“Blessed” Means Seed
“Blessed” Means Seed
by Tiger Todd
Turn to Mark Chapter 4. Usually when you speak about anything related to finances in the Bible, you begin in Mark 4. We’ve found out some truths concerning managing finances, one being that man was never supposed to manage himself. He was always supposed to have someone else manage him. But now we need to get to the parable of parables. The primary difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament is that the Old Testament was without a revelation of the kingdom of God. In the Old Testament. They had no idea that God’s Will could be done on earth as it was in heaven. So, what was this Kingdom of God? Jesus explains it here in his doctrine, in Mark 4:1:
“And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. Some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth: But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable. And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?”
Jesus taught many parables that day, but this is THE parable of the kingdom of God. Jesus’ parables are about understanding, how you can not just hear with the ears on your head, because you all have ears to hear,. But you all need to hear with ears to understand and discern the wisdom heard. These parables are to help us understand the kingdom of God. God sent Jesus to show us a whole new facet of God that old covenant people had no idea even existed. But they did not understand. We had talked about some scriptures that popped up during our “Upper Room” the other night. Everyone looked in their Bibles and said “Where did that come from? How did that scripture get in my Bible in John Chapter 20?” It messes up the entire Christian doctrine as we know it, and it’s just been sitting there for all to see. Thank God it was in all of our Bibles, not just mine.
Regarding the kingdom of God, in verse 13, Jesus says,
“Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?” Jesus is telling all the disciples along with those people that did not leave that day. These were not the multitudes, but those that came back to hear Jesus, who said, “Did you want to tell us a little more about the parable?” And Jesus says, “What do you mean? You don’t know this parable? Of all the people that should get it today, you should. “If you don’t get this parable, how then will you know any parable?” In other words, Jesus is saying, How then will you know about the kingdom of God.
In understanding the kingdom of God, Jesus describes seed time and harvest. Let’s read a little bit more of the parable in order to understand seed time and harvest.
Verses 14-20 says, “The sower soweth the word. And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended. And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some an hundred.”
I’ll jump here to verse 26, “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. And he said unto them, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in earth:”
If you can understand something about this seed, you’ll understand something about the kingdom of God. I want to bring you back to the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1. We find that this is the book of beginnings. If you can’t find a Bible truth from Second Corinthians and the Book of Genesis, chances are, it’s not a Bible truth. If it does not have any basis in the Book of Genesis, it’s not a Bible truth. It might be Peter thinking out loud, it could be a number of things, but it is not a Bible truth.
Genesis Chapter 1:26. Notice God says , Let us make man in our image; after our likeness, and let them have dominion. Circle and underline “dominion”, will you please. Let us make man in our image; after our likeness, and let them have dominion. Let man have dominion. I’m going to give you another word for dominion today, and I’m going to call it authority. “Let man have authority.”
Tonight’s message is understanding the kingdom of God, and therefore understanding how to increase, how to prosper, understanding how we get this benefit package called the kingdom of God to work consistently in our lives. How do we get it? We’ve seen people go from paupers to millionaires overnight in the world. Well, that’s multiplication. We’ve seen farmers take seed and plant it in good ground and get abundant crops. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have orange juice at all the brunches in Las Vegas. We’ve seen it work for some people, but how do you do it consistently in your life if you’re not a farmer. Well, there are only two ingredients to what God gave man in order to make the kingdom of God work. Only two.
The first one is authority. It says Let us make man in our image; after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth; and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, (i.e., some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred).
Look at verse 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, Now wait a second, that sounds like the kingdom of God, doesn’t it. What are we missing? Seed. It takes authority, and it takes seed. Well, where’s the seed in that verse? God blessed them! He gave them seed. That’s what the kingdom of God’s all about. You’ve got to have seed. God blessed the man. He gave man authority, man is fruitful and multiplying, and you’ve got to find some seed in there somewhere. That’s what God blessed them with. God’s blessing is providing seed. First Corinthians says God provides seed for the sower. He blessed them and gave them seed. Do you want to be blessed? Then you’d better go find the seed that God gave you. Are you cursed? Here’s the thing. There’s a difference between Deuteronomy 30:19 that says I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life, death, blessing, cursing. Choose life that both thou and thy seed may live. In this case, the seed might be talking about the descendants. But notice blessing and cursing.
