Notes from Sunday 13 October 2013..
Speaker: Pastor Henry Ebenuwah
Key Passages: Proverbs 23: 18
God has consistently spoken about the harvest this year. We pray that we will experience the harvest; the kind of harvest which will announce the visitation of God. We pray that God will lead us to harvest, and harvests will knock on our door. Let us read Proverbs 23:18;
“For surely there is a hereafter,
And your hope will not be cut off.”
In this passage we see God’s commitment to every family in He’s Alive Chapel. There are significant events that give character to seasons. We pray that 2013 will be a year of Landmark Harvests.
God has spoken great and mighty things. God has declared his intention. That said, there is work to be done to secure the harvest. I have seen harvests and open doors that previously seemed out of reach. I am walking in fulfillment. We have work to do. Prophecies we have heard this year include; I see a field full of grains, maturing for harvest. Also, we heard the things we are looking for (resources), will begin to look for you.
The remaining 2 months of 2013 is more than enough time for God to perfect all that is outstanding. Proverbs 10: 5 says;
“He who gathers in summer is a wise son;
He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.”
We see that there are 2 principal activities that can occur in the harvest; Are you sleeping or gathering?
Matthew 13: 25 says;
“but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.”
We pray for the wisdom to watch over your harvest. This is a time to watch and pray. Watching: you must carefully analyse events, checking them against God’s word. When you see movement contrary to God’s word, you take things up in prayer.
God works with seasons, which are set times in which he has purposed to act. People can carelessly miss their appointed seasons. During appointed seasons, we step out in faith. Let us consider how God helped his children overcome difficult situations; with Moses God said But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. (Exodus 14:16). To Joshua he said “You shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘When you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan” (Joshua 3:8). Joshua and the children of Israel felt the raging current of the Jordan River. When God places a demand, you must venture. Similarly, Esther said “If I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16).
We see through the bible that whenever people acted in faith, God showed up. May the God of the Harvest show up for you! I pray that you will walk in the reality of the harvest. Remember that God begins with seeds; Mark 4: 26-29 says;
“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 Word
God will give you word. Your treatment of his word will determine whether, and the extent to which you will receive harvest. You must first secure the seed for the seed in your life. You must cast the seed into the ground of your heart. It is your duty to plant the seed, not grow the seed:. If you are faithful in watering the seed, if you are diligent in tending the seed, you will begin to see activity. Note that this is not time to celebrate. Rather it is time to intensify your prayers, and connect with God. A spiritually intelligent person declares his destiny through the spoken word in prayer. May God give you wisdom that your enemy will not be able to gainsay. You must accept responsibility to water the seed: every time you water, the seed grows. You water by confessions of faith! The problem is that we see the blade of the seed, we begin to rejoice and stop watering the seed. Hebrews 2: 1 says;
“Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.”
If you sleep, the enemy can destroy your harvest. Your primary duty is to be faithful in watering the harvest. You use your tongue to sprinkle. Some people are too silent for victory. May God grant us wisdom we need. 1 Corinthians 3: 6 says;
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.”
This means that every time we interact with the word, a measure of increase occurs in your heart. This increase may not be visible, persevere. Kenneth Hagin (of blessed memory) said that repeated absorption of the word represents the planting and watering of the word in our lives. You must return to the words of prophecy, and speak or sprinkle the word into your life. God will give us increase as we do so.
There is the humanity and divinity of the gospel: Jesus wept (John 11:35) illustrates the humanity of the gospel. Enoch walked with God, and God took him (Genesis 5:24). I pray that God will grant you grace to experience divinity. Kenneth Hagin said he did not experience a headache for 60 years. We have access to this same divinity.
When you interact with God’s word, you exchange humanity for divinity. If you abide with scriptures consistently, it will change your thinking, your speech. Personally, I do not speak what I do not want to experience.
Meditation
It is your area of greatest need that you attack first. You must go to God, and ask for word in the area which is giving you the greatest trouble. Read through the bible, and mark every area which addresses the area of need. Meditation can be described as ‘muttering’: your faith confession. Learn to use the tongue to sprinkle the blessing. The bible says the word to address every need in the life of any person.
Proverbs 26: 20 says;
“Where there is no wood, the fire goes out”
A struggle arises in areas where the level of your word is low. Meditation is a process; it will not change your life in 24 hours. Kenneth Copeland says you should choose scriptures that address your most important need. The bible says the scriptures must be found.
1. You must learn to apply the word of God personally. You must be bold enough to insert your name into the scriptures to appropriate, and apply the blessings of God generously to yourself.
2. You must ask the Holy Spirit to make the Word of God reality in your life.
John 1: 14 says;
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
It is only the Holy Spirit who can bring you into the reality of what is written. The Holy Spirit transforms Logos (word) into Rhema (personal word). The word of God will colour your thinking. Make the word of God the final authority in your destiny. When your circumstances do not reflect the word of God, take it back to God, declare the truth, and move on.
3. You must see how the word of God changes your situation. You must be able to distinguish the difference in your situation before and after interaction with the word of God. Hebrews 11: 3 says
“By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”
When you have a challenge, place a demand on the creator of all things. Even when situations seem impossible, YOU will see the weaknesses of your challenges, because you know the word of God has power to change any situation. Most people live in the reactive plane. However, it is better to live in the creative plane. We do not wait for circumstances to occur; we create by interacting with the word of God.
4. You must learn to agree with the word of God, and disagree with your situation. Only the Apostle Paul would be beaten in the morning, flogged in the afternoon, and write the next day: “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place” (2 Corinthians 2:14). The past, if rehashed will continue to plague you. Go to God, and receive a fresh deposit of the word. Faithfully interact with the word, and God will answer you. If you do this, you will transit into the creative plane. The future will confirm what you have created by your spoken word. The bible says the word of God is incorruptible. You have been waiting too long for permission from your circumstances.
5. You must see yourself the way God sees you. To illustrate, let us look at Judges 6: 12: And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!” In verses 14 and 15 we see Gideon’s response:
“Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”
So he said to Him, “O my Lord,how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” GOD’s vision of YOU is found in is word.
6. Declare the word of God until it colours your consciousness. Worry is negative use of imagination. Don’t do this. Let us think about the best that can happen.
Depend upon the integrity of the word of God. Titus 1: 2 says
“in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began”. Similarly, Numbers 23: 19 says:
“God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?”
If God did not fail the saints of old, he will not fail you.
7. Learn to act on what you believe. Your actions should tell us what you believe.
