Seed, Time And Harvert (defining Your Tomorrow) by Apostle Joshua Selman: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Quality of Believers Reflects the Quality of Training

The quality of believers that emerge from any ministry are a reflection of — and depend on — the quality of trainings they receive. An ill-prepared, ill-furnished believer is a condition traceable to the kind of training that person did or did not receive.

Furthermore, the quality of trainings ultimately depends on the level of growth and understanding of the man of God alongside the extent of seriousness invested in the assignment. A minister cannot train a people beyond their own level of spiritual orientation. Those connected to any grace will be a reflection of that minister's knowledge, accuracy of the word, and transformation.

People are made upon the words they hear. Words can shape or break a person. Of all the testimonies received week after week, the most impactful are those that speak directly to the transformation of the individual — beyond healings, beyond jobs and promotions. When people say the words have transformed their understanding spiritually and mentally, that is the most significant fruit.

Miracles, signs, and wonders draw people. But it is the accurate communication of the word that builds people.

If a minister has grace for the miraculous but lacks spiritual intelligence to train and mentor people methodically, the result will be large multitudes attracted by the power of God but ill-prepared — people with no spiritual understanding whatsoever.

Six Dimensions of Foundational Knowledge

Every believer desiring to grow into maturity and stature in the spirit must encounter and become conversant with six fundamental dimensions of truth. If any of these is omitted from the knowledge bank, the result will not be a victorious believer.

1. Know God and Jesus Christ his son.

   • Daniel 11:32 — "The people that do know their God shall be strong and they shall do exploits."
   • John 17:3 — "This is life eternal, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus whom thou hast sent."

2. Know yourself — specifically, who you are in Christ.

   • Psalm 49:20 — "Man that is in honor and knoweth not is like a beast in the field that perisheth." Even ordained for honor, ignorance will cause decline. The prodigal son did not realize the extent of his honor. Rebellion, pride, and ignorance drove him from the place of honor until he came back to his senses.
   • There are many voices attempting to define who you are — social media, the opinions of negative people, the weight of past failures, current conditions. For the believer, the most accurate reference for self-definition is the word of God. As at the time you read that definition you may fall short of it experientially, but the Holy Spirit comes as a helper to walk you from your current reality to your declared identity.

3. Know your place in destiny and in God's prophetic program.

   • Jeremiah 1:5 — Before you were formed, God called and ordained you. Hebrews 10:7 — "Lo, I come in the volume of the book, as it is written of me, to do thy will."
   • Every individual has a destiny in Christ. Ambition is different from purpose. The progression is: know God first, then as you press toward him you will find your place in him. Not everyone will have a pioneering assignment. God raises people by the election of grace and within their accomplishment is an opportunity for many others to live out their purpose. The angel did not first come to Joseph — he came to Mary and obtained permission. Joseph played a partnership role.

4. Know the mysteries and principles of the kingdom.

   • Matthew 13:11 — The mysteries of the kingdom represent bodies of spiritual knowledge that empower the believer to manifest the God-life in experience.

5. Understand man.

   • Man is the zenith of God's creation. Everything on earth derives its value from the desire and interest of man. If you do not understand man — the complexities of this unique creature, the dynamics of relationships, the law of honor, friendship, and connection — you will have a difficult life regardless of your gifting. Your life is as advantageous as the relationships you are connected to.

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6. Know your adversary, the devil.

   • John 10:10 — "The thief cometh not but to steal, to kill, and to destroy." 1 Peter 5:8 — "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour."
   • Paul described the hierarchy of the demonic kingdom: principalities, powers, rulers, spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. He described the believer's armor and likened Satan to an archer — sometimes he does not come close; from a distance he targets a weak spot. He fashions weapons from your desires and vulnerabilities. Temptation is only possible because you have a desire. If you have no desire you cannot be tempted. That is why you cannot tempt a dead man.

Show a believer who has paid the price to know God experientially, to know themselves in Christ, to know their place in destiny, to understand the mysteries and principles of the kingdom, to understand man, and to understand Satan's strategies — and you have an indomitable believer. What is here called an apostolic believer: one who walks perpetually in victory, not theoretically, but in experience.

The Law of Seed Time and Harvest

The kingdom of God operates on laws and principles.

Job 38:33 — "Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set up God's dominion over the earth?" There are laws that regulate the heavens. Science, philosophy, psychology, medicine, physics, and chemistry have helped piece together some of these laws. To the degree mankind has grasped these laws, civilization has advanced. The discovery of aerodynamic laws gave us flight. Every major advance in civilization followed the discovery and engagement of a law.