Well, if God providing you seed is blessing you, then what would a curse be? It could be taking that seed away from you, because you’ve not been faithful over the seed He gave you. Remember, that happened with the three stewards. He gave each of them their several ability: one talent, three talents, five talents. The one with five increase got ten. The one with three got six. The one with one buried it in the ground. God took it away and gave it to the guy who produced the most.
Could it also be that the seed is the Word? Now we’re getting revelatory. This is not the message. That’s the funny thing about this bunch. You guys pull all kinds of stuff out of it. Could it be that the seed is the Word? Isn’t that what Mark 4 said the seed was? Isn’t the Word sharper than a two edged sword? Piercing even dividing asunder the soul, the spirit, the joints, the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews Chapter 4). Wouldn’t it be that if you have a curse, if you don’t use your seed in the right way, it will come back and cut you? Now wait- the Bible only says, “You can have what you say”. It does not say you’ll have what you say “good”. It means, if you take your authority and your seed, and you don’t use your seed properly, your seed will curse you. Isn’t that what it says? Watch what you do with your seed He provides. What you do with your seed is what you get with your seed.
It’s interesting that it said “blessed”. We’ve got about five subjects going on right now. Let’s just conquer them all at the same time. Verse 28 again. It says God blessed them, (He gave them seed) and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, What are you going to do with your seed? Replenish the earth. If you use something up, then use your seed to grow more. Live off your seed. Don’t keep living off the earth, i.e., if you take your seed and do something else with it, you’ll be cursed. Now please understand that God is not doing the cursing, you’re doing it. The curse came on man when he violated the use of his seed. It’s right here in living black and white. It says, God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: (you can take your seed to subdue it) You can’t even plant seed without authority, because you don’t even know it’s your seed. They have to work together-authority and seed. These are what God gave man… and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed,
Is there anyone with a cross reference? In the literal Hebrew, herb bearing literally means “seeding seed”. God has given man authority, but then He blessed them and gave them seed. He said that in each of the animals in the field, in each of the grasses, in each of everything in the kingdom of God, there is seed in it. Because it has seed in it, I’m blessing you and giving you some of that seed, and I’m telling you what to do with that seed. If you use that seed, it will bless you. If you take oranges from your orange harvest, and don’t just peel and eat them, but instead, gather the seeds, prepare them, and then plant them in good ground, you will have a perpetual orange harvest. You’ll be able to drink orange juice as long as you live. That will bless your seed, and their seed, etc. etc. from henceforth and forever. But if you have a party and serve all the oranges, you’re done with those oranges. If, by chance, all the orange trees don’t die from your mismanagement, you’ll get them again later on.
When I think famine, I no longer think Bible famine. I no longer think of drought- stricken land, where nothing grows. I think about what happens when a person misuses their seed. Isn’t that right? If you’ve got no seed, you’ve got nothing to plant. If you’ve got nothing to plant, you’ve got nothing to eat. You might naturally get another crop to come up in, say, 3, 4, maybe 5 months from now, but famine is living from paycheck to paycheck, living from the last crop to the next crop. It’s not even a crop. You’re just struggling off what grows naturally. And it’s no way to live.
Verse 29, says And God said, Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. If you want a steak, you take some of your cattle and you call them “seed”. There’s been all this hype about us supposing to be vegetarians when we started out. Well, if you want to be a vegetarian, just be one, OK? Some people’s bodies work better as vegetarians. But if God says there is seeding seed in every one of these animals, He meant for you to take the 10% (or whatever) seed of the seeding seed, and use them not for eating, not for just leaving them alone, but to use in order to produce your own cattle farm. Then you can eat from your harvest, you can keep the system going, and still replenish the earth. You can be fruitful and multiply. Just follow the instructions. Eat what you want to eat, but just make sure you are fruitful, and multiply, and replenish.
