He was a Jew in Germany. In the 30s of the twentieth century, during the Nazis' rise to power, he was one of the leading experts in psychology. It was unsafe, but he didn't leave. Spent 3 years in a concentration camp from 1942 to 1945. During this time he lost all his loved ones - his father, his wife.

Victor Frankl

Many died in the concentration camp. But he survived. And not only survived, but also became a world famous psychologist and author work "Man's Search for Meaning", in which he shared the basics of his theory.

His name was Victor Frankl. And he understood the principle of the seed.

Barracks in concentration camps

I thought long and hard about an example to give. And this is a great example. Because the principle of the seed works in the life of any person, it doesn’t even matter whether he is a believer or not. These are the spiritual laws. God created them and He does not renounce them, even if man does not recognize Him.

Do you want to know how to always live in victory? Live in such a way that everything around you blossoms and becomes better day by day.

Then let's talk about principle of sowing and reaping.

This is the main principle. Jesus Christ called him the main one in the Kingdom of God. (Gospel of Mark 4:13).

The essence of the series “Spiritual Laws and Principles”

When I came to God, I was a completely destroyed teenager on the inside. I was 16 years old and I didn’t understand what I was living for and what I should do. The most important thing that attracted me to life with Christ was to learn the principles on which our world is built. After all, the Lord not only created the earth, but also the principles on which everything stands.

Proverbs 3:19 The Lord founded the earth with wisdom, He established the heavens with understanding;

I realized that I didn’t understand anything about this. I believed God and His word. And from that time I began to study His principles and laws. This series “Spiritual Laws and Principles” is a kind of summation of my 11 years of study.

What is law?

A law, a principle, is a pattern that will definitely take place if you adhere to the requirements of the law.

For example, Archimedes' law.

a body immersed in a liquid (or gas) is subject to a buoyancy force equal to the weight of the liquid (or gas) in the volume of the body

In order for the law to take effect, the body must be immersed in liquid.

So it is with spiritual laws. For them to take effect, the basic requirements of the law/principle must be met.

The difference between spiritual laws is that everything here depends on us. If we do our part, God does his.

We have a covenant with God. We do our work, and He does His. The essence of the principle of sowing: what you sow is what you reap

What you sow is what you reap. In all areas of life. And everyone’s life is a natural result of his sowing.

The origin of this principle is from the beginning of time. Back in the days of Noah, God spoke this principle:

Gen 8:22 Henceforth, throughout all the days of the earth, sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will not cease.

Another principle also applies here. To him who has, more will be given and he will have abundance. And from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.

What can you sow?

• love and doing things with love
• communication
• friendship
• vacation trip.
• dates with my wife

These are all seeds. Which you sow and they bring a bountiful harvest to the heart of your other half

2. In your life:

• Word of God
• thoughts that create and encourage.
• Speak

If you believe every day the best about your life, that God will help you every step of the way, and you will be faithful to Him, so it will be. Only faith will not appear on its own. You need to sow the field of your life.

3. Into spiritual life:

• God (Hebrews 13:15)
• charity sacrifice (Hebrews 13:16)
• sacrifice of fellowship (Hebrews 13:16)

Every morning you can sow the Word of God into your heart.

Every day you can praise and glorify God. It pleases Him.

Praise the Lord, for...

You get the point. I just wrote these seeds. I am sure that each of you will come up with no less, and even more than this.

Word of Encouragement. The Spiritual Law of Sowing and Reaping Works

Sow good things. Sow what will give the right results in your life. This law works and it will invariably bear fruit.

And then you will not have time to see the reason for failure in others. And you will be the reason that you succeed and that God can bless you. After all, the main reason that prevents Him from doing the best in our lives is ourselves.

Text prepared by Vladimir Bagnenko

© “Word of Encouragement”, when copying the material in full or in part, a link to the original source is required.

Autumn has come. In many Churches of our brotherhood, solemn services will be held on the occasion of the Harvest holiday. We read the commandment of the Lord about the celebration of the Harvest in the 23rd chapter of the book of Leviticus: “... announce to the children of Israel and say to them: when you come to the land that I am giving you, and you reap its harvest, then bring the first sheaf of your harvest to priest; he will offer this sheaf before the Lord, so that you may find favor” (vv. 10-11); “Count for yourself from the first day after the feast, from the day on which you offer the wave sheaf, seven complete weeks, until the first day after the seventh week you shall count fifty days, and then bring a new grain offering to the Lord” (vv. 15-16); “And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you gather in the produce of the earth, you shall celebrate the feast of the Lord...” (v. 39).

To be precise, the harvest festival was celebrated by the people of Israel three times a year: in the month of March, when they reaped winter grain (sown in the fall). It was celebrated on the eve of Easter. On this day it was necessary to bring the first sheaf of the new harvest before the Lord. After seven weeks, or fifty days, a festival was celebrated, which was called the Harvest. On this day, the first fruits of the new harvest were offered before the Lord. “And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month...”, i.e. in mid-September, the festival of harvesting from fields, gardens, and personal plots was celebrated. It was the final holiday of the agricultural year.

What did the Lord want to say to the people of Israel, commanding them to celebrate these holidays? What did He expect from His people? What does He expect from the people of the New Testament?

First, the Lord wanted His people to see: God is faithful to the promise that He made in His heart after the end of the Flood: “I will no longer curse the earth for man’s sake... henceforth, all the days of the earth, sowing and harvest... will never cease. "(Gen. 8:21-22).

Second: the Lord wanted His people to remember that the Creator of everything visible and invisible is He - God, the Author of Life: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3). “I created the earth and created man on it; I - My hands stretched out the heavens, and I gave the law to all their host... thus says the Lord who created the heavens, He, the God who formed the earth and created it; He established it, He did not create it in vain; He formed it for habitation: I am the Lord, and there is no other” (Isa. 45:12,18).

Accordingly, as God and Creator, He expected gratitude, praise, and thanksgiving from His creation: “Praise the Lord from heaven, praise Him in the highest. Praise Him, all His angels; praise Him, all His armies. Praise Him, sun and moon, praise Him, all stars of light. Praise Him, heavens of heavens and waters that are above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He [said, and they became] commanded, and they were created” (Ps. 149:1-5).

The psalmist David, led by the Holy Spirit, sang a hymn of praise to the Creator. Read Psalm 103. It cannot be told in your own words. Every word of this Psalm is full of meaning, solemnity, reverent admiration for Him Who is the Cause and Meaning of the universe.

Dear Reader, look around: “The earth has given its fruit” (Ps. 66:7); “The whole earth is full of the glory of the Lord” (Numbers 14:21). Bow before the Lord, give Him glory!

On the day of the harvest, on the day of thanksgiving
We all appear before You!
Receive the praise of hearts and lips,
Our Creator and Good Father!

For having created us wisely,
He gave us a beautiful world,
Because You are with us everywhere,
Lord, we thank You!

For what You and I sow,
We carefully grow fruits,
For daily bread, spiritual bread,
Lord, we thank You!

For the good news of salvation,
For hymns of joy, praise,
For our Sunday to life,
Lord, we thank You!

For earthly life and immortality,
For work for others, work of love,
For our city, for our Church,
Lord, we thank You!

Third: The Lord wanted to show that the highest forms of life on earth spread through the sowing of seed. “Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap” (Gal. 6:7). This truth is true both for the physical world and for the spiritual. Read further: “...he who sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Gal. 6:8). These words certainly have a spiritual meaning.

