Contents

Title

Copyright

Section 01 – Introduction and Step 1

Chapter 01 – Introduction

Chapter 02 - Step 1: Develop a Core Desire

Section 02 – Step 2: Know Your Rights

Chapter 03 – Stand on the Word

Section 03 – Step 3: Prepare Your Ground

Chapter 04 – Hard Soil and Soil With Stones

Chapter 05 - Soil With Weeds in it

Section 04 – Step 4: Sow and Water

Chapter 06 – Using Words and Actions

Section 05 – Steps 5 to 7: Protect, Grow and Reap

Chapter 07 – Steps 5 and 6: Protect and Grow Your Harvest

Chapter 08 – Step 7: Reap Your Harvest

There is More For You

Harvesting Your Desires

By Les D. Crause

Harvesting Your Desires

Kindle Edition

Copyright © 2013 by Global Business Resources International

All rights reserved

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All rights reserved under International Copyright Law.

Contents may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without the express written consent of the publisher.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Global Business Ministries (GBM) version of the Bible.

Original teaching by Les D. Crause

Transcripts and editing by Daphne J. Crause

Cover Design by Nadine Crause

Section 01 – Introduction and Step 1

Chapter 01 – Introduction

There are seven steps to receiving anything that you desire from the Lord.

In the past I taught a complete two part series called ‘The New Way of Blessing’. In this series I outlined in some detail how we can tap into what God has put into our spirits to create a life of blessing.

The New Way of Blessing is a very powerful series, and if you have never read it I suggest that you get it. But I have found that most people find that there is so much in it that they can’t remember it all. They find it hard to take the principles and apply it to their normal lives.

So as I waited on the Lord, I asked Him to give me a more simple presentation of the same kind of principles. But I wanted to present them in a form in which most people can understand more easily, remember them and apply them practically.

The Lord gave me seven principles or steps that we can use to receive what we desire from Him. So in this teaching I am going to present these seven steps to you.

These are principles that you can use in any area of your life. I am not going to try and cover the many different areas, although I will mention a few as we go.

Later on though I am going to take this foundational teaching and apply it to many different areas of desires, goals and dreams that people may have.

I want to show you how to take these principles and apply them to whatever it is that you desire from the Lord. So this is our flagship teaching.

I want you to understand it very clearly and to remember it. I want you to go over it again and again, until it is totally saturated in your heart and mind and you will never forget the principles.

Pictures from Sowing and Reaping

To try and help you understand and remember it better, the Lord told me I should use the concept of sowing and reaping. We know that this is a universal law; that whatever you sow that you will reap.

Jesus told a very famous parable – the parable of the sower. The sower went forth to sow seed. And as he threw seed on different kinds of soil, it had different effects.

So with these pictures in mind, I would like to present you now with these seven steps to harvesting whatever you desire from the Lord.

I am going to mention the seven steps up front here so that you don’t have to wait until the end. I will also remind you along the way and review them.

I hope that by the time we get to the end you will be totally filled with these. Then if I were to wake you up at 3:00 in the morning and ask you what those seven steps to harvesting your desires are, you would be able to rattle them off without thinking.

If you can’t get there, try and play the preached version while you are asleep. They say that it goes into the sub-coconscious.

Put an audio version on and let it play while you are asleep, then wake up at 3:00 in the morning and see if you can remember all of them. Whatever you do, get these things into your spirit because they will transform your life.

Here then are the seven steps:

1. Develop a Core Desire

2. Know Your Rights

3. Prepare Your Ground

4. Sow and Water

5. Deal With Opposition

6. Grow Your Harvest

7. Reap Your Harvest

Picturing the Steps

Most of those things are very clear pictures that you can remember. This is because you have probably planted seeds and made a garden at some stage in your life. But I want to try and give you some pictures to remember these seven stages by.

If you were to hear this teaching or watch the video, if I were to ask you to repeat those seven steps, how many of them could you remember? So let me paint you some pictures to try and help you to remember them.

Step 1: Develop a Core Desire

To remember this step you need to think of a core. The easiest core I can think of is the core of an apple. That’s the part that is left after you have eaten the apple and you throw it away. Remember the core when you think of a core desire.

Step 2: Know Your Rights

The best picture I have of this is when you see a movie where a policeman is about to arrest a criminal. As he arrests him and puts the handcuffs on him he says,

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything that you say, can and will be used in a court of law.”

The policeman reads the criminal his rights. In the same way you need to know your rights.

Step 3: Prepare the Ground

There are two pictures that you can think of for this, depending on how big your garden is.

You can either think of one of those big graders that dig the soil and turn it over. Or you can think of a one-man job. This is where you take a pick and a shovel, and you start digging the ground, breaking it up and preparing it.

Why do you need to do that?

It is because you are going to plant some seeds. You are going to make a garden, so you must prepare the ground before you can make your garden.

Step 4: Sow and Water

Then once you have prepared the ground you are going to do the fourth step of sowing the seeds and watering them.

Once again, depending on how big your garden is, perhaps you plant big seeds by pushing them into the ground with your thumb and covering them up. Then you take your watering can, walk all the way to the tap and fill it up with water, then water the seeds from your watering can.

Maybe you stand with a hose. Or perhaps you are really fancy and you have a sprinkler system that you can just switch on to water every day automatically. Whatever method you use, you must now think of planting seeds and watering them.

Can you see the pictures? Let’s summarize them again:

1. You have the apple core for your core desire.

2. Somebody being read their rights when they are arrested.

3. Breaking up the ground with a pick and shovel.

4. Sowing the seeds and watering them.

Step 5: Deal With Opposition

The next step is to deal with opposition. What is the opposition to your plants?

If you have ever tried to grow a garden, you’ll notice that from who knows where a whole lot of bugs appear on your plants and start eating them.

You have insects that come and sting the fruit when it starts to form. They come and chew and attack. Caterpillars come and want to eat the leaves. You have all sorts of creatures coming to attack your plants.

You must deal with these things that are opposing the growth. You must overcome them and get rid of them.

Step 6: Grow the Harvest

Next you need to grow your harvest. How are you going to do this?

Well you have planted your seed and have been watering it. Now you must just let it come out and leave the sun to shine on it. As the sun shines on those plants they begin to mature. And as the fruit comes out the sun begins to ripen it.

The sunshine causes the photosynthesis that takes place in plants. And the reproduction and the growth that takes place in plants requires a lot of sunshine. So you must leave your plants in the sun.

Can you see the picture?

You are taking a walk through your garden. It is a beautiful sunny day and you can see the leaves are a beautiful, bright green color. Whatever you are growing is beginning to show.

You realize that your garden is growing beautifully. But is it ready yet for you to pick?

Be careful and have a good look. Check your garden out and let it grow.

Step 7: Reap the Harvest

You must grow your seed until it reaches the final stage which is when you reap it. How are you going to this?

Well you may want to pick the fruit by hand. You may need some kind of clipper or something to cut it.

Perhaps you need a fork to pull it out of the ground if it is something that grows under the ground. Whatever it is you are going to reap your harvest.

