“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter,

day and night, shall not cease.”

Genesis 8:22

Recurrent Thought

     For me to fully appreciate God’s care over my life, I am responsible to know and understand the operations of the Laws of Seed Time and Harvest.

From the beginning of the Universe, (and Earth), God determined to preserve the created order, including his choicest creation human beings, through His Providence. God's Providence is His ability to care, govern, protect sustain, and preserve the universe. Through Providence, God cares for human beings even though they do not have personal revelation and are not in covenant relationship but they access common grace to make them win in life. Genesis 8:22 reveals some of the Natural laws that sustains the operations of the earth and the life of human beings.

The Law and cycle of seedtime and harvest is one major natural law that is responsible for the continued existence of life on the earth. This is also called the Law of Sowing and Reaping.

While we shall refer to the whole sequence and cycle of Seed time and harvest, our interest is the aspect of Harvest in this Year 2025.

The operations of this Natural law are vividly seen in the agricultural setting, however, its implications are seen in all human life activities. What then is a harvest? A harvest is the result or a product (an outcome) of an action or effort. There is a cause and effect sequence. The seed is the cause and the effect is the harvest. We cannot have a harvest in the absence of sown seed.

The bible refers to many different forms of Harvest including:

1. Agricultural Harvests (Genesis 8:22)
2. A Harvest in Judgment (Joel 3: 13)
3. A Harvest of a Good Life (2 Cor 9:10)
4. A Harvest of Souls (Math 9: 36-37)

In this year we shall deal with two significant forms of Harvest: A harvest of Souls and a Harvest of a Good Life.  By His mercy we recognize that God is able to grant us a great harvest (of Souls) that is ready, ripe and rich in character (Luke 10: 2).  Here are Five Elements about Harvest

1. We must Recognise and Understand Three Essential foundations of Harvests
   • Recognise that Harvests are essentially Results
     • Harvests are products of efforts that are employed before the time they occur.
   • Recognise that Harvests have Time Frames, or Seasons.
     • We must recognise our Harvest Seasons. John 4:35-38. Harvest does not always appear as if it is ready. You have to learn to discern. Do not procrastinate in Your harvest. Cease the Moment.  Don’t look endlessly to the future for your harvest, but do not procrastinate.
   • Appreciate the Process, the in-between time and activities of Seed and harvest.
     • The process are the various elements in between, that may not be visibly known and seen. These include, effort, time, preparation, etc that work together to produce a result, a harvest.
2. Recognise The Lord of the Harvest
   • The scriptures reveal to us that Yahweh is the Lord of the Harvest (Luke 10:2; Math 9:38)
     • Although these two texts speak specifically about winning souls, we can apply for getting results in one’s life. The Lord is the superintendent of all forms of harvest whether financial, spiritual, material, crops, etc.
   • The Lord brings a dimension to the harvest we cannot control.
   • The Lord of the Harvest determines the increase or size of the Harvest (1 Cor. 3:7 God gives increase).
     • The extent of growth may include 30, 60, or 100 fold. God blesses everyone, but the blessings are different. It is not so much your seed alone, there is the dimension of the Lord of the harvest.
   • The Lord of the Harvest appoints the weeks (Time) of the Harvest (Jer 5:22-24).
     • Some peoples harvest come earlier than others. Don’t compare the timing of your harvest in life
   • The Lord of the Harvest prepares People (Laborers) for the Harvest.
     • He makes me ready for the harvest and people who are not ready cannot take another person’s (Luke 10:2, Math 9:37-38)
3. Notice Some Unusual Characteristics of Harvests
   • A harvest can be good or bad depending on what you have sowed (Gal 6:7-8).
   • Sometimes God gives harvests for seed we never sowed. It could be a harvest from the activities of a previous generation, prayers of your grandparents, etc. (John 4:38)
   • Sometimes you enter an easy harvest because those before you prepared it for you; or it is a hard harvest maybe because those who went before you left it fallow and broken. Following the same principle, a foregoing generation is supposed to set better conditions by sowing great seeds for the next generations.
   • A harvest field can be mixed. You can have tares and wheat grow together (Math 13: 24 (30)
     • The enemy can misdirect the harvest. You can have a misdirected career, business or marriage. You thought it was wheat, but it is tares.
   • The key to understands harvests in your life is the capacity to wait. This is the aspect of appreciating the process. In every harvest field you require discernment. Not everything that looks like a miracle is a miracle. Wait for Gods direction. You pray for the husband and you think it is the one.
   • Anything that puts a spirit of hasty in you, that does not give you time to pray and wait before the Lord, should be suspected. It may be tares. Do not testify before the full grown and ripened harvest. You may be celebrating Tares.
4. One Big Challenge During Harvest Time is Lack of Laborers
   • The Lord states the challenge that despite the good, there are fewer Laborers to pick the harvest. More people are required at Harvest time more than during the sowing time.
   • The Question is “Do You make yourself available for the Harvests God Sends in your life?”
   • The challenge demands that we are the right people in harvesting.
   • The harvest demands that you have the right people with the right experience.
   • The harvest will demand that you increase tools for harvesting. More resources are needed!
   • Ensure to work with People because the harvest is great. During the harvest, recognise that God has opened a big door, therefore, don’t go with a closed mind.
5. Harvest Exposes You to Your Enemies
   • Luke 10:2 states that “I send you as a lamb among wolves
   • Recognise that Your harvest season will expose you to enemies, hostilities, competition, parasites, etc.
   • Understand that the business world, the public service is akin to undermining one another.
   • It is essential that Jesus sets wolves as the enemies. Wolves love to hunt in the night; Lamb eat in the day. The weapon for wolves is darkness but the defence of the lambs is light.
   • Wolves are territorial while the lambs don’t have work in territories, they depend on the movement of the Shepherds. Watch the Lord who leads from territory and victory to victory.

Altar Time

• Lord give me the capacity to understand the workings of Seed Time and Harvest for all my life activities.
• Lord as you give me Great Harvests, give me grace to live among wolves.
• Open my eyes to the Harvest of Souls that are ready to come into your Kingdom

Why an Annual Theme

The Purpose of the theme?

• A Congregational theme is a visionary picture of what we hopefully desire to accomplish within that year by the Grace of the Lord

How do we come up with the theme?

• We pray, we reflect and consider the overall direction of the congregation for that season.

Why this theme?

• We felt that the congregation needed to further its knowledge, habits and skills for growing its influence in the city through the process of Winning Souls and Discipling Believers. We know that this process is through Sowing Seed and Harvesting Souls. Light the City 2.0