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SUPERNATURAL HARVEST

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SUPERNATURAL HARVEST

Do you not say, “Four months more and then the harvest”? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. John 4:35.

Imagine the disciples’ surprise, when they arrived back from the village of Sychar where they had gone to buy lunch, to find Jesus deep in conversation with a Samaritan woman. They were reticent to question Him. Instead, they urged Him to eat, but His mind was still mulling over the encounter He had just had with the woman and the stunning outcome it had produced. His response was almost as though He were talking to Himself. “Doing God’s will is more satisfying than just eating lunch,” He murmured.

In the meantime, the women abandoned her water jar in her haste to tell the villagers of her life-changing encounter with a Jewish rabbi who said He was the Messiah. Gone was her guilt, her shame, and her embarrassment in the presence of the other villagers. She sought them out, instead, to announce her discovery and to invite them to share her joy.

To His disciples Jesus proceeded to explain a spiritual principle that needs to be taken out of the context of a missionary appeal that we often put it into, and placed where it belongs – in the ordinary, everyday encounters that we have with people who, like the Samaritan woman, are thirsty for “living water” but are drinking at the wrong fountain. By offering her water that would forever quench her thirst, Jesus sowed a seed which, unlike natural seed, which takes time to mature into a harvest, had the power to produce new life within minutes.

In that one short encounter, a lonely, guilt-ridden woman was transformed into a new creation, forgiven, cleansed, and filled with joy, her thirst quenched and satisfied by a new love that would enable her to become a woman of dignity and beauty and a worshipper of the true God because she was fully accepted and loved by God.

Ephraim, the Syrian, in the 4th century, said, “Jesus came to the fountain as a hunter. He threw in the grain before one pigeon that He might catch the whole flock. At the beginning of the conversation, He did not make Himself known to her, but first she caught sight of a thirsty man, then a Jew, then a rabbi, then afterwards a prophet, last of all, the Messiah. She tried to get the better of the thirsty man, she showed her dislike for the Jew, she heckled the rabbi, she was swept off her feet by the prophet, she adored the Christ.”

How this should encourage us, who want to follow and imitate Jesus, to believe that the word of God, sown into the soil of the human heart, has the power to awaken desire and to produce a harvest of new life, not in “four months” but the moment that soul believes that Jesus is the Christ, Son of the living God.

SEEING JESUl IN THE FEASTS OF ISRAEL – LESSON 3 Concl

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THE FEAST OF FIRSTFRUITS  

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: “When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb a year old without defect, together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil – an offering made to the Lord by fire, a pleasing aroma – and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine. You must not eat any bread or roasted or new grain until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.” Leviticus 23:9-14.  

“The Feast of First-fruits came on the day following the Sabbath, (the weekly or 7th day Sabbath), after Passover.  

“It was the first day of the week and a workday, a workday to commence the barley harvest. It was a national and congregational celebration by Israel of the First-fruits of the barley harvest, as the first sheaves of barley were brought up from the fields by the reapers that year. So the agricultural significance of First-fruits was this first reaping of the barley harvest in the springtime month of Abib, just as the barley became “Abib”, that is “ripe”.  

“The month of Abib, an agricultural reckoning of the first month of the religious year, was also named the month of Nisan. Nisan was an astronomical reckoning of the first month of the year. It was the first moon that was going to come to fullness after the spring equinox. This celebration of the first-fruits of the barley harvest had special meaning for the people of Israel as they set the Hebrew calendar for the year and gathered as a people for their special appointed times. But, (as we shall discover), this celebration, this waving of the First-fruits of the barley harvest before Yehoveh-God, was destined, in the fullness of time, to take on a further much deeper meaning. “The barley harvest was the first harvest celebration of the year. Then, counting out fifty days from First-fruits as day #1 and going out seven full weeks or seven full Sabbaths as stipulated in Leviticus 23:15,&16, came day 49 and then on the next day, the fiftieth day, and on the first day of the week came the Feast of Pentecost. This summer feast day celebrated the beginning of the wheat harvest.” http://endtimepilgrim.org/firstfruits.htm  

JESUS, THE FIRSTFRUITS OF THE RESURRECTION  
In order to understand the resurrection of Jesus, we must first examine the importance of the terumah or first-fruits offering in Scripture which cannot be underestimated.   God requires the first of all increase to be given to Him. The firstborn of the flocks and herds, and the firstborn son in every family belonged to Him.   “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether man or animal.’” Exodus 13:1, 2.  