Let’s summarize the principles one more time. We have:

1. Core desire: an apple core.

2. Know your rights: a person being read his rights.

3. Prepare the ground: pick and shovel, grader, etc.

4. Sow your seeds: plant them and water with a watering can or hose.

5. Deal with opposition: deal with bugs and insects that attack

6. Grow the harvest: let it grow in the sun. Keep your eye on it and make sure that it is growing, then leave it to grow to maturity

7. Reap the harvest: reap once it has grown to maturity

It is very simple isn’t it? Can you remember all those stages? We will continue to review them as we go and see how well you can recall them.

Chapter 02 - Step 1: Develop a Core Desire

Let’s look in more detail at the first stage, which is to develop a core desire. What is a core desire?

A core desire is something that burns inside of you. It is something that you intensely wish and desire in life or from the Lord. This is a lot more than visualization.

What if I were to ask you right now,

“What is your greatest desire? What do you desire more than anything else?”

If you now have to close your eyes and try and visualize it, I don’t think it is core desire yet. It has to be something far deeper than that. It must be something that has been burning in you for years.

It is a dream that you have had for a long time. You have visualized and seen this thing in vision. Pictures keep popping up in your mind, and everywhere you turn you see this thing. That is a core desire.

Illustration of a Core Desire

There is a story that is told that I believe illustrates this very nicely. The story goes of a young man who really wanted to succeed. He seemed to battle in everything that he did, and he thought,

“If I can just find out the key principles of success, I know that if I did them I would succeed.”

He saw a man who had risen up in the community. He was wealthy and highly successful, and the young man thought,

“If only I could get to meet this man and ask him what the secret to his success is, maybe I can find that secret and finally become successful.”

The trouble was he couldn’t get to this man. There were always people around him because he was high up.

But one day fate stepped in if you want to see it from the world’s point of view. He just happened to go past a river and saw the man fishing so he thought,

“Here’s my chance; he’s all alone.”

The young man walked carefully up to him and said,

“Is it alright if I speak with you?”

The guy turned to him and said,

“Yes sure.”

He said, “You know I have wanted to meet you for so long. And I just want to ask you one simple question. What is the main key to your success?”

The old man looked at him and smiled. He put his rod down and he said,

“Come with me.”

Then he stepped into the river and said,

“Come on, follow me.”

The young man stepped into the river with him. And as they did so, suddenly the old man took the young guy and shoved his head under the water. The guy was struggling but the old man held him there under the water for a long time.

He pulled him out then and the young man was gasping for air. When he had got his breath back again, the old man pushed him under the water again for a bit longer. He didn’t do it long enough so that he could drown, but long enough so that he could really struggle.

At last he let the young guy out and they walked out of the river. The young man lay on the bank of the river panting for about 15 or 20 minutes, trying to get his breath back. Then he said to the old man,

“What was that all about?”

The old man said,

“I will answer your question on the key to success. But first you must answer my question. When you were there in the water and I was holding you under it, what was the most important thing in your mind? What was the greatest desire that you had right then?”

He answered, “To be able to get some air and breathe.”

He said, “Exactly; and when your desire for success is as strong as your desire was right then to get a breath of fresh air, then you will succeed.”

A Consuming Passion

It is a very simple little principle. How strong is your desire? Is it so consuming that you can think of nothing else?

Well when that guy was under the water he was thinking of only one thing,

“I need a breath of fresh air. If only I could get some fresh air.”

He wasn’t worrying about success any more. He wasn’t worrying about anything in the water. He was just worried about one thing.

He had one desire that was consuming him right then. And he was going to do everything in his power to get that breath of fresh air.

So if you want to find out whether you have a core desire or not, let me ask you this question,

“Do you have a desire that drives you to the same extent as what this man faced when he was under the water?”

The Importance of Speech

If you don’t have that desire, then you may have a strong desire, but you do not have a core desire. A core desire is a consuming passion. It is something you think about all the time. It is also something you are going to talk about.

Talking about it helps, because when we speak words they come up from our spirits. Words are always colored by what comes from our spirits. Only human beings can speak, because only human beings have spirits.

Animals can’t speak words because they don’t have a spirit. This means that when you are speaking words, those words are actually connected with your spirit that is within. And when you speak words, that inner influence coming up from your spirit starts to control your mind.

Those words start to control your mind, and while you are speaking you are seeing. While you are speaking, the pictures are forming in your mind.

So if you have a desire, one of the ways to keep that desire very strongly in your mind until it becomes a consuming passion, is to talk about it all the time. Eventually people will be saying,

“You know I’m tired of hearing you talk about this thing that you’re going to do. Will you please shut up about it and talk about something else.”

You say, “No, I have to talk about it.”

A Picture of Passion

There was a young boy who really wanted a watch for his birthday. He was nagging his mom and dad endlessly for the watch and saying,

“Please can I have a watch; please can I have a watch.”

Eventually his dad said,

“Look, I’m sick and tired of hearing about the watch. If I hear you ask for that watch once again you’re not going to get it, okay?”

The poor guy really wanted to talk about it but it was such a strain not to. Then one day they had family devotions and his dad said,

“Johnny, you can read the Scripture tonight. Read us a Scripture.”

He knew straight away which Scripture it was. It was the one that says,

What I say unto one, I say unto all. Watch.

He got the message across, and they couldn’t judge him because it was Scripture, right? You see it was so strong in him and such a passion in him, he couldn’t stop talking about it.

Give it Time

Do you have such a core desire? Are you talking all the time about what you desire; about what you are going to do when you get the desire and how things are going to be when you have it?

Are you doing this to the point where people are getting tired of hearing it? If this is the case it is a good thing. It is a consuming passion.

Once you get there, just give it a little bit of time. This is because you may find your desire changing a little bit. It could change a bit as you grow older or as your circumstances such as your work changes.

As your spiritual life grows and you become more mature, you may find that your desire gets a bit modified. But eventually you can see that this thing is burning hot inside of you. It has taken years to develop, and you know that this is not going to leave you.

Number of Core Desires

How many of these desires should you have?

Well it is not easy to have that kind of passion for a whole pile of desires is it?

You should have preferably one main core desire. You may be able to manage another one or two at the most of slightly lesser desires. But if there is to be one core desire it will need to be 100%.

Start to work on those desires first. Get your core desire – the apple core. Once you have that core desire, you now have a starting point to fulfilling and harvesting that desire.

Section 02 – Step 2: Know Your Rights

Chapter 03 – Stand on the Word

The second step then is to know your rights. What does this mean, and how does it apply to receiving your core desire?

Firstly you need to realize that the Lord is the source of all things.

You say, “Yes, but it is something that I want that is in this world.”

Yes it is, but God created this world. And He is the ultimate originator and the source of all things.

Provided Through Human Vessels

God may provide for you through human channels. In fact most of the time He will provide like that.

If you desire something from God that is going to cost money, you are not going to wake up and find dollar bills under your pillow. It won’t happen unless some human being felt led to go and put it there.

It is going to take human channels to be fulfilled. God is not a counterfeiter. He is not going to create things, because the earth is already created and things will take place in the earth through human vessels.

What if you want something spiritual from the Lord? The chances are that God is going to use a human channel to pray for you. Or someone may lay hands on you and to impart to you the thing that you are wanting.

