Brother Keith Moore delivered a word from the Lord at Eagle Mountain International Church almost 20 years ago that was so very impactful! Pastor George Pearsons recently reminded us of it and I wanted to share it with you as it is imperative that people understand this.
Brother Moore said that God was blessed by our giving, but He was bothered and grieved we weren’t reaping. He said people were being deceived in their thinking if they were just waiting for God to bring a harvest to them. He said some people had even become disillusioned and aggravated with God saying, “How much more can I give?”
He told us many were thinking reaping is automatic: We sow the money, and then it’s all up to God. All we are to do is sit back, relax and it will all just come on us. The LORD called that “ignorance and confusion” and challenged us to hear this word and make up our minds we would not only be good sowers but good reapers, proficient at reaping our harvests.
There is an audio series by Brother Moore that goes into great detail about this subject entitled Rules of Reaping which I HIGHLY recommend that you get (all of Bro Moore’s products are free of charge so there is no excuse!) and listen to over and over.
Here is a brief summary of the teaching:
Proverbs 10:4-5 says, “He becomes poor who deals with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame” (Modern English Version). We must not sleep through our harvest, and allow it to stand in the field.
According to Mark 4:26-29, harvesting is our responsibility: “And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.”
The man did the sowing, God gave the increase. But notice, the man also had to do the reaping! I discovered that the LORD has given us the harvesting responsibility!
How then do we reap our harvests? Keith shared this story: A preacher was struggling financially. Physically, he was well and strong and experienced powerful demonstrations fo the Spirit in his meetings. His ministry was growing. The only area of trouble was in the financial realm. He decided to take some time to fast and pray, seeking the LORD to find out why he was having such financial difficulty. As a result of this time of separation, the LORD told him that he had to receive his finances the same way he received his healing — by faith!
Our harvest is called in by our words of faith. Isaiah 41:15 says, “I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth.” Teeth in the Hebrew is actually the word “mouths.” The words of our mouths, spoken in faith, are like great combines that go out into the field and bring in the harvest. We also use our words to send the ministering angels out into the fields to gather up our harvests (Hebrews 1:14; Matthew 13:39; Psalm 103:20)
Open your mouth and lets use our combines…”Father, in the Name of Jesus, we thank You for the privilege of sowing seed, but we also accept our responsibility of reaping our harvests. We are good givers, and we are getting really good at reaping. By our words of faith, we call in our harvests from the field. We speak to our harvests: ‘Harvests, you come to us right now! We refuse to back off or get discouraged. We will stay steadfast in our faith until we see the manifestation in the natural realm. We have our overflow harvests now!’”