THE EARLY HARVEST

AN INSPIRING STORY

Do you desire that your expected harvest comes to you early without delays? Do you want to learn how to harvest immediately and in great measures? Then you need to listen to or read this life transforming story

I woke up that morning with an urge to give my car out. It was the only car I had. Being a married man and a father to a seven year old boy, it was really a very tough decision to make.

How was I going to take my son to school and bring him back everyday? How would my wife feel knowing that she’ll have to make use of the public transport service to work everyday. It’s something they’ve never done before and it would look even more odd when they find out I gave out our only car just like that.

Well, there is this young man in our church who has been a blessing. At the time I met him, my business was in a very bad shape. He began to join me in faith by taking out time to pray for my business without demanding for anything. Shortly after we met, my business began to spring up really fast again. The most amazing part is that he’s not even a pastor or minister or church worker. Even though he’s just a regular church attendee, there are great fruits of righteousness around him. In fact, he is a victorious Christian indeed.

For the first two years of knowing him, I never ever gave him any gift of appreciation for the time he spends praying for my business to grow. Well, I think it’s probably because he had never really asked me for anything.

Some time ago, I was at his place for a visit. There, he told me that he’d be going for a 4 months private outreach with his prayer team and that they were believing in God for cars in order to make their navigation very easy, throughout the period of the outreach. He didn’t mention it as though he wanted anything from me and I didn’t really pay any attention to that.

So, that morning, I suddenly began to feel a strong urge to give him my car as a seed and a gift. I wrestled with this feeling all through the morning and by afternoon I gave up the resistance. I called my wife and informed her about the urge to sow my car. I assured her that God would give us another one. When I was done with speaking with her, I went to my son and told him that he’d need to go to school henceforth with the school’s bus. I assured him that it would be for a short while and that Jesus is in need of our car.

He looked up at me and said, “Daddy, isn’t Jesus in heaven? How’s he going to use the car?”

I replied him….

“Son, he is going to give the car to someone on earth, to make use of it on His behalf and for the purpose He wants to use it for.” …

Then he asked again, “but why our car daddy? Is that the only means through which he can get a car? Why does he have to take our car?”

Then I said to him…

“It’s an opportunity for us, son. It’s a God-principle to reward everyone who gives to him with something even more and better than what we gave him. In short, it’s an opportunity for him to bless us and give us a better car.” 

He seemed very happy afterwards but it soon turned sour. He began to develop a lack of trust in God’s promises to reward our seeds sown because 2 months passed, then 6 months and then 12 months and no car came in at all.

In fact, the worst began to happen. My wife got robbed thrice in a public vehicle. She was robbed twice on her way to work in the morning, while she was robbed once on her way back from work. Her money and valuables were taken from her forcefully but she was never hurt.

After the third robbery attack on my wife, I got into a bike accident that landed me in the hospital. I spent 4 weeks there. Again, three weeks after my recovery, I got into another bike accident where I was badly injured. That accident was a very fatal one.

I spent about 3 months in the hospital. It was really a tough time for me and my family. Even though my wife never verbally complained, her actions spoke even louder.

On one particular afternoon, my wife brought my son to visit me at the hospital. Unfortunately for me, my son had met the nurse cleaning and dressing my wounds. Even though he was made to stand outside the room, he could hear me scream very loud in pain. When the nurse was through with her routine procedures, my wife and son were allowed into the room to see me. On sighting the tear filled eyes of my little boy, I broke into tears myself. He walked closer to my bedside and asked me the most devastating question that moved me to ask God “WHY?”

He asked, “Daddy aren’t you sure Jesus is punishing us for something we did wrong? First, he took the car. Since then there’s been no new car. See daddy, we are in pains”

Even though that question really broke my confidence in God’s Harvest, it also troubled me because it only revealed that the whole situation was forming a negative picture in my son’s mind. If nothing is done to correct this, he’ll grow up thinking God is wicked and that He punishes His children whom He claims to love heartlessly.

This, I didn’t want for my son at all. Even though I didn’t understand what exactly was going on, I saw it as a phase. I really wished it could come to an end immediately because it was too much for my little son to chew and it looked too complicated for me to talk to my son about.

I knew undoubtedly that Jesus doesn’t punish His children and that He loves us so much. But, the reason for this delay and negative occurrences is what I couldn’t even figure out myself. It left me with just one question in mind… “WHY?”

October 28th, 2011 made it two years after I had sown my car. I made several attempts to buy a new one but every time the money was about to get complete, I would fall off the bike, spend weeks in the hospital and spend the money on hospital bills.