For example, perhaps you have a strong desire to be used by God, whether it be in a ministry of healing, the prophetic ministry or something like that.

If so, the chances are God is going to send somebody to minister to you by the Spirit and the Word. He or she will release that thing into you, to equip you for it.

So firstly you must look to the Lord as the source, knowing that God is going to use a human channel. But you must also know that God alone is the originator.

No Doubts

I want to ask you this question now.

“What right do you have to ask the Lord for this?”

You see if you don’t have a right to ask Him for it, then how can you honestly come before God and say,

“Lord, this is what I desire. This is my passionate core desire, and I want this thing now from you because you are the source.”

What if God says,

“But I don’t want you to have that.”

You say, “That’s not fair Lord. Everybody else has one. I know people who have it and you gave it to them. Why don’t you want to give it to me?”

You see while there is doubt in your mind about whether you have a right to ask the Lord for this, you are never going to get it. This is because you are not going to come to Him with that same passion that a child has.

It is like the passion that the young guy had for his watch. He nagged and nagged and bugged, until eventually his dad said,

“Just take your watch!”

No Taking No

The Scripture speaks about importunate prayer which is where we keep bringing it to the Lord. The Lord loves that kind of prayer.

It is not that He wants us to nag Him. But rather when we really go out of our way and we have a determination, He sees a core desire.

I have found something amazing as I have trusted God for things, both in the temporal and in the spiritual realm. People often have the idea,

“If only I have enough faith to believe God for this, it would come.”

Well I have come to a place where my faith has grown very strong in many areas. And I could really exercise my faith to get something from the Lord if I really want it.

If I don’t really want it, I am not like that guy under the water who said,

“I have to breathe and nothing else counts in life!”

You see when there is a core desire, then you are going to reach out and grab the hand of the Lord. You are not going to take no for an answer. That is the kind of thing that moves God.

It is like the woman who came to Jesus for the healing of her child. He said to her,

“No, you’re a dog, and I don’t give the children’s bread to the dogs.”

Well she wasn’t going to be satisfied with that and she said,

“Yeah, but you let the crumbs fall on the ground to the puppies. I’ll settle for the crumbs.”

She had determination and Jesus was amazed at her. He was moved and He gave her what she wanted, even though she didn’t deserve it.

You cannot do that until you know that you have a right to come before God.

Read the Word

So how can you find out if it is God’s will and whether you have a right to ask for it?

You need to go and read His will. In fact it is His last will and testament, and there are two of them – one old and one new.

Go and read the Word and find some Scripture that shows you that you have a right to ask the Lord for what you want. This also helps to build your faith, and faith is very necessary as we will see shortly.

Your starting point then is to know your rights. And how do you know your rights? You can read in the Scriptures and find out what God says we have a right to receive at His hand.

Make it Your Own

Once you know your rights, now you are in a position to do something with those rights. You need to do something with those Scripture promises and the assurance that you got from the Word.

You need to take that Word and make it your own. If you don’t you are going to say,

“You know the Scripture does promise this, but that was written to somebody thousands of years ago. Maybe it applied to them, but it is not for me.”

Or you will say,

“That Scripture was written for the nation of Israel, but I am not part of Israel.”

You see you have to make that Scripture real to you. You have to come to the place where you know that God says,

“I am willing to give it to you.”

Remember the leper who came to Jesus and said,

“Lord, if you are willing you can make me clean.”

Jesus said, “Yes I am willing; be clean.”

You need to hear the Word that says,

“Yes, you do have a right. Yes, I do want to give to you.”

Memorize the Word

How do you get to that place where you know you have it?

You start by using the two m’s. They are memorization and muttering. You must take the Scripture and memorize it.

Perhaps you say,

“But I don’t have a very good memory.”

Can you remember what you want from the Lord? Can you remember what you desire from Him? If you are under the water, trust me you will remember it. You will think of nothing else.

You must memorize the Scripture and get it into your heart, into your mind and into your soul. Let it sink down in you until you can quote it instantly without even thinking.

When that happens it starts to become part of you, instead of something written down on a piece of paper or electronic file if you are using one of the modern Bible texts. Make it part of you through memorization.

Mutter Away

The best way to keep feeding it in to your inner being is to mutter it. That means you have to speak those words and that Scripture.

Well you know you can’t go around all day speaking Scriptures. Perhaps you are at the office working with somebody when you quote a Scripture. They are going to say,

“Huh? What are you saying?”

Perhaps you pick up the phone and say,

“Good after, this is Customer Service. How can I help you? Thus says the Lord…”

You see you can’t quote Scripture in public, but you should be speaking it a lot during the day and all the time. So the only way you can do it is to mutter softly to yourself,

My God supplies all my needs, according to His riches in Christ Jesus.

Somebody might say to you,

“What did you say?”

You simply reply,

“It’s okay, I’m just muttering to myself.”

You don’t even need to say it out loud. You can say it under your breath. Just mutter the Scripture over and over again, until it is totally saturated in you.

Add Desires and Pictures

You must also add a little bit more to the Scripture. You must add your desire to the Scripture. In other words, you must take the Scripture and say,

“The Scripture promises this, therefore I have my desire.”

So if you desire healing, you can take the Scripture,

By his stripes you have been healed.

Now you can add to it and say,

“By His stripes I am healed. Therefore I no longer need to suffer from this disease.”

An even better one would be,

“I have been redeemed from the curse. This sickness is a curse, and according to the Scriptures I have been redeemed from the curse of the law, therefore I don’t have to keep this thing anymore.”

That is actually a beautiful Scripture for most things. Poverty is a curse. You can say,

“I have been redeemed from the curse, therefore I don’t have to be poor anymore.”

Mutter this to yourself over and over again, until you come to the place where eventually you believe it.

You need to change those words to pictures. Perhaps you say,

“I don’t need to be poor anymore.”

The trouble is it is not so easy to picture yourself ‘not poor’. It would be better for you to say,

“I can now be wealthy. I can now have an abundance and more than enough to meet my needs.”

Speak the words, form them into pictures and keep feeding them inwards.

Faith Comes Out

Do you know what is going to happen? Eventually it will start coming out.

You are going to be dreaming yourself speaking these Scriptures. You are going to dream that you are wealthy or that you are well.

And when somebody asks you a question you will find yourself saying some of the Scriptures without even realizing it. Someone may ask you,

“How are you doing today?”

You will respond immediately and say,

“I am healed in the name of Jesus.”

You won’t have to force it. A lot of people force it, and they think that just by speaking those words out loud that it will make it happen.

No it won’t happen until you have fed it inwards. Because you see if you feed it inwards it will start to come out again. It is as though you have filled yourself so full of it, that when you open your mouth it is the first thing that comes out.

You stand up to preach and you find yourself speaking all those Scriptures all the time because you know them so well.

It affects everything you say. You have already been talking about the things you desire. Now you will do it even more because you start to say,

“God says I can have it.”

When it comes out that is when faith is produced. That is what the Scripture means when it says,

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the rhema (spoken) word of God.