I just want to interject this, because we can have some fun here. I heard a famous celebrity on TBN the other night talking about his views that we don’t really need the four major food groups. He believes we only need two of them. He believes we were never supposed to have dairy and meat. Well, I hate to tell you this, but I wouldn’t be alive without dairy and meat, because my body lives almost completely on dairy and meat. So I could sit there on TBN, and you could look at my body compared to this celebrity’s body, and you might determine that we should all really be eating dairy and meat. But see, my body didn’t come from the same dirt as that celebrity’s did. God formed Adam’s body out of the dust of the ground, and my body didn’t come from the same dirt as this celebrity’s did. My body is not Chinese, so my body didn’t come from the dirt of China. The Chinese can live off rice and other types of soups and tofu and stuff like that. But my body just won’t do that. Your body is going to live off where you are naturally from. It’s important to line up your body with your nationality. God wouldn’t have said He would be a blessing to all nations of the earth without thinking that nations and nationalities weren’t important. There has to be something to that. So eat what you know is right for you. Do experiments on yourself. Find out what you need to eat.
This celebrity happened to be a serious animal rights activist. Well, what about vegetable rights? Now I’m serious as a train wreck, here. Who’s the veggie guy who purees carrots, and his skin is orange? We’re talking about vegetable rights. If you’re going to be an animal rights activist because animals are a living thing, don’t you think trees and plants are also living things? If you want to be an activist about something, you’d better do your homework. Don’t bring your activism into Christianity. Don’t bring your activism into the Bible. Just be faithful over your seed.
There were certain animals you could eat. I don’t know what made them more or less important, but he declared them as seeding seed. Use these seeds to produce more. You can eat off the ones you produce. Do the same thing with your fruit. Don’t just cut down and eat all the fruit that grows naturally. Be a disciplinarian, take out the seeds, plant them into good ground, produce yourself a harvest and then eat from the harvest. Leave nature alone.
We’re Bible activists here, so I don’t know why it was important for me to get that straight, but…. every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat; and it was so. So don’t tell me that we’re all supposed to be vegetarians. Just try to nurse your baby on carrot juice. Everyone would have little red headed babies with orange noses. Not that I’m against redheads. And whoever gets my tapes, I’m not against redheads.
If you want to be an activist about something, you’d better make sure that your data plugs into every single equation; that you have no extra parts or numerators left over when you’re done. Make sure that when you come work on my car, and begin to put it back together, there aren’t any extra bolts and nuts and springs and stuff laying around, and you say, “Here. It’s fixed, mister.” Don’t even come to the Faith Center with that attitude.
We’ve found out that God made a system called seed time and harvest. And it got screwed up because Adam violated this ordinance. He had authority, and God gave him seed, but he didn’t use his seed properly. There was something he didn’t do with his authority. Remember verse 28? “Subdue it”. He should have subdued that serpent, but he didn’t. There’s more to your crop than just saying, “Oh, I’m a Christian. I’m casting seed”. No, Work that seed! Speak over that seed. Use the kingdom of God. Make that system happen. Bind devils. Loose angels. Pray over it. Praise God for your seed and your harvest that will soon come to pass. Watch over it. Keep the fowls off. Remember when God sacrificed Isaac? Be that sacrifice that God cut in the covenant with him. He cut all the animals in half, the precursor to our covenant. He kept the birds away, I mean, he protected that thing. Subdue it. Have dominion over it.
So, God gave us dominion and seed, Adam screwed it up, and then the thing was cursed. Now let’s go to Genesis Chapter 3:17, And unto Adam He (meaning God) said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: (why? because it was not part of the seeding-seed plan) cursed is the ground for thy sake; (because you ate something that was meant for seed) in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Adam de-plenished. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. Here’s where the vegetarians were born. Cursed. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. So the earth is actually cursed all the way until the flood is over. And we think God can just snap the fingers, throw the switch, and the curse is no more. The kingdom of God will work again. No, it’s going to work again exactly the same way it did before, because God is no respecter of persons. He won’t do to the next guy what He didn’t give Adam the opportunity to do. Nor will He do for us what He has given us the authority to do.
