You have wanted to know the key to seeing the power of God manifested in your life. You have wanted to know by experience what it was like to have God live in you and work through you. You have wanted to know what it would take to see the words of Jesus in John 14:12 come to pass in your life. You have wanted to know what it would take to see a spiritual harvest in your life and in the lives of those you love and in the lives of those you pray for. The answer is found in Jesus the Christ. He is our pattern.
Jesus said, “I came that they might have life”. The Son of God came to give His life a ransom for many. Through His death on the cross, He opened the way for mankind to be reconciled to God and to reap the spiritual harvest. Only by “way of the cross” could mankind be restored to where they were before the fall of Adam. Only by “way of the cross” could mankind receive God’s best for them in this life.
Jesus, our pattern, shows us what we have been looking for, “the way of the cross”. It is so plain. It is so clear. It is so simple. It is the law of the spiritual harvest. For others Jesus left heaven and came to earth. For others He endured living in a human body. For others He went forth from His baptism and suffered in the wilderness. For others He died daily to love ones, friends, home, and the normal enjoyments of life. For others He suffered and laid down His life. And this He did to fulfill the law of the spiritual harvest. Through Adam, all of mankind died in the spirit to God and the kingdom of heaven, and came alive in the flesh to Satan and the kingdom of death. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, as our substitute, to die to the kingdom of death and rise again to the kingdom of heaven, and thus become the seed (corn or wheat – John 12:24) which by His death produced the hundred-fold of life-giving sustenance for those who feed on Him.
In Christ’s footsteps followed the disciples and members of the early Church. They did not sit around enjoying being the first fruits of Christ from the dead. Rather, they followed the pattern of their Savior and Lord. They step into “the way of the cross”, joining Christ in His suffering and passion for the saving of others. It was the law of the spiritual harvest at work again but this time in those who followed Jesus. This is how Paul could say, II Cor. 4:12, “So then death worketh in us, but life in you.” Colossians 1:24 “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:”
As present day disciples (followers) of Christ, we want to see a spiritual harvest – 1) a harvest of souls, and 2) a harvest of blessings in the lives of those we pray for. (Blessings being those things that God have promised us in order to live prosperous, successful and victorious lives.) It will mean that you voluntary choose “the way of the cross”. Though you could have the normal advantages of the flesh, comforts, loved ones, material advancement, pleasures, and leisure, you choose rather to die to these things so to see a spiritual harvest. In your mind and heart, you do not even count these things as a loss but deliberately choose to do without them as the way of the harvest. It is the same when it comes to trials and suffering in your life, whether ordained or allowed. Tragedies, injustices, rejections, losses, insults, pain and woes are embraced by faith for we trust God to order our steps. We know that nothing can come to us except it first come by God. Over and over again we deliberately choose, we embrace, we intentionally walk “the way of the cross” because we know that it is the only way to see a spiritual harvest. By practicing the principle of “the way of the cross”, losses, trials, whether unsought or deliberately chosen, become our key to destroying the works of the devil, setting the captives free, and seeing the harvest starting to come into the lives of those you are praying for.
We did not know it but Jesus gave us the key early on:
1. Deny yourself. Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
2. Lay down your life. John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
3. Death worketh in you. II Corinthians 4:12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
4. Die. John 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (The much fruit is the spiritual harvest.)
If you want to see the spiritual harvest, then follow the pattern of Jesus. If you want to see people enter their place of blessing then you follow the pattern of Jesus. Pick up your cross. Die to self. Die to the things of the world. Die to the things that you can rightfully claim.
Some saints ask the question, what about me? Well, your life, your joy, your fulfillment, your victory, your success, your all comes from the “Seed” that fail into the earth to produce a harvest for you. The early disciples knew this. They gave up all, endured all, denied all, and suffered all to get all in Christ. All they needed came from Christ. He was their supply.
What do you need? It will come from Christ. He has died and rose again for you to receive the harvest. All you need do is follow Him in “the way of the cross”. Die to self-will and self-way. Die to what you want. Die to what you feel and to what you think. Then the “Life” (the Holy Spirit of Christ) in you will begin to supply you with all you need to live in this world unto God. All your physical needs, material needs and spiritual needs will be met.
Finally, Jesus Christ wants you to become the seed for your generation. You are His present day disciple. You must be planted. If you allow yourself to be planted without fear and doubt, if you die to self and the things of the world, God will use you to bring forth a spiritual harvest. As a born again son and daughter of God you are the seed today. Jesus Christ is the life in the seed. All that is in Jesus will come forth if you are properly planted and die. The seed must die in order for the life in the seed to come forth with fruit. The life in the seed has everything in it a person need to see their needs met and to see a spiritual harvest. In the seed you will find: life (God’s life, the Holy Spirit), joy, peace, power, strength, wisdom, faith, patience, the word, love, mercy, grace, healing, health, deliverance, direction, plenty supply, forgiveness and more. If you can make up you mind to follow “the way of the cross”, those you are praying for will experience a spiritual harvest in their lives. It may be salvation. It may be healing. It may be power to stand against the enemy. It may be just the blessing they need. It may be all their physical and material needs met. It is time for you to see a spiritual harvest in your life, in the life of your love ones, and in the lives of the people you are praying for. You hold the key in your hand.
The word is God and when we believe the word and act on the word we set in motion the will of God for us today.