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Multiplication of the Seed
Timing and Seasons
There are times and seasons. In Ecclesiastes we read, There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven…A time to plant and a time to harvest…A time to be quiet and a time to speak… (3:1,2,7)
It’s important to understand and move in the seasons of the Kingdom of God. We are hearing about change – About wars and rumors of wars – About earthquakes – About financial devastation – About horrible fires. We are entering the “end-time” before the Lord’s return, and we know from Matthew 13:39, that “the harvest is the end of the age...”
We are entering a time of the greatest harvest of souls this world has ever seen. Jesus said, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14).
A Time to Speak
How interesting it is to see in the same passage that speaks of planting and harvest, King Solomon wrote there was a time to be quiet and a time to speak.
From the beginning of creation, we learn that the “time to speak” and release God’s creative power is when the Spirit of God is moving. “…the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light.”
Samuel said to Saul, “The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.” (1Samuel 10:6)
Today, the Spirit of God is moving as never before. There is a time for all things, and now is the time to speak. It‘s time to “create with the fruit of our lips.”
Multiplication of Seeds
I was meditating on this being the time to speak and asking the Lord what He would have us speak – what we could speak in the power of His Holy Spirit. Joyce didn’t know what I was meditating on when God spoke to her, “Call for the multiplication of the seed!”
The multiplication of the seed is seen at harvest time. And it’s a multiplication beyond measure.
It’s time to call forth life from the seeds that we have been planting in the Kingdom of God for so many years.
Multiplication beyond Measure
As God spoke to Joyce about calling for the “multiplication of the seed,” she began to think back about her childhood when she would help her Dad plant seeds in the garden in the spring.
She writes, “There were seeds of all kinds and sizes. I remember my excitement as the first tiny leaves appeared. I remember watching the yellow flowers turn to little green tomatoes, which grew and turned into beautiful red tomatoes. One seed produced so many tomatoes.
I remember the potatoes. They did sprout up, but there were no flowers. There were no small potatoes. For months I waited but I couldn’t see any potatoes growing.
But when the proper time came, we dug the potato plants out of the ground. Just a little piece, an ‘eye’ of the potato, had produced many, whole, complete potatoes.
We planted kernels of corn, one-by-one, in a long row and the plants sprouted and grew and grew and grew. It took so long, but ears of corn began to develop and every ear of corn had hundreds of kernels. The one kernel of corn we had planted had multiplied to thousands of kernels.”
Now, as most of us are living in cities, we have lost the concept of “sowing and reaping” as it was understood for so many centuries. But, there is still the right time to sow and to reap, both in the natural and in the realm of the spirit. Now it’s harvest time and harvest time means there is multiplication beyond measure.
Where Are the Seeds?
The seeds are literally all over the earth. For over two thousand years, believers have been planting seeds. Now, it’s time to call them forth.
You may ask, what are our spiritual seeds? There are all kinds and sizes. Some, like the mustard seed are so small they could seem insignificant. But Jesus spoke of that seed. “The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31,32).
It’s hard to understand the power of seeds. They can wait for years to sprout up. They found seeds in the tomb of King Tut that were thousands of years old, but when they were planted, they grew. Seeds contain life and when the conditions are right, they grow.
Small Seeds
It may have seemed like a small, insignificant seed of the gospel when someone led Billy Graham, T.L. Osborn, Reinhard Bonnke and Benny Hinn to the Lord. But those seeds have produced millions of souls into the Kingdom of God.
The seeds we have sown may seem so small. Perhaps, it was just a smile, a blessing, or a word of encouragement that was spoken over a person’s life. It may have been a donation into a church or ministry in obedience to God. Many have given to ministries that are now going around the world.
Every believer has planted seeds into this great end-time harvest even in nations where we have never gone. Now, God is saying, “Call for the multiplication of the seed!”
An Example
Forty years ago when we were working in the business world, God spoke to Joyce and I about providing finances for Bibles that were being smuggled into the nations of the former Soviet Union.
The Lord told us the amount to give each month. Sometimes it was hundreds of dollars and a few times it was thousands of dollars. As we continued to give, year after year, our prayers followed our giving. What a thrill it was when the Berlin wall came down and the stronghold of godless communism was broken.
What joy it was when we were free to preach the gospel and teach the Word of God in many of these nations. First, we planted “seeds,” and then the Lord blessed us to see the harvest.
For the past several years, Joyce and I and you have been planting seeds in the nations controlled by Humanism, Communism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. God’s seeds, the seeds of His Word, are powerful. They are there and they will produce fruit. As we are praying for the people of these nations, we are looking forward to the time when these walls too shall fall.
Joyce’s Dad could look at the health of the potato plant and know the harvest would be plentiful. We can look at the proliferation of the seeds of God’s Word around the world and know this harvest will be plentiful!
The Joy of the Harvest
What joy Joyce and I have experienced as we have continued to go as your missionaries to the nations. It is our prayer that you will share in the joy of seeing the harvest of seeds you have sown and are continuing to sow into this great end-time harvest. As you continue to sow, please join Joyce and me as we “Call for the multiplication of the seed!”
Truly, this is the greatest time for the harvest of souls for the Kingdom of God that this world has ever seen.
Remember, it is your seed that is going to be multiplied into the Kingdom of God. As you keep sowing, we will keep going and reaching out to the nations of the world in this great end-time harvest.
Your missionaries to the world,
A.L. and Joyce
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