Plant, Then Water The Seed

In order to get our prayers answered, a seed (or seeds) must be planted. That is because everything in the kingdom of God starts from a seed. (Mk. 4:26-32)

Well, you might ask, what is the seed we need to plant in order to get our prayers answered? The answer comes from the parable of the sower and the seed when Jesus said that the seed is the word of God. (Mk. 4:14, Lk. 8:11)

I used to think that our prayers were our seed. But they are not. Our prayers are the results that we want and that would be our harvest, not our seed. The seed that we need to plant in order for our prayers to come to pass is God’s word. And what it means to plant God’s word is that we believe in our heart what God has said.

So, let's go a little further...

The word of God that we choose to believe can be any truth from the bible, and it can be very general such as the time when Jesus said, “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” (Mt. 21:22) That is simple enough and covers all types of prayer requests. OR, the word we choose can be specific and relate specifically to what we are praying for. For example, if we are praying for healing, we can choose to believe the word of God when Isaiah said, “… with his stripes we are healed.” (Isa. 53:5) That is specific and personal and will bring forth healing if believed. The point is, that there must be a seed from God’s word that we believe in order to get an answer to our prayer.

It is the seed of God’s word that has the potential to bring forth whatever it says, and it is our faith in God's word that will bring forth the answer to our prayer. Isaiah said this... “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isa. 55:10-11 NIV) So, like I said, the word of God has the potential to bring forth whatever it says. It is the spiritual seed we need in order to do so.

Simply put, when we pray, we need to believe a promise from God’s word in order for God to answer our prayer. The word of God is our seed! And our seed will bring forth what it says.

Now, a seed that is planted needs watering in order to grow! And guess what we need to water our seed with? Again, we need the word of God. Why? It is because the word of God is also called water. (Eph. 5:26) The word of God is called water too? Yes, it is very versatile. You might say it is multi-purpose; it can do a lot of things. In fact, the bible teaches us that the whole universe was created by the word of God. Remember, God said, “Let there be light: and there was light.” (Gen. 1:3) Throughout the bible, we see that the all things that are created started from the seed of God’s word. (Heb. 11:3) It is how God does everything. Like Isaiah said, God’s word is a seed and has the power to create. So if we apply it properly (as God did) it will bring forth answers to our prayers.

Now the primary way that we water our prayer seed, (that is, the seed of God’s word that we choose to believe and want to come to pass), is to read, study, listen to, and meditate on the word of God as it relates to our prayer. For example, if we are praying for physical healing, we should do personal bible study on the subject of healing, AND we should get books, tapes and teachings on biblical healing. We need to read, study, listen to, and meditate on as much of this material as we can. What we are doing when we do this is watering our seed and developing our faith in God’s word, (in this case healing) and it will be our faith that will bring to pass what we asked for. (Mt. 21:22) So, since the bible says that “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God,” it follows that the more word, the more faith; and the more faith, the faster our prayer will be answered. (Rom. 10:17) Remember, Jesus said over and over that it would be done unto us according to our faith. (Mt. 8:13, 9:29, 17:20; Mk. 9:23, 11:22-24 etc. etc.) The thing to remember is that we must be very careful where we get our teaching materials. We need to make sure that the ministry they are coming from has RESULTS, (and in this case results in healing prayer) because if they don’t have results, their teachings will not bring us results either...

Spiritual things are not automatic any more than anything else in this world. That is because spiritual things work the same way that natural things work. (Rom. 1:20)

In order to make things work in the natural world, we must know how they work and then put to work what we know to make them work. Take for example the power of electricity. Just knowing that there is a power called electricity and knowing that it can light and heat and cool our homes is not enough. We must know how electricity works and then we must put to work what we know in order to make it work. The same it is with prayer. Just because we know that there is power to answer prayer does not mean it will automatically work for us. We must know how it works and we must put to work what we know in order to make it work.

God said in his word that, ""My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." (Hos. 3:6)

The results we get from electricity, prayer, and everything else we find in life are based on knowledge. God makes everything we need available for us. But it is up to us to find out how it all works and to make it work.

In my next article I will share with you several other vital tools we can use to further nurture our prayer seed, but what is important for us to realize is that we too have a responsibility in prayer. It is not just God who will do it for us, (even if it is his will to answer our prayer). It is when we fulfill our part that God can fulfill his.

Submitted by John B. Agati
Author of: “Suffering (God’s Will?)”

More information about this and an upcoming book “Suffering, Unanswered Prayer, (And How to Fix the Whole Thing),” along with a short bio may be found at: www. jbagati.com