Your Harvest Will Come

Harvest Season has finally come and the reapers busy themselves gathering their abundance, but the seeds you’ve planted appear not to have yielded very much. All around you, people are enjoying the fruit of their labour, but all you seem to be getting is a mere fraction, a pittance, a morsel of what others have coming to them. And you think, “Life is so unfair”, “What about me?”, “Why do I always have to be eking out a living while others are getting abundant blessings?”.

Is this you? I’ve been there…an onlooker to others abundant harvest, while all I seem to be afforded is a scraping. But I have learned that on this spiritual journey nothing is ever as it seems. What you see is never what is – there is a reality that exists far beyond our natural perspective.

Our Lord said, 

“I don’t think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way I work. For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think.” (Isaiah 55:8-9 MSG)

When things appear to be happening a certain way, contrary to what God has promised you, remember this passage and the verse that follows,

“…the word that I speak— it will not fail to do what I plan for it; it will do everything I send it to do.”

Beloved, other people may be reaping a lucrative harvest all around you but your harvest will come. Hasn’t God promised you life abundant? Then believe God, even if you’re struggling day after day, forcing ends to meet, always counting pennies and longing to be able to afford, everything. 

Instead, you complain, and complain, to anyone in earshot – to yourself, your family, your friends, colleagues, neighbours, and of course, to God. Haven’t you noticed that your endless griping has changed nothing, you’re still in a rut, scrounging for left overs never enjoying a full course but your message today is, “STOP!!!” 

When Ruth, knowing that the poor were allowed to follow the reapers to gather up whatever grain the harvesters had left behind, decided to go into the field, you can be sure that she was not expecting to receive the bountiful harvest that she eventually did. She did not complain or gripe. She went into that field with purpose – to glean so that she and Naomi, her mother-in-law, might have something to eat. Ruth accepted the little that she got without griping and she ended up marrying the owner of the field, a very wealthy man named Boaz (see the Book of Ruth)…

What a harvest!

Stop the complaining. Stop the griping. Stop the moaning. Stop the sighing.

Start thanking. Start praising. Start rejoicing. Start believing. Start expecting. Your harvest will come.

Amen†

Your Harvest Will Come

Shelley Johnson October 17, 2017

“The” Measure

Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 12:3 that God has given each one of us “the” measure of faith. I know that some translations say “a” measure but God is never ambiguous, in my opinion, “a” is too much of a generalization, too indefinite. On the other hand, “the” is very specific, and conveys a particular effect. “The” indicates importance, it’s a call to take notice or pay careful attention.

“…think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” – Romans 12:3 (KJV)

The measure of faith that God has given to every one of us is not for style, it is to be developed and used. And, when mixed with action, like bacon and eggs, peanut butter and jelly, grace and peace, is a winning combination. Add endurance to the mix, and just like cinnamon in hot cocoa, it makes it even better – nothing but victory can result.

James 1:22 and 2:17 say, “Don’t I beg you, only hear the message, but put it into practice; otherwise you are merely deluding yourselves…faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (Phillips and NIV)

The measure of faith, when properly exercised, affects your mental attitude in a positive way, giving birth to sound judgment. It manifests in you, a faith-filled heart, which leads to an unyielding confidence in God. God wants you to live by faith, faith in Him and His Word, for it is actually impossible to please Him without doing so. You see, God is true, loyal, faithful, He cannot lie and He exalts His Word – when He speaks, you can bank on whatever He says…

“…anyone who is right with Me thrives on loyal trust; if he cuts and runs, I won’t be very happy. But we’re not quitters who lose out. Oh, no! We’ll stay with it and survive, trusting all the way.” – Hebrews 10:38 (MSG)

If you remain unmoved, unflinchingly stoic in your resolve to stick it out and stay with God’s plan no matter what, you’ll not be disappointed – you will see all His promises to you come to fruition. 

The measure of faith, exercised, developed, and put to use, is the substance you and I have been given by God to live by. We simply need to pray, and practice living by faith on purpose.

Amen† 

“The” Measure

Shelley Johnson October 9, 2017

Faith to Believe, truly Believe…

“Look at that man, bloated by self-importance— full of himself but soul-empty. But the person in right standing before God through loyal and steady believing is fully alive, really alive.” – Habakkuk 2:4 (MSG)

Some of us spend days in church performing church duties – we’re on this committee and that committee, we’re in the choir, worship team, we faithfully attend Bible Study and are first to arrive for the weekly prayer meeting – yet, with all this “church”, we don’t seem to possess the faith to believe, truly believe.

In fact, we are so wrapped up in our religious activities, we neglect the spiritual – physically producing but mentally lacking. Faith to believe, truly believe comes only when our minds are so renewed that we believe, without a doubt, that all things are possible through Christ. It’s faith that goes beyond what we can see, taste, hear, smell, and touch. It’s faith that has nothing to do with what you do but everything to do with what you know.

Memorizing Scripture verses is not an indication of great faith but believing the Word of God is. It’s faith that will keep you from falling apart in the midst of spiritual warfare, and keeps you going through those seasons of testing sore.

“Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!” – James 1:22 (MSG)

Faith to believe, truly believe, is faith that causes you to leave that job that you hate even though you don’t see another job on the horizon but you know, in your gut, that it is time to move on, and that God is your provider.

My friend, without faith to believe, truly believe, you will struggle through life rather than live through the struggle, settle for toxic relationships rather than spit out that poison in the face of singleness, continuously worry about the future rather than resting easy knowing that God has designed a great plan for your life…faith to believe, truly believe makes life livable.

“It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us?” – 2 Corinthians 5:7 (MSG)

All those countless hours doing church can never fill the emptiness you feel, or lift you out of depression or relieve stress, but loyal steady believing in God removes it all. Your situation may not necessarily change but the impact it has on you certainly will. 

Faith to believe, truly believe, is powerful faith! It’s faith that gives you power to bulldoze through every obstacle set along your life path. It is that “live by faith not by sight” faith.

Beloved, believe in faith, believe that faith works and will work for you. Be determined to be a doer of faith, be persistent in your resolve to develop your faith and the Holy Spirit of God will do the rest…be intentional with your faith...faith to believe, truly believe.

Amen†

Faith to Believe, truly Believe…

Shelley Johnson October 2, 2017