The Word of God is not a manual on agronomy, but a Book that, through visible phenomena, reveals the laws of the invisible Kingdom of God. For the people of Israel, all holidays were full of spiritual meaning. Moreover, for us, living in the times of the New Testament, their hidden meaning should be visible, because the law and the Old Testament feasts are only a shadow of the future, but the fulfillment of the promise is in Christ (Heb. 10:1; Col. 2:17).

Jesus Christ is called the “seed” in the Bible. Read about this in the following passages of Scripture: “...I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; it will bruise your head, and you will bruise its heel” (Gen. 3:15);

“...through your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed” (Gen. 22:18); “...Promises were given to Abraham and to his seed. It is not said, “And to your descendants, as if they were many,” but as if they were one, “And to your seed, which is Christ” (Gal. 3:16).

Jesus Himself said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; and if he dies, he will bear much fruit” (John 12:24). He died for us on the cross of Calvary. He was buried like winter grain (sown on the eve of winter). He passed through the “winter” of death and rose again in glory. The first wave sheaf spoken of in Lev. 23:10-11, symbolizes the risen Christ. It is no coincidence that the bringing of the first sheaf and the Passover holiday follow one after the other. “Our Passover is Christ” (1 Cor. 5:7). He brought forth much fruit. Seven weeks (or fifty days) after His glorious Resurrection, His first followers, “about a hundred and twenty men” (Acts 1:16), were baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4). This day is rightly considered the birthday of the Church.

New grain offering brought on the Feast of Weeks (Lev. 23:16), was a symbol of the beginning of Christ's Church. She received the Great Commission from Christ (Matt. 28:19-20) and brought into the world the incorruptible seed - the Word of Christ. Through this Word many new sons and daughters of God were born (1 Peter 1:23). The Church of Christ performed and continues to perform this ministry throughout the “acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:19).

Summer, as we know, is followed by autumn. And the harvest time comes, the time of the final harvest. This is a time of hard work. Time to report for work done. A time of great joy. Golden grain fills the bins. White gold - cotton - is taken to storage areas. The aroma of ripe fruits comes from the gardens. The farmer's work is rewarded with a bountiful harvest.

But autumn is also a sad time of year. There is straw left in the fields that will be burned by fire. There are a lot of tops in the gardens, which will also be burned or remain under the snow of the coming winter. Guzapaya - cotton stems - will be tied into bunches and become fuel for tandoors and fireplaces.

This picture symbolizes what will happen at the end of the ages, at the onset of the Lord's Harvest. Listen, Earth! Listen, inhabitants of the Earth! Jesus is Lord! Jesus is the Savior of the world! But He is also the Lord of the Harvest! The sickle is in His hands, and He is ready to reap the Earth: “And I looked, and behold a bright cloud, and on the cloud sat one like the Son of Man; on His head is a golden crown, and in His hand is a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple and exclaimed with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud: put out your sickle and reap, because the time of harvest has come, for the harvest on earth is ripe. And He who sat on the cloud cast His sickle into the earth, and the earth was reaped” (Rev. 14:14-16). “Already even the ax lies at the root of the trees: every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire... His shovel is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, and He will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire” ( Luke 3:9).

What do these words mean? Holy Scripture answers this question: “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awaken, some to eternal life, others to everlasting contempt. And those who have understanding will shine like the lights of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars, forever and ever” (Dan. 12:2-3); “He who sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Gal. 6:8); the righteous “lived and reigned with Christ” (Rev. 20:4); “...whoever was not written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:15).

Anyone reading these words, agree: what is written in the Word of God has a direct bearing on you. And this is very serious. You have been given the right to become “grain in His granary.” “To those who received Him, even to those who believed on His name, He gave power to become children of God, who were born neither of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).

Leviticus 23:39 calls the harvest time at the end of the year a feast of the Lord. For those saved by Christ, redeemed by His blood, the future Harvest is a time of joy and rejoicing. In anticipation of eternal joy, let us give praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. And on this feast day of the Harvest, “look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28). Amen.

October 19, 2006

“[observe] the festival of the harvest of the first fruits of your labor, which you sowed in the field”

(Exodus 23:16)

Our church celebrated the Harvest holiday (sometimes called Thanksgiving). The biblical basis for the holiday goes back to the 23rd chapter of the book of Exodus, where the Lord establishes it for His people. On this holiday, believers thank the Lord for the harvest sent down, for all the benefits - material and spiritual - that He gives.

However, the word “harvest” in the Bible is used not only in a literal sense, but also in a figurative, spiritual sense. The harvest is a time of summing up, and God, through the mouth of John the Baptist, calls Jesus Christ the Reaper:

“He who comes after me is mightier than I; I am not worthy to carry His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire; His shovel is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, and He will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

(Matt. 3:11-12)

Thus, each person will appear at the Judgment of God (Harvest) and give an answer for his earthly life. The result of the Judgment will be God's decision about where each of us will spend eternity - in heaven or hell. Will he receive God's reward or, as the Bible says, "anger and rage".

Moreover, the Judgment awaits everyone - both believers in God and non-believers. God exists objectively, regardless of your faith. Therefore, unbelief will not save you from God’s Harvest.

The criteria by which God will judge us are no secret:

“He who sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”(Gal.6:8)

This means that a person who devotes his life to material things will be condemned, and the one for whom God and serving Him have become the main priority in life will receive a reward.

Why do Evangelical Baptist Christians celebrate a holiday every year in honor of such a formidable event as the Harvest?

Evangelical Baptist Christians have several differences from other Christians. First, as a rule, Baptists know the Bible quite well. Some are better, others are worse, but almost everyone is familiar with it to one degree or another.

Another difference (a fundamental one) is that baptism is exclusively conscious. For evangelical Christian Baptists, baptism is an act of dedication to God, an act of promising Him a good conscience. For this reason, Evangelical Christian Baptists do not baptize children on principle (due to their age, a child cannot fully understand the meaning of baptism; they are not expected to make a meaningful and responsible promise to God).

Let's talk, brothers and sisters, on the topic “Basic laws of the harvest.” I count five of them and may God help us think about it.

1. Law of similarity

The first passage I will read is from Genesis 1:12: “And the earth brought forth grass, grass yielding seed according to its kind, and fruit tree bearing fruit, in which is its seed according to its kind.” This is one of the most important laws that establishes order in creation. I called it the law of similarity. Order in the universe testifies to an intelligent Creator. The stars in the sky are in their places. The Universe is established and governed by immutable laws that no one can cancel. Nobody can cancel, say, the law of universal gravitation. And in the same way, living nature fulfills the will of God. For example, a pea seed cannot suddenly decide and say: “No, I’m tired of being a pea. I’d rather grow up as cabbage.” Wouldn’t it really be strange if living nature behaved this way? All nature is obedient to its Creator. If a peasant, going out into a field, did not know what he would collect there, if each seed yielded the fruit he liked, then what could the farmer think? What could he expect? It seems to me that then all agriculture in general would be disrupted and undermined at its core, because a person would not know what he would harvest if it were not for this law of similarity. And so each seed produces a fruit similar to itself. You sow wheat, and wheat will grow.

If you sow rye, you will get it. This beautiful harmony, harmony in living nature, as well as in inanimate nature, speaks of the great mind of our Creator. When he starts a business, he knows how it will end, because the entire universe, both large and small, both living and inanimate nature, is all obedient to its Creator. However, there is one thing in the universe that is still disobedient to its Creator and causes Him sorrow, and that forced the Son of God to ascend to the cross. This creation is called "man". Created in the image of God, endowed with free will, he often abuses his will and does not obey the laws of the universe. Will God suffer from this if man does not submit to Him? No. The universe stands in its place. God sits on His throne. He controls His creation.

