Your Harvest Is Hidden Inside Your Obedience

Introduction

You have entered a season of harvest. A prophetic word has been released over the Church: what you have sown, you are going to reap. But before rejoicing too quickly, there is a truth that Pastor Malu Bialuta laid out during this Easter week sermon at Impact Centre Chretien Montreal: the harvest season hides something else. It hides an enemy, and above all it hides a condition. Your harvest is hidden inside your obedience.

The starting text is Matthew 13:24-30, the parable of the wheat and the weeds. A man sows good seed in his field. While people are sleeping, an enemy comes and sows weeds among the wheat. The two grow together until the day the master tells the reapers: first gather the weeds, bind them in bundles to be burned, and gather the wheat into my barn.

What you are about to read is not comfortable. The preacher himself warned: "This message will make people not want to greet me afterward." But it is a mirror. Stand in front of it, without looking at your neighbor, and let the word work on you.

Outline of the Teaching

1. The Harvest Season Hides an Enemy

The word "enemy" in the Greek text is echthros: someone hostile, who hates, who opposes another. And that other one, in this story, is God. The devil knows he can do nothing against God directly. So, to hurt God, he attacks God's children. When you recognize yourself as a child of God, you must be able to detect the enemy.

Remember this well: Satan is God's enemy, but he is not God's adversary. Peter tells us that he is our adversary, ours. When we resist him with a firm faith, he flees far from us. You cannot coexist with sin: every sin must be overcome.

2. The Enemy Comes While We Sleep

The weeds were sown while people were sleeping. And "sleeping," in this context, is not just closing your eyes. It is giving in to laziness. It is giving in to sin. It is being indifferent to the things of salvation. It is no longer evangelizing. It is no longer watching, no longer praying for the Church, for the body of Christ, for the spiritual fathers God has given you.

The word "come" in the text also means "to hold a place of influence" and "to appear in public." Weeds do not enter the field to stay hidden. They seek influence, they want to be seen, they want to capture as many people as possible.

3. The Nine Characteristics of Weeds

The pastor went and studied the botany of weeds, because Jesus knows his creation down to the last detail. Here is what he drew from it, and ask yourself honestly: which of these do I recognize in myself?

1. When wheat is young, it looks like weeds. Impossible to tell them apart at the start. It is at maturity that the difference shows.
2. Weeds are an intoxicating plant. They act gently, subtly. You do not always realize what is settling into your life until the day you say to yourself, "Since when do I behave like this?"
3. Weeds are poisonous. They carry poison.
4. Their roots are shallow but very spread out. When you come to church without desiring depth, you are exposed to becoming weeds. You occupy the ground uselessly, like the barren fig tree.
5. Their roots intertwine with those of the wheat. They cannot be pulled up too early without pulling up the wheat as well. In this coexistence, the weeds draw nutrients from the wheat: many people are in the work of God simply to draw something out of it.
6. When pressed, weeds yield only straw. 1 Corinthians 3:12: if anyone builds on the foundation (Christ) with wood, hay, or straw, the work will be revealed on the day the fire makes it known.
7. The older weeds get, the more rigid they become. Whereas the more the wheat stalk grows, the more pliable it becomes. Inflexibility toward God's instructions reveals that there is a seed to deal with.
8. They live alongside a poisonous fungus. Some research even says it is this fungus that contaminates the weeds.
9. Weeds are known in agriculture as "bastard wheat." Hebrews 12:6: the Lord disciplines the one he loves. If you are exempt from the discipline everyone else shares, you are an illegitimate child, a bastard, and not a son. Weeds do not like being corrected.

An important note: the pastor is not talking about spiritual babies, or those still wrestling with their faith. He is talking about those who have been in the Lord for a long time, who know the truth, but who have deliberately chosen not to let go of evil.

And maturity, in the end, reveals everything: when wheat reaches maturity, its grain is brown or golden yellow. When weeds reach maturity, their grain is black. Two plants in the same field, with the same nutrients, but two opposite fruits. "You will recognize them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:16).

4. Four Truths About the Harvest

First truth: we are God's harvest planted in Christ. John 12:23-25: unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Just as Jesus died like a seed so that we could be the fruit of his life, he wants you and me to be able to die in him so as to give birth to many. Our heart is a field where God sows his word; the Church is a field where we are the wheat; the world is a field where we are the reapers.

Second truth: repentance can turn weeds into wheat. Physically, the parable says no. But in the spirit, the Lord has made it possible. Isaiah 1:17-19: "Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land." There is no sin that disqualifies you before God. Your request is receivable.

Third truth: you must desire maturity in order to possess your harvest. A baby knows where the milk is, he crawls to the foot of the cupboard, but he cries because he cannot reach it. The spiritual world does not obey tears, it obeys faith that grows with your frame. Galatians 4:1: as long as an heir remains a child, he is no different from a slave. 1 Corinthians 13:11: "When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me." It is up to no one else to put them behind you: it is up to you.

And this maturity runs through your thoughts. We breathe 20,000 to 22,000 times a day, but we think 50,000 times a day. Every thought is a seed. The filter is Philippians 4:8: fix your thoughts on whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, worthy of praise. The real battle for God's children is the battle of the mind. That is where rejection, unforgiveness, and immorality take root.

