't mind writing a song. I don't mind writing a sermon. I don't mind ministering
to somebody. I don't mind sowing. I certainly don't mind reaping. I don't mind reaping a
bit.
The problem is I don't know what tool to use in the soil stage. When I'm sowing, I need
belief that it can become something. When I'm reaping, I need the strength to go out
and act on what I've initiated. There are some stages of faith where there's not a thing
you can do. It just takes time. I'm believing for something I can't see anymore. Sowing
a seed means releasing it. That means you have to let it go for a while. You have to
just step back.
The seed is in the soil to die. The farmer is telling you, "Yeah, man. I scattered the
seed, and I woke up, and I saw the ear, and I saw the head, and I took my sickle, and
I had a sandwich. It was the most amazing thing." The seed is going, "Can I speak? I
went down in that soil, and I was down in that soil so long I thought I was about to
die in the soil. I was gasping for breath in the soil. I didn't know if I had been forgotten.
I felt like the farmer didn't love me anymore. I didn't even know what I was going through.
Then all of a sudden I started to change shapes, and everything was unfamiliar, but I was still
down in the soil. I didn't even know if anybody remembered they had put me there." Can I hear
somebody shout because you know what it feels like to be a seed? Who am I preaching to?
I know this message is personal for somebody.
The seed is in the ground, but the Scripture says, "Don't get it twisted. The seed is still
on schedule." This is where I want to encourage you. If you feel like a seed that is in the
ground of uncertainty, the ground of disappointment, the ground of doubt… I know God is going
to fill in the blank for what you need, because you know what your seed is.
If I asked you, you wouldn't say the real thing that's working in your life. You would
say the "churchily" acceptable thing, the spiritually acceptable thing. You wouldn't
talk about the real dirt your life is in. You wouldn't talk about the real process you're
trapped in. You wouldn't talk about the real thought patterns. So you just substitute whatever
you need for seed. God knows what it is, and you know what it is, and I want to preach
about that seed.
One thing I found out about the seed is that the seed is protected. I need you to know
when you're in a soil season in your life, in a season where you can't see anything happening…
See, God knew the seed would need to survive a period of vulnerability, so every seed is
wrapped in a hard protective coating. Until it produces what it's meant to produce, nothing
is going to be able to get what's inside of the seed.
I see Moses in a basket. They were trying to kill off all the Hebrew children, but until
the seed was ready to be released, the seed was in a basket floating down a river to protect
it. Touch three people and say, "I'm protected." I need you to know that I'm protected. I need
you to know that God has covered me. I need you to know that God has wrapped me up. I
need you to know that God didn't just put purpose inside of me; he put protection all
around me, and until it comes to pass, I need you to know I'm protected. The Devil can try
to snatch me up, but I'm protected.
The rain can fall really hard or I can go through a dry season, but I'm protected. I'm
coated. I have something on the outside protecting what's on the inside. God has me covered,
and it shall come forth, because I'm protected. I'm protected. God said to tell somebody your
child is protected. You're praying about him. While you're praying about him, you need to
know that God already wrapped him. There are some things in life you can't do
for your child, but how many are grateful that when the seed leaves your hands it never
leaves God's eye? His eye is on the sparrow, and he has your babies. It's protected. The
seed is in a stage right now where it doesn't have the roots to be able to get the nutrients
from the soil, and it doesn't have the ability through photosynthesis… You would think
I was an agricultural, horticultural expert preaching this sermon.
I got excited about the seed, and I discovered that the seed has its own food supply until
the time that it is able to derive the nutrients from another source. What am I trying to say?
The seed has not only protection, but the seed has provision. Everything I need for
life and godliness is inside of me. What I can't get from others in the soil stage, God
will give to me from the inside.
I'll date myself, love myself, help myself, bless myself, encourage myself. The stuff
that the seed needs is already in the seed, so don't even worry about it, because it's
protected. Protection and provision. If you're looking at somebody who's shouting right now
and you don't understand their enthusiasm, the reason they're shouting is they have some
stuff in the ground. They have some dreams in the ground. They
have some potential in the ground. When it rains, farmers don't get annoyed. When it
rains, everybody who has something in the ground reaches up to receive. I hear a sound
of an abundance of rain in the house today. Come on, you'd better stretch and catch this
rain. You'd better catch this. So the protection is on the seed, the provision is in the seed,
and it's just a matter of time before the potential is released from the seed.
