How to water your seed. Today we are looking at yet another aspect of how to receive from God. We are still dissecting Mark chapter 4. Like we started out saying from the beginning, Jesus said that the topics He explained in this chapter are the foundation to the whole kingdom of God (Mark 4:13).
If you haven’t read some of the other posts in this series, I suggest you do so. Here are some of the highlights.
- Prosperity: The Word is the Seed
- Prosperity: 6 Steps to Standing on the Word
- The Law of Sowing and Reaping
Nugget of Truth
“Prayer makes your petition, but praise gets the result.”
Roy Sprague
Our Text
3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.
Hosea 6:3 KJV
You have to water your seed in the natural
The reason why Jesus often spoke in parables is because it gives us something to understand the spiritual from. Jesus would use aspects of how the world works to convey how things in the spiritual realm work with God.
And that makes sense because the same creator of our “physical” or “natural” world that we live in is also the creator of the “spiritual” world that we are a part of.
God said that He made “the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
Side Note
God says “the heaven and the earth” not “the earth and the heaven”. You say, “Why does that matter?” Well until you realize that your true home is heaven (the more real place than this earth) and start thinking about your stay here as temporary, you won’t get the most out of your Bible. The Bible was written to you as a spirit not you’re flesh.
But enough with that! The point is that in the natural world we understand that to sow a seed and see it grow we need a few things. We need…
- Sunlight
- Water
- Oxygen
- Nutrients
- Time
We understand this. In fact, it’s not like this is some large revelation. Most 8th graders are learning this in the middle school Earth Science class.
But just as plants in the natural world need things to grow so does the Word of God that we plant into our spirits.
Seeds need Water
Seeds need water to grow. This makes sense. It’s the same way with spiritual seeds (the Word of God – Mark 4:14) sown into spiritual ground (aka…our own recreated human spirits).
Now you might be saying, “That’s great Nathan, but how do we water our seed?” That’s a great question! I’m so glad you asked me that!
And this is where our text for today comes in.
Seek God in Worship
3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.
Hosea 6:3 KJV
In the Hebrew this literally means to, “pursue” or to “chase down”. In other words, “Then shall we know, if we pursue and chase down the Lord…” If we seek after God with everything we are (aka get in his presence), then we will come down on us like rain.
The SPIRIT of God is the Rain that falls on our hearts to water the seed
There are quite a few scriptures that talk specifically about “the rain”.
- Zechariah 10:1
- Hosea 6:3
- Zechariah 14:17
- Jeremiah 5:24-25
Just to name a few.
24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.
Jeremiah 5:24-25 KJV
God is the one that brings down the rain. The rain is His Holy Spirit revealing the Word of God to you when you enter into the secret place.
Psalms 91:1 talks about this. It says that when you dwell in the secret place, you come out confident in Him (Psalms 91:2).
Jesus said when talking to the women at the well that soon men and women could worship anywhere and that true worship would be a building or place but in spirit and in truth.
This really isn’t some complicated thing! Just as our nugget of truth said. Prayer makes a petition but praise gets the result. Begin every day to praise your way to victory regardless of what you feel or see.
With the sowing of the Word (seed), time spent in the secret place (water), you will soon see the harvest.
Quick Recap & High Level Overview
We covered many of these topics before, but really quickly I want to bring some things together so they can make sense.
- Start by getting a clear understanding of God’s Word about a subject.
- God can only provide you with things outlined in His Word so it’s important to know what God says about a subject.
- Latch on to a hope grounded in God’s Word.
- To do this remember you need to have a very clear vision of what you want to see God do. Faith is a rifle not a shotgun. You have to be specific.
- Make your request known to God (aka Ask God)
- The Bible says you have not because you ask not. Once you know what you want and know what God can give you based upon His Word you can now ask in faith.
- Find a scripture to stand on and start confessing it over yourself every day.
- This will start the process of hiding God’s Word in your heart. This is the sowing seed step in the process.
- Worship God daily for the answer to your prayer.
- This is what we talked about today. We are watering the seed that we sow into our hearts.
- Give it time & confess only faith.
- Don’t let your confession put you away. Remember your mouth is what sows seed. If you had a garden and planted tomatoes in it and every day came out and threw weeds into the garden what would grow more as time went on? The WEEDS! That’s exactly what we do when we speak 5 words of faith and 100 words of doubt and then wonder why it isn’t working for us.
- Reap the harvest by following the prompting of the Holy Spirit to give.
- This giving could be your time, money, experience or anything else, but according to Luke 6:38 you have to first GIVE for it to be given back to you.
- FINALLY, after you have received the harvest and see it with your physical eyes, don’t forget to thank God for providing.
I hope this helps. I try to make things as applicable as possible. When we leave God as this thing out in Never Neverland we don’t often understand what is really required of us to see God’s hand move in our lives.
Thank you so much for making it plain at times I know the answer but the enemy fights me with doubt that what I understand is not what’s meant by God’s word. You made it very clear, no more doubt for me, Amen!