But if a person does not obey these laws, does not submit to his Creator, then he is the first to suffer from this. There is endless evidence of this. Let's not forget this law of similarity. Let's take it to spiritual ground. Jacob deceived his blind father once and sowed lies. And how many times were his children deceived later! His relative Laban deceived him many times. And how many times has he reaped lies? In your own likeness. This is a law that no one can repeal. Or, for example, Joseph, obedient, God-fearing, he constantly reaped the blessing and mercy of God. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. This is the law that gives joy, optimism, confidence that it is not blind chance that governs life, but an intelligent Creator, that life is not chaos or some kind of lawlessness, but an intelligent creation, guided by God the Provider, a wonderful Creator who He gave everything his own law and charter. Therefore, let us believe that what we sow we will surely reap, if we do not weaken.

2. The second law is the law of multiplication

An amazing and wonderful law. I read from Genesis 26:12: “And Isaac sowed in that land, and that year he received barley a hundredfold: so the Lord blessed him.” Isaac collected a whole handful from one grain. Why is such a blessing possible? Because there is this law inherent in all of God’s creation, which testifies to the strength and creative power of the Creator. If the law of similarity speaks of the wisdom of the Creator, who, starting a thing, knows its end, then the second law speaks of the power, the inexhaustible power of the Creator, who can give such strength to one small seed that it turns into a huge tree, and isn’t this wonderful? Remember the poor widow who gave two mites? It was her humble sowing, but what praise she received from the Lord! What fame she has acquired for all centuries! Another example. A little captive girl, deprived of everything. What could she do for her master, who was stricken with leprosy? But she planted a small seed of faith in the Lady’s heart, and went down in history. This man was healed.

This is the law of multiplication in action. It is impossible to even describe what this amazing natural phenomenon is. When you put one potato in the ground, and from there you collect a lot (of course, depending on the harvest) - this is the law of multiplication, the law of miracles. If people did not see this miracle every year, they would never cease to be amazed by it. And since they see it all the time, they get used to it and this miracle becomes something taken for granted for them. But, if the Lord set a time frame between sowing and harvest, this does not mean that growth and reproduction are not a miracle. This can only be explained by the miraculous influence and impact of the power, creative power and grace of God. Do you remember when the Lord fed five thousand with five cakes and two fish that one boy had, everyone recognized this undoubted miracle. Why? Because this multiplication of food took place in a very short time, in front of everyone gathered.

But does time cancel miracles? Miracles that develop according to the laws of time are still miracles, only the Lord subjected them to the action of His laws. Behind these laws, man does not see the Creator, but if there were no Lawgiver, then there would be no laws. This second law of the harvest, the law of multiplication, gives us the most powerful charge of faith. Someone might say, “I am an ordinary sister. I have so little strength. What can I do for the Kingdom of God? Dear sister! Take advantage of this wonderful law of multiplication, development and growth, and the little that you sow in the spirit can bring forth a colossal harvest that you may not even suspect. When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost and thousands repented, then, perhaps, at that time Andrew was sitting somewhere on the sidelines, rejoicing and praising God, because although he brought one person, that person turned out to be Peter. Andrew, it would seem, had sowed little, but seeing such a harvest, he glorified God. This was the law of multiplication in action.

3. The third law is the law of death and resurrection

I will read John 12:24: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; and if it dies, it will bear much fruit.” When we sow grain, we collect grains similar to it and in larger quantities. But this is not the same grain that we put in the ground. It rotted. But although it has died, life does not die. What does this law tell us? That when Christ died on the cross and was buried, the work of salvation did not end with this, as the enemies of God might have thought. This is an amazing law of life, isn't it? In order for life to continue, it must go through the stage of death. In order for a grain to bear much fruit, it must die. Who among us would not want to see amazing fruits and blessings in our lives? But who likes to die for the Lord, die to sin, crucify your flesh, be offended in some way, humble yourself in order for God’s will to be fulfilled in your life? How often has it happened lately that people, when they don’t like something, loudly slam the door, leave the church and create a new one for themselves.

It seems to them that such a society does not suit them and, as a result, they reap not the best, but the worst circumstances. Why? Yes, God wanted to bless you with a wonderful harvest, but for this you had to die in the name of the Lord in the place where you are, that is, accept all those difficulties and sufferings that the Lord deigned you to bear. But you, dear sister, abandoned your cross. What harvest of blessing are you dreaming of now? You will only reap tares and weeds in your life because you did not stand in the place where the Lord placed you. The law of death and resurrection is the wonderful law of God's love.

The Lord does not forget even one seed that fell somewhere there. No one sees it or knows what’s wrong with it, but the Lord, in His great wisdom and love, remembers this seed and gives it life. Dear friend! Do you really think that you are forgotten by the Lord? If the Lord remembers some smallest seed, loves it, cherishes it and takes care of it, sends it rain, wind, sun and everything it needs, then, dear soul, do not doubt the love of God. You are much more precious than anything in the world and even the entire universe in the eyes of your Creator. Oh, how highly the Lord values ​​the human soul! Tertullian, one of the church fathers, said in his time: “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.” When the first Christians died for the Lord, their death opened the doors of salvation for many, many souls. The Apostle Paul renounced his career and success in earthly life. He thus seemed to die to the world, but became a source of immeasurable blessings for the Kingdom of God.

4. The fourth law is consistency

Let's read Genesis 8:22: “From now on, all the days of the earth, sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will not cease.” These words were spoken by the Lord at the end of the Flood. These were joyful words that gave hope, words with which God established a covenant with humanity, words that promised the life and love of God. Sowing and reaping is the same unshakable law that cannot be abolished, like the rule of night and day. However, there was one year in human history when this did not happen. Does this mean that the Word of God has been broken? No. There was no sowing and harvest in the year of the flood, when the whole earth was covered with water. But this happened before the covenant with Noah and therefore there is no contradiction with Scripture. There were years in the history of the Israeli people (every seventh year was a Sabbath year and every fiftieth year was a jubilee year) when they did not specifically sow. But sowing and harvesting were not canceled, because then they collected what grew from self-sowing. God has blessed me so much these years.

Why do we need to study these laws? Those who are engaged in agriculture know that if the land is not cultivated, it very quickly becomes desolate. It is immediately covered with weeds, and after some time you will again have to work hard and hard on this land so that it becomes cultivated, well-groomed and fruitful. This tells us that we should be constant in our service to the Lord, so that our service does not fall under the law of our mood. Today I liked the preacher and I went to the meeting, but tomorrow for some reason I don’t feel like it and won’t go. There will always be reasons to justify your mood. There is a wonderful German proverb: “It’s not moods that make people, but people that make moods.” You cannot justify your sin with any mood. If the time for sowing has come, the farmer does not look at the clouds or the wind. He walks, plows, digs, sows, plants. Likewise, we must not spiritually weaken in our zeal.

In a spiritual sense, this also says that, no matter how difficult it is to sow, if you sow in the spirit, you will definitely reap in due time. He who sows to the flesh seems to him to be doing what he pleases. He doesn't report to anyone. It seems to him that he is free in his choice. But know, friend: yes, you are free in your choice. You can do what you like, but keep one thing in mind. When Saul rejected the will of God by disobeying Samuel and acting willfully, no one could stop him. But soon the reckoning came. Having taken a step on the path of self-will, he could no longer stop. Turning to the witch, summoning the dead, the defeat of his army and suicide - these were the fatal consequences of sinful sowing, which he could no longer cancel with his free decision of the will.