That day, I sat in the house alone. My wife had gone to work and my son had gone to school. I decided not to go to the office that day as my heart felt too heavy with disappointment and discouragement.

As I sat in the living room with a glass of water, trying to figure out the way forward with this issue, Pastor J drove into my compound.

Pastor J, is a junior pastor at my local church. He has been a great source of comfort and had visited me regularly at the hospital. But never for once did I disclose to him that I had sown my car and I’ve experienced one embarrassment or the other because of this seed I had sown. He only visited me in the hospital and prayed for my recovery.

On sighting his car, I went out to welcome him and to bring him in but he refused to come in.

He said,

“This is the most expensive car I have gotten so far. I bought it about a year ago. Eight months ago God instructed me to pray for you and not stop until the burden to pray for you lifts. Only six months ago, God told me to give you this car. Sir, it was a very difficult decision to make. The more I resisted the more I felt a burden to pray on your behalf. Two months later, my wife told me that God had told her that we should sow this car to you. I was alarmed because I never told her that I was resisting to do so.

Just when I was about to make up my mind to bring it to you, someone approached me to buy my car at a very mouth watering price. I began to reconsider giving it to you. I felt that it would be better to sell the car and send the money to you instead, so that you could buy another car or even two cars with it. Well, my wife wouldn’t let me be and the burden to pray for you became even stronger.

Please take your car!!!!The buyer is still interested in buying it, just in case you prefer the money”.

When he was done, I looked at him and hugged home with tears rolling down my cheeks. I said… “I won’t sell it! I won’t sell it! You don’t know how long I’ve waited and suffered before this car finally came!!!”

So, I narrated everything that had happened to him. How I became car-less and how the delay had affected the mind of my son, the countenance of my wife towards me and my inner peace.

When I was done, he looked at me and said…. “The delay was not from God. You just didn’t know how to Harvest”.

He went further to explain.…

“A lot of Christians know how to sow but they do not know how to harvest. Just like the farmer, they know how to go out to the field to put their seeds into the soil. But the issue is that they never make attempts to go out with their tractors and all to the field to harvest (early). The harvest always comes but it often remains in the field or sometimes are hijacked by the enemy (Satan).

Once a Christian sows, his or her harvest comes from God almost immediately but the delays are not from God. They are from us.

We are expected to keep calling our harvest to come to us. Pray for your harvest to come until you begin to see it manifest.

See, God saw you were not harvesting your harvest and he placed it in my heart to harvest on your behalf. If I wasn’t praying on your behalf, I could have resisted the burden to give you this car eventually. But continuous prayers were made by me.

You see, my continuous praying for you also resulted in my wife stepping in, and she helped me to easily resist the temptation of selling this car.

You never can tell how many people God had led to deliver a better car to you but, because tremendous power was not continuously made available to stop the devil from discouraging these people from giving it to you, they probably may have resisted the leading until it lifted.

Daniel in the Bible prayed and his answer was delivered immediately. But do you remember that the answer was hijacked? With his praying continuously for the answer (with the assurance that God always answers) he cooperated and joined forces with God to enforce that the answers be delivered.

It’s not pride or arrogance to write down every seed that you sow. As a matter of fact, you need to write them down, so you can call the harvests on every of those seeds to come to you as often as possible, till they begin to manifest.

Don’t cross your hands and legs after sowing. Go for your harvest because it is already here. Just as sowing is intentional, Harvesting is also intentional. Sowing and harvesting is not a game of luck. It is an intentional process”.

After his explanation, he prayed with me and left. You needed to see the smile on my face. It was a great relief to have something to explain to my little son when he returns from school. I picked him up from school that day and I was so proud to say…

“Son, Jesus has brought the car and the delay was from daddy not Jesus. As a matter of fact, Jesus loves us so much that he used someone to help us with our harvest. Henceforth, every of our Harvest would begin to come in early.”

That car was actually just the beginning. I formed the habit of spending thirty minutes every day, calling forth every pending harvest and in just a month, we had ten cars. Every one who brought them said, God had told them two years ago to bring the car to me but after a while they forgot about it. But suddenly they were reminded again and didn’t have any rest till they brought it.

As I received those cars with thanksgiving to God, I also taught them how to harvest. To me it’s Harvest (I gave out just one car and got ten expensive cars). But, to each of them it’s a seed sown. Hallelujah.. Amen

YOUR HARVEST IS ALREADY HERE! THERE IS NO NEED FOR THE DELAYS! GO OUT NOW AND GET YOUR HARVEST!

Thank you for reading my story.

Written by – Oti Stories

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