Turn to Genesis 8:22. God proclaims to Noah after the waters have subsided, While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. Seed time and harvest is back. Well, if it’s back, it has something to do with authority and seed, doesn’t it? Keep reading. And God blessed Noah, and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. That’s what he told us. So is the kingdom of God as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and sleep and rise night day and the seed (the blessing) shall spring and grow up, he knows not how, for the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself. Well the earth couldn’t bring forth of herself because there was no seed. Genesis 26:1, And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee,
If you had a choice between leaving because the economy was bad, and staying because God says “I will be with you”, what would you do? I’m going to stay with God. Because if the Lord is with you… what was that, Genesis 39, Joseph comes naked on a slave train into Egypt, gets bought by a guy named Potiphar, gets dragged along on the back of his little wagon train of donkeys, stuff like that. God does not talk about Potiphar being rich enough to buy slaves. He says, And the Lord was with Joseph and he was a prosperous man. You want to talk about prosperity? The Lord is with you. Do you know why it is such a level of prosperity to have the Lord with you? Because He can bless you at any minute with some seed. You don’t need stuff. You’ve got the kingdom of God. You have authority. You’re a man. God gave man dominion on the earth. If you don’t have anything, it’s because you don’t have any seed. But if the Lord is with you, He can always get you some seed. He expects the man of God, when he gets the seed, to produce his harvest. If you eat your seed, you’ll be like everybody else. They get a paycheck. They use it up.
not talking about money tonight, because we’re really talking about what Mark 4 showed us - The sower soweth the word. One huge thing in terms of seed that we have are words that are filled with power. You are born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Not only does it live and abide forever, the Word of God is incorruptible. The only thing that can keep the incorruptible Word of God from working, from producing, is by not exercising your God-given dominion, your authority over it. We don’t need any more money, we don’t need any more of this or that, we need a real serious revelation of our words, we need the authority God gave us over the seed of the Word. If money is in the Word, you can speak some things and money cometh. If healing is in the Word, you can speak some things and your servant shall be whole and he shall live. If you need friends, you can speak some things and you show yourself friendly. If you need reconciliation, you can speak some things, and you can be ministers of reconciliation under this new covenant. The sower soweth the word.
Here there was a famine in the land. It didn’t look like anything was working for anybody else, everyone else was leaving, and God said, “Hey, I’m with you”. Didn’t the Bible say the Word of God abideth with you? Verse 2 again, Chapter 26 And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; I’ll give you the seed you need. If you are a farmer, what kind of seed do you need? The physical seed of whatever type of harvest you desire. If you are a businessman, what type of seed do you need? Possibly money. You need time. You need a number of things. All it takes is being one week late getting your new product to market, and all that investment, all that R & D is gone because someone has beat you to it. There are a lot of things you need in business. If you are an educator, what do you need? You need some stuff to educate with. You need some seed.
Seed varies. But the Word will produce the seed if it abides with you, and in you, and if you use your God-given dominion. It says, I will bless thee, sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee. This leads me to believe that if you are not where you are supposed to be, although God has seed for you, you are not there to get it. Let me put it this way. Do you think Isaac could have gone down to Philistia where the Philistines were, and God would still give him seed? I don’t think so, because it says the Lord appeared unto him and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: and I will bless you. Suppose Isaac goes down to Egypt, and says, Well, that’s great. I’m a Christian, and God is with me all the time. And he goes down to Egypt and finds out that the Lord is no longer with him. The Lord is back in Israel saying, “Where did Isaac go?”
if you don’t think that’s true, And they (Adam and Eve) heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the Garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves in the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the Garden, and the Lord called unto Adam and said, Where are you? You’re not where the seed is. You’re not where the blessing is. You’re not where I am. Don’t get this idea that the Lord is going to send you to Kenya to establish the Las Vegas Faith Center. That’s a no-brainer, when you know that Las Vegas is in Las Vegas. He said. Sojourn in this land. It may not look like you can get your needs met here. Now that’s the beauty of Las Vegas, and the Las Vegas Faith Center. There is enough stuff here to sustain a saint while he uses his seed to produce what God wants him to produce. The problem is, Las Vegas is visually a place where you see so much of, “I think I’m called to come to Las Vegas”. And I think you are called for a brain transplant. Don’t think because you can make it there you can make it anywhere. Just because they think they can get a good offering in a town that has a lot of money… that’s not seed to a minister!
