Sowing and Reaping

When we are born again into the Kingdom of God, we have to find out how the kingdom works — the laws and principles on which the kingdom works.

We all know that the kingdom of God is the kingship, the reign of the King, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not a certain geographical area where He reigns, nor a place somewhere in heaven where He will reign someday.

Jesus says: “The kingdom is within you.” (Luke 17:21) There is no other place where anybody could ever experience the kingdom of God, except in his spirit — in his heart.

Whenever somebody is IN Christ, he is also IN the Kingdom; whenever Christ is within me, the kingdom is within me. This is the reason why Jesus says: “Seek first the kingdom of God and all these other things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)

The WILL of God is His reign, His kingdom. Whenever I’m seeking the supreme WILL of God in everything and His WILL reigns in my life, then that IS the kingdom of God, which I’m seeking.

When Christ reigns in me and in my life as King, then He does His perfect WILL in my life. Jesus is peace; His kingdom is a kingdom of peace — IN me. Jesus is love; His kingdom is the reign of love IN me. So He is gladness, purity, holiness, health, prosperity; all of these are reigning in me, if His kingdom is in me.

So, what is His righteousness?

All of us know the court of justice. It is the invisible power of government. It is based on the laws of the country. It has no power over somebody who does not break them, but the moment one breaks the law he is liable to justice.

A person chooses his own punishment, for he chooses to obey or to disobey the laws.

It is precisely the same with the kingdom of God. It is based on certain laws; the righteousness of God is the justice of God. Thus we have to make sure on which laws the kingdom of God is based; how the kingdom of God operates.

Don’t worry, we are not going back to the laws of the Old Testament. We are coming to the perfect WILL of God, the justice of God, which is the measure of God, all through the Bible. The spiritual laws with which God rules everything from the beginning till the end.

We all know the laws of nature like gravitation or electricity, both very strong and helpful powers as long as one obeys their laws. The moment you disobey their laws, they become your deadly enemy.

Just as these are laws of nature which must be obeyed, so there are spiritual laws on which God’s justice is based. Obedience to them is life, disobedience is death; laws of the kingdom of God.

In Genesis 8:22 God stated that the time for sowing and reaping will never pass, till the end of the world.

Sowing and reaping is also a law of nature, for the kind of seed you are sowing determines what you will reap. If one sows wheat, he will harvest wheat. It won’t help you one bit to sow sunflower seed when you want to reap wheat. Even though you fast and pray alongside that soil for it to produce wheat — that won’t help you anything.

Every kind produces of its own kind.

Now, this law of the seed is in truth the law on which the kingdom of God works. It is the principle of the kingdom; a law of nature, but also THE law of the kingdom.

So is the kingdom of God, as if a man cast seed upon the earth; and sleep and rise night and day, and the seed spring up and grow, himself knows not how. The earth bears fruit of herself; first a blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the fruit is ripe, straightway he puts forth the sickle, because the harvest is come. Mark 4:26–29

This is a description of the righteousness of the kingdom, the principle on which the kingdom is based.

Today there are millions of reborn children of God, some even baptised in Holy Spirit and living for God to the best of their knowledge, who don’t know how the kingdom of God which is within them operates.

The kingdom of God — His WILL — makes of you a ruler over all that is not His will, when you obey the kingdom’s laws. This is LIFE for everyone who finds it.

Jesus inherited a higher Name than the angels; that is His inheritance and with that goes everything. (Hebrews 1:1–4) We born-again people are born from the same Father, so we inherited the same Name and thus are coheirs with Jesus.

Just as Jesus was totally obedient to His Father, so we are to be totally obedient to HIM, for He is our King. I obey only His Word.

Moses said: “God will send a Prophet in this nation; you must listen and obey Him, for the one not obeying Him will be eradicated from the nation.”

Mary, the mother of Jesus, said the same at the wedding at Cana: “Whatever He says to you, DO.”

It was repeated by the Voice on the mountain. Peter wanted to build three tents — one for Moses, representing the Law, one for Elijah, representing the Prophets, and one for Jesus. (Matthew 17:1–9) The Voice, however, made it very clear: it has nothing to do with churches; it has only to do with Jesus, the Word of God, the King. “This is My Beloved Son, listen to Him.”

To experience the kingdom I have to obey the King of the kingdom.

What will it help me to call Him “Lord! Lord!” but I don’t DO what He says? (Luke 6:46)

For many years I thought that when somebody is born again, saved and baptised and baptised in Holy Spirit, if he is delivered from all visible sins and tries to live a holy life, then he is obedient to the King. Then he stumbles forward in sickness and poverty and all the time he just hopes for something better “in heaven” someday.

Jesus says: “I have come for you to have Life and Abundance.” (John 10:10) “Beloved, I pray that in all things you prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.” (3 John 1:2)

This is not for “someday in heaven”! In heaven we will have everything. There won’t be any sickness there. There won’t be any poverty there. This is for NOW, while we are living in the kingdom of God here on earth.

