Living Under God's Favor

Current Mood: Anointed & On Fire 4 God!

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Galatians 6:7

For some reason this Scripture has captured my attention today: Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Galatians 6:7).  To really grasp the meaning of this Scripture, you must ask, “What is it that usually causes one to be deceived?”  I believe that there are basically 2 things that cause us to be deceived.  One is our own perception of a person or matter and sometimes someone else’s perception of a person or a matter; both of which deals with what we see or what we think we know.  The 2nd is our heart (how we feel), which is very deceptive.  Both 1 and 2 are things the Bible explicitly tells us not to depend on: 

Walk by faith and not by sight. II Corinthians 5:7

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9 

We’ve all heard that you reap what you sow, but I don’t believe we really live our lives based upon this principle.  For some reason we deceive ourselves into believing that we can plant a pumpkin seed and get a cabbage harvest OR plant a bad seed and receive a good harvest.  Beloved, once you plant that pumpkin seed there is no amount of wishing or praying that will turn that pumpkin seed into a cabbage harvest; neither a bad seed into a good harvest.  While it is true that God can cause an exception to that rule (the rule He created) to occur, 99.9% of the time this principle is in effect in our lives. 

“WELL, I’M NOT A FARMER” 

Yes you are.  We all are.  Our words and deeds are seeds and they do in fact yield a harvest.  That mother who continues to call her child stupid and other hurtful names will yield the harvest of alienating that child as well as adversely affecting that child’s future many years after saying such esteem-shattering words (or planting such seed).  A marriage will not yield nurturing and fulfilling fruit from seeds of insecurity, deception and any other negative seed.  A person cannot expect the fruit of honesty when his or her life is based upon a series of lies.  

With all of that said, I must give you the caveat.  There will be times when it “appears” as though you can sow a negative and reap a positive, which ultimately leads to us deceiving ourselves.  We think that because we experience some positive, which is really God’s mercy and grace, that we’ve somehow beaten God, or the Bible has failed or that God and His Word has lied, but I’m here to tell you, emphatically NOT SO!  God is not nor will He ever be mocked!  This is a true fact, principle and law whether you choose to believe it or not.  You will certainly receive the harvest from the seed you’ve planted, whether it takes one day or several decades.  And do under understand that your harvest is ALWAYS far greater than the seed that you’ve sown (whether good or bad). 

PLANTING
While praying earlier today, before reading this Scripture, the Lord “interrupted” my morning prayer (I know that sounds strange) and told me to go and call a near and dear friend of mine, who also happens to be my sister-in-Christ.  My initial response was that I’ll do it after prayer, but God told me to do it now.  So I did.  He gave me a specific set of instructions telling me to extend myself to this sister.  At the time, I had no idea of what she was facing or going through, all I knew is what God told me to do.  When she answered the phone I wasn’t sure how she was going to take what I had to say, but by the end of the phone call, we both knew that this was orchestrated by the mighty hand of God.  Shortly after hanging up the phone, the Lord told me that my obedience planted a seed into the harvest I’ll soon be getting.  Wow.  At the time I placed the call, I wasn’t thinking about myself nor planting a seed; I was only thinking about doing what the Lord was telling me to do.  

Beloved, most of the seeds you plant will be without your realizing it until well after that fact because our planting happens on a continuous basis.  In addition to that, it takes little to no effort to plant bad seeds, but it often takes a degree of effort to purposely plant good seeds.  And understand that seed can come in many forms.  Your seed can be a monetary donation or investment, the words that you use, a deed that you’ve done to or for another person, and so on; and as I mentioned earlier, the return on your investment will greatly exceed the seed you actually planted.  Therefore, it is good to always keep that in mind; as it applies to all seeds, even bad seed.  

BE NOT DECEIVED

The devil enjoys manipulating circumstances and getting you to focus on what you see rather than what God says.  An example I can give you from my own life experience is something that happened to me about a week ago.  Prior to this particular day last week, the Lord had placed something in my spirit about 2010.  In 2010 there will be many people this year who will receive their harvests, and in some cases, a great harvest!  This includes those who wisely sown as well as those who accidentally sown.  Even some who sown this year will receive the harvest in the same year.  The word isn’t for me, or shall I say just for me, but rather a great number of people.  For some the harvest will be financial but it doesn’t stop there.  There will be some harvests that are familial, psychological, social, physical, and mental.  Some harvests will come by means of promotion while others will come as an increase in membership (for pastors over churches or other leaders and ministries).  The harvest varies because the seed planted varies, but for quite a few people, this year will be their year of harvest.  It will be off the charts!  There will even be some who don’t deserves it (based on others’ opinions), but even those who are undeserving (truthfully speaking we’re all undeserving) will also receive a recompense of reward, their harvest.  