FIRSTBORN OF THE LIVESTOCK AND FIRSTBORN SONS  
The firstborn of man and animals belonged to God   “After the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you as He promised on oath to you and your forefathers, you are to give over the Lord the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the Lord. Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons. Exodus 13:11-13.  

After it had been offered to God it was given to the high priest and his family to take care of their material needs.  

“The Lord said to Aaron…Everything in Israel that is devoted to the Lord is yours. The first offspring of every womb, both man and animal that is offered to the Lord is yours. But you must redeem every firstborn son and every firstborn male of unclean animals…’” Numbers 18:14, 15. (Read Numbers 18:16-20)  

 “The Lord also said to Moses, ‘Take the Levites in place of the firstborn of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites. The Levites are to be mine. I am the Lord. To redeem the 273 firstborn Israelites who exceed the number of Levites, collect five shekels for each one, according to the sanctuary shekel which weighs twenty gerahs. Give the money for the redemption of the additional Israelites to Aaron and his sons.’” Numbers 3: 44-48.  

FIRSTFRUITS OF THE HARVEST  
The first-fruits of the harvest, generally reckoned between 1/40 and 1/60 of the harvest, was to be offered to the Lord by a wave- or heave-offering (terumah), and given to the high priest – placed in the hands of their spiritual authority – and his family for their support.  

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest…You may not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain until the very day you bring this offering to your God.” Leviticus 23:9, 14.   “Then the Lord said to Aaron…‘I give you all the finest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain they give the Lord as the first-fruits of their harvest. All the land’s first-fruits that they bring to the Lord will be yours.’” Numbers 18:12, 13a.  

The Feast of Firstfuits was essentially an expression of thanksgiving to God for the beginning of the barley harvest and an expression of trust in God that will bless the rest of the harvest.  

THE PRINCIPLES AND BLESSING OF FIRSTFRUITS  
Commanded and demanded by God.
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether man or animal.’” Exodus 13:1, 2.   First-fruits must be the first of its kind. “The best of all the first-fruits and of all your special gifts will belong to the priests.” Ezekiel 44:30.  

First-fruits honours God and guarantees His blessing on the rest of the harvest.
“Honour the Lord with your wealth, with the first-fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.” Proverbs 3:9, 10.
 
First-fruits must not be touched or claimed until offered.
“Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me for I have not yet returned to the Father.’” John 20:17. Mary was not to hold onto Jesus because He had not yet presented Himself to the Father.  

God’s favour rests on the person who brings a first-fruit offering.  “Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought fat portions of the some of the firstborn of his flock. The lord looked with favour on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering He did not look with favour.” Genesis 4:2b-5

MESSIAH THE FIRSTFRUIT
Jesus was both a sin offering and a terumah. He was the perfect lamb offered as a substitute for the sin of the world, and He was a terumah or first-fruits offering by being “lifted up” –

“But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all me unto myself.” John 12:32 – and placed in the hands of His spiritual authority – His Father – “…Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Luke 23:46b, and He became the First-fruits of the resurrection. Just as the first sheaf of the first-fruits of the harvest was offered to God, which guaranteed God’s blessing on the full harvest, so Jesus became the first-fruits of the resurrection, guaranteeing that those who die in him will be raised to be like Him in an incorruptible body like His body.

“And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so we shall bear the likeness of the man from heaven….For the trumpet shall sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’” 1 Corinthians 15:49; 52b-54 NIV.

“It was on the first day after the Passover Sabbath that the empty tomb of Y’shua was discovered. As Passover lambs were being slain in the Temple, Y’shua Himself was sacrificed. As the Wave sheaf was being cut outside Jerusalem at the end of the weekly Sabbath, He was resurrected. While Israel’s risen Messiah was presenting Himself before the altar in heaven that day as the First-fruit of the resurrection, Israel’s priests were in the Temple waving the first-fruits of the barley harvest before a torn veil in the temple (Matthew 27:51; 28:9).

“A sheaf in the Bible is used to typify a person or persons (Genesis 37: 5-11). The festival of the sheaf of the first fruits was prophetic of the resurrection of Y’shua. He prophesied that He would rise again after being three days and nights in the earth after His crucifixion (Matthew 12:38-40; 16:21; Luke 24:44-46). This was foreshadowed prophetically in type through Jonah (Jonah 2:1-2).

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 1 Corinthians 15:20 NIV.  