I'm preaching this message to somebody who is in the soil stage. We will all sow and
we will all reap, and sometimes we'll sow in tears and reap in joy, but can the seed
of your faith survive the soil? When the seed goes down to die… Jesus said in John 12
if a grain of wheat doesn't fall to the ground and die it just remains a single seed, but
if it dies it becomes many seeds. He was saying this to signify the kind of death he would
die. You do understand that Jesus wasn't preaching about okra. He was prophesying about his own
death.
He needed his guys to know, "I'm going to be in the ground for a little while, but when
it looks like I've lost, don't worry. We're still on schedule." The word of the Lord for
somebody today. You're still on schedule. Grace accounts for the years you've wasted
and the time you lost and even the opportunities you didn't know how to seize. You're still
on schedule. How else could Jesus have been interrupted in Mark, chapter 5, on the way
to Jairus' daughter's healing…?
When he got there, the people were making a loud commotion because the little girl had
died while Jesus was interrupted by the woman with the issue of blood who had been subject
to bleeding for 12 years. Jesus just keeps going to Jairus' house, and they say, "Don't
even bother to come now, because she's dead." Jesus says, "She's not dead. I'm still on
schedule. I might look late to you, but for what I want to do, I'm still on schedule."
When he got to the house, he said, "Everybody shut up, because she's not dead; she's sleeping."
Jesus shows up at the house, and he dismisses all the doubters who were in the room, because
what you see as dead God sees as sleeping. He healed the little girl and made her a sandwich, because he was
still on schedule.
"Jesus, you should have gotten to Lazarus' house early. It's a little late to show up
after his body has been in the tomb for four days." Jesus said, "Don't even worry. If I
had gotten there according to your timetable, you would have called me a healer. You already
knew I was a healer. I need to reveal a different dimension of my ability in your life."
"For your sake, I'm going to be late, but when I look late in your life, don't worry
about it. Roll the stone away, and I'll speak a word, because we're still on schedule."
"God, I'm 100 years old. I don't see how I can have a child at this age." God said, "Abraham,
go in to Sarah and do your thing, because you might feel old and it might seem too late,
but I am the God of the impossible, and you're still on schedule."
One thing that the seed, whatever state it was in, could say… One thing you can know
about your life is no matter if you're plowing, no matter if you're reaping, or no matter
if you're waiting, you're still on schedule. I'm still on schedule. God has a way of making
sure that if one thing got bumped, if one thing got missed, if one thing got left out…
The Bible is so great. The Bible says there is coming a time where the reapers will overtake
the sowers. Do you know what that means in your life? It means grace has the ability
to bring it in where life didn't even throw it out. God is saying in this season of your
life… I'm in something now. I don't even know who I'm preaching to.
The problem is you're so close to quitting in the soil stage you're about to walk away
from your hope and miss your harvest, because you can't see it in the ground. That's where
faith comes in. I can plow in the season of sowing, and I can reap in the season of reaping,
but what do I do while the seed is in the soil?
I have a suggestion, and I took it from the text. Here's my suggestion. When you've done
all you can do, prayed all you can pray, sowed all you can sow, prepared all you can prepare,
get some sleep. He said that whether the man was awake or sleeping, the soil was producing.
So when you've done all you can do, prayed all you can pray, altered all you can alter,
fixed what you know how to fix, get some sleep, and trust the soil. I read this Scripture
one time that said the Holy One of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. It means God
is a night owl, and it means he's also an early bird. I read that Scripture one day,
and I realized, "Well, if God never slumbers or sleeps, I might as well take a nap."
"If you're already going to be up all night looking out for me and watching over me, there's
no use in both of us being up all night. You've got this? Good. Because I need some sleep."
I need you to touch your neighbor, because they're stressed out, and tell them, "You
need some sleep." Tell them, "You look kind of tired. I see some circles over your eyes,
and you need some sleep."
You've already sowed all the ways you know to sow, and you can't reap yet because the
seed isn't done doing what it's going to do, so you might as well get some rest. You know
what? You reap better when you're rested. I said you reap better when you're rested.
What you need to do in this season after you've sowed all the seeds… Who am I preaching
to? I need to know. I'm going to find it. I'm scattering seed. I want to see where it's
hitting. I want to see where the plowed ground is. You're going to need your strength to
reap, so rest while you can. Sleep while you can. Get some Z's while you can, because when
the harvest comes, you're going to need all that energy and all that strength and all
that mental capacity to bring it in. So why don't you get some sleep?