So here is this word that’s been in my spirit a few weeks now, and on this particular day last week, I was sitting on the edge of my bed talking to the Lord.  “Lord, You have put this word in my spirit about 2010, but all I’ve seen so far is pain and heartache.  And it’s only February!  My beloved pastor has passed away suddenly last month, my daughter and granddaughter are no longer with me and I sit here in my bedroom, looking at boxes everywhere because I’ve lost my home.  I no longer have a car and I have only a matter of days before I must leave and I don’t know where to go.  Yet the word You’ve given to me is so strong and so alive in me but nothing that I see seems to point in that direction.”  God then replied, “What you’re seeing is the residue from 2009 and not what I have for you in 2010”.  In that same moment, I recalled a prophetic word that was given to me as well as my church by one of the ministers in early December 2009.  The Lord had her so burdened with this word that she first tried to get it out by email, but that wasn’t good enough.  She then put it on one of the church’s website, http://www.sgomonline.org/faithfood/2009/12/05/the-residue-of-2009/; however, still that wasn’t good enough.  She then asked the Pastor for permission to address the congregation, which my Pastor permitted, and the Holy Spirit used her in a powerful way that Sunday.  This word truly came from the Lord, and in all three efforts she made to get this word out, I received. 

Shortly after that prophetic word in December, sometime during January, I woke up early in the morning and went to God in prayer.  Truthfully speaking, I was rather whiny that particular morning.  I won’t go into this too much since I wrote about this in my eJournal, http://www.naimawilliams.com/blog/2010/02/03/moment-of-reflections/, but in short, about 30 minutes into my whine fest, God said 7 words to me, “Arise from the ashes.  It is finished.”  I didn’t receive this immediately, but later I realized that God was telling me that I had entered into a new season.  This was difficult for me to digest at first because everything around me seemed disintegrated and desolate; yet God was telling me that I’ve entered into the season of restoration. 

SO WHERE’S THE DECEPTION?   

In all that I had seen around me.  The word deception means to cause to accept as true or valid what is actually false or invalid; to give a false impression such as in being deceived by appearances.  In the experiences I shared with you, all that I could see was what was around me and not what God was showing and telling me.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling you to ignore the reality of your situation, but rather to focus on the God who knows the true reality of your situation; what’s behind the scenes.  In my case, I allowed myself to be fooled by what I was seeing; all of which implied that 2010 was going to be a bad year and restoration was far from where I was.  It appeared as though I was abandoned, alone and destitute, and that things was only going to get worse; and for a moment, I abandoned all that I knew about the Kingdom of God and focused on what I was seeing around me.  I know that in the Kingdom of God, you must believe and receive BEFORE you can see it (Mark 11:23).  I know that we are not to look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).  I know that as a child of God, I must walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7); but in all my knowing, I allowed the things I seen to persuade me that God’s Word wouldn’t come to past in my life.  I thank God because I could’ve continued along this path; however, by His grace and His Spirit I remembered Who has the upper hand, which is God Almighty.  Heaven and earth shall surely pass away, but God’s Word remains forever (Luke 21:33).  And His Word shall NEVER return unto Him void but must accomplish that which He desires and achieve the purpose for which He’s sent it (Isaiah 55:11).  Therefore, on this day beloved, my word to you is be not deceived by what you see, neither be deceived by those things you may experience that appears to be a complete contradiction to the seeds you know that you’ve sown; for God is not mocked.  You SHALL certainly reap that which you sow!  Whether good or bad, your harvest will certainly come!  SELAH

I pray that you receive this word in the spirit of which it was given and that you are ever so mindful to consider the harvest you want before planting the seed into the ground.  I pray that each day you allow the incorruptible Seed, that is the Word of God, to renew your mind and circumcise your heart.  This is my prayer for you in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Original Date Written: Tuesday, February 23, 2010

© 2010, Living Under God's Favor. All rights reserved. This site is part of NWC Ministries.