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF FIRSTFRUITS
“The first-fruit offering speaks of Messiah’s ascension and presentation of Himself in the Father’s House, the true tabernacle in heaven, in His resurrected, glorified body. The sheaf had been reaped from the earth and waved before Yahweh in the heavenly sanctuary when He arose from the grave and ascended to the Father on resurrection morning. He instructed Miriam not to touch Him prior to His presentation before the Father. See John 20:17

“Passover had prophesied Messiah’s death on the stake, while the Sheaf offering prophesied the first-fruits of a coming harvest through Messiah’s resurrection from the dead. He was the representative sheaf of the harvest that was to come, the first of a kind, a second “Adam” (1 Corinthians 15:47). His presentation to the Father of the work of atonement secured the complete redemption and sanctification of the elect, the souls which the Father had given Him. (John 17:12) All He had promised them of being with Him where He was, glorified in the Father, was accomplished when He arose triumphant from the grave. (John 17: 1-10, 24)

“After His presentation to the Father, He came and imparted to them the Spirit of truth which He had promised them, to make them one in Him, one body of believers indwelt by the Spirit. (John 20:19-22) “This impartation was the deposit of the Spirit which elevated them spiritually to be where He was positionally, in the likeness of His resurrection (Romans 6: 5). The outpouring of the Spirit upon them came fifty days later at Pentecost which anointed them with power to bring them, as a seed which had been planted, to perfection (Acts 2: 4). The assembly, which is His Body, is accepted in the Head, the Messiah. When He arose, we arose with Him as that first-fruit harvest, presented before the Father. (Colossians 2:12-13; Ephesians 2:7) It typified the spiritual resurrection of the believer, now reconciled to God, to walk in newness of life in Him.

“The first-fruits offering in the temple consisted of the male lamb and the barley loaf with a drink offering of wine. “The burnt offering of the unblemished lamb represents the sacrificial offering of Messiah, the barley loaf made of a set measure of specially selected individual grains from the harvested crop, ground into fine flour mixed with oil, represents a corporate body of saints permeated by the oil of the Spirit to become one bread – one body indwelt by the Spirit. The disciples of Y’shua became that Body of believers after His resurrection, a barley loaf united by the Spirit, with the outpouring of the wine of the Spirit upon them.

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies it produces many seeds.” (John 12:24). Y’shua was that corn of wheat which planted His life in the earth to bring forth an abundant harvest.

THE ENSUING HARVEST “Messiah was the first, of an anticipated first fruits company. Yahweh God is looking for a First-fruits harvest from the First-fruit, Messiah.

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 1 Corinthians 15:20 NIV.
For, “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth that we might be a kind of first-fruits of all He created.” (James 1:18).

This first-fruits company is to comprise old and new covenant saints.

“But each in his own turn: Christ the first fruits, the, when He comes, those who belong to Him.” (1 Corinthians 15:23).

“As believers, we have been purchased with the blood of Messiah and sealed with the Spirit for the purpose of leading us on our journey through the wilderness of life to receive our promised inheritance. The promises are to those who overcome the fleshly nature. Just as Yahweh imparted a measure of His Spirit to the children of Israel and took them through the wilderness to purge them of their fleshly nature, so He does with us. The wilderness of this world will test our resolve to deal with our fleshly nature.

“Each believer is given the first-fruits of the Spirit, the initial impartation of the Spirit, to purge us from the flesh and bring us to a state of holiness whereby we may receive the promised inheritance. This initial impartation is a “first-fruits”, a deposit or down-payment and acts as a “guarantee” of the full measure of that which is to come.

“And you were also included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14. wikibooks.org/wiki/Hebrew_Roots/Holy_Days/Firstfruits  

CONCLUSION  
This concludes the study of the Spring Feasts which focus on Messiah as the Suffering Servant. As the Israelites celebrated the feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread and First Fruits in order, so they were telling the story in prophetic symbols of what their Messiah would do to redeem them, not from slavery from Egypt, but from the bondage of sin which separated them from their God, so that He could bring them into union with Him as their “lover” and bridegroom.   Having espoused them to Himself, the betrothal period during which both bridegroom and bride would prepare for the wedding, began.   The church is now living in the betrothal period, making herself ready and waiting for the bridegroom’s return and for the wedding to take place.  

SUMMARY AND PRACTICAL APPLICATION
 
The three spring feasts. Passover, Unleavened Bread and First-fruits celebrate Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt through the sacrificial blood of a lamb, the removal of leaven signifying the removal of sin and First-fruits, a feast of thanksgiving to God for the beginning of the harvest.
 
“Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast – as you really are. For Christ our Passover lamb has been crucified. Therefore let us keep the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.” 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8.
 
Jesus rose from the dead on the Feast of First-fruits – “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 1 Corinthians 15:20.
 
These three festivals celebrate the work of Messiah in His priestly role at His first coming.
 

WHAT’S THE KEY?

