Plowing Is Praying

Wellspring just started our eighth year. What does the number eight mean? New beginning. We are definitely experiencing a new beginning. I’m so glad you are here, and we can begin together. We’ve talked about the new beginning of Passover. We’ve talked about the new beginning of Jubilee.

As I was praying about this eighth year, I asked the Lord, “What is our mission?” Last fall Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “Your mission here is coming to completion.” For more than a year we had been continually engaging in spiritual warfare and making prophetic declarations for the salvation and transformation of Rowlett, Texas. If that mission wrapped up, what’s next. He answered me with Leviticus 25:22.

“And you will sow in the eighth year.”
Leviticus 25:22a LEB

What will you do in the eighth year? Sow. This is our command for this eighth year, this new beginning: sow.

What do farmers do in sowing time? They plow the soil and plant the seed. It’s hard work and it’s all done in faith without immediate gratification. We work in the expectation of what will come. Oxen would pull your plow forward while you push it into the ground. This would break up, soften, and turn the soil. Then you would walk along casting seed over the ground. We plow the ground and sow the seed, and the Lord brings growth. Then we harvest.

Faithfulness & Faith

This is the year of faithfulness and faith. We faithfully plow and we sow in faith for the coming harvest. For us as Wellspring Church, what does it look like to plow and to sow? Today we’re going to focus on plowing, then next week we’ll cover sowing.

Plowing means cultivating. How do we cultivate the atmosphere? We cultivate hearts, homes, and regions. We do this with prayer.

Plowing Is Praying

In prayer we turn the soil of our communities and the hearts of people. We prepare the land and the people to receive the good seed. Then we sow —we start liberally casting out the seed over the prepared land and hearts.

Have you ever tried to share your testimony with someone and it just bounced off their foreheads like a pebble hitting a brick wall? The soil must be plowed and prepared to receive. You have no power to grow (that’s God), but you must plow and sow. A farmer who never plows but only sows will not see significant growth.

God alone will bring the growth.
My role is to plow and sow.

Over the past year we’ve been very focused on reestablishing the church as a house of prayer. Yahweh said, “My house will be a house of prayer.” Jesus said, “My Father’s house is a house of prayer.” Prayer isn’t the responsibility of a small group of radical people. It’s the priority of the household of God. Are we children of God? Then we pray.

Think about your family for a minute. Is there something that identifies your family?

If you looked at my family, you could say the Neeses are many things —hopefully some of that is good. We each have individual gifts, traits, and passions that aren’t shared. But we have other traits that are common among us, family traits. We laugh a lot, we’re pretty goofy, and our humor may lean towards inappropriate. We talk a lot and very openly whenever we’re together. We tease each other, but we also believe in the greatness that is within each other.

One thing you would see in me, my wife, and both of my children, is that we all teach. I teach from the Bible nearly everyday, Sako is a leadership teacher and a tennis coach, Luna is a Montessori teacher, and Towah is a swimming and a tumbling instructor. The Neeses are teachers and coaches that love sowing into people’s lives and seeing people grow by what we’ve been given to share. That’s my family. The Neeses are teachers. The Neese house is a house of teachers.

Yahweh’s family prays. They are all prayer warriors and intercessors. It’s knit into the fabric of the household culture. Yahweh is our Father, and our Father’s house is a house of prayer. This is who we are. Who are we? Say, “I am prayer.”

In return for my love, they are my accusers. But I am prayer.
Psalm 109:4 Interlinear

Some versions say, “I give myself to prayer,” but the original language says, “I am prayer.” There are only two houses to which we can belong, the house of accusations or the house of prayer. The accuser’s house is a house of accusations. My Father’s house is a house of prayer.

We are prayers. How we pray may sound different, but we are a praying family. And the Bible says (James 5:16 LEB), “The effective prayer of a righteous person accomplishes much.” Righteous is right standing with God, which we have through faith in Jesus. Through Jesus we become children of God and members of His household.

Say, “My Father’s house is a house of prayer.”

Jesus’ followers asked Him to teach them how to pray. He said:

“In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Matthew 6:9-13 NKJV

Jesus is giving an outline to us. Through this example: 

“Our Father in heaven“

We are identifying our God as our Father; and therefore we come before Him as His children. We are proclaiming our relationship to Him, our intimacy; and we are proclaiming His identity and our identity from that relationship. He is heavenly father and we are heavenly sons and daughters. 

“Hallowed be Your name“

We are praising, exalting, and glorifying Him, His name Yahweh, and the name of His Son Yeshua (“Yahweh Saves”). 

“Your kingdom come”

We are making Kingdom decrees on the earth.

“Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven”

As Kingdom agents, we are releasing heaven to earth. 

“Give us this day our daily bread“

Notice that Jesus didn’t make this statement a request. He didn’t even say please. Actually, there is no asking in this prayer. It’s all faith decrees.  Jesus said, “Give us.” Provider, provide. Give me my bread. Give me my sustenance. Give me my Jesus. In Mark 7:27, Jesus refers to healing and deliverance as the children’s bread. Give me my healing and deliverance. Give him his healing. Give her her deliverance. He provides; we receive and distribute.  Entitlement is often a horrible thing, but God doesn’t correct it in His children. Remember the story of the prodigal son? The father didn’t have a problem giving the son his inheritance, and he wasn’t offended that the son said, “Give me my inheritance.” When the other son was jealous, the father said, “Why are you upset? Everything I have is yours. You can take it anytime.”