The Scripture is not referring to the logos (written) word, but the spoken word of God. Faith comes by the spoken word of God. In other words God starts to speak His word inside of you. It starts to come out, you begin to speak it, and that is what produces faith.

So why do we need faith?

Well very simply because the Scripture says that without faith it is impossible to please God. But the Scripture also says that with faith all things are possible. It says,

All things are possible to him who believes.

I thought to myself,

“Wow, if I could produce the faith, I know that I can always please the Lord no matter what I am asking for. I know that no matter what I ask for, I am dealing with the God of the impossible. All things are possible.”

I can receive all these things because I have finally learned to know my rights.

So I started with the apple core and got a core desire; a burning hot passion. Then I learned from the Word of God that I have a right to ask the Lord for this thing that I desire.

Section 03 – Step 3: Prepare Your Ground

Chapter 04 – Hard Soil and Soil With Stones

It’s time now to go onto the next step. You might say to me,

“I’m ready now to start my garden, to go and plant some seeds and get a harvest.”

No you’re not ready yet, because you still have to prepare the ground.

When Jesus told us the parable of the sower He said,

A sower went out to sow seed, and some seed fell by the wayside.

The wayside is like a path; the place where everybody walks. It is the well-travelled ground. If you have ever been in a farmland you can see the field that has been ploughed for the planting. But then there is the track that you run on to get there.

It is hard ground and you don’t go planting seeds on hard ground. Jesus said that the birds of the air came to take the seeds, or they just shriveled up in the heat of the sun. They were gone.

So then what is the first stage? It is to prepare your ground.

Perhaps you come to a new field that you have bought. It has never been ploughed or churned up. You might say,

“This is a beautiful, fertile looking piece of ground. Let’s go ahead, scatter our seeds and start watering.”

It is not going to happen. You must prepare the ground first.

Three Types of Soil

Jesus spoke in His parable about three main kinds of soil, apart from the soil that was good. He spoke about three soils that needed to be dealt with. These were:

1. Hard soil

2. Soil with stones in it

3. Soil that had weeds that grew up in it

All of these things will prevent a successful harvest of your plants. So let’s look at the three very quickly and see how we can apply them spiritually.

You need to see how this applies to your heart. You see your heart is like the soil, and Jesus said the sower sows the word.

We will look at that in a bit more detail when we look at the next step on sowing and watering. But for now let’s look at how to prepare the ground.

Hard Soil

If you have a hard heart you cannot plant any seed in it. It is not going to grow. What is a hard heart?

You might say to me,

“I’m not a hard-hearted person who is cruel and callous. I’m quite a loving, nice guy actually.”

No, that is not what I am talking about.

What is a hard heart? It is like soil that has become compacted. It has been pushed and run over again and again until it has become hard.

It wasn’t that way originally, but it became hard because of what happened to it. Hardness of heart is caused by the things that happened to you in life.

Caused by Failures and Hurts

What is it that makes your heart hard?

Firstly repeated failure can cause it to happen. Now you are coming to the Lord to ask Him for something specific. Perhaps you say,

“Lord, I would like to get rid of poverty that I have had all my life. I would like to now become wealthy.”

Or you say, “Lord, I would like to stop being a weak, insignificant believer who has no power. I would like to have your power, so that when I pray things happen.”

“I would like to move in the gifts of the Spirit and to see the power of God. I would like to be able to use gifts of revelation and give prophetic words.”

Or, “I would like to pray for the sick and get them healed. I want to see signs and wonders being done.”

Well let me ask you this question: How many times have you tried this? And how many times have you failed?

Every time that happened, a cart ran over your soil and made it a bit harder. The cart then came back again and again, and your soil is now extremely hard.

Somebody may then say to you,

“Why don’t you believe God for your desire?”

The first thing you are going to reply is,

“I tried so many times but it doesn’t work.”

You have a hard heart. It has become hardened through the experiences of life.

You say, “You know every time I’ve tried that, people have rejected me and want nothing to do with me. I have experienced such pain and hurt in my life from all the things that have happened, the things that went wrong and the way people have treated me.”

What happened when that took place? Each time that happened, somebody took a great big stamper and stamped on your soil and made it hard.

Why did it happen? It is because you said,

“I don’t like this pain.”

Then you formed a shell around your heart and it caused you to be hard-hearted.

You are trying to believe God, but you are afraid to in case someone rejects you when you try it. You may speak about what you are going to do but people will say,

“You’re mad. It’s impossible; you couldn’t do that.”

This makes you stop talking about it. But that is one of the things that I said you should be doing.

You stop talking about it because you are afraid you will be rejected. You are once again afraid of the pain of people not wanting anything to do with you, because of what you are talking about and desiring.

You might say,

“I really believe that God is going to use me in signs and wonders.”

But people may respond to you and say,

“Who do you think you are? You are just an ordinary little person.”

Rejected for My Dreams

I remember a time when God filled me with such passion for His work. I could see myself going as the Apostle Paul and doing awesome things. When I shared it with some relatives they said,

“But how can you do that?”

I said, “Well Paul did.”

They responded,

“But you are not Paul, are you? You could never be a Paul.”

They tried to smash that dream, but I didn’t allow my soil to get hard there. I am an expressive, and when you challenge an expressive and tell them they can’t do it, they have to prove to you they can do it.

So thank the Lord that it didn’t harden my heart. It simply made my core desire even stronger.

I thank the Lord for that otherwise I would not stand in the ministry office that I do today. I wouldn’t have accomplished what God has called me to do, because I would have allowed people to harden my heart.

Inner Vows

What happens when things go wrong in your life? You have failed again and again and you’ve been rejected and had pain.

What do you do? You make a decision or a vow that goes something like this:

“I will never ever do that again. I will never try that again.”

“I will not allow this to happen in my life again.”

When you do that, it is the ultimate hard heart. It is like dropping concrete on it and making it extra solid. If this is the way you are, what chance is there of planting any seed?

Overcoming the Failures

You will need to deal with your hardness of heart. You will have to realize that failure is only one of the steps to success. And everybody in this world who has succeeded has been through failure first.

You are going to have to even go beyond that. You need to realize that perhaps God had to take you through that failure as part of your life purpose.

You must come to the place where you let go of the hurts of the past and your bitternesses. You must give up those inner vows and say,

“I know that I said I would never do that again. But if God wants me to do it I am ready to do it.”

Let go of those things that have made your heart hard.

You say, “I have really been believing God. I have been exercising my faith and standing on the Word. I’ve been confessing the Scripture and doing everything, but it is not happening.”

Have a look at your ground. Maybe you are trying to plant in hard ground.

Soil With Stones in it

The next thing Jesus spoke about was ground that was generally soft, but it had stones in it.

What are stones a picture of?

Stones are an inner resistance. This kind of leads on from the last one. It means that there are little parts within that don’t want to yield.

Giving Yes-Buts

Generally you are okay and you are ready to do things. You are ready to go and plant your seed. There is a lot of soil there, but there is a certain part that makes you say,

“I’m not sure that I want to do that. I’m not sure if I’m prepared to do that. I’m just going to hold onto that little something.”

It is what I call a ‘yes-but’. When you give a yes-but you say,

“Yes Lord I’ll do what you want, but…”

It is like the missionary who prayed and said,

“Lord I will go to any nation, except China.”

