What is a spiritual harvest and how can I achieve one?

To follow the teaching of the passage we may ask ourselves three questions: (1) What is the fruit of which the Lord speaks? (2) What are the means taken that the true disciples may be fruitful? (3) What is the great end in view in fruit-bearing? What then does the Lord mean when He speaks of fruit? May we not say that fruit is all that in our lives which is agreeable to God? It follows that only that which is of Christ in us can be for the Father's delight. We may therefore say, that fruit is the character of Christ reproduced in the lives of His disciples. We read in Galatians 5:22, that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control" (N. Tn.). These are the very qualities that marked Christ in His path down here, and that called forth the Father's expression of pleasure, for the voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I have found my delight." Fruit, then, is not simply preaching and teaching, or activity in different forms of service, or in this passage even souls won for Christ through the preaching, but rather the beautiful qualities of Christ seen in the souls that are won. Alas! it is possible to be very active in Christian service and yet exhibit very little of the character of Christ in the life, and, therefore, bring forth but little fruit for the delight of the Father. Moreover, let us remember that what goes up to God as fruit, goes out to man as testimony. These two thoughts are expressed by the Lord's words, "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples." The life that glorifies the Father and delights His heart becomes a testimony to the world that we are Christ's disciples. That we are truly His disciples will be far more manifest by a little meekness and gentleness, than by any amount of activity. Mary's quiet dependence upon the Lord, that led her to sit at His feet and hear His word, brought forth fruit that was far more pleasing to the heart of Christ than all Martha's sincere energy. We are not all called or gifted to take an active part in preaching or teaching, or many other forms of service; but it is open to all — the youngest as the oldest believer — to express in our life the beautiful traits of Christ, and thus bring forth fruit for the Father and testimony before men. Christ, personally, is no longer on earth; but God desires that Christ, morally, should still be seen in His people. In the measure in which this is true there will be fruit and testimony.

In the previous chapter we are told about the fruit of the Spirit, "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance". What a lovely crop this is. I believe these things can be produced in our lives as we sow to the Spirit, that is, as we allow the Spirit in our lives to produce these things. There are none of the things we were reading about this afternoon, no birds who come and snatch away the seed, no rocky ground, the weeds or the shrubs, which prevent the seed from growing, all these things are the production of the flesh. However, if all these things are cleared away from our lives we allow the Spirit of God to produce in us those features of Christ, features that are so pleasurable to God. Let us be sure, dear young Christians, that early in our lives we apply ourselves to sowing to the Spirit and avoid like the plague sowing to the flesh. Sowing to the flesh will never produce anything in your life that will help you as a Christian and will never produce anything in your life for God, you will never be like Isaac reaping a hundred fold, you will never be one who in any way will stand for God. Sow to the Spirit, make sure that the things that you sow are pure and clean and wholesome and upright before God, and you will produce these features that we have been reading of, features of peace and love and uprightness and temperance against which there is no law.

Now we come to this very solemn passage in many respects in the epistle to the Galatians, and yet it is encouraging too. What Paul is saying as guided by the Spirit is that if we sow to what is evil we shall reap evil, but if we sow to what is good and pure and precious we shall reap accordingly. You remember the Lord Jesus told the story of a man who sowed good seed in his field, and while his servants slept an enemy came and sowed darnel, tares, weeds, in the field, and eventually when the seeds grew they found that there was good seed and weeds all mingled together and the servants were astounded, 'Did we not sow good seed in the field? Where then have the weeds come from?' and the Lord had to tell them that while they slept an enemy had sown the weeds (Matt.13:24-30). This is exactly what Paul is saying in the epistle to the Galatians, the good seed is sowing to the Spirit and reaping from the Spirit all that is precious, all that is abiding, all that is eternal, all that is marked by life and vitality according to God. Sowing to what is wicked we reap all that is wicked. It is a principle that never alters, even in the affairs of men this holds true, you reap whatever you sow. How can it be otherwise?

This practical side of things is summed up for us in Galatians 6:7 and 8, under the figure of "sowing" and "reaping." Our thoughts, our words, and our actions are viewed as so many acts of seed sowing. All depends on whether we sow to the flesh or to the Spirit, i.e., whether the tendency and intent and end of our sowing is to the gratification of the cravings of the flesh or of the desires of the Spirit. This it is which determines the character of our sowing, and consequently the character of the reaping.

It is, of course, true that we reap as we sow as to quantity. 2 Corinthians 9:6 emphasises this side of the question. "He which sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully." Our Scripture is enforcing the truth that as surely as God is God, we reap as we sow as to character or kind. We cannot sow one kind and reap another kind. There is no such thing as "transmutation of species" in the material creation, though evolutionary philosophers have eagerly sought it. Men cannot sow thistles and reap wheat, or cockle and have a harvest of barley. Neither is there transmutation of species in the spiritual realm. If we sow to the gratification of the flesh we reap corruption, always corruption, and nothing but corruption. If we sow to the Spirit we reap everlasting life. Let us not deceive ourselves on this point, for we are apt to do so, as the apostle's warning implies.