It's the harvest. What you sow must be reaped. This is another feature of the law of constancy in the alternation of sowing and harvest. In connection with the above, the constancy of Abraham’s faith is worthy of note. Being old and childless, for twenty-five years he continued to believe in the fulfillment of the promise of an heir. His harvest was immeasurable: he became the father of all believers.

5. The fifth law is work

I read Genesis 3:19: “By the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground from which you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you will return.” The Lord determined for man to work. This is another law that determines sowing and reaping, and one is impossible without the other. Harvesting and sowing, on the one hand, are based on the blessing of God, but, on the other hand, it is work. For the laws of the harvest to interact harmoniously, man must cooperate with his Creator. All those laws that we talked about are beautiful, wonderful laws that speak about love, creative power, the power of our Lord, about His wisdom and reason. This suggests that the Lord established order, sequence, alternation in sowing and harvesting, which will not be canceled. This gives us optimism, faith that we can rely on our Lord. But the last law is the subjective side of the harvest, it is something that depends on the person. I read Ecclesiastes 11:6: “Sow your seed in the morning, and in the evening do not let your hand rest, because you do not know whether one or the other will be more successful, or whether both will be equally good.” This year we planted in two plots, and who would have known that in one plot the harvest would be scanty?

But on the other hand, the harvest may not be the best, but God gave it to us to harvest. You don’t know whether one or the other will be more successful. Work, friend, and God will be on your side, because the very first worker in the universe, the most exemplary worker, is our Creator. He loves work and blesses it. He blesses the hands of the worker. One more thing. Labor comes by the sweat of the brow, and those who work on the land know this. But does each of us know this while working in God’s field? When Jesus prayed, he prayed until he sweated blood. Sister and brother, do you pray like this for your children? Is this how we work to study God's Word? How do we work when we need to attend services? Maybe because of the slightest bad weather outside we are ready to sit at home? The Word of God says that He who watches the wind must not sow, and he who watches the clouds must not reap.(Eccl. 11:4). Examples from the physical world apply both to the spiritual world and to our spiritual work.

In conclusion, I will read from Psalm 125:5-6: “Those who sow in tears will reap with joy. Weeping, he who bears seeds will return with joy, bearing his sheaves.”. Oh, beloved, sowing is not easy. Sometimes we sow with tears, we sow the Word of God into the hearts of our neighbors, and, seeing their alienation, we fast and weep in lonely places. When preaching to people and often meeting with hurtful words and insults in response, you have to sow with tears. But, dear friends, know that those who sow in tears, those who sow in the sweat of their brow, will bear their sheaves with joy. It may not all come up, but what has yielded a harvest will bring joy. There will be a reward for the worker when in winter we eat all these fruits of our labors and praise our wonderful Lord for this, who arranged everything so beautifully so that a person would work and in this work would learn the wisdom, power and love of the Creator. Harvest is the result of a person’s entire life; it is a very serious and responsible word and deed. Dear friend, no matter how you live, you will have to take stock at the end. No matter how many flowers there are in your life, life is created for fruiting. And the time will come when every person will be forced to give an account to God for what he did on this earth. May the Lord bless us to remember that we are to be fruitful trees in His garden. Glory and praise to the Lord for words of reminder that awaken our responsibility and help us to be fruitful workers in God's field. Amen.

Mikhail Burchak, Sergiev Posad, Moscow region.

Sermon at Azusa Mission Centennial Conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma

(Luke:10:2) “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

If there is time to develop this theme, “he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7).

The harvest is truly ripe, but the problem is not with the harvest, the problem is with the workers. And this is what the church should pray for: pray that God will send out laborers who are able to recognize the ripe harvest and are able to gather it for God.

You may have never looked at it this way. What I tell you, I say by the Spirit of God, is not in isolation from the context of Scripture or the teachings or doctrines of the early church. What we sometimes hear as new is not new, it is new to us, but there is nothing new under the sun. What God says today, He has already spoken. The trouble is that you haven't heard it before, it doesn't mean it's something new, it doesn't mean it's not a revelation, you just didn't know it. So, not everything is just confirmation, some things are revelation. And it disappoints me because we have a whole generation of people who say that God only confirms, and they have closed themselves off to the fresh Word, they have closed themselves off to God speaking to them, they have closed themselves off to what God continues to proclaim to have an ear to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

The Bible says there will be famine in the last days. But it will not be a hunger for bread or thirst, it will be a thirst for hearing the Word of God. (see Amos 8:11). There is no hunger for preaching, there is no shortage of preaching, there is a shortage of people listening.

We need to read our Bibles. Some of us need to quit Bible college and take phonics and learn to read because some things are so simple that you need a helper so you don't get them wrong.

So, the Bible says: “Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:38). In the Gospel of John, chapter 17: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; and if he dies, he will bear much fruit” (John 12:24). Later Jesus will say: “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to Me. He spoke these things, making it clear by what kind of death He would die” (John 12:32).

He affirms a spiritual principle. Here he is. The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Understand that what you call glory and He calls glory are two different dimensions of glory. For us glory is popularity; for Him glory was death. The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. If you have a grain of wheat, it remains alone, but if it is planted and dies, it will bear much fruit. He goes on to say, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to Me” (John 12:32). Exalted. He is not talking about our praise and worship services here. The ascension He speaks of here was His death. It is not what we do that attracts people, but what He does that attracts people. That is why our ministries are not created to attract you - they are created to attract Him. If we extol Him, He will attract. What exactly you tell Him is what brings Him into the house. Recognition of Him. We come to acknowledge, to honor, to extol His name: “Holy art Thou, O Lord, holy, O mighty one, holy art Thou, the eternal God.”

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. He says, “If a grain of wheat remains alone, it yields nothing, but if it is sown and dies, it bears much fruit.” Jesus is the sacrificial Seed. Scripture tells us in Galatians that God spoke to Abraham, saying that He would bless his seed. He was not talking about a multitude of seeds, but about Christ, God never said, “I will bless your children.” But: “I will bless Christ who is in you, Abraham.”

All this time, God looked specifically at Christ, and through the people of Israel, God raised up Christ, Jesus, who was in Abraham. And these people were blessed because of the Seed that was there. It was the Seed that God chose to bless. That is why God is not only blessing Israel today, He is blessing everyone who has this Seed in them. He has a special attraction to Israel, but God honors His Seed, not His attraction. God is not emotional. That's not the point. God is not obligated to bless people He likes. He blesses the target. And His goal was always Christ. So Jesus is His divine Seed. He needed to find soil where to sow, land that would accept Him. Although a seed has life, it cannot produce a plant until it is planted in soil that is capable of containing it.

