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.
How many times have you not heard people reason or talk their way out for blessing? They say things like . . .
"Well, I know God can do it, but He would not do that for me . . ."
"I know God does not want me to do this, but I always do it - I cannot help myself."
"I can see God healing others, but He will not heal me."
"When this happens I always fail."
God did not put your faith in your head, He put it in your heart. That is why your heart always rises to the expression of faith. And that is why the voice of faith will come from your heart not your head. As a matter of fact, the biggest problem your heart will face when it speaks in faith is your head.
As somebody has said before - we need to learn to say, ‘Shut up head, I’m being led.’Precious believer - your faith pleases God - so speak it out loud. When the children of Israel marched around the wall and God said ‘Shout’ the Bible says they let out a mighty shout.
It is time to give voice to your faith.
Speak to your mountain - say ‘be cast into the sea.’Speak to storms - say, ‘be still.’Speak to your needs - say, ‘you are satisfied in Christ.’I cannot help but wonder just how many times I have talked my way out of the answer to my prayers or the blessing Father has for me?
1. The Voice of Faith
2. The Eyes of Faith
John 4:35b
Let me tell you why what Jesus saw was different to what the disciples saw! Jesus sees from the other side of faith. Jesus sees from the other side of hope. Jesus sees from the other side of prayers.
So He says to the disciples, ‘Lift up your eyes.’
The word for ‘lift up’ means literally to be raised up or elevated because of something that is inside of you. It is the working on the outside of something that is working on the inside. It is the outward expression to an inward conviction.
When we look through the eyes of faith, we will see two things that we cannot otherwise see.
a. We will see things that are only seen in the spiritual reality.
2 Kings 6:19 - Gehazi and the mountains full of horses and chariots;
b. We will see things that are not yet as though they were.
Hebrews 11:1 ‘the conviction of things not seen.’Watch this: Your faith can change the seed you planted and immediately make it ripe for harvest. Why? Because faith sees something in the fulfillment of potential and the realization of promises.
When we look through the eyes of faith we learn to see things as God sees them - and fulfilled promise then becomes the reality for faith.
Your faith creates your reality. Jesus said, ‘Be it unto you according to your faith.’1. The Voice of Faith
2. The Eyes of Faith
I wanted to show you this thirdly because I was fascinated by it.
3. The Rewards of Faith
John 4:36
Did you know that God has built a kingdom principle into your faith - it is about the outcome - and it is twofold?
Wages
The first is the wages or reward of your faith. ‘Already’ - it is the now rewards of your faith. It is the consequences of what you say. Every word and deed is a seed, and your reward will be the harvest of what you have sown with your mouth and your actions. The reward or wages of your faith is that you get what you declare.
Do you know what tired people always say? "I am so tired, I never have enough energy, I do not know how I am going to get through the day?" well guess what tomorrow is going to be like for them? That’s right - they just created it.
The more we talk about being tired, depressed, overweight, defeated, despondent, the more we are going to feel tired, depressed, overweight, defeated, despondent. How about believing and declaring a different report?
Confess the promises - and hold true to the word of faith.
Fruit for Eternal Life
This is the eternal consequence - it is about gathering your heavenly reward if you want. Did you know that God has rewards in heaven for you when you activate the promises by faith? The greater your faithfulness here, the greater your bring by faith the promises of God in, the greater your reward and experience of eternal life will be.
1. The Voice of Faith
2. The Eyes of Faith
3. The Rewards of Faith
4. The Partnership of Faith
John 4:37-38
When we walk in our faith harvest, we partner with others or, as the Bible says, we enter into their labor.
God sent you to reap a faith harvest - no more excuses. Quit putting off the harvest - it is ready and ripe now.
When you start to see what Jesus said here, and start to walk in it - you will start to see yourself reaping even where you have not sown.
Here is an excuse you have heard many times - ‘Well - I sow and another reaps.’ That is not what it says - it says sometimes you reap where you have sown, but you sometimes reap where you have not sown. This verse Is not excusing us from reaping as many use it to prove - it is empowering us to sometimes see a harvest where we have not sown.
And we get there and find the power of working together with other laborers, harvesters, faith speakers as we grow into Christlikeness and see more and more of God in our world.
1. The Voice of Faith
2. The Eyes of Faith
3. The Rewards of Faith
4. The Partnership of Faith
Conclusion
Precious believer - it is time to stop putting off the harvest - God has already released it. The answer to your prayer is at hand.
It is time to declare over ourselves the things God says, over our loved ones the things God says, over our circumstances the things God says - it is time to come into agreement with what God says.
It is time to start to lift up our eyes and see things the way God sees them - that we are blessed and favored, that we enjoy the goodness of God, that our needs are all met and our cup runs over, that we are holy and mature, gifted and equipped.
God has written a thousand promises all over His Word and deep in your heart that say, "Life, life, life is far too sacred to ever end - and you are far too special to every walk in anything less than My abundant provision, in My chosen path and in My perfect love."
Your harvest is now ready. Lift up your eyes. Your God is now waiting. Your fields are now white. God has anointed you to bring forth the harvest - it is a harvest of faith.
Will you pray with me please?
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