The Unseen Harvest: A Personal Encounter with Heaven's Economy
Let me take you to the dusty plains of my uncle's farm in Limpopo, where the earth wears cracked, leathery skin and the sun hangs heavy like a furnace. I remember, as a young boy, watching him walk back and forth, his calloused hands scattering seed across what appeared to be hopeless, barren soil. Day after day, he would water ground that showed no immediate signs of life. "Why, Malume?" I asked, my voice tinged with the impatience of youth. "The ground is hard. Nothing is growing." He paused, wiped the sweat from his brow, and spoke words that would echo through my spiritual journey for decades: "My child, the harvest is never in the sowing; it's in the waiting. What you sow in faith, you will reap in due season."
Those words find their divine echo in the apostolic proclamation that has anchored generations of believers: "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up" (Galatians 6:9, NIV). In a South Africa where load-shedding darkens our homes and economic shadows lengthen across our land, where the relentless tide of bad news threatens to erode our hope, we have lost sight of this eternal truth. We have forgotten the celestial economy where our faithful obedience—however small, however unseen—becomes the most powerful currency in God's kingdom.
The Anatomy of Spiritual Currency: What Heaven Accepts as Legal Tender
In our modern world, we bow before the altars of rand and dollar, of bitcoin and assets. We measure value by fleeting metrics that rise and fall with political winds and market sentiments. Yet, in the economy of Heaven, God has established an entirely different exchange rate, backed not by gold reserves but by the unshakable integrity of His Word.
What exactly is this "currency of heaven"? Let us define our terms with philosophical precision. Currency, in earthly terms, represents stored value that can be exchanged for goods and services. Similarly, heavenly currency represents spiritual value stored in eternal realities. It is comprised of three essential components:
1. Obedience: The deliberate alignment of human will with divine command, regardless of immediate visible outcomes.
2. Faith: The substantiation of things hoped for, the evidence of realities unseen (Hebrews 11:1).
3. Perseverance: The continuance in well-doing despite opposition, weariness, or the absence of immediate reward.
The world may dismiss your quiet faithfulness—the prayers whispered in the darkness, the small acts of kindness unnoticed by others, the integrity maintained when no one is watching. Yet, in the divine exchange, these are not small contributions but powerful deposits in eternal realms. As the philosopher-theologian John Mbiti, the father of modern African theology, observed in his seminal work African Religions and Philosophy: "Wherever the African is, there is religion". This speaks to an inherent understanding that there is more to reality than what we see—an eternal dimension that intersects with our daily lives.
Jesus Christ, the master economist of Heaven, constantly highlighted this counterintuitive economy. He watched a poor widow deposit two small coins into the temple treasury and declared that she had given more than all the others (Mark 12:41-44). Why? Because while others gave from their surplus, she gave from her poverty—her entire livelihood. The value wasn't in the amount but in the obedience, faith, and sacrifice behind it. This wasn't sentimentalism; this was divine accounting.
The War Against Weariness: confronting Our Greatest Spiritual Threat
Weariness is the silent saboteur of spiritual harvest. It doesn't arrive with dramatic fanfare but seeps into our souls slowly—through unanswered prayers, through continued hardships despite our faithfulness, through the relentless grind of doing good in a world that often rewards evil.
Let me address this with the prophetic confrontation characteristic of our "Harold Mawela" style: We have become a generation of spiritual quitters! We want the harvest without the planting, the reward without the fight, the breakthrough without the obedience. We abandon our posts at the first sign of resistance, we surrender our convictions when cultural tides shift against us, and we question God's faithfulness when our timetables aren't met.
I see this in our South African context—in pastors tempted to abandon their calling for more lucrative careers, in activists growing weary in the fight against corruption, in parents ready to give up on wayward children, in believers disengaging from ministry because they feel unappreciated. This weariness is not merely physical; it is spiritual, emotional, and psychological. It is the cumulative effect of sowing without seeing immediate results.
But hear me clearly: Your weariness is not a sign of God's absence but an invitation to deeper dependence. The Scripture anticipates this very human experience: "And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not faint". The Greek word for "grow weary" (ἐκκακέω, ekkakeō) means to lose heart, to become exhausted, to surrender in battle. This is spiritual warfare against our perseverance.
Consider the testimony of international Bible teacher Derek Prince, who experienced a powerful encounter with Jesus during military service in 1941. God told him: "It shall be like a little stream. The stream shall become a river. The river shall become a great river...". This progression didn't happen overnight—it unfolded over sixty years of faithful ministry. The harvest came through steadfast obedience, not dramatic immediacy.
