The Harvest Of Faith Series

Series - "Journeying with John - It’s a Blast" (JWJ-16)

The Harvest of Faith

John 4:35-38This morning I want us to look at some profound principles from Scripture that will, for many, take walking out our faith to the next level. Please open your Bibles with me to the book of John, John and the 4th chapter. I would like us to read aloud verses 35-38.

John 4:35-38 - Read - Pray

This morning I want to talk with you a little about ‘The Harvest of Faith’ - that is the harvest that your faith can bring in. Has it ever occurred to you that the very thing you are praying about, the very thing you have been asking God to do, the very thing that you need from God He has already provided, and all that needs to happen is that your faith needs to harvest it? What if that answer is right in front of you - just waiting for you to harvest it? Did you know that it is possible to not receive the harvest, not because God never sent it - but because you or I did not harvest it? Our faith never laid hold of it. So this morning, I invite you to look with me at The Harvest of Faith.

Four things I want us to see from this passage:-

1. The Voice of Faith

John 4:35a

What is the voice of faith? It is declaring with your mouth the truth you believe in your heart. May I say that again? It is declaring with your mouth the truth you believe in your heart. We need to learn to give voice to our faith.

Psalm 107:2 "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." How many of you know it is time to ‘say so.’

Not ‘think’ so, ‘believe’ so or ‘desire’ so - but something supernatural happens when we say so, when we speak it out. There is a direct tie between what we say and what God does.Your declaration creates your future.

Let the weak say, "I am strong." - In other words, let the weak come into agreement with God.

When David looked at Goliath - he gave voice to his faith - he created his future - he simply came into agreement with God. He said, ‘This day the Lord has given you over to me - and I will cut off your head.’ He gave voice to his faith. The more you give voice to your faith the less you will give thought to your fears.We need to give voice to our faith.

2 Cor. 4:13 "Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak."In Romans 4:19-21 - we read that Abraham believed God despite the natural state of his physical body. His body came into alignment with his faith - or as the Bible says it ‘was empowered in faith [by] giving thanks and praise to God.’Precious believer - we need to spend more time giving voice to our faith. Let’s face it, we have spent enough time speaking our doubts - and that has not worked out particularly well for us has it.

Church - how many of you know it is time to change what we have been saying? It is time to start expressing the blessing, expressing the blessing.

Here is what God has been reminding me of from His Word - and we started to look at this on Thursday night at study. Let me give you the principle again - What we declare in the natural we empower in the spiritual. That is why the Bible is full of ‘faith’ declarations.

Why is what we say important? Because if we are not careful, we will talk ourselves out of our harvest. Two things will talk you out of your harvest . . .

The Voice of Fear/Doubt

The Voice of Reason

When Jesus said to the disciples "Do you not say, ‘There are four months and then comes the harvest,’" they were not, as I have always pictured it, looking at wheat fields gently swaying with almost ripe ears of wheat! These fields were four months away from harvest. But a wheat spring growth cycle is about 120 days. That means the seeds had probably just been planted - or possibly even not yet planted - there were probably not yet even shoots sticking out of the ground. The wheat cycle is about four months - so if they were four months away the seed was probably just planted or perhaps not yet planted.

We will not reap the harvest of faith while we confess the limitation of fear or the bondage of failure.