Well what is God going to say to you?

“I want you to go to China.”

“Oh Lord please; anywhere but China.”

“I want you to go to China!”

You may finally get to the point where you say,

“Okay Lord, I’ll go to China.”

When you reach that point He will likely say,

“I didn’t want you to go to China anyway; go to Africa.”

It is a stone; a yes-but. Some of it is caused by bitternesses. And again it is caused by the experiences of life. It is caused by inner fears and insecurities.

The idea of standing up before a crowd of people and preaching terrifies some people. You might say,

“Lord I don’t mind you using me. Just don’t ever call me to stand up and preach.”

You see that is a yes-but. It’s a stone in your soil.

You may start planting your seed, and Jesus shared in the parable of the sower that the seed sprang up wonderfully. But as soon as the pressure came, it had no root in itself and died away. There are stones in the soil and you must get rid of them.

Chapter 05 - Soil With Weeds in it

The third bad ground that Jesus spoke about was soil that had weeds in it.

What are weeds? Weeds mean that other seeds have been planted there along with your good seed.

You know the amazing thing is you can take perfectly good looking soil that looks awesome and fertile. You can just water it without planting any seeds, and before you know it plants begin to grow.

You say, “Wow, I never even planted anything and I’m getting a harvest.”

Yes, you’re getting a harvest of weeds. Weeds grow without us trying.

Worldly Influences

Well you have been trying to sow the right seed as we’ll see in the next section. But what happens is there will already be a lot of other seeds that have been sowed there.

A lot of those seeds are coming at you from wherever you go. This is because the world is trying to influence you. And whether you are reading books, watching movies, or listening to anything the world has to offer, wherever you go you are exposed to influences that plant seeds in your soil.

As soon as you come to try and believe God and to water that soil, what happens? The weeds begin to grow immediately.

Programming from the Past

Here is one of the strongest weeds that is so difficult to get rid of. It is past programming. These are things that you were taught during your life, whether it was by your parents, society or by teachers.

You were exposed to doctrines, teachings or ideas that said,

“It is wrong to do this.”

Or, “This is the right thing to do.”

Now as you come before the Lord to try and exercise faith, the doubts begin to come up. You begin to think,

“Is it really right for me to do this?”

Well you looked at God’s Word and saw your rights from the Scriptures didn’t you? That is the good seed that you are going to plant. But now suddenly the weeds come up and they say,

“Yes the Scripture does say that, but for you it’s wrong. It would be wrong for you to desire that.”

“It’s wrong for you to want that. It is selfish and sinful; it’s un-Christian.”

Or, “It is not the right thing to do.”

Archetypes

A lot of the time that programming that you have had didn’t come from the Lord. You didn’t necessarily get it from hearing the ministry of the Word.

Yes your parents may have taught you that and they likely weren’t even Christians. And mixed in with that is the concept of archetypes.

What is an archetype? It is what a whole group of people believe.

As I have travelled to different nations and been involved with people from different countries, I have been amazed to see that most nations have a national archetype. There are things that they believe are the right way to live and the right or wrong way to do things.

It affects every area of your life. It is archetypal programming that makes you think in a certain way.

Then you want to come to the Lord and receive from Him. But your mind and thinking is cluttered with the wrong rights.

On the one side you have God’s Word, and on the other side you have the seeds growing. And before you know it there comes confusion and the weeds begin to choke the Word.

Poverty Mentality or Riches

Some of this is a poverty mentality. You may even have got that from church. Perhaps you think,

“We shouldn’t be thinking of money because money is evil. You know the Scripture says that money is the root of all evil. So this means you shouldn’t be asking God for things.”

It sounds very spiritual doesn’t it? But it is poverty thinking. The Roman Catholic monks take a vow of poverty.

Then we have the opposite side which in English is ‘keeping up with the Jones’s. You might say,

“You know if I am going to take my place in society, I can’t have everybody else driving a decent car and I’m driving an old obsolete thing. I need to get a new car.”

Or, “I can’t live in a house that is just average, when everybody down the block has gorgeous mansions. They all have swimming pools. I also need to have a swimming pool. Some of them also have tennis courts so I need to have a tennis court as well.

You say, “The women are all wearing beautiful jewelry, but all I have is a little brass ring. I just can’t have that! I need to maintain a standard.”

That is keeping up with the Jones’s. It is a weed and it is going to choke the real seed that you are trying to plant.

So let’s prepare the soil. Let’s break up the hard ground, pull out the stones and get rid of the weeds.

This is going to be a continual process. You need to dig up any obvious weeds that are in the ground. Don’t just pull them up, but dig out the roots as well and throw them away.

Fertilizing the Soil

Now that the soil has been softened we need to fertilize it. What do you fertilize soil with?

I know that today they have the modern thing where you buy a bag of fertilizer that has been produced in a factory. It has all the right chemicals in it, but that is not nature.

How does nature fertilize soil?

God has created it to happen naturally. A plant springs up, grows and reaches maturity. It dies and falls back into the soil again and begins to rot.

You can actually create compost by taking plant matter and left overs, like peels from vegetables and all sorts of stuff. You can add organic matter, throw it in a big hole in the ground, churn it up and leave it in the heat and it will start to rot.

Dead, decaying, rotten plants and growth is the best fertilizer that you can use in your soil to grow your new plants.

Where are we going to get our compost?

How about all your past successes that have now reached their maturity? Let’s just put them aside and plough them. Let’s let them die.

How about your past failures? Perhaps you say,

“The plant grew up just a little bit and then it died.”

Well don’t throw it away; put it into the compost heap. Every time you failed you accumulated a whole barrel full of possible compost, so don’t throw it away.

You say, “Well I’ve failed before. Let’s just put it aside and forget it. Let’s pretend that it never happened.”

No, that is some of the best fertilizer that you can use to put into your ground.

Perhaps you say,

“You know I used to have a vision but it died.”

Death is in fact the best fertilizer, did you know that?

You say, “I have been through so many deaths.”

“Isn’t that wonderful; you have so much awesome compost to put in your soil. The more death you have the better.”

You say, “Nobody ever told me that before.”

Of course they didn’t, because this is new revelation. You need to prepare you soil and break it up.

Develop your core desire. Remember the raging passion (the apple core). Know your rights by getting into the Word and filling yourself with the Word.

Then break up the ground. Prepare it and get rid of the stones and weeds, and fertilize your soil with the death of the past.

Now you are ready to move onto the next important step.

Section 04 – Step 4: Sow and Water

Chapter 06 – Using Words and Actions

It is time now to move onto step number 4 which is sowing and watering. Now we are getting to the real stuff.

This is just the fourth step, but it is amazing how long the first three steps have taken to get here. They probably took you more work and effort, but from this point forward it goes pretty quickly.

It is actually quite easy to do. There is just one difficult part which we will consider next.

Sowing Your Seeds

Let’s start with the sowing part. What are you going to sow? What did Jesus say in the parable we considered? He said,

The sower sows the word

Sow the Right Words

The best seed that you have to sow is words. Why is that? It is because you are planting deep within you down into your spirit, and words come from your spirit.