Cultivating Perseverance: Practical Strategies for Steadfast Sowing
How then do we combat this weariness? How do we continue sowing when the soil appears unyielding? Let me offer not theoretical theology but battlefield strategies:
1. Renew Your Mind Daily: Just as my uncle didn't consult the barren soil but trusted the seed's inherent potential, we must consult God's promises rather than our circumstances. Your "information diet" must be intentionally curated—consuming Scripture rather than being consumed by doubt-inducing narratives.
2. Celebrate Small Obediences: In God's economy, there are no insignificant acts of faithfulness. That conversation you had with a colleague about Christ, that decision to forgive when bitterness beckoned, that choice to honor God with your finances—these are powerful deposits in heaven's bank.
3. Anchor in Community: The African concept of ubuntu—"I am because we are"—finds its fullest expression in the body of Christ. We persevere together. Just as the LittAfrica 2023 conference brought together African Christian publishers and writers to strengthen each other, we need community to combat weariness.
4. Eternal Perspective: The harvest God promises often transcends our immediate circumstances and temporal timelines. It may manifest in transformed lives, spiritual breakthroughs, or eternal rewards that we only fully comprehend in eternity.
The Guaranteed Harvest: Standing on the Irrevocable Law of Sowing and Reaping
Let me construct a logical argument for those wrestling with doubt:
Major Premise: God has established an irrevocable spiritual law: whatever a man sows, that he will also reap (Galatians 6:7).
Minor Premise:You have been sowing seeds of obedience, faith, and perseverance.
Conclusion:Therefore, you will reap a harvest of blessing, breakthrough, and eternal reward.
A common objection arises: "But I've been sowing for years with no visible harvest!" This objection fails because it assumes our temporal perspective is comprehensive. It doesn't account for God's "due season"—the kairos moment when circumstances align with divine purpose. It doesn't consider that the greatest harvests often require the longest growing seasons.
The Kenyan theologian John Mbiti, in his work on African eschatology, highlighted how many African traditional conceptions of time are two-dimensional—including the past and present with less emphasis on the future. But biblical eschatology introduces a profound future dimension—the "due season" when God's promises find their fulfillment. Your harvest may not be delayed; it may be developing according to divine timetable.
Look at the cross—the ultimate sowing. When Jesus died, it appeared to be the greatest defeat in history. The soil of a tomb received the seed of God's Son. Yet, three days later, the harvest of resurrection shook the universe! The same power that raised Christ from the dead is at work in your sowing, in your faithful obedience.
The Prophetic Confrontation: Rejecting the Poverty Gospel
Now, I must sound the alarm against a dangerous error that has infiltrated our churches—the prosperity gospel that misrepresents God's economy. This distortion suggests that our obedience purchases God's blessing, that our sowing obligates heaven to respond according to our demands. This is not biblical Christianity; this is spiritual consumerism!
The true gospel proclaims that we sow from a position of already-received grace, not to earn it. Our obedience doesn't manipulate God; it aligns us with His will. Our breakthrough is not a transactional outcome but a relational dynamic with our Heavenly Father who knows what we need before we ask (Matthew 6:8).
We must also confront the cultural syncretism that reduces spiritual obedience to superstitious rituals. The currency of heaven is not in repeating certain phrases like magical incantations but in a heart posture of surrendered obedience. As Jesus, the ideal philosopher, warned: "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" (Luke 6:46). There is an inseparable connection between confession and obedience.
Your Strategic Assignment in Heaven's Economy
Perhaps you're reading this from your home in Akasia, battling load-shedding that has disrupted your routine, wondering how your small acts of faithfulness could possibly impact God's kingdom. Maybe you're a student in Pretoria facing relentless pressure to compromise your convictions. Perhaps you're a professional in Johannesburg, weary of maintaining integrity in a cutthroat business environment.
Hear the word of the Lord: Your perseverance is not in vain. Your obedience is the most powerful currency you possess. When you choose forgiveness over bitterness, integrity over compromise, faithfulness over despair, you are making eternal deposits in the bank of heaven.
The Greek word for "reap" in Galatians 6:9 (θερίζω, therizō) implies an abundant, joyful harvest—one that far outweighs the sacrifice of sowing. Your present struggle, your faithful sowing in barren situations, is producing "an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison" (2 Corinthians 4:17).
As I often remind our congregation at Impartation Church in Akasia: The law of harvest is irrevocable. Your seed of obedience, however small it seems, contains within it the genetic coding for your breakthrough. Keep sowing. Keep trusting. Keep obeying.
The doors of heaven stand open, and the angels keep meticulous records of every act of faithfulness done in Jesus' name. Your account in heaven is growing with each step of obedience, with each choice to persevere. Don't abandon the field now—your harvest is closer than you think.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, the Master Economist of Heaven, give us faith to persistently sow our small acts of obedience. Help us trust Your timing for the harvest, believing our breakthrough is on the way. When weariness threatens to overwhelm us, remind us that our labor in You is never in vain. Amen.
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