PLANTING SEEDS by Marsha Burns:

Small Straws:  Ask for wisdom in sowing seeds for the next harvest.  This is a significant time when the seeds of kindness and generosity will produce a greater than usual harvest in the months to come.  It is important that you treat others with the same respect and kindness as you believe you deserve.  Be righteous. 

Genesis 8:22  "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease."

It seems that almost every year at this time that God gives me a heads-up about planting—sowing seeds that will bring a good harvest.

Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

So, I believe that we need to think of the kind of harvest we want to gather in as the seeds we sow take root and grow and mature.

Mark 4:26-29  And He said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."  

We each have to determine what seeds we need to sow to produce the harvest we desire.

We must begin with fruit…the Fruit of the Spirit:

Galatians 5:22-23  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Ephesians 5:9 for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.

For us to reap the fruit of the Spirit, we have to sow the seeds of goodness, righteousness and truth—actually allow those attributes to become part of who we are.  Those seeds are the choices we make in our lives as we respond to life’s circumstances and people appropriately—according to the moving of the Spirit and not the works of the flesh.

Galatians 5:19-21  Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,  idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

If we want flesh to grow up and produce it’s own harvest, all we have to do is commit sexual immorality, control and exploit others, get drunk, be jealous, angry, hateful, selfish, sow discord, etc.

What do we want?

Elevation!  We always have opportunities to move higher spiritually, but we need to sow seeds of desire, seeking, drawing near to God. 

James 4:8  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

This will undoubtedly lead to receiving His wisdom and revelation, the fruit of being in close relationship with Him.

Seeds of prosperity:

3 John 1:2  Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.

Good health depends on the prosperity of the soul.

Soul—mind, emotions, will—prospering in these areas is to be One with Christ, thinking and expressing feelings as He does, and doing as He wills.

John 17:18-23  "As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

Prosperity, favor and blessings:

Luke 6:38  "Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you."

2 Corinthians 9:6  But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

This doesn’t necessarily mean quantity, but rather quality…with a generous heart, unselfishly, gladly.

2 Corinthians 9:7  So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 

Better relationships:

Luke 6:31 And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.

To have a friend, you must be a friend.

We need to remember this—the sower went out to sow!

Mark 4:4-9  "And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have 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 seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred."  And He said to them, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

V14-20  "The sower sows the word.  "And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.  These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.  But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred."

Let’s sow good seeds in abundance that will yield a bountiful and fruitful harvest in the season to come!