Words contain spiritual essence. A seed contains the essence of life in it, that when it is germinated it will bring forth life and reproduction. In the same way our words (the right ones) can contain the potential to release the power that can get you the things that you desire.

This can’t be just any words. The Scripture speaks about us one day having to give account of every idle word that we spoke.

How many of your words are idle? Your words should not just be idle words or talk, but they should be specific words. If you are going to plant a seed you must be specific.

Your words must be pure. That means you must get rid of anger and bitterness.

How many of the words that come out of your mouth are words that you wouldn’t like the general public to hear you speak when you get angry and bitter? We even speak some of those words against the Lord.

Your words must be positive. This is very important, because sometimes people seem to think that making a confession is fine if we say it is negative. You might say something like,

“I am never going to get angry again.”

What picture do you see when you say that? I see somebody who is angry. Or you say,

“I’m never going to be poor again.”

What do you see in your mind? I see a poor person.

You say, “I’m never going to be sick again. I’m never going to have pain in my body again.”

The picture I am seeing is the very thing that I am trying to avoid. So the seeds that you sow which are the words that you are going to speak, must be positive words.

Based on Your Core Desire

That is why you need a core desire. The words that you speak must be based on that desire.

The words that you speak must not be based on the things you don’t want. You already have those. If you continue to plant those seeds you are going to get more of them.

You might say,

“I can’t understand what is happening. I have been confessing.”

What have you been confessing? You have been confessing the negative and you keep reaping the same thing over and over again.

You know I can’t bear preachers who are always standing up and preaching the law. They condemn Christians and tell them that if they don’t sort themselves out, they are going to lose their salvation.

They are going to go to hell. And the Lord is going to judge them, condemn them and things are going to go wrong in their lives.

Some people have heard that preaching for so long that they are saturated with those negative seeds. Then they wonder why everything is going wrong in their lives.

If you are in a church that gives that kind of preaching, get out of there! Go away and find somebody who preaches a positive message. Get the right seeds in otherwise you are going to get a harvest of destruction.

Watering Your Seeds

You have planted our seeds now. You have put them in the ground and covered them up. The next thing you have to do is water those seeds. If you don’t do that they are going to lie there forever.

You know seeds can keep for years until they meet moisture. And when that moisture hits the seeds they come to life.

So how do you water your seeds?

Well in the natural you take a watering can and pour the water on. Here you already have an idea of what to do. You see words are not enough. They have to be watered by actions.

We saw that words produce faith. As words build up inside us they produce faith. But the Scripture says that faith without corresponding action is dead. In the same way that your seeds are dead without water, so your words without actions are dead.

You may have been talking for years about what you are going to get from the Lord. But you may have never lifted a finger to try and make it happen. Then you say,

“I can’t understand why nothing is happening. I have been asking the Lord for a husband, but he hasn’t arrived yet.”

Well did you expect the doorbell to ring one day and there he would be standing? Or did you go out and try and meet a few men and see if one of them is suitable.

You say, “I’m not the social kind of person. I prefer sitting at home and watching TV.”

That is going to get you a husband, right? You can fall in love with a guy in a movie and imagine you are married to him, but he is not going to jump out of the screen to become your husband.

God doesn’t work that way. You have to put action to your faith. Action releases faith and it also reinforces desires.

When I see somebody talking about what they want, I can wonder if they really mean it. But then I may see them starting to do whatever they can to try and get it.

I see how they go out of their way, even if they bump their head, make mistakes, get up and keep going. When I see somebody trying to put into action to get whatever they want, then I see that they have real desire.

You know the strange thing is as you begin to speak and act these things out, the feelings start to come. Perhaps your core desire wasn’t red hot yet. But the more you speak and the more you act, the more it begins to fan it to flame.

Adding Appropriate Action

Then you need to plant not only word seeds, but action as well. You are going to add action to your seeds in this way.

Firstly what kind of seed are you planting? Are you planting a temporal seed? Do you want things from the Lord like money and wealth? Or do you maybe want health or relationships?

Perhaps you want something spiritual from the Lord. Perhaps you want a new touch of His anointing and power; or maybe a greater understanding of the Word. Maybe you want an ability to walk in righteousness and to overcome sin.

Your seeds are either going to be temporal or they are going to be spiritual. That is the harvest you are looking for.

Well is it wrong to want a temporal harvest? No it isn’t wrong. Your harvest doesn’t only have to be spiritual. But if you want a temporal harvest, then perhaps you also need to plant some temporal seeds.

What does that mean? It means that if you want money, how much money are you planting? You might ask me,

“Is that what I think you’re saying? I have to start giving things away?”

Yes that is exactly what I am saying. If you want to receive money, are you ready to give it away? If you want to receive a harvest of wealth, are you prepared to give out?

Using Your Big Guns

That might not sound so good to you, but let me tell you about the big guns. I have taught this in many places.

I once read a devotional from a devotional book called God Calling. It was called The Law of Supply and it went something like this.

When it seems that the supply has run out, you must realize that it has not. Look around and see what you can find to give away.

You say, “But hang on, I need things and you’re telling me to give away what I don’t have?”

I’m sure you have something to give. You don’t have nothing, because you are not living on the street without clothes. You have something that you can give away.

We have found in our own experience that we sometimes reach a place of desperation, especially financially. Then if we want to break that dam and release the blessing of God, we take out of our lack and we plant a seed. We sow a seed and give out in faith, hope and love.

I have shared before that I proved this once many years ago at a time when we were in desperate financial need. We didn’t have the money to pay our rent and it was due. I don’t think we even had half of the rent money. As I looked to the Lord He said to me,

“Sow a seed.”

So I took the money and I gave a large amount of it to somebody as a birthday gift because we were invited to their party. I knew they were also battling financially so I gave that money away. This made me very unpopular with my spouse at that time because she didn’t understand what I was doing.

Well previously I had a third of my rent, but now I only had a tenth of it. That was foolish of me, wasn’t it? I still had all that money to accumulate.

But it wasn’t foolish, because it didn’t take long for my seed to begin to bear forth fruit. People came to my house and said,

“God told me to give this to you.”

Then they would give me an envelope of cash. Someone else called me up and said,

“I have just sold my business. We have a lot of money, and we feel we would like to sow into you and give you some money.”

Wow, I got a lot more than my rent money let me tell you. I have always called this taking out our big guns. I have taught this when it comes to temporal things, but what happens about spiritual things?

Do need something spiritual from the Lord? Do you need ministry, or do you need God to impart to you? Well what do you have to give to others?

You say, “I’m waiting for the anointing to come on me and then I’m going to go out and minister.”

“I’m believing God for the power of healing. When it comes I’ll start to pray for the sick.”

Start looking around you and see how many sick people there are.

You might say to me,

“But I don’t have the power of healing yet.”

“Well why don’t you just go and pray for the sick?”

“But nothing is going to happen.”

“How do you know nothing is going to happen?”

You say, “Because I don’t have the gift of healing.”

Stepping onto Nothing

You are never going to get it that way, because you are not prepared to give out of your nothingness. You are not prepared to sow.