“He came to his own, and his own did not receive Him. And to those who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God” (John 1:11-12). So He is looking for soil to sow His seed, which is why the first Adam was created from the dust of the ground, because God knew He would sow seed into this ground. That is why, before God created Adam, He established the principle of sowing, creating every tree, every blade of grass, He said that every blade of grass would bear a seed, and every seed would produce according to its kind. In other words: an orange tree will never produce apples, a mango tree will never produce papaya, and an apple tree will never produce bananas. Every tree must produce according to its kind. It cannot produce in any other way. So God decreed that we would be made of the dust of the earth. And then He seems to tell us: “I will sow the Seed in you. And the Seed that I will sow in you, this is exactly what I want you to grow. This is the Seed that I will sow in you, this Seed is called Christ.” Because if He sows in us, He receives from us what He sowed in us. That is why He says to the serpent: “On your belly you will go, and you will eat dust all the days of your life” (Gen. 3:14). Adam was made from the dust of the earth. As long as Adam lived according to the flesh, Satan had the legal right to consume him. You can pour oil, you can sprinkle water, you can lay down blessed handkerchiefs, but if you feed this serpent, it will not go away. You can only get rid of it by stopping feeding it. Don't be angry that crocodiles keep coming to your door if you keep putting food there for them. Some want to get rid of the demonic presence in their lives, but continue to feed them. The first Adam was from the dust of the earth, and if you continue to feed them with this dust of the earth, then they have a legal right to be near you. Much of what we face in the church is something we bring upon ourselves because we continue to feed the lusts and appetites of the flesh instead of thirsting for the things of the Spirit.

When we have replaced spirituality with culture and when church resembles ecclesiastical or moral obligations rather than spiritual thirst, when we come to church because we like it, not because we are obliged to come, not because we thirst for the Word. We come because we like the music and the choir. We choose churches that meet our carnal needs rather than our spiritual needs. We look for places where we will be entertained, not fed. The essence of truth is that there is a God, that is why we are here. And our worship is designed to bring Him here, it is not designed to lure you here. Because if you do not return, it will not depend on whether the sick will be healed or the dead will be raised. If you do not come, this does not determine whether the sinner will repent and be forgiven. But if He doesn't appear! We have become sensitive to seekers, but not sensitive to Spirit. We quenched the Spirit to make you comfortable, not to make you uncomfortable in order to attract God into the house.

He “came to His own, and His own did not receive Him, but to those who received Him” He gave power to be like Him. This seed, this life must be sown into the ground. The Bible says in 2 Cor. 4:7 that “we have this treasure in earthen vessels.” Where is God's treasure? It's in a clay vessel! Where is the bread of God, where is the holy thing, where is the tabernacle of God today? She is in people's hearts. Mary and Joseph lost Jesus during the Easter holiday, went outside Jerusalem for three days, and only then realized that Jesus was not with them. This is for preachers, this is how you can preach, many travel and do not even realize that the presence of Christ is no longer with them. And when they went to look for Him, the Bible says they searched the whole city. And the last place they went was the temple. And it is a shame that we were looking for Him everywhere, we should have gone first of all to His place, that is, to the temple, and look for Him there, where He is always in the realm of His Father, fulfilling the will that He had to fulfill. And Mary made the same mistake that we make today. She said: my father and I were looking for You! Joseph is not the Father. His Father was the God of Heaven. And we make the same mistake, we believe that we have some human attributes that attract the presence of God, but we cannot do anything to attract Him here. He comes here because He longs to come. He decides to come down from Heaven and come down into this hall, not because we sang the right song, but because it is our destiny that God dwells in the praise of His people. This is not witchcraft, this is not some kind of ritual or ceremony that if done correctly, He will appear. He is not a man to manipulate memorized phrases and our gorgeous-sounding music, and our curtailed organized programs.

What attracts God here? It is when His people thirst for Him that they say: we didn’t come to this room to look at Bishop Asha, we didn’t come to see what you were doing, we came to feel Him. You, who spent money on buses, on planes, spent a thousand, two thousand to be here, may God forbid you to leave here, saying: you had a good time! We need to leave here reflective, changed, and having seen the face of God, saying: I know why I came here, it was worth the investment and this was not a conference, this was a holy man, we came into the presence of God and we were changed.

1 Cor. John 15:49 tells us that “just as we have borne the image of earthly, we will also bear the image of heavenly things.” Heb. 1:3 tells us that Jesus is “the radiance of his glory and the image of his person.” And Colossians 1:15 says, “Who is the image of the invisible God.” Jesus is the expressed image of the Father, not physically, His human body was not an expression of the image of the Father, because God is Spirit, He does not have a physical body. There was no beauty that Jesus possessed in the body, because the Bible says that there was no form or majesty in Him: “neither was there any form in Him that would draw us to Him” (Isa. 53:2). There is also such a definition: “I am a worm, and not a man, a reproach among men and contempt among the people” (Ps. 21:7). We had no earthly attraction to Him. What did He come to reveal here? This was the Divine nature of the Father. It wasn't a physical appearance, but it was the life that was in Him, that was the Father that was within Him. When He said: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9); He didn't talk about His body. He did not speak of His earthly attributes. He said that when you saw what He does, when you saw how He lives, He left an example for you. The problem with the church is that we refuse to become like Him.

I have no other message. I can preach Him in a thousand different ways, no matter where I may start, but I will end up saying that I want to be like Him. I found mine, what I desired from the Lord. If your prayer sheet contains more than one item, it is too long. Until you find the one thing that you desire and seek, you will never be able to abide in His house forever. There is a truth: to abide in His house forever, you just need to find one point. And if you're smart, this one point includes all the other points. The problem is that you are looking for all those other items so much that you neglect this one item. You are looking for things, and not for the One who possesses these things. If I find Him, I will receive things with Him; if I receive things without Him, I will not have the strength to hold on to them. But if I find Him, then He will bring these things with Him. It is His job to take care of them, pay for them, keep them new, and when things get old, give me new ones. We craved His things, not Himself. I want Him. May He give us His things and we will bear the image of the heavenly Father.

So Jesus comes. There is a unique text in Hebrews that I want you to grasp by the Holy Spirit: “You did not desire sacrifices and offerings, but you have prepared a body for Me” (Heb. 10:5). “Then I said, Here I come; in the scroll of the book it is written about me: I desire to do Your will, O God” (Ps. 39:8,9). Listen to how He comes: He comes in a scroll of a book. David said: “You have numbered my wanderings... - are they not in Your book?” (Ps. 55:9). Paul says that “you are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men” (2 Cor. 3:2). John in the last chapter of the Gospel in the last verse says, “if we were to write about this in detail, then, I think, the world itself would not be able to contain the books that would be written. Amen".

Can I prophesy to you today? It still comes in scrolls of a book. There are four Gospels in this book, but there are other Gospels that are being written down. They will never enter the holy canon of Scripture, but they are as relevant as what Paul, Peter, Matthew or Mark wrote. Your testimony is as significant as what they gave us. Sometimes when people pick up to read this book, your book in particular, they will read it and they will see and they will be changed by it. It still comes in a scroll. If the whole earth were filled with books, there would not be enough to tell the whole story, because although He lived only thirty-three years on earth, His story did not last 33 years. It still adds up because He still experiences and still touches and still works among His people. When we come to church and begin to worship, pray, preach, or praise, we step out of the time in which we live and enter into His presence. You are not here. From the moment you entered this building, and your purpose was to be in His presence, this earthly service joined the endless heavenly, your worship simply merged with the song that has never ceased since the moment God stepped out of eternity and decided reveal yourself. At that moment the Angels began to sing, the heavens began to worship. All of our earthly worship simply merges and extends beyond the space-time continuum, beyond the explicable and determinable of physics, and our worship joins the heavenly worship. That is why Scripture says: “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

When our earthly worship begins to imitate and connect with what is happening in heaven, something supernatural happens and it is bigger than us. That is why the blood that was shed two thousand years ago is still effective today, because the sinner comes to the waters to be baptized, to the altar to believe and confess. At this moment the sinner does not come to the altar to be in this hall, but he comes straight to that altar, which is at the foot of the Cross. And that Blood that was so important then has the same power to deliver and heal today, because time does not exist by itself. It was created by God, serving only God's temporary purposes. Time is a cylinder that God created to place a person there, to give him some time to live, but God lives beyond the limit of time and God from time to time allows us to experience the eternal. That's what worship is. Worship is a temporary experience of the eternal.