Flesh and corruption are thus inseparably connected as cause and effect. This has been true as to man's physical flesh ever since the fall. His flesh then became mortal flesh with corruption as its inevitable end. It became equally true of his moral condition and nature which is "the flesh" in the passage we are considering. Its workings always issue in moral and spiritual corruption. The "old man" is "corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts" (Eph. 4:22), and so deceitful are its lusts that what appears to be the most intellectual and refined philosophic speculation may really be the wanderings of human minds that are controlled by the lusts, that is, the desires, of the flesh. Such persons just end by thinking what they want to think; and all the corruption which fills the world to-day originates in thought: words and actions follow after.

Galatians 6:7-9, may help to answer this. Our lives in a practical way are made up of sowing and reaping. It is as though we go forth each day with a seed basket on either side of us. We may put our hand into the basket of the flesh on that side and sow to the flesh, or into the basket of the Spirit on this side and sow to the Spirit: that is we may be yielding to the things which merely gratify the flesh, and so scatter the seeds of the flesh, or we may give ourselves to the things of the Spirit, and sow seeds that will be fruitful to His glory.

These are wholesome words for all of us. It is an unspeakable mercy for every dear servant of Christ to be kept in the abiding sense of his own utter nothingness — to be taught to realise, in some measure, the depth, fulness, and power of that one brief but most comprehensive statement, "Apart from me ye can do nothing." There is not a single branch in all the vine, however imposing or wide-spreading it may seem to be, which, if separated from the parent stem by the thickness of a gold leaf, can produce the very smallest atom of fruit. There must be the abiding realisation of our vital union with Christ the practical, living, abiding in Him, by faith, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, in order to bring forth any fruit that God can accept. It is as we abide in Christ that the living sap circulates freely through us, and gives forth the healthy bud, the green leaf, and the seasonable fruit.

The first simple truth taught here is — sowing and reaping. If seed is not sown, fruit will never be produced. Moreover, if God does not put the right resources into the earth, sowing would be in vain. Would not our Lord be assuring His disciples that unless God had prepared the ground first, their efforts would be in vain? To take this truth home to ourselves, all we can do is sow the seed. Once the seed is sown the sower can do no more, but goes on with his daily labours and leaves the seed to do its own work assisted by the resources which God has placed there. Let us not try devices in an endeavour to cause the seed to germinate when only God can do that! One is persuaded that this initial work of preparing the ground for the right reception of the seed — the word — is when a soul is "born again." Then, as our Lord spoke of the earth bringing forth "fruit of herself," so also a soul wrought upon by God would have spiritual resources for the receiving and gendering of the word heard in the preaching of the glad tidings of the grace of God. Also, as seed sown in the earth is beyond the reach and sight of the sower, yet the evidence of growth will be seen in the appearance of the "blade" and the "ear," and finally, "the full corn in the ear" which is the time to reap. So may we not be over anxious to reap ere the full time has come, nor lagging behind when we ought to be reaping. May we go on sowing the seed, quite assured that God only can cause it to grow, and let us be watchful for the appearance of the "full corn" — a harvest for the praise of God.

There is no preacher of the gospel that has ever gone forth to serve the Lord and had success in his work who could say that it was all the result of his prayers and his service. No servant worth his salt would ever say such a thing. He would readily admit that every success he had had in the Lord's service was because others were praying and others had worked in some way or other and that both he and they were working together to secure this fruit for God. So it must ever be. We are not all called to be sowers, we are not all called to be reapers, but we can all do some little service, we can all plant some seed. I am sure that every tract that is given away is some seed sown. Every word spoken for the Lord is some seed sown. Every quotation of the word of God to a soul in need is seed sown. Every word of God quoted to a Christian for his encouragement is seed sown. Every kind act shown toward either converted or unconverted is seed sown. This is how we do it, and all this in the aggregate, in the power of the Holy Spirit is going to produce fruit. It must be on the basis of the Scriptural principle, if seed is sown it bears fruit. But the Lord is indicating we must do something about it, we must make sure that we are actively engaged in this kind of work. We look on some field, we see that something needs to be done and then we do it under the direction of the Lord. And we do want to know more about rejoicing. The Lord said the reaper and the sower, when the work is all done, when something is accomplished for the Lord's glory, rejoice together. I think it is wise that we make sure we are under His hand, after all, He was saying to them, 'Look round about you, look on the fields', He was directing them and we can be sure of this, that if we are under His direction we shall be led unerringly into the field of His choice for us so that something will be produced for His pleasure and His glory.

Our life down here is a time of sowing, and as Christians we can either sow to the flesh or to the Spirit. It is a natural law that what is sown is reaped: and the spiritual law is "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" (Gal. 6:8). Sowing to the flesh is simply to be engaged with the things of the flesh; finding gratification in the pursuit of natural things. There is no true satisfaction in natural things, and for us they are all utterly destroyed when death comes.

The principle that he lays down is doubtless true in any and every connection. Still here it stands in connection with this matter of giving, and we are brought face to face with the fact that our reaping must inevitably be according to our sowing. This is true of course as to quantity and that fact is stated in 2 Corinthians 9:6. The point here is rather that of quality, or perhaps we had better say of kind or nature; that just what we sow that we reap.

To sow to the flesh is to cater for it and its desires. To sow to the Spirit is to yield to Him His place, and lay oneself out for His things. If the former, we reap corruption. If the latter, eternal life. The corruption comes from the flesh. Eternal life, from the Spirit. In both cases it is just the proper outcome of what is sown; as normal as it is to obtain a field of thistles from the sowing of thistledown, or wheat from the sowing of wheat.