Sowing Time

“To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? It is like a mustard seed, which when it is sown on the ground…” Mk. 4:30, 31.

The kingdom of God, the one we belong to by inheritance since we were adopted by our Creator and Father, is like a seed that has to be sown in the ground so that it may produce grain. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. ” John 12:24.

What is the ground? Our heart. The enemy of souls has sown many poisonous seeds which, like the tares, grow very fast and tend to choke the tender plant so that it may not grow into foil maturity to produce fruit. Whether this seed is covetousness, a desire to be the first, selfish ambition, etc. it all amounts to one thing: idolatry. This is the main culprit if our situation is the one described by Haggai 2:19: “As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. “

The Lord’s orchard is rich and has plenty of trees, plants and herbs. There is the vine, whose fruit cheers both God and men; the fig tree, known for the sweetness of its fruit (Judges 9:11, 13), and the olive tree which produces oil to give light, and to soothe a wound and feed the hungry. But, what has happened to His olive grove and His vineyard? “As yet” they have not yielded fruit. There is one word in this verse which tells us that their condition is not so desperate as it may seem. This word is YET. What is keeping them from bearing fruit? The tares of idolatry sowed in the ground. What should be done with them? Let us read Isaiah 30:22 (l.p.) “You will throw them away as an unclean thing: you will say to them: ‘Get away!'” What will happen then? Let us go on reading: “Then He will give the rain for your seed with which you sow the ground… ” (Is. 30:23)

Only then will the blessings of heaven have an effect upon our life. The sweetness of the fig, the cheerfulness of the vine, and the healing properties of the olive will be seen in our lives.
Anyone who has ever worked in a garden knows that tares multiply rapidly and they are always a threat to the good grain. One has to be pulling the weeds out constantly. Flattering compliments, as well as harshness and coldness, may be the weeds that choke the plant. They may also be stones that don’t allow the seed to sprout as a green blade above the surface of the ground.

But something else may have happened to our seed, and Haggai asks us this question: “Is the seed still in the barn?” (Haggai 2:19) The barn is where the grain is kept after the harvest. It is a storing place from where we provide the animals with food and take wheat to make our daily bread. The barn is built above the surface. It is not a cellar that is dug deep into the ground. The barn is our head -our mind. If we keep the seed there, if we never sow it on the ground of our heart, it will never sprout or produce wholesome grain to feed us and those around us. All the information we receive through the study of the Holy Scriptures and through hearing the word of God has to be sown into the ground of our hearts, and once watered and weeded it will produce good grain. When this grain fills our barn, our mentality changes, we are of one mind with Christ.

When there is an abundance of grain through right living and proper ministration of the word of God, then, it will happen as with Joseph in Egypt, that our barn will be full of the product of a good harvest. People will come to us from far away places where there is a famine, to buy from us without money and without price: “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters: and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. ” “And he commanded the steward of his house, saying, ‘Fill the men ‘s sacks with food, as much as they can cany, and put each man ‘s money in the mouth of his sack. ” (Is. 55:1; Gen. 44:1). Freely we have received and freely should we give. (Matthew 20:8)

So, where is our seed’7 Is it in the ground with the tares of idolatry preventing it from growing’7 Isaiah tells us/ “Throw them away.- say to them ‘Get away'” (Is. 30:22) Is our seed still in our barn’7 Is the truth still in our mind as a theory7 Now it is spring; now is the sowing season. Every seed has its own time to be put into the ground. It is in spring that the soil should be prepared and the seed buried into the earth. Take it from the barn and bring it into the field. Take it from your mind and allow it to be put into the soil of your heart. The distance is not so long. The sowing time is now, and it is short so there is no time to be wasted. We know well that times flies and soon the summer will come and then it will be over, and none of us wants to hear the words in Jeremiah 8:20: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved'” We all want to tell the Lord: “Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, fragrant henna, with spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices, a fountain of garden, as well as living waters… ” Songs 4:12-15.
May the Lord help us not to procrastinate any longer.
AMEN