Darkness, the devil, reigned on earth as king, till Jesus came to proclaim on earth the kingdom of Light.

It is an altogether different kingdom. Everybody who is born again is born into this kingdom of Light. Then you no longer are in the kingdom of darkness; you are dead to that kingdom and you are living in the kingdom of His wonderful Light. (Colossians 1:13)

Obviously you are now under the rule of another kingdom with other laws; a different justice system.

How is the kingdom of God?

Jesus says: “SO is the kingdom of God, as if a man cast seed upon the earth…” He had just told them the parable of the seed, one of the best-known parables of all. (Mark 4) Then He asked them: “Know you not this parable? And how shall you know all the parables?”

He made it clear to them that if they didn’t understand this specific parable about the sower and the seed, they would not be able to understand all the others.

The other parables are all pictures of the kingdom life, but this parable of sowing and reaping is the basic principle, the method, on which the kingdom of God operates.

It becomes clear in verse 14: the sower sows the word. We always thought it is only the Word of God, and the four types of soil are the hearts of people — which it is — but He doesn’t say it is only the Word of God; He says the sower sows the word. It also refers to the words we speak. Every word going out of your mouth is seed you are sowing by saying it.

Whatever you say is very important.

In Mark 11 Jesus teaches us something very precious. After the fig tree died, He said: “Have God’s faith. Amen I say to you, whoso shall say to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but believe that what he says comes to pass, he shall have whatever he says.”

If you believe it in your heart and confess it with your mouth, you get what you say. (Romans 10:9–10)

Not necessarily what you want, but what you say. Not what you are praying for, but what you are saying — even in prayer. Not what you are hoping for, but what comes out of your mouth.

That is the secret of the seed: you are sowing with your mouth.

Like healing, for instance. Often we hear someone say: “Please pray for me, I have sugar diabetes,” or some other sickness.

The Bible says that if you believe it in your heart and say it with your mouth, you HAVE it. That person believes in his heart and says with his mouth that he has sugar diabetes. What now? The law of the seed: the seed is the word he speaks, the seed grows, and the person reaps sugar diabetes. You get whatever you say.

Every time you confess sickness, you are planting more and more seeds; you believe and cuddle that sickness.

All right — I know it doesn’t sound true. Many people will immediately argue about this. But it IS true in any case. The Bible says the words are seeds and seeds grow.

He says you will get whatever you say; not because YOU are so important, but because the Word of God says it is so. God never tells a lie.

Now, with whom do you agree?

In Matthew 18:19 Jesus says: “I tell you, whenever two of you on earth agree on anything whatsoever they ask, My Father in heaven will give it to them.”

We are talking about illnesses, something we can’t wish away. What can we do?

If I say I don’t have diabetes — or whatever sickness — perhaps I’m telling a lie. You needn’t say you don’t have it; just don’t say you HAVE it. Say what God says about every sickness and disease, and then you agree with God — He IS right.

What does God say? “Jesus, who Himself carried our sins in His body up to the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live unto righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)

Your body says you are sick; the doctors say the same. Opposite to that, GOD says you are healed by the stripes of Jesus. Now it seems as if you tell a lie by agreeing with God to say, “I’m healed by the stripes of Jesus.”

You can never tell a lie by agreeing with God. God can’t ever tell a lie.

YOU need to decide for yourself whether you want to agree with your feelings, or whether you will dare to believe GOD and thus agree with Him. As always, in everything, the choice is yours.

We don’t deny that there are sicknesses; we only deny the right of any sickness to be on any born-again child of God, for Jesus carried all our sin as well as all of our sicknesses. By His stripes we are healed.

You needn’t say you feel you are healed — perhaps you don’t feel well at all. Just don’t SAY you are sick. This has nothing to do with feeling; it has to do with what God says.

If you are willing to agree with God, it means you are going to say the same thing that He says. If HE says I’m healed by the stripes of Jesus, I am willing to be healed by the stripes of Jesus, so then I AM healed.

Decide now, from this moment: I am willing to BE whatever God says I AM, and never mind anything else. Then SAY it with your mouth: “By the stripes of Jesus I AM healed. I do believe you, Lord, for You really do know better than my feelings or even better than the doctors — You know everything, so if you say by the stripes of Jesus I’m healed, I am willing to be healed by the stripes of Jesus.”

“For with the heart one believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation.” (Romans 10:10) The very same moment you start saying it with your mouth, you start sowing healing and health for your body. Then you and God are two agreeing on earth about your healing.

Pull out the weeds

How many months or years have you been busy sowing this sickness with your words? Look at the weeds. Every day you can feel the effect your words have on your body.