We’re not being selfish bad people when we say to Father God, “Give us our bread.” We are recognizing our relationship as fully established heirs of God. He is Heavenly Father. We are heavenly sons and daughters. HEAVEN BELONGS TO US.

When Jesus talked about children, He said (Matthew 19:14), “To such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven.” THE KINGDOM BELONGS TO THE CHILDREN. This is a big deal. Jesus did not teach His followers to pray like beggars and slaves. He taught them to pray as His entitled divine children and Kingdom agents. 

“And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors“

We receive forgiveness and extend forgiveness, releasing prisoners from captivity, and declaring and demonstrating Jubilee. You are forgiven. You are free. You are forgiven. You are free. We are facilitating Jubilee. 

“And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one“

We acknowledge Him as our Protector and our Liberator, and as His agents we extend protection and liberty to others. 

“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever“

Finally we wrap up by recognizing His rule and His power with more exaltation and praise. He is Lord of lords and King of kings. He is above all else. And He alone is worthy to receive all glory. Notice we start with exaltation and end with exaltation. Prayer is a worship sandwich.

“I will bring them to my holy mountain; I will make them merry in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
Isaiah 56:7 LEB

I love this statement from God. “I will make them merry in My house of prayer.” Merry means joyful and rejoicing. Some people think prayer meetings are suppose to be quiet, sullen, and on the verge of depressing. Nope! Not my Father’s house. When we pray He makes me rejoice. Prayer meetings can be heavy, but when my Father shows up He can’t help but renew the strength of His children by soaking them with His pleasure. What is our strength? Nehemiah 8:10 says, “Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” His joy is your strength.

I was at a large prayer gathering on a football field this past weekend. As I worshiped on the astroturf, the presence of God was so heavy that I fell to my knees and tears began pouring out of my eyes onto the ground. I was so moved I could hardly breathe. I knew that I was suppose to go up on the platform and speak, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to. I said, “Lord, if you want me to talk, You have to let me up.” He did, then I went up and led the gathered crowd in repentance for not seeking His face and His eyes above all else. We also repented from making His house anything but a house of prayer. It was a powerful moment, with every person on their knees and their faces. Was it heavy? Absolutely! His glory is weighty! But then He comes in and makes us merry. People were jumping and praising and worshiping. Post-repentance, joy was all over the field and the people.

“I will bring them to My holy mountain…” This past year many people have quoted Psalm 24:3, “Who may ascend the mountain of Yahweh? And who may stand in His holy place?” Who will ascend? He will bring those who belong to His house of prayer. HE WILL bring them and HE WILL make them merry. When we repent, we put our lives back in alignment with Him and let Him do what He wants to do. What does He want to do? He wants to bring you to His mountain and make you merry.

This is what prayer looks like when we gather for House Prayer every Thursday night. Father brings us to His holy mountain, and He makes us merry in His house of prayer. We rejoice in the plowing.

Once we have plowed with prayer, we’re ready to sow the seed. In Matthew 13, Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower. In the story the sower threw the seed all over the place. But some fell on the good soil and produced a hundred times more.

What makes soil good? It’s been plowed and cultivated and prepared. When the seed lands on the plowed ground, it will produce much fruit. This is a promise. Where we often mess up in our sowing is we have not been committed to the plowing. This is part of what God is doing in reforming the church right now and restoring the house of prayer. If we, the church, the Ekklesia, the governing body of Christ, will be as committed to praying as we are to preaching, we will see abundant, overflowing, greatly multiplying fruit.

Next week we’re going to talk about how each of us sows. Today we’re going to do some more plowing together with decrees over our prodigals.

Tim Sheets recently released a book that he co-authored with his daughter, Rachel Shafer, called “Come Home”. The book is perfect timing because the Lord emphasized those two words to us since last fall, which was the beginning of the Jubilee year. The call of Jubilee is, “Come home!” Leviticus 25:10 says, “You must return—everyone to his property and everyone to his clan.” In our Thursday night House Prayer, we’re going through this book one chapter per week before we worship and pray, and we’re making decrees over the prodigals —“You must return!” Sand together with us in faith and read each of these decrees out loud.

Decrees from “Come Home” Chapter 2

We decree angels are being released to assist in bringing all generations home.
We decree harvest is now and prodigals are returning to the Father.
We declare angels are working with us to see destiny accomplished in and through our children. We say destiny is not lost and will not be stolen from them.
We decree a Jesus Movement has begun and an outpouring released over our sons, daughters, and our grandchildren.
We decree our children will sing Your songs and dream Your dreams. They will prophesy.
We declare we will make our stand and reclaim our land and angel armies will assist.
We decree great leaders from the coming generation are rising to take their place in the King’s Ekklesia.
We decree supernatural encounters with King Jesus are accelerating.
We decree prodigals are coming to their senses, realizing they have been lied to by the enemy, and are returning home.
We decree Jeremiah 24:7 (NIV): “I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.”

Seeking His face!
Matt