A popular saying goes like this “When a person repeats the same thing over a period of time and expects a different result it means there is something wrong with such a person.”
For you to experience a difference, you must change what you are doing, there is something you are doing that is producing the result you are seeing. If you must alter what you are experiencing, then you must alter the order of what you are doing and what you have been doing. Today I would be focusing on what we have been doing in 2018 that we need to change in order to have a different experience in 2019.
Anchor scripture: Galatians 6:7-8
7 Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside.) [He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap. 8 For he who sows to his own flesh (lower nature, sensuality) will from the flesh reap decay and ruin and destruction, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
(Galatians 6:7-8) AMP
7 Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others — ignoring God! — 8 harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.
(Galatians 6:7-8) MSG
You can pretend to do things; you can profess to do things. If you say things and actually don’t do it, it is mere profession. And the bible says “God will not be scorned by your new year resolutions, how that you will do great things, how that you will do marvelous things such as has never been seen before. God is not moved by mere professions. God is not scorned and disdained by your new year resolutions but your determinations. One that thinks he is deceiving God is actually deceiving himself, one that thinks he is mocking God is mocking himself. The reason why your profession and pretentions cannot produce result is because “for whatever a man sows that he will reap”. Sowing is the action, sowing is the work, sowing is the act. There are two salient things in this verse 7&8 God can’t be mocked. You can mock people you can scorn people you can mislead people with your oratory skills, with your boastful nature, with the excellence of your speech but not so with God.
The Book of proverbs says “just as the refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the Lord tests the hearts of men.” (Proverbs 17:3). The refining pot, what does it do to the silver? It purifies it, it checks that substance whether it is truly silver, the furnace of fire test the originality, the true essence or substance of the gold. In the same way, God tests the true content and desires of the heart of the man. You can say to people by the end of 2018, ‘has God been good to me? has God been kind? You people are doing thanksgiving, jumping up and down. I have nothing to show for it.’
Listen to Podcast: Reaping The Supernatural: The Order of Giving In 2019
What have you been sowing? In 2018, what did you sow? It is not about your profession, it is not about your pretention. You can pretend to human beings all day long, but you can’t pretend to God, you can’t say something and not do it and you believe that you will reap what you have not sown. That is why moving unto 2019, God wants us to examine our ways and our hearts, what are we sowing? What are you giving yourself to? When you sow something, you are giving up. Sowing means ‘to give up’. When you see a farmer that is sowing, that seed could have been bread for that farmer but he chose to give it up.
When you give up something then you are sowing it. You decide to give up your time that means you are sowing your time. You decide to give up your money, that means you are sowing your money. You decide to give up your comfort that means you are sowing your comfort. Every day of our lives, we are given the opportunity and privilege of sowing, whatever the seed is, you will reap that seed. If it is a mango seed you will reap the harvest of mango. If it is a bad seed, don’t expect a good tree.
The harvest of our lives is the product of what we have sown, what we have given up. A farmer gives up in hope that He will get it back not in the same quantity but in multiple folds. Applying the same principle, when you give your time to people, God will raise people from different places that will give up their time for you. If you sow your money, giving it up for a course, for a people, for something in hope. When your harvest comes, it will not come in the same quantity and the world call it “the law of karma” especially when it comes to evil. (You have done it, it will come back to you). It’s a kingdom principle, it applies to everyone and every people. Whatever you choose to give up you will get it back good or evil.
Verse 8, For he who sows to his own flesh (lower nature, sensuality) will from the flesh reap decay and ruin and destruction, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Now he is explaining to us the two dimensions of sowing. Whatever you decide to sow, it will fall into two categories. This is where we have to be careful, one is sowing to your own flesh; selfish sowing, you are sowing in your own interest, you are sowing to yourself. He said sowing to your lower nature, sowing to your sensuality, those things that appeal your eyes things, that appeal to your ears, things that appeal to your nose, things that appeal to your mouth, if those are the things that you are sowing to, you will harvest decay. Anything you sow to the flesh will ultimately result to a harvest of decay ruin and destruction.
“….but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life”
When you sow to the Spirit, it is selfless. When you sow to the flesh, it is selfish. He who plants to the flesh and selfishness, ignoring the needs of others and ignoring God will harvest a crop of weed. Are weeds useful? No! So, its harvest will not be useful, it will be a useless harvest. All he will have to show for his life is weeds so when 2019 will end for anyone that sows to the flesh, in December all that he will have to show will be a crop of weed. But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in Him harvests a crop of real life, substance and eternal life. You cannot sow to the flesh and reap to the spirit and you cannot sow to the spirit and reap to the flesh it’s not possible.
It is the same place you plant that is where you will be expecting your harvest. It is the ground on which you plant that you harvest. If all you have been doing is planting in your flesh, that is where you expect your harvest. If all you are doing is sow to the Spirit, that is where you expect your harvest. The body of your harvest is in correspondence with what you have down. The flesh does not produce eternal life. Flesh does not produce the kind of result that is everlasting, it produces decay and destruction. No wonder the bible says “seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness.” (Matthew 6: 33) Seek first, long after, pant after the kingdom of God and its righteousness and in that pursuit every other thing shall be added unto you. Why? Because you have harvested where you have sown.
Our priority should be sowing in the Spirit, we must understand that sowing in flesh is not an option in 2019. Your commitment should be sowing in the Spirit except what you want is destruction and a crop of weed. If that is not what we desire then your focus, the order of your giving and giving up should be spiritual. Our giving must be God centered because “God worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2;13) which is reaching out to other people. Live a selfless life and harvest the real life the life of God the life of the Spirit.