You thought you were losing your mind because people want to be saved just to get to heaven, to be saved just to avoid hell. And for some reason you don’t want to be saved “if only, only.” There's something in you that says there must be more. There must be a greater level and another dimension in God.

And where other Christians are just trying to make their way, you are trying to do something worthy for the glory and purpose that God has placed in you. And you struggle, thinking that you're going crazy because nobody understands you, and when you go to your bullshit prayer meetings; they pray to just check in and run from there, but you pray for the harvest to come. You pray for revival to come.

I am here to prophesy to you: You are not crazy, the Lord of the harvest is coming and He needs people who can tell when the harvest is ripe. I'm almost finished with my introduction.

You are the body of Christ. I will read Matthew. 13:44 for your edification. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and out of joy over it he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.” This parable doesn't talk about salvation, because you don't buy salvation. Salvation is free, you don't pay for it. But this is not about salvation. This is Jesus who buys a whole field. Scripture says, “For you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God both in your body and in your soul, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:20). So it is Jesus who buys the whole field. He doesn't buy just the treasure, He buys the whole field. Understand that some people only want to be with you when you are doing great. Some people only want to pay attention to you when they know that you are completely liberated and all is well with you, when you are blessed and prosperous and all is well with you. But Jesus is not like that. He doesn't just buy the treasure, He buys the whole field, for He wants your whole life. Not only the part of your life that you're trying to fix, He wants the dirty part, He wants the part that no one else wants to mess with. That's why God, after He changed Jacob's name to Israel, He continues to say, “I am the God of Jacob.” Why does He continue to say, “I am the God of Jacob,” even though Jacob was his sinful name? Because God is not ashamed to be identified with you, even when you are “at your worst,” when others don’t want to sit next to you at church. This is good, because they will leave this place empty, so that when He enters the meeting, this place will be for Him. Because the value of the treasure is determined only by the value of the field. What God does in your life is great just because of the pain you went through. You are only allowed to reign with Him if you suffer. This word: Luke. 22:28-30.

So when He comes, He buys the whole field, not just the part of the field that has the treasure, because He wants all of you. He wants the part of you that your family doesn't want, He wants the part of you that almost got you excommunicated. For those of you who don't read the Bible, a righteous man falls seven times, but what makes him righteous is that he gets up every time. Sometimes the song we sing is theologically incorrect. But let me say something about singing. Singing does not have to be theological. Singing does not come from the head. Singing comes from the heart. And I know there are many songs that we sing that are theologically incorrect. For example: “Oh, I am a poor sinner...” or: “Do not leave me, my Savior!” I know that He will never leave me and will never forsake me, it’s just that some of you are God’s in-laws and you don’t understand us. Many of us know that we are saved, that God is with us, but when I reach out to touch Him, there is often no immediate evidence of His presence. And then I don’t sing theology, I sing how I feel, because when I sing simply how I feel, God is not looking at theological correctness, He is looking at the sincerity of my heart. Because it is not your intellectual sophistication that impresses God, it is not your theology and not your soterology, and not your chromosology, and not your Christology, and not your pneumatology, and not your eschatology that impresses God, but only your heart that impresses Him. But there is a problem in our ego, which makes us afraid of identifying with sinners. Something is terribly wrong with us. I know that some of you are God's fathers-in-law because you have never fallen. But do not deceive yourself, your lean face or clean clothes do not impress anyone, because every day we struggle with our flesh, every day we have problems. And if you say that you are not sinning, then you have already sinned, you have deceived yourself.

So He buys the whole field. When Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, the Bible says he took the money to the high priest and said I don't need it. They refused to take it back because it was blood money. And it was Saturday. And they could not defile themselves. And when Judas hanged himself, they took the money and went and bought the potter's field.

The potter's field is where outsiders, non-Jews, were buried. Also, if the pots failed, if they were broken or useless, they were thrown into this field, which was a cemetery. They had to buy the potter's field because you and I were in that field. We were broken pots that no one could use. No one thought worthily of us, we were strangers, unworthy to be in the presence of God, but by the grace of God and the disobedience of one man, God still found favor and took his sin and turned it to our glory. He bought the field because we were there. Judas' disobedience brought us into a relationship with God. Unless the grain of wheat dies and is planted, it will not bear fruit. But if it falls into the ground and dies, it will produce many after its kind.

The first Adam was a living soul. But the Bible says he was from the earth; there was no life in him. Dirt has no life in it. Although it contains nutrients that contain life, it is not life itself. The seed contains life within itself, but it needs soil to transmit the inherent life that has always been within it.

So, Jesus is the Divine seed sown into the earth. And when it is sown in the ground, it will produce according to its kind. God had an Only Begotten Son. But He wanted many sons. And so He allowed One Son to die and be sown, so that when He rose again, God would have more than one son. One Son brought many sons to glory. And so God, having consciously given His Only Begotten Son, now receives many sons by allowing the Son to be sown. Now many of us are becoming like Him. When this seed produces after His kind, It gives us all the power, becomes like Him, like a spectrum in our lives to manifest the Divine nature, so that the likeness that was lost in the garden will now be restored. The image was never taken from us, only the likeness. Adam was created in the image and likeness of God. He lost the likeness, but not the image. That is why we are now children of God, but it has not yet been revealed what we will be. Because when He is revealed, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is. You will be like Him. This is how He regains our likeness. We receive back our likeness to Him. The image has always been with us, that's why the devil hates you.

Let's also say this, let me correct this theology too. Stop telling sinners that the devil loves them but hates you, the devil hates everyone. Have you heard, right? "He doesn't mess with you because you're out in the world." How connected! It is not only the saved who go through hell on earth. He hates everyone who has God's image. And God will never allow him to take the image just to continue to irritate him. It doesn't matter how low a person stoops in life. Doesn't matter. How low they will lower their dignity. Doesn't matter. No matter how much he can desecrate them, he will never be able to touch the image. So here they are, on a dose of drugs, unable to live without it, in sin, whatever it is, alcoholics, drunkards, whatever, addicts, whatever the problem is, in the midst of all this, the devil still hates them, because he cannot get rid of the image. Why? Because you will always be a spirit. No matter how much you can defile the body, he can never modify the spirit, which is the original breath that God breathed. It is his. And you will never take this away from Him. And no matter how much he fights with you and attacks you, this is the only thing he will never destroy.

Now, when we come to Christ, we learn to add likeness to the image, so that the image, which has never been defiled, has the value and likeness that belongs to Him, so that we grow into His likeness and do what He does.

The Gospel of John says that He: “was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, and the world did not know Him.” The disciples received the revelation that He was the Son of God, but did not know how to live at this level of sonship. They did not know how to live up to this mandate of the spiritual walk. Understand, the reality is that most of us know about Him, but there is no practical life associated with this knowledge. And it is not enough for the head to know about Him and not be able to sense what He left for your experience. And this is the point: “I could not speak to you, brethren, as spiritual, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ” (1 Cor. 3:1), says Paul, “for you were not yet in strength." God's church had a five-fold ministry, had all the gifts, all the gifts in action, and yet they were carnal. An abundance of spiritual gifts does not equal spirituality. It's not about gifts, it's about life. It's not about living a perfect life, it's about living a humble life. It is not a matter of a man who makes no mistakes, but a man who is obedient to Christ at all times. Whose perfection, and even submissive obedience in the fear of God, causes their base bodies to be changed into the image of His glorious Body.

