STAGES (The Sowing Stage)

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest............................. shall not cease". 

Genesis 8:22(KJV)

Let’s continue from where we ended last week, as I promised in my introductory message, let’s move to the next destination called “The sowing stage”. As I have already established earlier on that every harvest requires sowing and the fact that every good thing you want in life is harvest, and I am sure you have heard of this popular saying “You cannot reap where you have not sown”. But lately, people want to reap where they have not sown. 

Just this week I read an online article - it was a sermon purported to have been preached by Archbishop Nicholas Duncan William. A Summary of what he said was, people do not want to go through process yet the want to live certain kind of lifestyle; he talked about the fact that he had worked for 40 years to get to where he is today and yet young people and preachers want to have his level of success and drive the kind of cars he is driving without wanting to go through the process he went through. I agree with the archbishop a lot.  

The thing with this generation is that its wants light without having known darkness, we want only the positive and never the negative, healing without hurt, hope without despair, knowledge without the seed of learning, joy without pain, power without serving, promotion without hard work, fullness without emptiness and we even want salvation without damnation.

I remember those days when I was in high school- some mates of my will not study and yet they wanted to reap a harvest of good academic grades and success, and guess what they got? You guess is as good as mine; they did not do well. Life is not structured that way, even those who get miracle from God sow a seed of faith or believing. The scriptures says “While the earth remaineth seedtime and harvest................”  Genesis 8:22(KJV).

If you want a harvest, please sow!!! But the bitter truth is that, this reality confronting us today, is a harvest of the seeds we have been sowing over the years, especially from the pulpit; money and power have been magnify above character development.

Let’s go to our key scripture for this series that is John 12: 24 (KJV) “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.” His first phrase was - Verily, verily, I say unto you, Excepts a corn of wheat falls to the ground that represent the sowing stage; what he said  emphasizes the role of sowing in expecting a harvest. He was at the twilight of sowing himself as seed so as secure the salvation of the human race, when he made this profound statement. 

Jesus Christ spent 30 years of growing up and preparing for an assignment that will last for 3 years, which invariably means that every 10 years he spent was for a year’s assignment. Jesus Christ sowed the seed of fasting and praying, studying the scriptures, winning of souls, meditating on God’s word among others; he gave his time and energy to activities that are related to his assignment. I have sometimes wondered why, Jesus Christ the one who had all the power of God had to subject himself to this difficult process for over 30 years. 

But Jesus’s 30 years of preparation for a 3 year assignment, just hit the nail right on the head –that is anointing alone won’t take you far, talent alone is not enough, and gifting without the required price won’t buy you success. You and I need to sow the required seeds for our respective assignments. It is the process that we go through that adds value to our gifting’s, talents or anointing. Those who have raw talents are not really valued, but it is those who have gone through process who are. 

That explains why Africa, continent with a lot of raw material is not valued in international trade. It came to my attention recently that the monetary value of international cocoa trade is about $40 billion dollars, yet Ivory Coast and Ghana, the 1^st and the 2^nd largest cocoa producing countries in the world respectively are only able to racked in $5 billion into the continent, is not sad? But the truth is, huge chunk of this amount goes to countries who do not necessarily produced the raw cocoa beans, but adds value to them. 

No matter how powerful you can teach, prophesy, preach, or you are good at something, if you do not sow the right seed you won’t go far, if you are not willing to go through that uncomfortable process of sowing, and other process, then forget it. Research has shown that if you want to be world class at something or you want the world to take note of you- then you must spend at least 3 hours a day, six times in a week, for 10 years at what you want to be noted for. 

Success doesn’t happened in a vacuum, but it is rather achieved when talents or gifting are honed in the crucible of hard work and practice. If you want a good marriage as a couple, then you must be willingly to sow the seed that says “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it” Ephesians 5:23 -25 (KJV). 

As a wife, you must be willing to submit yourself to your own husband, no matter how rich or powerful you have become; you might probably be saying “hmm my husband doesn’t deserve my submission, because he is not performing or he is not pulling his weight”. But the scripture did not say that you should submit yourself to a husband who is pulling his weight, the scripture is straight forward its says “submit yourself to your own husband”. You obedience in marriage should be to God first; you must seek to do what God requires of you in the marriage, and then leave your non-performing husband to God who has his own way of handling him. 

To the man, who is supposed to be the head, the scripture also enjoins you to love your wife and give yourself to her like the way Christ loved the church and gave himself for it; he did not say you should love your wife who is submissive to you, but love her unconditionally. Good marriage doesn’t come easily, but comes with hard work when both couples are willing to put the interest of each other above their personal interest.

Personally, as I preacher and a blogger it takes weeks of prayer, studying, meditating, memorizing to be able to write or preach a sermon. Good stuff do not come easily, but it comes on the altar of perspiration and consistence. I do not know what you dreams are, but all I can tell you is this, keeping on sowing the seed and at the fullness of time God will bring the increase. 

God bless you for coming along with me on this journey. If you have any questions or comments you can leave it below, or you can also send me an email via- wisafawubo@gmail.com or send me a whatsup message on +233233868205. But watch out for a subtopic under this series called “The dying Stage”