Now you need to do some pulling of weeds. Just ask God’s forgiveness: “Father, in the Name of Jesus please forgive me because I was sick, because I confessed that I was sick, against your Word.” You did it in ignorance, but when you sow some seed in ignorance it still grows.

Ask Jesus to cleanse you by His blood of all wrong confessions that you have made through all the years. Ask Him to put a watch before your mouth to help you never again to say any negative thing about your body.

Remember, it has nothing to do with feelings. By the time you get here, your feelings didn’t change one bit; perhaps you are feeling as sick as before — and you are still looking the same as well.

But your inward attitude has changed; now you know that you are healed by the stripes of Jesus. He carried your sicknesses, so you needn’t also carry them.

How to get rid of the sickness? By confessing to Jesus that you are sorry, and by confessing the Word of God with thanksgiving and joy; by saying the Word of God with gladness, sowing seeds of health.

You needn’t tell other people; it has nothing to do with other people.

We always thought that a testimony is to tell something to the people in church, but a testimony is every word coming from your mouth, good as well as bad. It has nothing to do with other people; it has to do with you and Jesus, the Living Word.

Start confessing the Word to yourself and keep on believing with your heart and saying with your mouth that God’s Word is true. Keep on thanking Him because He carried your illnesses. Rejoice, because you are glad for your healing. “Offer up sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of your lips confessing to His Name.” (Hebrews 13:15)

It may be difficult to reach that point, but it takes only one decision — and the overflowing grace of God.

The seed has life in it

If you can only see how simple the Law of sowing and reaping works: a man casts seed in the soil, the soil brings forth the fruit, in its own time.

Jesus says if you have faith as a seed of mustard, and we immediately think “as small as a seed of mustard”. This is not all; faith AS seed. The meaning is SEED — something that can grow.

The Word of God is like seed, which you sow by saying it. Within this seed is living life, Jesus Himself.

“The words I speak to you are Spirit and life.” The life is within the Word. It is the Word itself that has life in it. You can’t make it alive; like any seed, it has life inside of it, even if it looks dead.

When you sow some seeds in your garden you needn’t try to make them alive, you need not pray for them to become alive; they have life inside all by themselves. You only need to plant them.

The life inside of God’s Word is FAITH. That is God’s faith, the Lord Jesus Himself.

Whenever God says something then it is truth; then I sow it by saying the same that God says. I need not “try” to “believe” the Word of God — it is true whether I believe it or not. I just have to SAY it.

How does one sow weeds?

“Death and life is in the power of the tongue — whoever likes to use it will eat the fruits thereof.” (Proverbs 18:21) Either death, or life.

Perhaps you get up one morning and feel bad, and you tell your husband: “I’m really feeling bad.” He looks at you and says: “Yes, you are a little pale, I’m sure you don’t feel well.”

Already two of you have agreed on earth. You call your friend and tell her the same story; she also agrees. Soon there are a lot of people agreeing on your sickness. Then you have it.

Then you start praying: “Lord, I’m so sick! Please heal me!” And every time you are saying it, even in prayer, you are sowing seeds of sickness.

This does not work only with sickness, but with any problem.

Learn not to pray the problem, but to pray the answer. When you feel sick, pray the Bible: “Lord Jesus, thank you for healing me, for by your stripes I AM healed.” It is the same effort, with the same breath.

It is so simple. Perhaps it is not so easy, but so simple — if one just can SEE it.

For example: I have a little soil and a bag of sunflower seed. I need sunflower seed to sell, for me to make a living, so I want to reap sunflower seeds. Now I sit beside that piece of soil praying and fasting to reap sunflowers. After some weeks I see that nothing happens. I will keep on praying till I die, but I will never harvest any sunflowers.

Why? Because I didn’t sow the seed. I will reap only what I sow.

We are living in a world of weeds; we need not sow them, they grow in any case. I have to keep my hand on it and pull it up.

It is dangerous to say something negative, even in prayer. Don’t pray the problem; pray the solution, the answer. The answer IS in the Bible. Sow the good seed of God’s Word by saying it, and you will surely harvest your sunflowers.

Some people get angry and tell me this is no joke. I know. For that reason it is worth it to learn and exercise how to speak positively, how to speak God’s Word in any circumstance. You have nothing to lose; you are already sick as it is. You can only win.

The word will be obeyed

Your spirit and body obey the words of your mouth, because you say what you believe, and what you believe is what you think — whether you want to admit it or not.

I’m at my soil again. I want to sow sunflowers, but the soil says no, it won’t grow sunflowers; whatever I sow, it will produce beans. It does not work like that.

The soil does not have any choice. Just the same with your body, your spirit, your circumstances — they have no choice. When you say wrong and negative things with your mouth it certainly will grow in your body, spirit and circumstances, because that is what you believe. Death and life are in the power of the tongue.

