Everything that I want to achieve is highly probable. I believe this not out of some motivational jargon. I believe this because I know that the Lord has established laws in the universe such that if I obey Him and, as a result, live by them, I will see an abundance of fruit in my life - spiritual, family, emotional, professional and financial. Here is what I mean.
The Lord created man and gave him a job with a job description to fill the earth. We often think of this with respect to procreation, but it involves more than that. Adam was to cultivate the ground and reproduce that which the Lord has already created. In other words, Adam was to be productive - a producer of what the Lord had produced. Genesis 2:5 tells us that no vegetation had sprung up at that time for two reasons: God did not provide the rains yet, and there was no man to work the ground. Please get this: the Lord held up the rain so that the plants could not grow because He had not created man to work what He produced. We are then told that after God created Adam (2:7) He planted a garden and then He put the man in the garden to "work it and keep it" (2:8, 15). But what does this mean?
Here is what the Lord said about the trees He planted: "... 'Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food'" (Genesis 1:29). Every tree God planted had a seed. This means that, in the provision of God, there is the seed that, if worked and cultivated, will reproduce after its kind. Since these trees were made for food if Adam was to continue to eat for years to come, he would have to be a good steward of what God provided by planting and cultivating the seeds. What God provided was the seed for potential reproduction but only if Adam was disciplined in reproducing from the seed. The same is true for our lives in every conceivable way.
Genesis 8:22 speaks about the recurring cycle of "seedtime and harvest." In other words, just as there is a time for the human responsibility of planting and cultivating seeds there is also a God ordained and designed time for the harvest from that seed. There is a season for fruit-bearing that only resides in the mind and power of God but that season requires that I plant and cultivate the seed God provided. Here is what I find to be true, because it was true for me at one time: only those who are blamers and see themselves as perpetual victims do nothing and, yet, have the audacity to go out looking for and expecting a harvest! They are spiritual people pray because they are spiritual people but they do not plant because they do not understand that planting is as much an act of spiritual obedience as praying is. In truth, prayer, as an act, is easier than planting because movement is not required in prayer, but you cannot plant sitting down or standing still.
The fact that God highlighted the seed in 1:29 is because He was making it known that whatever you will have for food in the future will be the result of your stewardship of the seed each day. Paul taught, in speaking about those who are idle, that if a man does not work he should not eat (2nd Thessalonians 3:10). This unwillingness to cultivate and execute the seed (skill and or gift) will always lead to poverty (spiritual, relational, financial, etc). But, for those who do work the ground where the seed is planted they will have a future of consistent and satisfying provision. Fruitfulness (in the spiritual and or in the physical) is guaranteed because of this law which the Lord established within the universe He created. David put it this way: "I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread (Psalm 37:25). The righteous are not those who are perfect (no one is that) but those who are persistent in cultivating the seed that the Lord has created in them.
Therefore, the nature of my soul, life, relationships, finances, etc., is connected to what I have put into them. Outputs are always consistent in nature and quality to inputs. That's why, before Paul says that we reap what we sow he says "Do not be deceived" (Galatians 6:7). In other words, do not think that it is any other way than this way: the quality of your reaping (soul, life, relationships, finances, etc) is the direct result of what you have sown. It is not the fault of another man, limited time or skills, nor is it the lack of opportunities. All of those things may be realities, but none of those are seed producing killers.
What 2024 will be for us is the result of our January - December and these next 11 and a half months will be the direct result of how we cultivate our seeds (skills, calling, gifts, etc.,) each day of every month. When things are not as I think they should be in the areas of my life I always have to remind myself: "Sherard, you are getting exactly what you are tolerating." I am seeking to be the person who tolerates nothing short of the disciplined cultivation of consistency.
Join me?