“WHAT TIME IS IT?”

Wednesday 2nd February 2011 – Pastor Mark Ballosingh

Hosea 10:12 2Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you

The principle of sowing and reaping is not only a physical principle but it’s also a spiritual principle. Sowing doesn’t only mean our money but also our mental, emotional and spiritual attitude and attributes. 2 Corinthians 9:6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Galatians 6 7-9 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 9And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

When you sow in unrighteousness you will reap the whirlwind, when you sow in righteousness you will reap in righteousness….it is time we sow in righteousness and obedience.

The reward of righteousness is not only for you as an individual to benefit but also for the household you represent. It is a blessing which is handed down, your children and their children will experience the blessings of your seed of righteousness.

Ethan the Ezrahite writes a song (Psalm 89), reminding David about the covenant between him and God. When you sow in righteousness you come into covenant with God.

In the account with David and Saul, David had come into an opportune position where he could have killed Saul but did not touch him for he knew that Saul was God’s anointed…..the Bible says reward evil with good and because of David’s actions God stayed in covenant with him.

Sowing in righteousness requires character, stamina, forgiveness and the heart of God.

It is time to sow in righteousness and in mercy….

To understand sowing in righteousness you need to understand the reward of reaping.

Principle of sowing is Faith, for when you sow you cannot see the rewards right away but you wait in Faith for the reward of the seed sown.

When you sow it must of volume and of quantity…..when a sower goes into the field he doesn’t sow one seed, he takes a handful and scatter it through the field.

When you sow in righteousness you will reap in mercy. In order to reap you must understand the mercy and grace of God. When the sower seeds in order for him to reap he must first wake up and this is the mercy of God extended….life…..When you get up in the morning the first thing you want to sow to, is thanking God for His mercies, for waking you up for when the reaping begins it will start with life, health and strength.
Break up your fallow ground.

The 3 instructions in the scripture:- sow, reap and break up, are dependent on you as an individual doing. The reason some people miss their blessing is because they haven’t done what they have to do even after God has done all He has to do.

Fallow ground – ground which has been plowed but not sown, it is idle ground which gets hard and crusted over and has to continuously be broken up. To reap you need to break up the fallow ground and yield your heart to the Word of God.
The seed being referred to in the verse is the Word of God, we must apply the seed of God diligently in our life.

Seek the Lord:–
• With all your heart Deuteronomy 4:29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
• Continually – 1 Chronicles 16:11 Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually
• By humbling ourselves
• By preparing our hearts – 2 Chronicles 19:3Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God.
• Diligently – Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him

If you seek the Lord diligently, you shall find Him, one of the greatest things you can reap is to find God. Plant the seed of searching for God for when you plow the ground you will find Him, for God is in the heart of the believer.

Let us sow the love of God for if you know God, you love God….to know God you have to build and develop a relationship with Him….God says if you draw nigh unto me I will draw nigh unto you, if you seek me you will find, if you call upon me I will answer…

1 Chronicles 28:9, And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.

Psalm 34 9-10 O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. 10The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.

Psalm 69:32The humble shall see [this, and] be glad: and your heart shall live that seek God.

Amos 5 4-6 For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: 5But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought. 6Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.

Romans 2:7. To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:

When you seek after God and come into relationship with Him then you will gain all the benefits of the relationship.

In this time when we look at the signs around the world it is time to seek after God, for there will come a day when men will seek after Him and would not be able to find Him, Revelation 6:16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

Signs of the time are showing us that the time when Christ will come again is soon..prophecy is unfolding….Australia a dessert land being flooded, Haiti, earthquakes in divers places, kingdoms rising and falling, leaders rising and falling —-Matthew 24 wars and rumours of wars

When you seek after God, He will rain righteousness, where righteousness rains blessings will follow… For God to rain His righteousness there are conditions…. 2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Tonight our nation is suffering from the seed of unrighteousness which was sown in our nation over 20 years ago when young men with guns came over the television and held this country at ransom. This seed of violence was planted in the minds of the generations which followed and people have become heartless and taking a life is done with no feelings……

Our nation will continue to suffer if we do not come back to God and repent for when the soul of a country is in a mess then everything else will deteriorate.

When we look at the account of Jonah in Nineveh and the condition of Nineveh our capital city, Port of Spain and the East West Corridor resembles that of Nineveh…..gangs, killings, bloodshed……..tonight know that no Government, no amount of police will change and improve our country, it is time to seek the face of God and repent……one of the rewards of seeking God is preservation for He preserves His children…”God preserveth the faithful”

Tomorrow may be too late, it is time to seek after God……God will empower the church to be a testimony of His power, glory and majesty….