Fourth truth: to harvest, you must desire to do the will of God. John 4:34-35: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are white for harvest." The harvest is tied to the accomplishment of God's will.

5. Your Harvest Is Hidden Inside Your Obedience

Here is where it lands. The harvest will not walk to your little house while you sleep inside it. It is hidden inside your obedience to God's instructions.

Your Lord is not the one you call on, it is the one you obey. Romans 6:15-16: "You are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness." You obey the devil, he is your lord. You obey God, he is yours.

The one you obey determines the events that happen to you. Deuteronomy 28: "If you obey the voice of the Lord your God, the Lord will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And here are all the blessings that will come upon you: you will be blessed in the city, blessed in the field, blessed in the fruit of your body." The Christian life is not magic; it operates on established principles, and the main principle is obedience.

God needs your obedience in order to transform your life. God is sovereign, but there are areas of our lives where his sovereignty is limited by our lack of obedience. When you ask him to change your life or deliver you from a situation, he gives you an instruction. It is your obedience to that instruction that propels you toward your future in God. God created the earth, then hid the chair inside the tree: it was up to Adam to obey in order to bring it out.

Sin entered the world through disobedience in the garden of Eden. Salvation entered the world through obedience in the garden of Gethsemane. Obedience is the door of salvation for the world, and it is the door of salvation in our lives.

But obeying is not easy. Even Jesus, in order to obey, agonized to the point that his sweat became like drops of blood. There is a condition called hematidrosis: under extreme anguish, sweat turns into blood. Jesus was fully man and fully God. What he did, you can do too: decide that your obedience will go as far as hematidrosis. "I do not want to sin. I forgive you, even if my soul does not want to." A child of God does not seek his own rights; his whole righteousness is hidden in Jesus, who, on the cross, found the strength to say, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

Key Takeaways

• The harvest is real, but it does not fall by magic: it is conditioned by your obedience to God's instructions.
• The enemy comes to sow weeds while God's children are sleeping, meaning when they stop watching, praying, evangelizing, and letting themselves be corrected.
• Your Lord is not the one you call on during worship, it is the one you obey in everyday life.
• Repentance is always possible: whatever the sin, your request is receivable before God, and you can move from being weeds to being wheat.
• Maturity comes through sorting your thoughts (Philippians 4:8): every thought is a seed, guard them more carefully than your breathing.

Personal Application

1. Of the nine characteristics of weeds you just read, which one is a mirror for you today? Write it down and bring it before God.
2. What clear instruction has God already given you that you have not yet obeyed? What is holding you back from obeying now?
3. Is there someone you need to forgive whom your soul still refuses to bless? Take up the discipline of praying for that person every day this week.
4. In what area have you "been in the Lord for a long time" but still behave like a child? What decision toward maturity can you make today?
5. What would it concretely look like for you to "put childish ways behind you" this week?

Scriptures Cited

• Matthew 13:24-30 · The parable of the wheat and the weeds
• Matthew 7:16 · You will recognize them by their fruits
• 1 Corinthians 3:12 · Building on the foundation
• Hebrews 12:6-8 · The Lord disciplines the one he loves
• 2 Timothy 3:5-7 · The appearance of godliness
• Proverbs 16:4-6 · By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for
• John 12:23-25 · The grain of wheat that dies
• Isaiah 1:17-19 · Though your sins are like scarlet
• Galatians 4:1 · The heir who is still a child
• 1 Corinthians 13:11 · When I became a man
• Philippians 4:8 · Fix your thoughts on whatever is true
• John 4:34-35 · My food is to do the will
• Romans 6:15-16 · Slaves of the one you obey
• Deuteronomy 28:1-2 · If you obey the voice of the Lord
• 1 Corinthians 10:13 · God will not let you be tempted beyond your strength
• 2 Peter 3:8-9 · The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises
• 2 Samuel 7:10 · I planted my people so they would no longer be disturbed

Frequently Asked Questions

Can someone really move from being weeds to being wheat?

Physically, the parable says no: both grow together until the harvest, and the weeds are pulled up first. But spiritually, yes. The pastor insists: in the Spirit, the Lord has made this transformation possible. Isaiah 1 proclaims it, even if your sins are like scarlet, they can become white as snow. The blood of Jesus is able to cleanse everything; there is no sin that disqualifies you.

How do I know if I am wheat or weeds?

Maturity reveals nature. Both grow the same way at first, feed on the same teaching, attend the same church. But at maturity, the fruits differ: brown and golden for the wheat, black for the weeds. Look at your fruits, not your doctrine, not your church attendance, but your fruits: forgiveness, humility, obedience, pliability in God's hands, the ability to receive correction.

What does "your harvest is hidden inside your obedience" mean?

It means that the blessing promised in this season is not triggered by prayer alone, nor by worship alone, nor by attendance at church alone. God gives you a precise instruction in response to your request, and it is your obedience to that instruction that unlocks the blessing. The wheat will not leave the field to come into your house while you sleep: you have to go out, obey, and reap.