Paul goes on to say in Hebrews that you were supposed to be teachers, but I need to teach you again. Why? You should eat meat because meat belongs to the mature ones, but you are on milk again! That's the problem. Jesus says to His disciples: “I still have many things to say to you; but now you cannot contain it” (John 16:12). The reality is that there are places with God that He has predestined for us to enter, but we will not be allowed in, we will not see them, we will not understand them, we will not accommodate them until we are ready to grow. The problem is not talent. The problem in the church is that we continue to seek gifts, constantly trying to outdo one another, instead of seeking to grow in Him to the full measure of the stature of Christ. Everybody wants to be a great evangelist, wants to be great.

But anointed service is a secondary consequence of personal commitment. The people who are used by God did not seek to be used by God, they sought Him, and they were overtaken by the One whom they hoped to comprehend. They tried to find God, and God found them. Oh, how could they find Him?

He was in the world, but they did not know Him. They received a revelation of Him, who He was, but they did not know what it meant to them. They knew that He was the Son of God, but they didn't know what it looked like that He revealed to them, how to grow into Him.

“When the days of His taking from the world drew near, He desired to go to Jerusalem; and he sent messengers before him; and they went and entered the Samaritan village; to prepare for Him; but they did not receive Him there, because He appeared to be traveling to Jerusalem. Seeing this, His disciples, James and John, said: Lord! Do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and destroy them, just as Elijah did? But He, turning to them, rebuked them and said: You do not know what kind of spirit you are; for the Son of Man came not to destroy the souls of men, but to save. And they went to another village” (Luke 9:51-54).

That's what I'm getting at. Luke 9:51-54 says that His disciples came to a Samaritan village to say that Jesus is coming into the city, look, Jesus is preparing to preach. But they did not want Him to enter, “because He appeared to be traveling to Jerusalem.” The disciples say: “Lord! Do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and destroy them, just as Elijah did?” What they said sounds like some of us. We continue to think that our job is to protect God, as if God cannot protect Himself. We still act like the Old Testament prophets, not like the New Testament sons. We wanted to call down fire from heaven instead of realizing that these things were just meant to be. Instead of choosing the path of sonship, instead of choosing the path of obedience, submission, we continue to choose the path that brings death into our lives. For example, Peter’s confession: “You are the Son of the living God!” As Jesus goes on to say what He must endure, Peter says only through my dead body. Tell them to just try and deal with me. Jesus tells Peter that you: “think not about the things of God, but about the things of men” (Matthew 16:23). In other words, “You don’t understand this; you move according to the flesh, and not as the Spirit of God moves.” We are cursed in this generation because the church continues to deal with things according to the flesh and not the way Christ wants to deal with them.

You can brew wine all day long for the worldly community, people don’t turn because we don’t have what they crave. There are no attributes of the Kingdom worth converting. You can't say, "Repent!" if you can't finish the sentence. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2).

We have crowds of people for whom repentance is preached, but there is no personification of the kingdom. People will not come until they see the kingdom. And it is not our ability to bring them, but our ability to represent God's Kingdom that will cause people to repent. If there is no repentance, then there is no kingdom. Where the kingdom of God is personified, people will repent and begin to come.

You need to understand this, that it is a lonely place when you long for a higher level in the things of God. It's a lonely place where you start to say: there must be something more. This is a place of loneliness, when you strive more for the truth than for preaching, the whole value of which is self-satisfaction. It is a lonely place where you begin to long to preach, not for the sake of preaching, but you long to preach so that the truth may be revealed and people may be changed. It is a lonely place and there will be very few people with whom you can sit down and enjoy covenant relationships. Who doesn't care what shoes you wear, what car you drive, what house you live in, and how much money they pay you to preach (In the West, this is of paramount importance. Editor's note). But people who say, I do it because I have the authority to do it. I preach not because it makes an impression, but because I have something to say. This is a secondary result of my clinging to God. I haven't been looking to preach, to prophesy, to be an evangelist, none of that, but I'm hungry for Him.

We have created a generation of people in the churches who are hungry for anything but Him. We count people rather than thirst for God. This is a lonely place. Jesus says there are thirtyfold spheres. When you sow a seed, it brings forth some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some a hundredfold. The dimension in God to whom you strive will bring something else at thirty, and you can stop there if you want. The outside courtyard is amazing if you've never been there. But after you have sat in the outer court for thirty years, you should begin to wonder what is there in the sanctuary? After spending twenty years in the sanctuary, you might wonder what happens in the Holy of Holies? The problem with the church is that it's so enthused about what's going on in the outer court that we don't even think about the inner court, and if you start saying that you want to know what's going on out there, they'll start saying there's something wrong with you. this is not it, you are digging too deep, such deep revelations are not required. And you don't have to be so deep, keep it simple.

Tell me one thing Jesus said that was simple. Jesus was one of the most profound people I have ever known. There is nothing simple about what He said, if you are not willing to deny your mother, daughter or sister, you are not fit for My kingdom. If you want to live there with Me, you will need to lose them. I have come to bring a sword, I have come to turn you against your family. What's so simple? Whoever does not eat My flesh and drink My blood will have no part in Me. What's so simple? There is nothing simple about what He said.

The problem is that we had simple, narrow-minded preachers who were afraid to call to move to deeper levels, because they themselves were afraid to go to those places. That's how they treated us like simpletons, telling us that we didn't have to dig deep.

How many of you have received the Holy Spirit? How many of you speak in tongues as the Spirit gives utterance? Let me say something about the Holy Spirit. He floats above the abyss, above the depths of the water. It doesn't hover over shallow puddles, it only hovers over deep oceans. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you are already deep. You are deep enough to contain God Himself. If you can accommodate God, as Paul says: “and understand the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19). You are not small if you can be filled with the fullness of God.

God's decree (that's what He expects from us) is for us to go to another level. We can't stay where we are. God spoke to me tonight in my room. He spoke these words to me so clearly: “Until My people fully understand who they are, until they fully understand who they are, they will always be subject to the forces of the enemy, they cannot free themselves from his frenzied attack, until they regain understanding your personality in Me."

That the devil attacked in the garden was an area of ​​self-awareness of the first people. And the serpent said to the woman: “On the day that you eat of them, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods.” They were already the image and likeness of God, they had the breath of life from Him. He attacked only what was already theirs: “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female he created them” “and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” Let me tell you this because it will set you free. The devil is allowed to attack and sow doubt only in what God has already established in the spiritual realms.

Now I come to the Lord of the harvest, that's where we're going. “Therefore, brothers, be patient until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, and for it he endures long, until he receives the early and the latter rain” (James 5:7). What is He waiting for? He is waiting for the precious fruit of the earth. Mark 4:28,29 says, “For the earth itself produces first a green plant, then an ear, then a full grain in the ear. When the fruit is ripe, he immediately sends in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” First the greens, then the ear, then the grain in the ear. The gentleman does not expect greenery. We taught and taught, sincerely believing that the harvest is when souls come into the Kingdom in large numbers. This is not a harvest. Harvest is not souls. Do you know a farmer who, at the moment when the greenery comes through, calls the workers and says: it’s time to reap? He does not reap the sprouts of greenery, he continues to watch and he continues to wait for the field to begin to bear fruit. He doesn't go out to reap green grass. He is waiting for a ripe harvest. The harvest is not new souls. Harvest is a mature church. He is not waiting for the coming of many souls. He is waiting for someone who has been here for a long time, who has stopped playing childishly and has grown into Him. He is tired of you pretending to be a child, talking like a child and living like a child. He is waiting for you to grow into Him, putting aside your childish things. So why does the Lord of the Harvest come? He looks around a field where the harvest is ripe, but there are few workers who are able to discern the ripe field, few workers who are ready to recognize the harvest. He's not looking for quantity, He's looking for fruit.