You want souls, go to India. Or China. There is something that the people in the world with money need. Money will come, because they’ll put their treasure here. That’s not our job. That’s why Solomon said, “Hey, I just need the wisdom to govern your people”, and God said, Because you have asked for this, and not for money, fame, chicks, cars, coke, (well, not the chicks, cars, coke). When I was in the world, that’s what we were after. We called it the triple “C” in the music business-chicks, cars, and coke. The trumpet player’s ‘C”. But they never got it, because they played harder to make more money so they could buy more coke, so they could play harder, so they could make more money… they continued all that and got caught in the trap.
There are different kinds of seeds. What kind of seed do you need for Afghanistan? A different kind than you’d need for Las Vegas. Well, guaranteed, what you need is the Lord being with you. There is no record that the Lord was with anybody but Isaac at this time. There is no record in Genesis 39 that the Lord was with anybody but Joseph at that time. That’s why there was famine everywhere, but where the man of God was. Don’t think you can just go outside of the realm of the man of God and be blessed, just because you see money, or someone else having a better lifestyle here, or a housing tract that offers good financing.
Don’t get far away from the man of God, because that’s where the Lord, and the blessing, will be. God gave the man of God authority, and He gave him seed. He’s given every believer both authority and seed, but you can see that there are different echelons of authority. We see that in Isaiah 45:11 where God says to the man of God concerning my sons, The men and women of God, command ye me. Well, there was a commanding of God’s hand that the sons and daughters of God did not have, but the man of God did have regarding the sons and daughters.
Let’s see what happened here in famine time with Isaac. Sojourn in this land. You can take it to the bank that if God says you are prosperous, that this is what I’ll do for you, if you go where He says go, then what He says He will do for you will happen for you. But in Adam’s case, God said, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and the replenishing of the earth didn’t get done, did it? Adam didn’t use the seed God gave him, and hey, now we’re out of seed. Now we’re cursed. But here, Isaac stays in Israel. I will bless thee for unto thee and unto thy seed, and I will give all these countries and I will perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham thy father, and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven.
Do you want to talk about 100-fold? Are there more than a hundred stars in the sky? Jesus didn’t say the kingdom of God says to plant and you will increase 30. 60, 90. We’ve determined that 100-fold means optimum, or maximum yield. There are as many stars in the heaven as the heavens can contain. Therefore, your l00-fold will be as much as your realm can contain. How much can your authority and your dominion contain? Jesus, in Mark 4, went to the disciples privately, and it says, When he was alone he expounded all things to his disciples as they were able to hear it. The disciples were limited. You need to increase your ability to hear. That’s why Jesus started off the parable with, “Hey, if any man have ears to hear, let him hear! I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and I will give unto thy seed all these countries and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed.” They’ll have seed. Their seed will be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. And it said, he dwelled there, and in famine, he received l00-fold.
I want to take you to Galatians Chapter 6:7: Be not deceived; (I love that about James Chapter 1 where it says, Do not err. I love it when they start out this way. I love it in John Chapter 4, I believe verse 22 where it says You worship you know not what. Don’t be deceived. Do not err. On our “True Worshippers tape, we learned that Christianity had no idea who they were supposed to worship. But they will, because the seed God gave us is blessed. Do you see what kind of harvest that will produce? It will make money look like nothing to do. It will make everything we gave up for the gospel look like nothing to do. It will sound just like Philippians Chapter 3 when Paul says I count it all but done.
