How to receive your Harvest

Everybody loves breakthroughs. Whether that breakthrough is a promotion at work, a financial windfall, a healing or an opportunity that you’ve sincerely desired, breakthroughs bring with them a sense of celebration because that which we’ve been expecting and believing for has finally manifested. Breakthroughs often appear quickly (sometimes even instantly). That means that most of our lives are spent journeying from one breakthrough to another. Since most of our lives are spent this way if we don’t know how to journey properly, we’ll fail to enjoy most of our Christian life.

How can we journey from one breakthrough to another more effectively? I’m glad you asked! Jesus shared vital keys to experiencing breakthrough in the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-20). In this parable, he shared the four major heart attitudes that will determine your capacity to receive and the six major things that will derail your journey to your breakthrough. If we take note of these things and make the adjustments in our lives, we will not only experience breakthrough but also enjoy the journey there.

What are the four major attitudes of the heart that will determine our capacity to receive breakthrough?

Wayside = A Hardened Heart
A heart that is hardened finds it difficult to discern when God is speaking. That’s because a person with a hardened heart is more sensitized to their circumstances and feelings than they are to the Word of God. When a person with a hardened heart considers the things of God, they don’t get it; it’s confusing to them. Jesus warned that when this happens, the enemy will come and steal that Word from their heart so that it will never produce fruit in their lives. You never want to harden your heart to the things of God.

Stony Ground = An Inconsistent Heart
The stony ground is not as hardened as the wayside. The problem with stony ground is that there is little depth and so such a person cannot stay on the Word for long. That’s why I call it an Inconsistent Heart; they’re up and down because they don’t allow the Word to take root in their lives. Meditate the Word and let it sink deep into your heart so that it has roots. How do you know when it is rooted? When you're not easily phased by pressure or persecution.

Thorns = A Crowded Heart
Those with thorns are those whose hearts are soft but they become crowded out and overwhelmed by the cares of this world, the love of money and the desire for other things. The Crowded Heart will bear fruit but not to maturity (Luke 8:14). If Satan can't harden your heart then he will try to suffocate it with distractions.

Good Ground = A Receptive Heart
Good ground is a Receptive Heart. These are people who hear the Word and understand it (they get it, they’ve joined the dots and can see what the big idea is). Receptive Hearts receive/ accept the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience (Luke 8:15).

There is much more to say about this vital topic. The free audio file goes into much more detail.

How To Receive Your Harvest

 Recorded at Transformers Christian Church