Don’t Forfeit your Harvest
“The farmer sows the word. The ones by the road are the ones where the word is sown; and when they have heard, immediately Satan comes, and takes away the word which has been sown in them. These in the same way are those who are sown on the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy. They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble. Others are those who are sown among the thorns. These are those who have heard the word, and the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. Those which were sown on the good ground are those who hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit, some thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times.”” (Mark 4:14-20 WEB)
No matter what tactics the enemy uses, his goal is the same: to prevent God’s word from producing a good harvest in your life.
When he snatches it away quickly, it could be as simple as when you are not paying attention during a sermon because of using your smartphone to scroll through social media. As a result, you did not even hear most of what the preacher was saying.
If that does not work, Satan can choose the forceful method or the soft method. He either comes like a roaring lion or a fowler.
The lion method would be to intimidate you into giving up on God’s promises. For example, you might have started trusting God for a breakthrough in your finances, but the enemy deliberately sends many unforeseen bills your way. Appliances at home start breaking down, and freak injuries or illnesses happen, leading to expensive medical bills. These are some ways Satan roars so that you lose trust in God for provision.
On the other hand, the fowler method would be to set traps to lure you into worldly things. He wants you obsessed and distracted with the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. This way, you will lose focus on God’s word and the seed that stops being watered in your heart will not produce a harvest.
For example, he may get you obsessed with politics, entertainment, earning money, lewdness, so that your mind is never on God’s word. If you keep leaving a plant unattended and in dry weather, it will wither away.
Only Christians who patiently persevere through all these dirty tactics of the enemy will experience a good harvest from having faith in God’s word.
Obviously the enemy knows the power of God’s word and that is why he tries his best to stop you from having faith in it.
The devil knows that once God’s word produces harvests in your life, he will have to relinquish any hold he had in that area. Try as he might, he is defenseless against God’s power.
Hearing God’s word, believing it, and speaking it over yourself may seem like such over-preached truths, but that is because God’s way for us is just that simple. Jesus completed all the hard work at the cross, and now we get to restfully reap the benefits of what He did for us.
It is easy to say, “I know this already,” but the question is: are you really doing it consistently? Ask yourself this and if this message stirs up your faith to get back on the right track of voraciously hearing and hearing God’s word, then its purpose is done!
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