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WHAT’S THE KEY?

“‘My food,’ said Jesus, ‘is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.

“‘Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest?’ I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.’

“‘Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying, ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.'” John 4:34-38 (NIV).

Jesus had just had an astonishing encounter with a Samaritan woman who had been married and divorced five times and was now shacked up with a sixth man to whom she was not even married. That says something about the woman, doesn’t it? There could not have been a worse candidate for a response to Him! At least that’s how we would have judged her.

But Jesus never viewed any person as too far gone. Underneath her hard exterior was what He saw – potential. One just had to know where to find the weak spot to gain access to the heart. This woman’s weak spot was her longing to be loved. She tried five times and five times it didn’t work because she was being used, not loved.

Perhaps marriage wasn’t even an option any more. Just shack up and, if it didn’t work, move on and keep searching. But the problem was that the only ones who wanted a soiled garment were those who were soiled as well. By this time she was so hardened that she expected to be used and abused because she was worth nothing more than that in her own eyes.

To be treated with respect by a Jewish man brought her up short and got her attention, and we know the outcome. Jesus broke down her wall and touched her heart. When the disciples returned and saw Him in conversation with her, unheard of for Jewish man, they could not fathom what was going on. They saw her joy when she abandoned her water jar and rushed back to town and their eyebrows went up!

Jesus had to straighten out their thinking once again. Using imagery with which they were familiar, He challenged them. ‘You guys are thinking, ‘It’s too soon to start harvesting these Samaritans for the kingdom of God. They aren’t ready for it yet. Sometime in the future we’ll preach to them.’ This woman’s response is proof that it’s time for the harvest right now.’

‘I have harvested this woman in a very short time, but there’s a huge harvest out there waiting to be reaped and I can’t do it alone. We have to work together. It’s not important who does the planting and who does the reaping. It’s team work and both sower and reaper get the wages for doing the job.’

What was Jesus getting at? Was He saying that it was not important who did the work but rather that it was important to get the work done. Those who worked together to sow and reap were guaranteed their share of the profits. There were many who had already done the sowing. How else did this half-breed woman know that Messiah was coming? She may not have had it all straight but she was not entirely ignorant of God’s Word.

In the natural world, there is a time lapse between sowing and reaping but, in the lives of human beings the time for harvesting is always now. Like Jesus and the woman, it’s a case of finding the soft spot. Why did she have this emptiness in her soul which she tried to fill with human love only to be disappointed again and again?

Although she did not know it, she had a craving for a father’s love. We know nothing about her father, and she knew nothing about the perfect Father. He was the key to unlock her heart. Jesus was the mirror of the Father to her. When He introduced her to the Father, everything fell into place!

Only the Father’s love that can fill your empty heart.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – YOU ARE THE ANSWER

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CHAPTER TEN

YOU ARE THE ANSWER

“Later the Master selected seventy and sent them ahead of Him in pairs to every town and place where He intended to go. He gave them this charge: ‘What a huge harvest! And how few the harvest hands. So on your knees; ask the God of the Harvest to send harvest hands.’

“‘On your way! But be careful – this is hazardous work. You’re like lambs in a wolf pack. Travel light; comb and toothbrush and no extra baggage. Don’t loiter and make small talk with everyone you meet along the way.'” Luke 10:1-4.

This sounds like a typical missionary prayer meeting, doesn’t it? But does God really sit around waiting for us ask Him to send missionaries out to the “mission field”? Why would Jesus send them ahead of Him and then promptly tell them to pray that God would send people out? Was it to boost the number of workers or was it some kind of preparation for their own hearts?

Who were these people that Jesus sent ahead of Him? Seventy people? Where did they come from and what connection did they have with Him? Since He was always thronged with people, there must have been those who regularly followed Him although they were not part of the inner group. He must have recognised them and got used to seeing their faces in the crowd. Perhaps He even spent time with them in the late afternoon after He had dismissed the crowd.

Whatever their relationship with Him, when He needed people to prepare the way for Him, they were there and they were available to do what He asked them to do. It was to them, not to His regular disciples that He gave these detailed instructions including to pray for reinforcements.

Since they were the answer to their own prayers, was this Jesus’ way of developing a mind-set in them which gave them a better understanding of what their role was to be in the kingdom of God? Although He had twelve men who were constantly with Him and who were His recognised disciples, it did not mean that others were excluded. It also did not mean that others were of less importance and value to Him than the Twelve.

The instructions He gave this wider group were almost the same as those He had given to the Twelve when He sent them out on their first preaching tour. By involving these people He was teaching them that He was not the head of an exclusive club. The kingdom of God belongs to anyone who is willing to come under His authority and do what He tells them; and so is the mandate to open the doors of God’s kingdom to whoever will receive it.