You say, “But I don’t feel like praying now. I don’t feel the anointing or the Spirit moving.”

You see that is when you begin to take out your big guns and say,

“I feel the most unworthy and the most incapable of being used by God.”

Somebody may need a prophetic word but you say,

“I’ve never prophesied before.”

I faced a situation in my first church where I could speak in tongues but I couldn’t interpret. People started to bring messages in tongues in the meeting and I kept waiting for an interpreter to bring the interpretation.

Then one day someone said to me,

“You know you’re the pastor. People expect you to interpret tongues.”

I thought, “But I can’t interpret.”

He said to me,

“Give it a try.”

You would be amazed at what happens when you do that. The next time someone gave a word in tongues I opened my mouth and said,

“Thus says the Lord…”

I was amazed to find that as I started to speak a few things started to come out and I thought,

“Did I make that up?”

Well nobody else thought I made it up because it seemed to minister and people figured it was a good interpretation.

Was it really good? I don’t know, but before long I was flowing so well in interpretation that I could interpret both my own and other peoples’ tongues. It was because I stepped out.

Take out your big guns, whether it be in the temporal realm or in the spiritual realm, or whatever it is that you are believing God for.

Put action to your seeds, because action will bring the water that is going to cause those seeds to germinate and begin to grow. It will suck up the fertilizer and bear forth fruit.

Other Things to Do

Don’t think that you have to only do this once.

You say, “You know I planted my seeds and I watered them. Now we’ll just wait for the fruit.”

It doesn’t work that way does it? You will have to go back and water again and again.

If the ground dries out very quickly with hot, sunny weather, you may have to water it every day, every couple of days or at least once a week. You have to do it again and again.

Here is another problem; the fact that not all the seeds that you plant will grow. Some of them will die and you may have to do some more planting along the way. You may have to add some more seeds because a lot of them just didn’t grow.

Plant some seeds again and keep watering. Do this over and over again.

Develop your core desire, know your rights and prepare your ground. Plant your seeds and water them. These are the first four important steps towards harvesting your desires.

Section 05 – Steps 5 to 7: Protect, Grow and Reap

Chapter 07 – Steps 5 and 6: Protect and Grow Your Harvest

Step 5: Protect Your Harvest

We come now to step number 5 which is to protect your plants. You start out with great enthusiasm and then everything goes wrong. You might say something like this,

“It looked like everything was really happening. God began to use me and the money started to come in. The signs were there and I thought, ‘This is awesome! My seeds have germinated and everything is wonderful.’ ”

But then suddenly everything died. It stopped working and you thought,

“What did I do wrong?”

You didn’t do anything wrong. You simply forgot that there is an enemy out there who does not want you to succeed. He doesn’t want you to walk in blessing or to harvest your desires. He will try and steal everything that God has given you.

So you cleared the ground and dug out all the weeds before you started. Now you start to plant, and you look excitedly and see your plants coming up.

You say, “Look at that; look at my beautiful plants.”

You want to nurture them, and after a while you see another plant coming up. You say,

“Hang on, that plant looks a little different. Which one is my seed?”

Then you discover that the beautiful plant that came up at the beginning and that you were so excited about was actually a weed. Unfortunately there are new weeds that come out along the way.

Distractions and False Promises

You need to look out for distractions. Satan will try to stop you from getting there and watering your seeds daily and keeping on top of it.

He will try to distract you, and eventually you will get so busy with other things. After a while you will say,

“I gave it my best shot. I tried and it worked for a while. But obviously God doesn’t want me to have this so let’s just let it go.”

Look out for discouragements that make you say,

“I’ve failed again. It’s just like what happened last time. You know it’s just my lot in life. Everybody else plants seeds and they grow fine. I plant seeds and they die.

“That’s just how it is with me. I might as well just throw in the towel. Why should I bother trying?”

Watch out also for false promises and hopes. This is like the weed that grew there that you thought was a wonderful promise.

Enemy Attack

Watch out for false promises and hopes and be consistent. Don’t be moved by either success or failure. Just keep at it and look out for the pests that will come and start to eat your plants.

The first ones that appear are the little bugs that you can’t see. Sometimes they start attacking the roots under the ground. Here your plant starts out so wonderful, but the next moment it shrivels away.

You say, “I can’t understand that. What happened there? It was growing fine, but suddenly it is dead. Maybe some rodent came and ate the roots.”

Something attacked your plants, so try and protect them. Don’t assume that everything is just going to go smoothly. Even though it may have started out well, protect your plants where possible.

That means you need to do spiritual warfare. That means taking your stand against the enemy and using the authority of the name of Jesus. When you see these things appear you take your stand and say,

“Oh no, don’t you dare Satan!”

The plant started out great, the money started to come in and then it stopped. Why did it stop? It is because there is an open door to a curse somewhere.

The enemy has attacked. Look for a curse and deal with it. I have covered that all in The New Way of Blessing so I am not going to cover it here.

Deal with the curse and take authority over the forces of darkness. You are in spiritual warfare and you must overcome these things. Do not let your garden go to ruin.

This is one of the most important of the seven stages. You may have done everything perfect up until then. But until this problem comes and until it has been overcome, you are not going to see your harvest.

You may have developed your core desire. You may know your rights and have prepared your ground nicely.

You may have sowed your seeds and watered them faithfully. But until you deal with the opposition that will come, you can’t get to the final two stages. These are the most important stages of all, because they are going to put in your hands the thing that you desire.

Step 6: Grow Your Harvest

The next stage is to grow the harvest. Do not be impatient. It takes time to grow. If you have planted a natural garden, you will know that it is not going to happen overnight.

Some plants take even longer than others, and usually it comes in stages. You have the little stalk that pops out of the ground first. Then there are a few leaves that begin to form.

If it is a fruit that is going to form, either on the plant or underground, that will have its stage. You may see the first buds coming out and then you see the fruit appear.

Follow Through

There are going to be stages, and all of those stages must be followed through. When you see the first sign of a little fruit forming you may say,

“That’s so exciting. It’s a nice tiny tomato; let’s pick it.”

You have one little mouthful and there goes your tomato.

You say, “But I planted big tomatoes. According to what they showed me these tomatoes should grow huge. I can’t understand why I have a small tomato.”

It is because you are too impatient to wait for your plant to mature. You have to grow your harvest before you reap it. It must mature first. Spiritually you say,

“Well I believed. I trusted God and now I can stand back and wait for it to happen.”

No, don’t take your faith out of the field. Keep your faith out there and keep speaking. Keep watering and standing against the enemy.

Maintain and let your crop grow. Protect it all along the way, because right at the last minute something could come and destroy it. You must be careful.

Keep it in His Presence

Here though is the most important thing that your plant needs now that it has grown. It needs the sunshine. And especially as fruit begins to form it needs the sunshine to ripen. That beautiful green tomato that formed needs the sun to turn it red.

You need sunshine, but what is it a picture of? It is the Son of God; the presence of God. The presence of God is the radiance of glory. You need to keep your whole goal and vision in His presence.

How do you do that? You need to get into His presence and stay there.

You say, “I did all the right things. I planted the seed, got into the Word, built my faith and really believed God. I took all the actions. Can’t I just wait now for it to happen?”