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. One rule of the harvest is, what you sow, you shall reap. The second rule of the harvest is, you cannot reap unless a man sows. God can’t sow. He is not a man. The Bible said, God is not a man that he should lie. God is not a man. God is a spirit, John Chapter 4 says, and those that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth. Man has a spirit, a soul, and a body, so if man is going to worship God, he has to worship God in spirit. But he has this authority as a man to be able to sow seed and reap what he sows 30-fold, 60-fold, l00-fold. Be not deceived. “Be not deceived” has nothing to do with God, or the devil. It has to do with your authority and your seed. Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Now notice the sowing thing. We said sows to his flesh, but it looks like it’s the same seed. That’s the flip side. That’s the blessed curse. Blessed equals life everlasting. Cursed equals corruption. I guarantee, when you find a corrupt man in the world, there’s a man that God gave seed to, and he sowed to his flesh. That’s exactly what Adam did.
We’re seeing some major truths here. But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Where does it say The flesh profits nothing. John 6:63. It’s the spirit that quickeneth. My words are spirit. The sower soweth the Word in their life. Walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. If you sow to the flesh, it’s going to come back to bite you. But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Well, fainting would imply that your flesh got tired. Forget about your flesh, and stay in the spirit, it’s incorruptible seed. It is incorruptible seed
Even in the Book of Haggai, the prophet Haggai is talking to the people and said, You have sown much yet reap little. And he said, Consider your ways. In other ways, he said, be not deceived. God is not mocked. It’s your fault. How do you reap corruption? You earn wages, only to put it in a bag with holes in it. You just got the money, and now you don’t have any money. And now you owe even more than you did last week. You eat and you’re still not full. You buy clothes and there is none to warm you. Out of the mouth of the prophet Haggai. And it turns out that the people didn’t use the seed properly. In the case of Haggai, the children of Israel didn’t use it to build God’s house first. He said, Is it time for you to live in sealed houses and God’s house lie in waste. Notice Proverbs 24 or 26, where it said, Establish your work under the Lord. After, build your house. Well, they got busy in the book of Haggai, and they got the Lord’s house built, because you don’t want to keep reaping corruption. The seed is not for you first.
When you think about all the other parables, it says, “it is the husbandman that is the first partaker of the fruit,” which means when you got the first grapes, you didn’t eat them. You knew that it was seeding seed. When the first harvest comes up, you can eat some grapes. You worked hard, and you deserve some. You did what was right with your seed. It seems like predominantly here, we are the blessed generation. I mean, I go to Israel and say, “These are the chosen people. And they are wonderful, sweet people, but, every one of us makes more money than most Israelites. Every one of us lives a higher lifestyle than most of the people in Israel. And you’re saying, What? We know of Israelites in this country, the ones that handle and manage most of the money in this nation. What’s the difference? This is the New Testament nation. This is the one nation under God, indivisible. This is the one where they sent forth to establish the kingdom of God. They didn’t “get it” in the Old one, they stopped short. They worshipped Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and some of the prophets stopped short, thinking Abraham was their father.
Now, an Israelite who is a disciplined, wonderful worker, can come to this country and exercise the kingdom of God principles that operate freely, because we are so blessed here. We have authority and we have seed. What you do with your authority and your seed will determine your harvest. So, be not deceived. What you sow is what you reap. What you sow is what you reap.
I got back here after my trip and found out that this is the godly nation, not Israel. It’s so sweet to be in Israel, I mean, you just want to stay there. I’m sure there were times like in the Six Day War, if you hung out in Hebron for awhile, you might think twice after a couple of bombings in the wrong neighborhood, but OK, we have that in our own neighborhoods. But, this is the kingdom of God principle that worked for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
God told Abram, Through thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed. Well, through the kingdom of God and this nation, through Americans, all nations of the earth have been blessed. But not through Israel. Or the Soviet Union. Not through Mexico, or through Canada. This is the New Testament, this is the kingdom of God nation. His kingdom came to earth, as it worked in heaven. The only difference is, what are men doing. Don’t mock God. Don’t mock his system, because the system works. The kingdom of God came. He exercised it in the old covenant based upon who was going to listen more to God. But in this nation, we have authority and we have seed. We have the spirit of the Lord multiplied. The Lord was with him and he was a prosperous man. Well, the Lord can be with all of us. Back in the old covenant, he could only be with you. And I had to hang around you if I wanted to be blessed.
