Sunday, August 10, 2008

100-Fold Harvest

Last weekend, I attended Beth Moore's Living Proof Live via live simulcast. It was AMAZING to say the least! God spoke tons to me. I don't even think I can blog about everything I learned because some of the things God impressed upon my heart are difficult to put into words. Sometimes, words just aren't adequate enough...

The theme of Beth Moore's message was "100-Fold Word" and the main passage of Scripture was from Luke 8:1-16 with verse 8 being the key verse --- "Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown."

Here are Beth's key points --- a life that yeilds a 100-fold harvest must... 

1. Treasure the wonder (of the Word of God, the Bible): we must always yearn for the knowledge of the secrets/mysteries of the Kingdom of God as He will show more to those who are eager to know more. The Bible will make us "competently competent" or thoroughly equip us for every good work. 

2. Protect your heart: the enemy can snatch the word away from our hearts so that we become ill-equipped for what we have been called to do. We must hide the word in our hearts! When we hear a word from God, we must move on it in obedience right away. 

3. Expect the test: we will be tested to see if we believe the word when it is spoken to us. Psalm 105:19 (NIV) says "...till what He foretold came to pass, till the word of the Lord proved Him true." 

4. Dig the roots: our roots are as deep as how convinced we are that God loves us! Ephesians 3:17-19 (NIV) says "...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." 

5. Stop the choke: anxiety, worries and the desire for riches and pleasures can choke the word. Prayer is the cure for the choke! God has given us every spiritual gift to fulfill our destiny/purpose in Christ. This destiny/purpose has been set for us before the foundation of the world. 

6. Retain the word: good soil produces a harvest. Good soil = perseverance! The word "good" in the original text translates to "being a benefit/help to the people around us" as described in Philippians 2:17 (NIV) --- "...being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith." We must retain the word in order to resist the enemy because his plan is to make us lose our effectiveness because he can't make us lose our salvation. We must retain (hold in a vice grip, possess, own) the word! 

7. Press forth to your 100-fold!!! We must persevere in prayer and in faith. We must hang in there and not quit. We must commit through to see the 100-fold harvest. At harvest time, we will experience such tremendous joy that we will be wishing that we'd dreamt bigger in the first place!!! 

My personal word: On Saturday, Beth started the morning by saying that she wanted to share a "word" with us that God had impressed upon her heart the night before at her hotel room. She proceeded to share with us the verses from Isaiah 55:10-12 (NIV) which says: "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." 

That did it for me! I knew without a doubt that the "word" was meant for me. Take a look here. That is exactly the "word" God gave to hubby and me when He initially called us to be a part of The Sanctuary Pickering. It was God's way of reminding me of His faithfulness, of His love, of His greatness! It was God's way of remindng me to be faithful, to know that He loves me, to know that I can trust Him no matter what, to expect Him to do even greater things, to keep pressing forth towards the 100-fold harvest! Praise God. 

The whole weekend's message reminded me of a song I learned as a teenager by Steve Green entitled "Find Us Faithful". The lyrics represent very well what God wanted me to "bring home" from the conference. Here's the song...

 

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now He is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility He endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up." ---Hebrews 12:1-3 NLT