Quick Plants for the Harvest

For the past few days, I've been thinking about the need for quick-growing seeds. No, I am not doing any gardening. [In fact, I planted my garden plot with grass seed this year so I don't have to take care of it.] I'm talking about kingdom planting.

Today I did some research on a fast-growing seed. This plant goes from seed to harvest in 30-60 days--the dryer the soil, the quicker it grows. Within a few weeks, it grows from seed to more than 3 feet tall. Are you ready for this? Its new seeds grow in a pod that explodes and casts the seeds far and wide so it spreads like crazy. In fact, growers are warned to collect the pods before that happens or this plant will completely take over their garden.

It was this seed that Jesus compared to the Kingdom of God:

"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It's the smallest of all the seeds, but when grown, it's taller than the vegetables and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and nest in its branches." Matthew 12:31, 32

When gardening, we usually don't want our plants to go to seed. It is possible to grow mustard that way. Carefully trimming the shoots, we could make wonderful mustard greens that are yummy to eat but do not reproduce. I think we have enough beautiful greenery around in the church today. We need stalky seed producers that reproduce so quickly that nothing can stop them. I need to plant quick seeds and let them grow. The land is very dry so the growing conditions are perfect. I can’t control where they are planted either so I won't try to collect the pods before they explode. I want them to grow and spread as far and as fast as they can.

What’s the hurry? It is not a far stretch to think we are in the end of the last days, as described in the Bible. It seems as if the Apostle Paul took a time machine to our present day when he wrote to Timothy:

But know this: difficult times will come in the last days. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the form of religion but denying its power. 2 Timothy 3:1-5

There was a time when a Christian could be born again as a child, grow and be discipled for 20 to 30 years, then they "went to seed" and reproduced by sharing the gospel. The seasons for growth were long and there was much tending to do in the garden. I think those days are gone. God wants us to be planting His quick growing seed--the way it was in the early church: Today a person is born-again... Tomorrow they are baptized... The next day they are ministering... Do they have all of the right doctrine and knowledge? Hmm. Maybe, maybe not. But is God looking for the wise and cultivated fruit? Or is He looking for a quick harvest in the little time we have left.

Hear this! The days are coming- the Lord's declaration- when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the one who treads grapes, the sower of seed. The mountains will drip with sweet wine, and all the hills will flow [with it]. Amos 9:13

That is faster than I can fathom. Someone is out collecting the harvest and the plowman is already preparing the field for new crops. Run, reaper!!! Get your harvest before it gets plowed under. The seed is growing so fast that the fruit is being processed before the seed gets in the ground. This is Kingdom growth completely out of our control--very different from the slow, laborious process we usually take in discipleship.

There is work to do! We don't have time now to slowly digest what scripture the pastor used in his message last Sunday, savoring the options for our lives. We must be ready to work at the last-days pace. We have to eat on the run--we need the word of God and His presence every minute, wherever we are. With eyes of faith the size of that mustard seed, I am ready to see the Lord’s Kingdom come. Lord, give me the strength to keep up the pace!


First, be aware of this: scoffers will come in the last days to scoff, following their own lusts, saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation." They willfully ignore this: long ago the heavens and the earth existed out of water and through water by the word of God. Through these the world of that time perished when it was flooded by water. But by the same word the present heavens and earth are held in store for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. Dear friends, don't let this one thing escape you: with the Lord one day is like 1,000 years, and 1,000 years like one day. 2 Peter 3:3-8

Ready for Battle

A few weeks ago, I was blessed to be a soldier in the Lord's army when the body of Christ united in prayer via the Facebook site "Pray for David Camp", a young man who was seriously injured in a car accident. More than 7,000 prayed in one accord and saw miracles happen. There were common visions and words of scripture shared. Even David's passing and funeral brought glory to God.

Since then I have taken what I learned about prayer and retooled my old mindsets. Intercession is really all about obedience, not just praying what I want to pray nor applying my hand-picked scripture passage. Intercession is praying what God shows me and then I doing what He says. Small obediences, step-by-step, grounded in prayer allow His will to be done on earth. As we take small steps by faith, angels go forth in power.

In the spiritual battlefield of the last days, the souls of men are in the balance. How we wage war determines how God's glory will be displayed. Although in my own wisdom, I can conjure up a "battle plan" that will save myself, my family, my friends and many others, God's glory will not abide in the plans of man. God is the only One that knows the best course of prayer and action.

In the days ahead, we need to be ready for battle, but not for a carnal war:

"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and very high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled." 2 Cor. 10:3-6

As a foot soldier in the Lord's army, I need to be ready for battle, taking to heart every word my King speaks--by His still small voice or through the scriptures--and then fulfilling them step-by-step. Active listening through prayer and then obedience: I need to practice it again and again so it becomes second nature to me.

In order to practice prayer and obedience, I first need to be available. So today, I am available, Lord. I turn my thoughts away from the list of pleasures and distractions of life and I listen carefully to Your voice. As I practice today, I am confident that You are making me ready for Your battle. Just like I saw victory as the army of God prayed for David Camp, I will see Your victory in the battles ahead of me today. Amen