Integrity- People of God

This world operates on the seed principles of sowing and reaping. It was a spiritual kingdom principle that was established by God in the beginning when He gave the command. He commanded as long as the earth remains there will be seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summerand day and night will not cease. These things will happen as long as the world is in existence so it would be fitting for us to understand and learn these principles. 

Genesis 8:22 “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest,Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.” NKJ

We all are living in various seasons in life and sometimes we are in more than one season at a time. In the spring and summer of our lives we are sowing the seeds of life into our families, giving birth to children, starting new jobs and careers and expanding our lives while cultivating new friendships and engaging diverse people. In our harvest time we see the blessing of God as we reap from the sowing of good seeds and investing in our children, families, friends and careers. Our lives are richer, fuller and deeper because we decided to invest in other people and not only ourselves. 

Jesus often talked about the seed as the word of God and sowing the seed of God word into the hearts of mankind.  There is a time to plant and a time to harvest, we live in the summer and winter of our lives as children of the light of day and not in the darkness of night. We are to understand that there will be times that the sun shines bright in our lives. There are also times when we are in the bitterness of winter when everything lies dormant and there appears to be no life at all, and yet the seasons change and spring will come. It is up to us to persevere through those difficult times with hope in God. With faith to believe He is faithful to His word, and that we will yield the fruits of our labor and the harvest will come. 

Mark 4:26-29 And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.  But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

The kingdom of God is operating on the earth and Jesus speaks of it in the parable of the good seed that was sown and would bring forth a harvest but then the enemy came and sowed wild weeds that became be a trap and a snare. This is what happenedwhen God created a beautiful world for mankind and the enemy came and ensnared and entrapped humanity into sin and death. 

Some people want to question God as to why He allows evil people to live and they want to see them uprooted and destroyed immediately. God knows the heart and the destiny of a person and what we see are people’s bad actions but we cannot see their true heart or their final destination. We all have been in a dark place where if He had given up on us then, we would have not been able to make it. But because of God’s love, tender mercies, compassion and longsuffering, we were able to be brought out of darkness and into His Marvelous Light in Christ. Only God can judge their motives and intent and will know which are good seeds or bad. At the harvest the good seed will be gathered and stored with the king and the bad seed will be harvested with the tares and weeds. 

Matthew 13:24-30 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 

So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’  But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 

Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

The spiritual principle of sowing and reaping, cold and heat, summer and winter day and night will not cease as long as the earth remains. We will forever have times of dark nights and bright days, warm summers and cold winters and seedtime and harvest times, times when we are doing well and not so well. We cannot determine when we will receive our harvest but we can decide what type of harvest we will gather, as we choose the type of seed we sow. As every farmer and anyone who hasgrown plants knows whatever seed that is planted that is the crop that will be reaped.  

Genesis 8:22 “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest,Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.” NKJ

Our present may be difficult times and hard situations but God has given us all the ability to change our future with the type of seed we plant for our harvest.  If we want sweet corn in our future we cannot plant bitter herbs or bitter greens in our present, because karma is real and we will reap what has been sown. But we can always ask God to forgive and pray for a crop failure of those sour grapes we have sown and ask Him keep us on the path of the good seed. 

Revelation 14:15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”