Some of the laws of the kingdom:

• The law of faith — Romans 3:27. Four times in scripture: "the just shall live by faith." Mark 11:23–24 — If two believers stand before the same situation, one ignorant of the law of faith and one who understands and engages it, their possibilities will be entirely different though both are saved. The one who knows the law will culture his words even in pain, because he understands that death and life are in the power of the tongue.
• The law of unity — Genesis 11, Acts 2. The arrival of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost did not depend on prophecy alone; it depended on activating the law of unity. Psalm 133 — "How good and pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity… for there the Lord commanded the blessing." Satan had no power over Jesus for as long as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit remained united.
• The law of diligence — "A diligent hand shall be made fat." "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings." A sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; in harvest he will beg and find nothing. Laziness is already a prophecy upon a man.
• The law of honor — 1 Samuel 2:30 — "Them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." Honor is the recognition, celebration, and where needed the rewarding of distinctive uniqueness in others.

The Law of Seed Time and Harvest — Definition

Genesis 8:22 — "While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease."

Galatians 6:7–9 — "Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap if we faint not."

Every outcome, every result, and every consequence in life is a programmed harvest — a resultant effect of certain seeds that have been sown over time.

This is a law that works for as long as the earth remains. If your feet step upon land in the morning, this law is still in force. Ignoring it is partnering with Satan to define a negative tomorrow.

• Growth is a programmed harvest.
• Failure is a programmed harvest.
• Poverty is a programmed harvest.
• Wealth and abundance is a programmed harvest.
• Victory is a programmed harvest.
• Defeat is a programmed harvest.
• Transformation is a programmed harvest.
• Ignorance is a programmed harvest.
• Influence is a programmed harvest.
• Mediocrity is a programmed harvest.

The law of mechanics says an object at rest remains at rest until compelled by an external force. A life left without engagement of this law remains in one spot. Nothing changes with time. A change in government does not change it. The attitudes of those around you do not change it. What changes it is exerting a force in the spirit — through the word of God — greater than the force keeping you down.

If a believer does not program their own outcome, there is a desperate adversary waiting to latch upon that carelessness and program a future whose outcome the believer will experience without having actively participated in the programming.

Satan came while men slept — but he had his seeds prepared before they slept. He was simply waiting. And his seeds are also fertile. The law works for everyone regardless of who the sower is.

The Five Components of Seed Time and Harvest

1. The Sower
2. The Seed
3. The Soil
4. The Harvest
5. The Reaper

1. The Sower

Anyone with a desire to see and experience an outcome on earth is called a sower. More precisely: anyone with the ability to think, to speak, and to act is called a sower — whether they utilize that role or not.

There are three sowers in scripture:

• God — Genesis 2:8, God planted a garden. Luke 8:5, "A sower went out to sow his seed" — Jesus interpreted the sower as God himself, the seed being his word.
• Man — Matthew 13:31, "A man took and sowed." Galatians 6:7.
• Satan — Matthew 13:24–25, "But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." No one is exempted from the possibility of sowing seed, including Satan and every demonic spirit.

2. The Seed

Anything that can schedule a season of harvest is called a seed.

• Words are seeds.
• Thoughts are seeds — "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."
• Imaginations are seeds.
• Actions are seeds.
• Men themselves are seeds — "They shall be called the planting of the Lord." "They that be planted in the house of God shall flourish."
• Diligence is a seed. Consecration is a seed. A rich prayer life is a seed. Fasting is a seed. Bible study is a seed. Giving is a seed.
• Laziness is a seed. Anger is a seed. Hatred is a seed. Jealousy is a seed.
• Wickedness is a seed. Kindness is a seed.

Coming to the house of the Lord is a seed. Your attention is a seed. Your service is a seed. Your giving is a seed.

The beautiful thing about seeds is that when the harvest season comes, your children can join in the harvest. There are plants — mango, orange — that when planted once, yield per season. Even when you are gone, the tree remains and your children's children reap. Some of the sacrifices being made now may not yield fully in this generation, but those coming after will thank God for the life that loved and served Jesus.

3. The Soil

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Any platform that can allow a seed to grow is called the soil.

• The heart of man is a soil.
• The mind is a soil.
• Hearing is a soil — Satan sowed his seeds in the hearing of Eve. That seed grew, corrupted her motive, and brought them down. There are many people who have not become great because someone sowed a seed into the soil of their hearing — words like "you are a failure" — and they received it.
• The house of God is a soil — "They that be planted in the house of God."
• The air itself is a soil and a means of spiritual transport. Satan is called "the prince of the power of the air" for a reason. Words sent through prayer travel to the heart of destiny helpers in ways that defy natural explanation, just as a text message travels through airwaves to a specific number.

According to the parable of the sower, even good seed falling on different kinds of ground — thorny, stony, by the wayside — does not always produce results. The soil matters as much as the seed.

Offense, bitterness, anger, and hatred do to the soil of the heart what parasites do to farmland — they reduce its ability to yield.

