Did you know when you plant a tomato seed in the soil it will produce a tomato plant? You are smart. Of course you do. Do you doubt the seed will sprout and produce a tomato plant even when you don’t see anything above the ground a few days after you planted the seed? Probably not. Why? Because you know the nature of the seed is to reproduce after it’s own kind. It just takes time for the seed to germinate, lay a proper root system, and then the stem will break through the surface of the soil.
The promises of God work the same way a tomato seed does. God’s promises are seed and when we sow them in our heart they will take root and produce; just usually not the next day after they are planted. Look at this passage from Mark 4:
26 And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, 27 and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. 28 For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
Jesus said God’s kingdom operates on the principle of the seed. We sow the seed and then we can sleep by day and rise by night and the seed will sprout and grow and we don’t have to know how. The only thing that will keep the seed from producing is if we dig our seed up because we don’t see anything in our garden yet.
How funny would it be if I planted a tomato seed and then didn’t see a tomato plant the next day and got my shovel out and begin to dig to see if the seed was in the soil? You’d think I was crazy if I expected to have seed and harvest within 24 hours. If I did something like that I would look foolish, but even worse I would undo my sowing because I would have dug my seed up.
While the natural illustration I just gave seems crazy, people do this all the time spiritually. They find a promise in God’s word about healing and believe it in their heart and declare it out of their mouth, but when they don’t see the breakthrough within a day or two they begin to wonder why. They then begin to question God’s word, His will to heal, or if they have enough faith, which effectively digs the seed up.
One of the things all need to learn to do is to sow God’s word in our hearts and trust His process. We should sleep by night and rise by day knowing He is faithful to watch over His word to perform it. While we are going about life, His word is taking root in our heart and developing a root system that will support the growth above the surface of the soil. We need to remember a bigger harvest needs a deeper root system so when we feel like breakthrough is taking longer than it should, we should rejoice and celebrate! A big harvest is on the way!
I hope this article has encouraged you! Sow God’s word and keep it in the soil until you see breakthrough! If you’d like to learn more, check out this teaching I did at Grace Life Church.