“As a man thinks in his heart, so IS he.” (Proverbs 23:7) “For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:34)

James tells us that the tongue is poison and it poisons our whole life; it is a fire kindled in hell.

You steer your whole life and body with the tongue, just like the rudder of a ship; a very small part of the body with which you steer your whole life.

Out of the same mouth come blessings and curses. The Bible says no man can tame the tongue — but, glory to God, Holy Spirit can, if you want to change your tongue, of course.

Whenever a ship wants to change course, the rudder is turned to the direction where it wants to go. The rudder determines the direction in which the ship is headed.

When I want to change my life, I need to change my tongue. To change my tongue, I need to change my thoughts — for my thoughts are my beliefs.

A personal testimony

I had a very bad heart condition that became worse by the day. After three months I could only walk with great effort. I just could not get enough oxygen; it was much worse than I can tell it.

Obviously everybody could see it and I also told everyone who asked, although I really knew better than to confess sickness. I knew it, yes, but I didn’t have revelation knowledge about it. I didn’t DO the Word of God, although I knew it.

Then this Word of God came into my spirit: “I have sent My Word to heal you.” (Psalm 107:20) By the grace of God I seized onto this Word; it became part of my spirit and became to me a rock of God’s faith to stand on. Then I made a solid decision with my WILL: if God says that I am healed, then I am willing to BE healed.

Within two weeks there was a change in my body which I can’t describe to anyone. Only I myself — and God, of course — knew what change took place in my body. The change in my body came after the change in my mind, after the Word of God changed my mind — my thoughts, that are my belief — and my tongue.

It was not of my own faith; it was the built-in faith of God in His Word.

For three months I was busy sowing weeds and thorns. By that time it was nearly at the stage of the harvest — death was not far off.

Immediately I started to ask God’s forgiveness because I was sick, because I believed and confessed the symptoms.

I started firstly to confess the Word to myself, while I still couldn’t even walk. The next day I was so much better, I started to tell other people about it. Whenever somebody asked about my health, I confessed that by the stripes of Jesus I AM healed.

Here is a catch, however. When you have just pulled up all the weeds and you start to speak positive words of the Bible, perhaps you are not yet feeling healed. Then tomorrow, as you feel the pain, you start thinking in your heart: “It didn’t work.” Worse, you start saying it. At that very moment you are pulling up your good plants which were busy growing so beautifully. You cast them in the hot sun to die.

This is what happened in the parable told by Jesus about the seed that was sown on the rocky places. Immediately it starts growing with joy; people receive Jesus with joy, they take healing for themselves and start confessing it, and then they FEEL as if they are not saved, they still FEEL some pain. They doubt their experience.

The seed is just in the soil but they want to see the fruit already. Seed needs time to grow; it has to be watered and tended by praising and thanking Jesus moment after moment, until the harvest is ready. They need to believe the Word of God, not their feelings.

Seed needs time to grow.

You can’t reap the fruits the same day you sow the seed, nor the next day for that matter — although miracles do happen, where people are healed immediately.

In Ephesians 2:8 we read that faith is a gift of God. Galatians 5:22 says faith is fruit of Holy Spirit. Thus faith is one of two things: a gift, when God does a miracle for someone; or a fruit, or a seed. The seed of God’s Word grows for as long as necessary, till the fruit is ready. But it is always God’s faith; it comes from within God, He gives it. There is no other way to “get” faith, only from God, through His Word — be it a gift or a seed.

Fruit is something that grows, but before it was fruit, it first was seed. We must go back to the seed, the life that is in the seed.

Within seed is life and science can’t reproduce it — only God can give life. Science can destroy it, though.

Life has only one Source: God the Creator.

God’s faith is the LIFE within the Word — the life in the seed. YOU don’t make it grow; it grows in any case. You only need to plant it.

In everything

The Bible prescribes that everything you do, in word or in deed, you do in the Name of Jesus to the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31; Colossians 3:17)

Everything — not only when you try to get thread through the eye of a needle. In everything.

When I eat, when I drink, when I talk, when I’m worrying, when I drive, when I read something, when I watch television, when I tell a dirty joke, when I steal my boss’s time, when I’m sulking and angry, when I gossip — remember, do everything in the Name of Jesus and to the glory of God. Whenever you can’t do something in the Name of Jesus and to the honour of God, then don’t do that specific thing.

The reason for many of our misfortunes is because we don’t obey this Word.

Everything you do is what you are sowing and what you will reap. Not your words only, but your thoughts, your attitude, your judgements, your words, your deeds — whatever YOU sow, YOU will surely reap. Good as well as bad. (Galatians 6:8)

Everything in the universe is ruled by this spiritual Law, because sowing and reaping is the principle by which the kingdom of God operates.

Receive your healing NOW, in the Mighty Name of Jesus Christ — and live a healthy life.

Letta Pretorius