Soils yield at different levels: 30-fold, 60-fold, 100-fold. It is the personal determination of every serious believer that every soil in their life must yield 100-fold. Just as genetics has advanced to make crops yield at maximum strength, the same principle applies spiritually. Praying "Lord, purify my heart" is saying: "Let the soil of my heart be so viable that when the word of God drops there, there is no offense to corrupt the growth."

4. The Harvest

Every consequence that follows your sowing is called a harvest. Outcomes. Results. End products. End points of things.

• When a student goes through school, all of that is sowing. The certificate at the end is the harvest.
• A vibrant spiritual life is a harvest of consistent prayer, fasting, and word study.
• Favor is a harvest of favor-provoking seeds.
• Corruption — meaning decline and decay — is a harvest. A person can degenerate as a programmed harvest: prayerlessness was the seed, spiritual decline is the harvest.

5. The Reaper

There is no harvest until there is first a sower, then a properly sown seed, then a soil to receive it. When those three are right, the harvest is programmed to happen. The jealousy of God and the integrity of his word guarantee it.

The correct way to pray for a harvest is not to pray for a harvest — it is to pray to be a good sower.

Praying "Father, make me rich" is sincere but not intelligent. The state of wealth is a reaction. A wiser prayer is: "Make me a sower." A sower whose desire has been purified; who carries quality, word-compliant knowledge; who sows into the right soils.

Three reapers in scripture:

• God — He plants, and he expects to reap. He is also the one who gathers and burns what Satan sowed. A miracle service is God gathering the tears to burn them, allowing only the planting of the Lord to thrive.
• Man — Matthew 9:38 — "Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send laborers into his harvest."
• Angels — Acts 12:5–6 — The church prayed as a seed without ceasing for Peter. When the time of harvest came, an angel came to help reap it. There are harvests too large to reap alone. God will send reaper angels.

Satan has no harvest in Christ. When God wants to show mercy, he participates in gathering both what Satan sowed and what was sown in righteousness — burning the tares, preserving the wheat. The moment a person comes into Christ, Satan forfeits his reaping rights over that life.

How to Gather Your Harvest

1. Speaking — use words as sickles.

   Words can be used as seeds and they can also be used as sickles. Ezekiel 37:7 — "As I prophesied as I was commanded, there was a noise and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone." The bones were scattered — all in the valley, complete, just unseen. It was words as a sickle that gathered them, not a search party. The pattern is the same for every believer: favor, helpers, open doors — they are already in the spirit, scattered and waiting. Prophetic declarations gather them.

2. Praise.

   Psalm 67 — "Let the people praise thee, oh God… then the earth shall yield her increase." Having sown seeds, to begin to dance and rejoice before the harvest arrives is not foolishness — it is a mystery. The harvest begins to file its way in line upon line, precept upon precept.

3. Thanksgiving.

   Luke 9:16 — Jesus took five loaves and two fish, looked up to heaven, gave thanks, and broke them. Thanksgiving is how you bless what you have so that it multiplies. It is using what is in your hand as a seed for multiplication. Standing before Lazarus's tomb, Jesus said, "Father, I thank thee" before calling Lazarus out. John 11:41. Thanksgiving is a weapon — deployed even before the visible result arrives, it releases the harvest. A thankful life is a life that consistently blesses its seeds and accelerates their growth.

Weeding and Replanting — Reprogramming Tomorrow

Some believers are now seeing harvests they did not consciously program. By the mercy of God, there is the possibility of weeding — coming into prayer as a farmer and saying: "Lord, I sowed seeds of wickedness yesterday. Kill it before it grows." For seeds already grown into trees, God can still uproot them by mercy.

Jeremiah 1:10 — The prophetic assignment is: to root out, to pull down, to destroy, to throw down — and then to build, and to plant. Uprooting alone leaves the work unfinished. Once the weeding is done, the assignment is to begin planting new seeds.

Inviting God as Senior Partner

Amos 9:13 — "Behold the day cometh, saith the Lord, where the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed." A day is coming in your life where sowing and harvest will happen simultaneously — a destiny equilibrium. The reason is not just your diligence alone. God is also a sower.

No matter how hardworking a sower you are, there are times you will be tired and you will sleep. Not all sleep means decline — some sleep means exhaustion. Before you sleep, announce which spirit should tend your farm while you are resting. God wants to deposit superior seeds. When God sows, it does not work at the pace of human seed. God can sow now and the harvest can arrive before the service ends. That is the difference between a medically managed recovery and a supernatural miracle.

As mighty as God is and as compassionate as he is, he never enters a door that was not opened for him. He knocks and stays. He created the door but he will not force it.

No man excels unassisted. You are as fortunate as the spirit that assists you. When the Father of spirits stands behind you as a mighty terrible one, you are guaranteed a great destiny by the law of seed time and harvest.