Jesus is encouraging us to realise that we don’t have to sit around waiting for a special invitation to be part of God’s kingdom or to invite others to come under His yoke. When we become the answer to our own prayers instead of sitting around waiting for someone else to respond, we have finally caught on to what is in God’s heart. It’s for everyone to participate in and for everyone to share.

Whether we stay at home or take the message to the ends of the earth is not the most important issue. What really matters is that we share the blessing of being in the kingdom of God by the way we live it out and by the way we speak about it in the most natural way possible. Wherever we are and wherever we go, there are people needing to hear about a life of freedom and joy under Jesus’ yoke.

The next important fact for these recruits was to know that they were only the forerunners wherever they went, preparing the way; Jesus would follow, revealing who He was to the people who had seen and heard His followers. We’re not in this alone. Jesus may no longer be here in person but His representative, the Holy Spirit is with us, in us and ahead of us to do the inner work of convincing those whose hearts are hungry, that Jesus is the Son of God.

So, let’s ask what we can do. Let’s be the answer to our own prayers, shall we?

Fruitful Or Unfruitful?

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FRUITFUL OR UNFRUITFUL?

Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good ground, hear the word, accept it and produce a crop – some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown. (Mark 4: 18-20).

One kind of soil – no growth. Another kind of soil, little growth, no plant. Another kind of soil, no fruit. Only one kind of soil produces a crop and even then the measure of the harvest varies. Why?

All four kinds of people hear the word. The word falls on their ears. Some hear it and fail to respond – the pathway kind of people. Their hearts are hardened by their own thoughts and behaviour patterns and they have no intention of accepting change. The word has no impact on them at all. They carry on living as though they had never heard it.

Some hear it and respond joyfully but it doesn’t last. When the first hint of trouble or opposition comes, they back off and their faith and commitment dies. They are in it only for what they can get out of it. If God does not come to the party, if things don’t go the way they expected, they’re out of there, back to their old way of thinking and living. They tried it but it didn’t work because their expectations were not met.

The third kind of soil receives the seed eagerly but it is already occupied by other things. Jesus identified two already-growing plants which will not give way for the seed of the word; the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches. These thought patterns are already entrenched and will not make way for the truth. Both ways of thinking cause a person’s mind to be split.

Worry takes two forms; “what if” and “if only”.

“What if” projects the mind into an unknown and uncertain future. Worry produces fear which obliterates faith. Faith is calling those things that are not as though they were. Fear is calling those things that have not happened as though they had. Worry so overtakes the mind that it is impossible to think rationally until the worrier makes a deliberate choice not to worry and replaces negative thoughts with the truth. Worry has no end because it has no answer.

‘If only” is just as pernicious because it overtakes the mind with regret. Just like worry, regret has no end. It churns over circumstances that belong to the past, cannot be relived and cannot be changed. Satan uses these two powerful ways of choking out the seed of God’s word so that it cannot take root in the heart.

Another powerful “weed” that takes over the mind is the desire for riches. If worry splits the mind so that I am “here” in my body but my mind is “there” where my anxiety or regret is, greed also splits the mind so that I am “now” in the present with my money and possessions but also “then” when I make more money in the future.

Both of these mind-sets leave no room for the word of God to take root in the mind, change the heart and produce the fruit of the truth in the life.

There is only one answer to these pre-occupied minds. It begins with the “want to”. If there is no desire for God, there will be no appetite for His word. Desire begins with a sense of need. We get hungry when we have not eaten for a while. How do we develop an appetite for God’s word? By reading it! Our taste and appetite for certain kinds of food is developed by what we eat. Children who live on junk food will have no appetite for meat and vegetables. If we want to live fruitful lives, we must change our diet.

Those who receive and act on God’s word begin to change. Their roots will go down into the soil of truth and soon the fruit will begin to grow. At first it will be green and immature but, given the continuing nourishment of the word, the fruit will eventually mature and be food for others.

What kind of fruit does the one bear who receives the seed into good soil? It is the fruit of character and behaviour that reflects the nature of the seed.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Gal. 5: 22-23).

How can we tell what a person thinks? Listen to the words that come out of the mouth and watch the fruit of the life. How do people respond to adversity? What comes out of their mouths when they are offended or concerned? What is inside will always come out. Squeeze a lemon and lemon juice will come out! Squeeze a person and what is inside will come out.

These are the kinds of people Jesus had to deal with. These are the kinds of people we encounter in our lives. What kind of soil are you?

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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