Last week, we started our discussion on Seed, Time, and Harvest. In Genesis 8:22a, it says, As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest…and the Holy Spirit showed us how the process of farming can be applied to our lives today.
The Lord prepares the soil for the seed, that’s you and me, to be planted. Over time, He feeds the soil, and He may have to pull up a few weeds, as He clears the path for where we are going. Then we must be confident that He has put everything that we need into the seed and thus, our seed is sowed in faith. But if we continually keep our eyes fixed on negative conditions, we will fail to sow or will lose faith in our seed.
Those too lazy to plow in the right season will have no food at the harvest. –
Proverbs 20:4
We must then be diligent as we wait. It’s our responsibility to do the work no matter what the results because the Lord will reward us for our efforts and the quality of our work. Remember, we will get out what we put in. The Holy Spirit will give us guidance along the path, but without all the details. However, we must not stop growing, while we wait for further instructions. The Lord will send others to provide the water for us to grow;
He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful.
Isaiah 30:23a
The Lord provides a bountiful harvest, the reward for our labor.
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
So, don’t give up before the harvest! To be honest, when the Lord gives us something to do, we cannot give up until the Lord says we can… and I really don’t believe that that’s gonna happen!
It’s a New Year and although our lives usually do not change drastically from Dec. 31st to Jan. 1st, it’s another year of God’s Favor, for us to experience life, like never before. Not with just houses, cars, and land, although the Lord didn’t say that we shouldn’t have those things, provided we don’t love our stuff more than we love Him. There’s so much more to life that the Lord has promised us and it’s time for us to live life in its fullness, with love, peace, and joy unspeakable. Our Supernatural blessings will ALWAYS outweigh our natural ones. The Lord said,
“I will open the windowsofheaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!
He says that He will prove it to us, so why wouldn’t we want it! Natural or material blessings are also from the Lord, but again, we just must be careful not to love our possessions more than our provider.
33 Seek the Kingdom of God[a] above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
As I’ve said before, we may not always get what we want, but the Lord will always give us what we need, exactly when we need it. As we look across social media, we see more and more people, who appear to have everything that they would everwant or need, and yet life is still not worth living.
We usually stop at Matthew 6, verse 33, but Jesus goes on to say…
34 “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
Many times, we are so worried about “what might happen” tomorrow, that we forget to live today! Then, there are other times when we are so stuck in our yesterday, that we are not trusting the Lord with our tomorrow, especially when we are in a dry place or a wilderness season. I have spoken often about wilderness seasons, when the Lord has us in a place of challenges and uncertainty. It becomes even more difficult to live in our today, yet alone live each day to the fullness. To survive our periods of spiritual dryness; our droughts, we must have water and daily spiritual refreshing. We know that we cannot stay in a place without water, and we cannot live a full life without the Holy Spirit.
Often, I must remind myself that my task is simply to plant the seed, therefore, my message to you will not change in 2023. We must always take a quiet moment to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying, we must have water to grow. He will tell us and show us how to Live Our Best Live Ever! It’s our choice …The Lord promises that,
20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
We have moved into 2023, another year of God’s Favor, but we must be careful not to pray away the mountains that the Lord may send our way. We must understand that the Lord is always strengthening us for this journey. So, there will be times that the mountains just won’t move, so we may have to go around them or maybe even over them. As we are being strengthened, He will show us how to flex our muscles of faith, strength, hope and courage. We can’t afford to allow our mind, heart, or soul to become cluttered with thoughts of discontent and defeat. However, it may require us to flip our thinking on its head and rather than fighting the storms, avoiding the deserts, patching ourselves up, and fixing the cracks, we must embrace the ideas that the Lord will use every method that He can to make us more like Him and He is not going to give up!
Although it may get tough, the Lord is always on our side, especially when adversity comes. I read that “it is impossible to succeed on this journey without going through adversity. Impossible! If we are successful and have not experienced adversity, we can be sure that someone else has experienced it for us. If we are experiencing it without succeeding, there is a good chance somebody else will succeed one day because of us. Either way, there is no success without adversity.” Winston Churchill wisely stated, “Success is never final; failure is never fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts,” [especially when the journey gets tough and the mountains are high].
