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 croups 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."
To understand this parable will lead to a paradigm shift in your thinking beloved.
The first question one must ask themselves when examining this parable, is who is the sower? If one fails to settle that matter foremost then the parable will twist the way of man. Therefore, observe the context clues, for the parable specifically says that the man {sower} who is “scattering” the seed does not understand the process of how a crop grows. Thus, the sower in the parable cannot be God Himself because He understands all things. Using this base then, it is established that the person in the parable entirely is one and the same. Therefore, the last sentence gives a different understanding because now, it means that the person doing the reaping is the sower! Further, the sower is reaping in such a way that he himself is actively engaged in the process as well as being the recipient of the crop yield.
What’s more, the passage indicates at which time the harvest is reaped. “when the grain ripens, immediately he {the sower} puts in the sickle.” Therefore, not can we see who does the sowing, who does the reaping, but when the reaping is done as well!
This parable of course is an image, a metaphor of each of us as those with the authority to scatter the seed of the word of God. We do not understand in our natural minds how, when we read, hear, or speak the word of God that those words implant in our hearts {or the hearts of others} and then burst forth at a certain time. It is beyond our natural comprehension. However, the mind of the spirit knows that the more of the word that we scatter, the higher the opportunity for yield. It is our duty to sow the seed of the word, we are the sower in the story, God is not the sower in the story. Further it is our duty to reap the harvest when it is fully mature. It is not God’s duty to reap the harvest!
The natural question then becomes, if something is in our heart growing, how do we know when it is ready to be harvested. The answer is that it will spring forth at the perfect time to meet the situation to which it is assigned. The word says in Proverbs 4:23 that we are to "guard our hearts with all diligence for out of it springs the issues of life.” The springing forth is the act of putting in the sickle in the parable. We will be faced with all manner of situations during our life and if we have implanted the word of God into our hearts with our own actions then when we meet those situations, we can reap the harvest of the word of God in our hearts. But always remember in reference to this parable, God is not the sower, but His delegated representatives are. Likewise, God is not the reaper, His delegated representatives are. That means that if we are functioning correctly in the kingdom of God, then we will be aware of when the word we have planted is ready for harvest, and we ourselves will harvest it.
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