Galatians 6:7-9: Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

When we obey God as His children, we are, in fact, sowing (seeds) into our own future. It can’t be much of a stretch to believe this to be true seeing how Paul used the same term in today’s Scripture.

Whether you and I decide to sow according to our flesh or according to the Spirit of God, we will do so through the acts that we commit. Have you heard the voice of the Lord speak to you lately with instructions? In John 10, Jesus tells us that His sheep know His voice and another they won’t follow. If you’re a Christian, but don’t know how to recognize His voice, then that can change for you today. God requires us to be still and wait before Him until we hear His voice. God generally doesn’t try to speak over the noise of something that has more of our attention than He does. Therefore, He requires us to get serious about seeking Him and hearing from Him before He speaks to us.

Here’s the main reason I believe God wants us to gain a different understanding about our obedience to His voice. Since God first spoke to man in Genesis 1, He chose to speak to us by a promise or prophesy with conditions attached. He has chosen this method of communication and instruction because it requires us to fulfill the requirements of the promise first. It also demands that we live by faith. The writer of Hebrews tells us in chapter ten that we need to be patient after we have done the will of God in order that we might receive the promise of God. This confirms to us that God’s promises have requirements that we must fulfill before He can release the harvest of that promise.

Jesus refers to the Word of God as being “SEED.” He taught on the parable of the sower and used this one parable as a basis to understand all of His parables. As we receive the SEED of God’s Word into our hearts and obey it, then our sowing of the seed (or obedience) will release God to give us the blessing. As we continue in His Word through obedient faith, we will have a continual harvest of God’s blessings in our lives. Doesn’t the Word instruct us to be prepared in season and out of season? We are to be obedient when we feel like it and when we don’t. We’re to obey God, whether we agree with Him or not. Why? God’s wants us to receive His blessings continually through fulfilled promises so that we might not lack in any good thing.

Abraham obeyed God in Genesis 22 by taking Isaac upon Mount Moriah and offering him up to God as He commanded. After Abraham fully obeyed God’s will, God spoke to him through a promise of victory for his descendants. As a consequence of Abraham’s sowing of obedience on the Mount, God could speak a blessing over the descendants of Abraham. “Your seed shall possess the gates of their enemies.” Abraham sowed in obedience, but his descendants would be the ones who would reap the harvest.

If you’re a Christian, but you haven’t heard of this type of devotion to the Lord, then there’s a good chance that you’re not seeing the full release of God’s blessings in your life as well. Remember, faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word of God. Once you know a truth, and you implement that truth, you can begin to get a harvest from that truth in your personal life. When you begin to hear the voice of God AND obey His commands, you will want to continue to obey no matter what may come your way. Why? Jesus tells us in John 15 that if we will continue (OBEY) in His Word and abide in Him, then we will bear much fruit.

Galatians 6:9: Let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. —submitted by Asa Dockery, US