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth; the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Isaiah 40:4-5 KJV
We’ve entered a New Year, 365 days of endless possibilities with God’s Grace and Favor.
“This is a time to get organized and to tie up loose ends. [We] need to be clear and unencumbered for the next leg of our journey. [We] have already come a long way. Pause and consider where [we} were a year ago and put it behind you. This is a new day with new possibilities”.
Spirit of Prophecy by Marsha burns
As we continue to listen to the Holy Spirit, we will not only hear His instructions and directions for our journey, but we will hear the answers to our many prayers. The Lord promises that:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
As I give you the first post of 2023, I am asking for your continued prayers as the Lord extends my territory. I pray that I hunger for His Word like never before and I remain humble and obedient to His voice.
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As we move into 2023, I have so many thoughts swirling around in my mind about what the Lord has in store for us in the coming year. As our journey continues, we all know that life will continue to happen, but in the midst of it all, the Lord has a plan. Throughout 2022 and many years before, the Holy Spirit, if we allowed Him, has spoken through us in the moment when someone needed to be encouraged the most, even when we didn’t realize it. Therefore, we must continue to be mindful of not only our assignment, purpose and calling, but our gifts and talents. I read that “our nothing in the Lord’s hands becomes something”. We will have a supernatural transformation of our perspective, especially as it pertains to those aspects of our life that we consider insignificant. The more we pour out the anointing that the Lord has placed in us, the more it will increase.
I’m reminded of the story of Elisah and the widow. When she asked the prophet for help, he did not give her money. He said, “What do you have in your house?” She said, “I have nothing, but a small jar of oil“. He told her to go out, borrow jars and start pouring. It wasn’t until she stopped pouring, that the oil ceased. So, have we stopped pouring?
With our lives changing so rapidly, we must resist the desire to simply bury our gift out of fear and just move on. We know that is not just a very bad idea, but for us, it is not an option. Remember the parable about the servants and the talents, to refresh your memory you might want to read Matthew 25:14-30. Let’s just say that it didn’t end well for one of the servants.
As I was reflecting on my last 12 months, which now seems to have flown by, I thought about one Friday morning in early September, when my business coach, who is an expert in digital marketing and a pastor of a church in NY, sent me his latest business-oriented podcast. The topic of the podcast was about branding. So, entrepreneurs, who are reading this, may want to pay close attention. I’d always thought that branding was simply business logos and brochures, but he said that branding is from the inside out, we must bring our authentic selves to the table. He said that the clarity in which our brand is speaking, the greater it will shape the impact we have on others, which was right in line with my new venture into life coaching. I want to inspire people, primarily women to release whatever is holding them back from moving into their destiny and living on purpose. I want to encourage and empower those who struggle with self-worth and help them to see themselves as God sees them.
In my excitement, I scheduled a coaching call with my business coach and the Holy Ghost downloads flowed right back to Preparing for the Journey. We must make sure that we listen to the small details that the Holy Spirit gives us as we go along this journey called life. With the dream and vision that we have been given by the Lord, He may have shown us a glimpse of where He is taking us, but again, we have no idea how we are going to get there. He continues to move us beyond our current understanding, desires, limitations, and obstacles.
We must be willing to expand beyond where we are and be willing to make changes necessary for our own good and the good of those around us. When we stay close to God, He will direct our steps. We must keep moving forward, heading in the right direction because every step counts.
Spirit of Prophecy, Marsha Burns 9-26-22
The Lord is expanding my territory and increasing my influence, which means that I will have a measurable impact on others’ decisions, behaviors, and to affect their outcomes. I must accept this assignment with humility and obedience, not popularity, NOT for me, but for His Glory!
What’s ahead for you in the coming year?
Our Journey Continues and the Lord promises that…
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9
Order Your Steps 