Your Harvest Is In Your Blessing

Your Harvest Is In Your Blessing

Jeremiah 14:1-16

Notice what is happening. The land is suffering from a drought. Did the people connect drought with obedience to the message of a false minister? Probably not.

The spirit that was speaking to them was not divine, but it was supernatural. The people submitted to it because they did not put the prophet to the test to see whether or not his teaching was in harmony with what had already been revealed through God's messenger.

God blames the plight of the nation on the false prophets to whom the people listened. What did the prophets do? They lulled the people into complacency, which led them to believe that all was well when it was not. They preached to them smooth things because the people had itching ears. They liked the things that were taught to them, but it was not the Word of God. God says they preached lies in His name. If one listens to them, then it is the same thing as the blind leading the blind and both falling in the ditch Matt 15:14.

The land was in drought. How many carnal people would connect a drought with obedience to a false minister? Not very many because they would be thinking carnally and say, "It's just part of the cycle of things. It happens every so many years." They are not thinking that there might be a spiritual cause for it: that God is concerned about the well-being of His people, and that He had brought the drought to make them think about why it is happening. The cause for concern is spiritual in nature.

Would any U.S. President or presidential candidate make an appeal to American citizens that the cause of our problems is spiritual in nature? If a national figure said before a group of people that the reason we are having troubles in the United States is that we need to repent and get back to our God, they would be laughed into shame and contempt. The reason we are seeing the immorality in the United States is the effect of listening to false ministers! People are so quick to listen to what is being said on TV. We hear the end of the world is coming in 2020 people grab hold of it and run with it panicking over crazy stuff about to kill yourself over something that was said by a false prophet. (See article “End of the world to start on October 15 with seven years of tsunamis, earthquakes, and hurricanes)

Haggai 1:7-11

This is quite pointed. When our ways do not please God, He says that He sends drought. These people were practicing a form of idolatry: They were worshipping themselves, their houses, and the works of their own hands. Basically, they were ignoring God by putting His work second or third or last. But we are quick to stand and say first giving honor to God who is the head of my life if He was the head of your life He would be first in your life in everything.

They were getting the finest materials for themselves and not giving a hoot about God's House, which still lay in ruins after Nebuchadnezzar and his army had come through many years before. The ruins of God's House were still there, and nothing was happening on the site. It is not clear how long the people had been back at this point, but they should have done His work first, since that was the reason He had sent them back. The original command from the king was to go back and build a House to God. They should have tackled this job immediately, despite it being a command of a foreign emperor. The command was ultimately from God. So God took affront to it and really gave it to them to motivate them back to work.

Zechariah 10:1-3

Those who ask for it—sincerely—will get the rain that God promises. These people were obviously worshipping God. He would not have heard them or answered their prayers if they were idolaters. This shows that God does not just withhold rain when sin prevails; it works the other way as well. If we do right, if we ask Him in sincerity and humility, He will give rain in due season.

At the end of verse 2 and the beginning of verse 3, God promises to punish the shepherds—a type of either the religious or civil leadership—for leading the sheep into idolatry, ungodly ways, and lies that will not produce any good for them either now or in the long run. He will make His point, and one of the ways that He does so is through drought, lack of rain.

God is not capricious; He does nothing without a purpose. He says that He sends these droughts, floods, diseases, insects, and famines to warn us and cause us to return to Him (Amos 4:6-9). Our God wants us to receive blessings, not curses, but sometimes He must get our attention and point us in the right direction when we go astray.

But Israel is stubborn and rebellious (Jeremiah 5:23). The people fail to see that their sins have caused these curses to fall upon them (verses 24-25). In fact, Israel loves to dwell in sin (verses 26-31)! Thus, God must punish them to make them obedient to His laws—laws that will make them prosperous and happy.

Hunger is a method that hits home quickly, and God will try to use this curse effectively:

Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the short measure that is an abomination? Shall I count pure those with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights? For her rich men are full of violence, her inhabitants have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. Therefore, I will also make you sick by striking you, by making you desolate because of your sins. You shall eat, but not be satisfied; hunger shall be in your midst. . . . You shall sow, but not reap; you shall tread the olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil; and make sweet wine, but not drink wine. (Micah 6:10-15). What he is saying is you are not ready for your harvest because you haven't doing anything to get it. Your rain is polluted, your praise is polluted, your offering is polluted, your prayer is polluted, you are not ready for your rain. Your mindset must change. In other words your thinking must change.

Your praise must change, your prayer must change in order for your true rain to come. Let me tell you something, your harvest is connected to your rain but if you have not sown in your season don't worry about the rain. Any time you sow in your season you should have a life of

expectancy so you should expect the rain and expect a harvest from what you have sown. Be expecting the rain because without the rain there is no harvest. Tell God to send the rain because your blessing is in the rain. No rain no harvest you reap what you sow. What type of seeds are you sowing in you day to day life? Some of you have put your life on hold for others. Some of you have done without to please others. You have worried long enough, you have cried long enough, it’s time for your harvest. Tell God to send the rain. You have planted your seed and now you want your harvest. Tell God to open the flood gates of heaven and let it rain.

Let it rain, let it rain. Are you ready for your rain? Your harvest is in your rain I’m trying to close…