No you can’t do that, unless you keep the sun shining.

Spend Time in Prayer

How do you do that?

Here is a very simple way that actually is not so simple because it requires work. But here is what it is; you need to pray daily. You might say,

“I don’t have time to pray daily. I have a job and I’m busy. I have to get up early and go to work. Where do I have time to pray then?

“I get home, have some supper, and before I know it, it is time to go to bed. Where do I get time to pray? I have a busy life.”

Well where do you get time to reap a harvest? Is there a core desire? Is this as important to you as getting your breath under the water? If it is, you will find the time to pray.

And during your prayer time make sure you spend time in His presence. Don’t come and rattle off your whole list. If this was so important I would have made it Step 1. I would have said,

“If you want something from the Lord, nag Him for it.”

Praise Him

No, your first step is praise. You praise Him, lift Him up and thank Him and say,

“Lord I thank you that you have given me this thing.”

That is the confession of faith.

“Lord I thank you that my needs are provided. I thank you that you have given me the desire of my heart. I thank you and I praise you, and I give you glory and honor.”

You should in fact spend a good part of your prayer time doing that.

You might say,

“But I don’t have it yet.”

Well if you don’t praise Him, you probably never will, because you have shut off the sunlight. You covered your plants and they will die and turn yellow.

After you have spent a bit of time praising Him, then get into His presence. You started thanking Him; now start loving Him because He is so wonderful that He loved you enough to provide all of that for you.

Worship Him, and as you do that you will see the sun begin to shine. The glory of His presence will begin to radiate upon you, and then all you need to do is enjoy Him.

Enjoy His Presence

Thank Him first, then worship Him and just enjoy His presence. The Scripture says,

In the presence of the Lord there is joy that fully satisfies; at His right hand there are pleasures that last forever.

Let the sun shine on your plants. Get into the glory of His presence.

You know that could take you a good hour of prayer; well at least a half an hour.

You say, “What – a half an hour of prayer?”

An hour is actually better. If you can at least do half an hour of prayer that is okay, but an hour is better.

“What? I can’t pray for an hour.”

Well perhaps you can’t reap your harvest either. Perhaps what you are asking for is something you don’t really desire. You really were not panting for breath when you were under the water. You were just trying to look for the fish.

Breathing wasn’t so important, but you said,

“If I drown it is okay, at least I got some fish.”

You must grow your harvest by staying in His presence as it grows up and comes to maturity.

You must develop your core desire. You must know that you have the right to ask for this. You must prepare your heart and the ground in which you are going to plant the seed.

You must plant your seed and water it continuously. You must deal with the enemies that would try and steal and oppose you. And you must keep your harvest growing in His presence.

Chapter 08 – Step 7: Reap Your Harvest

Finally the last stage comes. You may think that the first six stages were enough and you can rest back now. You just carry on doing those things and it will all happen.

But there is one more stage that you need to follow through otherwise your harvest is going to be so beautiful. Everyone will come and look at it and admire it, but it will never be yours.

Know When to Reap

When the harvest is ready you must reap it immediately.

Well you need to know when it is time to reap. If you reap prematurely you are not going to get the full harvest. So know when it is time to reap. And when it is time, reap it right away because if you leave it, it will go rotten.

You say, “We had beautiful red tomatoes. I just left them for another couple of weeks, but now they have a whole lot of rotten spots on them.”

You grab those tomatoes in your hands and it turns to mush. Your fingers go right through them and you say,

You say, “Oh no, my tomatoes have gone rotten!”

You should have reaped them two weeks ago while they were nice and fresh.

You say, “But I didn’t want to rush it, because you said we must grow the harvest and we mustn’t rush it. We must give it time to mature.”

Yes I did say that, but there is a time to reap. The Scripture says that there is a time to sow and a time to reap. And when there is a time to reap then you must do it. You must act now, because action is what will finally bring that thing into your possession.

Let it Lie

As you reap your harvest, you now finally have what you desired from the Lord. Perhaps you now think,

“I should go and plant a whole lot more seeds in the soil right now.”

No don’t do that yet. Let the soil rest for a bit. Don’t replant right away. You may have reaped your fruit but there are some old plants there. Dig them into the ground and let them rot a bit.

Let them become compost. Allow them to re-fertilize the soil and make it ready for the next planting. Then you can use that same soil again.

Maybe this time you want to plant a different seed. There are many different things that you can harvest. There are many different seeds that you can plant in that same soil over and over again.

You won’t have to go through the first stages anymore now because the soil is already prepared. The ground is already broken. All you are adding is the final bit of fertilizer.

Bigger Growth

You have already cleared all the weeds and taken out the stones. You have awesome soil that you can use again and again. And if you have had the faith and the ability to follow through and believe God for something big, maybe you are now ready to ask Him for something bigger.

Maybe you are planting bigger plants, a bigger tree or something more magnificent. You will find it is very easy when you exercise your faith this way. You have learned the principles and you’ve proved them. Now you will find you can grow.

Before now you may have believed God for a small amount of income. Now you can believe Him for larger amounts of income. Up until now you may have believed God to use you in a bit of ministry. Now you believe Him to lift you up into a higher ministry office and use you more powerfully.

Repeat the Cycle

Use the same principles over and over again. Once you have prepared your soil, just give it time to repair again. Then move to the next stage and keep sowing and planting. You can keep doing this if you follow through these seven stages.

1. Develop your core desire

2. Know your rights

3. Prepare the ground

4. Sow the seeds and water them

5. Deal with the opposition from the enemy

6. Leave your harvest to grow in the sunshine

7. Then reap your harvest and start again

You can repeat these principles for all of the core desires that you have. Maybe the first one has been fulfilled, so now you can do the second and the third one.

Allow a different time for different seeds. If you are planting radishes they mature very quickly. If you are planting onions it takes a lot longer before they are ready.

It depends on what you are wanting. Don’t expect the same results from a different seed.

What happens if you planted your seed and you failed? What happens if you let the enemy destroy your plants? Are you going to throw up your hands in despair?

No, plough your failure back into the ground and let it become the fertilizer that you can use again to plant new seed and reap a harvest. All you have to do is to keep going until you succeed.

It doesn’t matter whether your desire is temporal, spiritual, mental or whatever it is, you can apply these seven principles again and again.

In future teachings I will be sharing, how you can apply them specifically to various different desires. I believe that you can reap the harvest, and you can harvest every desire that you have from the Lord.

You Have Reached The End of This Book

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Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Section 01 – Introduction and Step 1

Chapter 01 – Introduction

Chapter 02 - Step 1: Develop a Core Desire

Section 02 – Step 2: Know Your Rights

Chapter 03 – Stand on the Word

Section 03 – Step 3: Prepare Your Ground

Chapter 04 – Hard Soil and Soil With Stones

Chapter 05 - Soil With Weeds in it

Section 04 – Step 4: Sow and Water

Chapter 06 – Using Words and Actions

Section 05 – Steps 5 to 7: Protect, Grow and Reap

Chapter 07 – Steps 5 and 6: Protect and Grow Your Harvest

Chapter 08 – Step 7: Reap Your Harvest

There is More For You