He wants to see those who walk in spiritual maturity, who walk in spiritual authority. Not just the masses, He wants those who are fully grown, who have put aside childishness and are becoming like Him. That's the point. The point is that it is time to grow up, stop playing with toys and come to spiritual maturity. The harvest is ripe, there are people who are leaving places of spiritual immaturity. It's disgusting to see a mother spoon-feeding a sixteen-year-old child. And he needs to grind the meat because he does not have the ability to chew and digest it. He has to mix it with Baby formula for his 16-year-old boy, thirty-year-old husband. It is not right. But the baby can add solid food to formula and he grows. You give the baby meat, and although he is not able to eat it, he will suck every drop from it. Is not it? And we are so scared: oh, what about the babies? We don’t want to offend, we don’t want to go into depths for the sake of babies, they say, they won’t understand it. The reality is that it is the new ears that have the ability to hear. And those of us who have been in the faith for a long time and think that we already know everything... Attacks on the ministry never come from babies, they always come from those who have been with us for a long time and think that they have taken a key place in the market. Those who think they understand God who is beyond understanding and who think they can...

In the Lord, restoration is when you lose something. Restoration is when God gives you back more than you lost. Exactly when God. He lost the first Adam, but by restoring, he received a whole garden. The first Adam died by sinning in the garden, the last Adam was buried and resurrected in the garden. The first Adam sinned on a tree, the last Adam atoned for the sin of the whole world on a tree. The first Adam produced thorns; the last Adam was given a crown of thorns. The first Adam was a thief, the last Adam was crucified among thieves. The first Adam brought death, the last Adam brought life. The first Adam gave a bride, the last Adam marries the bride. The first Adam coveted his wife and envied her, the last Adam covers his wife. You see, by losing the old, we are restored and receive back God's. We were lost, but we came as babies. I always ask God: “There was a tree of life in the garden, why didn’t they eat from it?” God spoke to me: “Because they were not mature enough to eat from this garden. They weren't mature enough to recognize the tree." Only adults can handle the tree of life. The unripe eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. How do you know it's a baby? He goes everywhere and says: this is bad, and this is good. This is the tree of knowledge and you are a baby when you make such decisions, but those who eat from the tree of life, they say: “God, in Him I live and move. My whole nature is in Him.”

I always ask the question, why did Adam eat from the tree? Why didn’t he tell Eve: “Honey, you’re crazy! Something is wrong with you, how could you eat this? You're caught! But Adam knew: Eve is his wife, he is responsible for her, therefore, when God comes, He will kill her, but I am her husband, which means my task is to protect her: so he told her: dear, give me this fruit here! He ate from him because he said: if God comes for you and wants to kill you, it will only be through my corpse. I am your husband, and although I love God, I will protect you. But if the first Adam could do this. What then with the last Adam? Jesus looked at the bride - the Church, He saw our sin, He saw our mistakes and said: I love her and give Myself as a sacrifice for her. “But He was wounded for our sins and tormented for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:5).

There is an area in which we are growing. Why? I feel the pain of growing up. You are growing up, there is no more infancy. The church wants to preach the depths of God, but we can't, because every week we have to teach everyone how to tithe, every week we have to teach how to get along with a neighbor, every week we have to teach how not to gossip. We teach basic life skills in church instead of deep truths. We have to teach many people how to reduce their loans, teach them how to open savings accounts, teach them how to love their wife, teach them how to be a good father, but there are deep things in us that we want to preach, but we cannot, because you so busy playing with cars and dolls. But, Lord, do not leave us in this place! Raise us up, let us grow up! Raise us! The harvest is ripe! Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers who discern! It is time for us as a church to come to a place of spiritual maturation. Let the church know, let us preachers know that you are no longer satisfied with milk, you want meat, you demand meat, you need meat.

The Bible says that when Jairus' daughter died, when she was already dead, Jesus came to her, and the Bible says He laid His hand on her, and she was healed. Everyone else said she was dead, but He said she was not dead, but sleeping. I don't care what the world says, I don't care what the Christian magazine says, I don't care what the Christian council says, the reality is that we may look dead, but God says the church is not dead, it's just sleeping . “I am getting ready to lay My hand on her, and she will get well.” And the Bible says when Jairus' daughter stood up, He commanded that she be fed. Hear me, when the church rises, this time it won't expect milk. When she rises from this grave, when she rises from this bed, she will want meat, she will want the deep things of God, she will want the great things of God. The harvest is ripe! This is for adults and adults only.

I want to be an adult, that's what I want! I'm tired of playing church, I know why I'm here. God is challenging me to reach another level. You are not crazy, you are exactly where God wants you to be! There must be a different level, there must be a different sphere, there must be a different dimension! He is planting a seed in you right now. If you sow an apple, you get an apple. He planted Jesus in your bodies. Some pastors have been waiting for churches to grow quickly, but God says: I don't send just anyone. “And God appointed others in the Church, firstly apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers” (1 Cor. 12:28); None of these ministries are for non-believers; neither a prophet, nor a pastor, nor a teacher - they all belong to believers. The reason we need to do soul winning events and altar calls is because the church members are not doing their job. All you did was invite someone. An invitation is not a service. Anyone can invite someone, but only a mature person shares his life and allows the Divine exchange to take place. By the time we preach, they should already be in the kingdom, and we should only confirm what has already been done. But we cannot do this because many of us continue to dwell in a place of immaturity. Ps. 132: “How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together! It is like precious oil flowing down onto the beard.” The anointing does not belong to babies, it belongs to those who can grow a beard. You must grow if you want to receive the anointing.

I was reading the label on a bottle of chlorine one day and it said, “Dangerous in the hands of children!” And I thought about all the wonderful things that chlorine does: it whitens, it cleans, it disinfects, and no matter how wonderful this product is, it is dangerous in the hands of children. No matter how wonderful the anointing and presence of the Holy Spirit is. God did not pour out the Holy Spirit on Azusa Street to redefine the Holy Spirit, because He doesn't need to be redefined. God poured Him out that He might refresh us, not that we should bring forth new denominations by Him, but that fire might touch those who were dead and withered. Instead, we took this precious gift and shared it over and over again for stupid and unimportant reasons. And God says today, “I am pouring out the Holy Spirit on this generation anew, but this time I am not giving it to the children. I pour It out on those who have matured. Not on those who want to bring down fire, but on those who want to eat from the Tree of Life. Some of you are so desperate; you come year after year, first to one conference, then to another. There's something in you that says there must be something greater in God than my level, there must be a great anointing, and you're frustrated because you know you should be somewhere else, you know you must be in another sphere, and you just can’t enter there. But today the Holy Spirit speaks in this place. Heaven and earth are united together, the earth so that it turns out to be a mirror image of what is already happening in heaven. And people would be able to see the glory of God as never before, and they would be changed “from glory to glory.”

Whoever owns the harvest, He does not reap the soul, He reaps those who produce the fruit. He reaps not those who practice the gifts, but those who bear fruit.