Let’s finish up here in Mark Chapter 11:20. I want to start exercising our words. And in the morning, as they passed by, (Jesus and his disciples) they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. This is the fig tree that the prior day Jesus spoke to with his authority. Because it didn’t bear fruit, it was cursed. Verse 21 And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
I’d like to leave you with a practical tip tonight: I remember back when I first moved back to Las Vegas, I was understanding seed time and harvest, and driving around speaking to things, exercising my authority and the seed of the Word. All you have to do is repeat the scripture in Mark Chapter 11, and you are using the Word. I’d go up to those red lights, and say, “I call you green in the name of Jesus”. And when my faith was up, boy, they turned green. But there were also the times when I would speak to them and they didn’t turn green. The worst part about it- at those four way stops where you can look at the little walk symbol guy in white high lit, (for the other lane), you know it’s not turning yet. But you speak, and you call the light green, and all of a sudden, you see the hands start flashing red. Then you know something has happened. But when it stays out there for the other pedestrian traffic to walk across, you know that nothing has happened yet. I started thinking, OK, maybe that’s because I’m going by the memory of the Word, and I don’t have enough faith for the green. So I had to get back in my Bible. Sure enough, I changed my prayer a little bit, and I’d say, “According to Mark Chapter 11”.... and bam, the hands started to flash. After awhile, that didn’t work anymore. So I had to reach for my Bible, open it up, and turn to Mark 11, and I’d say, “Right here!” And those hands started to flash.
But what happens when that stops. You have to realize that you still might not be getting the whole message. And you know, God is revealing and revealing and revealing…. and “to whom much is given, much is required.” A lot of people can limp along with a 30-year old revelation, don’t think that it was the whole revelation, perhaps only as much as your church body can understand at this time. Some pastors are not able to teach it because you are not able to hear it. Eventually it stops, and you start mocking God, and you get deceived. You might start thinking that it’s just not His will for you to have a green light. But then it says, Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. And then we read here in Mark Chapter 11 how to do that, and you find that there are two steps.
First, you say to the red light, “Be thou removed”. Second, you call in the green light. I don’t know of any simpler way to show you how the word of God works. You do it the same way Jesus did it if you are going to heal the sick. He cast out the devil of the dumb man, and the dumb man was able to speak. He didn’t just say, “Speak”. He cast out the devil first. He cast out the sickness and disease first, then said “Be whole” and that person began to be whole from that first hour. First bind the strong man. Then take over his house. Then haul the goods home. Don’t just go haul the goods home first.
So, you have authority and you have seed, and notice, it is twofold. Notice that there is a certain amount of protection, a certain amount of defense, a certain amount of dominion you need to exercise in order to keep the garden clean. Adam should have thrown out that serpent. If he let him hang out long enough, if you let certain people hang around your house long enough…. The problem is, you start blaming God, and say, ” God, why? Why don’t I have it now?”
We’d better close. Heavenly Father, in Jesus name, we thank you for arriving here and walking in our midst. If there is anything else we missed, let us know. We give you our ears to hear, we want to understand the great mysteries, and we will be faithful to employ all that we know. We understand that much has been given to this body, and therefore, much is required. But we will do it, and we will produce much fruit. We will be fruitful and multiply and replenish and take this earth for you, Father. Thank you for giving us seed. We repent for ever having used our seed for something else, and we pray for crop failure for the curses that came up in our lives. We thank you, God, that you can see to it that these things are wiped clean, wiped off our slate, now. Thank you God. We turn from that. Now we are going to take the blessings, and we are going to produce fruit that remains by the incorruptible seed of the word of God, which lives and abides forever. Thank you, God, for blessing the Las Vegas Faith Center and its body. In Jesus’ name we pray these things, and we receive them. Amen.