When Jesus was on a ministry assignment one time, he left one place, and he was going
to another. He was ministering on one side of the lake, and he was going to minister
on the other. You know what he did on the boat? He went to sleep. Why did he go to sleep?
Because there's nothing I can do about what's on that side while I'm on this boat. There's
nothing I can do about it right now.
They said, "Jesus, wake up. There's a storm." He got up to the storm and said, "Shh! I'm
sleeping. Leave me alone. I'm sleeping right now, because when I get up, I have work to
do." You know that's what the seed is saying in your life right now.
You're getting frustrated, but the seed is saying, "Shh! Let me sleep. I'm working down
here. I have to get a little bit of breakthrough from this hard coating. I have to get some
roots in this soil. I have to bring forth what I'm meant to bring forth. I have to get
ready to burst forth, because I'm about to become something spectacular." Let it sleep.
Don't rip it up out of the ground. Don't walk away from the field. Don't get frustrated.
Don't even be annoyed. Don't get irritable. Just let it sleep. Just let it sleep.
But when you go to sleep, make sure you sleep next to your sickle, because you want to be
ready when morning comes to say, "Here it is. I'm ready for you. I'm rested. I'm ready.
I trusted in sowing, and I'm ready for reaping, because I rested in the middle, and my life
is still on schedule." Shout, somebody, shout!
I'm in this stage right now where I'm in the ground. I have a dream in the ground. I have
a vision in the ground. Holly said to me the other day, "You know, your problem is you
want to rip up your seed while it's still working beneath the surface."
She said, "Your impatience is your greatest enemy, and it's your greatest strength." The
fact that I'm proactive is my greatest strength, but when I get so discouraged waiting on the
seed to show me what it is, I start ripping at stuff. Anybody like me just start ripping
at stuff? If you're like me, let it sleep. That seed wasn't dead; it was sleeping. That
girl wasn't dead; she was sleeping. Lazarus wasn't dead; he was sleeping. God told me
to tell you, "Your seed is just sleeping."
If you receive this message, would you stand? I have a spade for the sowing, I have a sickle
for the reaping, and I have rest for the time between. I have faith to just sleep on it.
Whether I'm sleeping or rising, that soil has a job to do. Would you trust God enough
to let the soil do what it's supposed to do? That takes faith. It takes faith to trust
that something is happening beneath the surface to the seed I've sown and that God knows the
right time for it to come.
Did you notice the parable said, "When the harvest comes, he reaps"? God knows when that
day is supposed to be. In the meantime, you sleep, and you let him do it. You let him
work it out. Sometimes the biggest problem with your harvest is your involvement. It's
the biggest delay. If you would leave that seed alone, it would become what it's supposed
to be, but you keep ripping it up out of the ground, thinking you need to put it in a different
field. This is a call for somebody to stay with it, to stay with the schedule of the
seed. It's sown in one season. It's reaped in another.
While it's in the soil, I'm praying God would wrap you up, protect you to survive the soil,
that you would be able to access the provision you have in you in this season while you're
in this soil. I declare over your life… Lift your hands. The Spirit of the Lord is
here. I declare over your life that he's going to send the rain in the time of rain.
I declare over your life that every seed in your life shall germinate. If it's in the
ground right now, there are some things that are happening to that seed that are only going
to serve to sustain it when it comes forth. Everybody say out loud, "I have faith to wait."
God, in this season, I lift my hands to you, and I'm receiving the rain of your Spirit
and the rain of your promise. I receive the light now, the illumination of your Word on
my situation. God, I thank you for what's happening in dark places in my life. I thank
you for what's happening beneath the surface in the motivational core. I thank you for
what's happening to the infrastructure of me.
God, I believe my seed is growing. I believe it's growing just like your kingdom is growing.
I believe as it's done in heaven, it'll be done on the earth.
I declare today over your life it shall come to pass. Can we declare it? It shall come
to pass. Over every dream, it shall come to pass. Over every initiative born of faith,
it shall come to pass. We believe it. We receive it. We establish it.
So we clap our hands and we ask you to send the rain, God. Send the rain on the soils
and the rain to the seed. Bring your Word forth. Accomplish it. Do it, God! Do it, God!