Going through a difficult situation this past year, I woke up and heard God say ‘don’t grow weary in well doing’. I looked up this phrase & let the Spirit show me what He meant. I found that this saying appears twice in the Bible:
Galatians 6:9 has it as this: And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
In the context, Paul was talking about sowing to the Spirit vs sowing to the flesh, and he tells us what we reap from each: everlasting life from the Spirit, & death from the flesh (corruption). And so I saw that ‘doing good‘ meant sowing to the Spirit, but how do I do that?
Next I looked into 2 Thessalonians 3:13 which says: But you, brethren, do not grow weary doing good.
Working is the context this time, but I have to see deeper into these things. There is some kind of doing good, of sowing to the Spirit, that is the focus here, & I want to know what it really means.
God took me to James 1 and Matthew 25 to explain this to me, and here it is:
James tells us that it is important to not just be a hearer only of the word, but a doer so that we do not deceive ourselves. This hearer only kind of man looks into a mirror to observe his natural face, & goes away immediately forgetting what kind of man he was. He goes on to say that if we look & continue in the perfect law of liberty, we will be that doer & will be blessed in what we do. By now I know this means, blessed in what I sow. What am I sowing? Well, sowing means I want some kind of harvest. I am catching on now that He is talking about what I desire in prayer, something good I desire in my life. And there is something I can sow, some kind of seed, that will give me that harvest.
The face of Jesus Christ is the perfect law of liberty mentioned, that we are supposed to look into instead of the natural – it is the image of the glory of God. Because the man looked into a mirror to see his natural self, and not into the face of Jesus Christ to see who he was, he forgot he was the image of the glory of God. So this is telling me that who I know Jesus to be, and who I know myself to be, is very important in this sowing to the Spirit, or ‘doing good’.
James was using this man to explain someone who hears from God who he is, but doesn’t believe it. And so in every situation, this man will not act out of who he really is, & make God’s word come to pass. He actually stops the manifestation of it, because he is deceived into believing something else. That he is just ‘natural’, & then, in sowing to the flesh, he ends up harvesting fear, anxiety, depression, etc., & not seeing his desire realized.
It is important to see that James is talking about temptations & trials in this chapter of his book so we can see that this is the temptation: to sow naturally. To react in fear & listen to the voice of hopelessness.
In Matthew 25, we find Jesus talking about ten virgins. Five of these virgins in the parable were said to be wise. They kept their lamps burning & they had lots of extra oil. They were ready to wait. These five are the doers of the word. They have spent time with the Spirit, looking into the face of Jesus, understanding what kind of ‘man’ they are. And they resisted the temptation to give up their oil – in other words, to give up the seed God planted in them, His words.
All ten of the virgins slept, but they were different kinds of sleep. The wise rested, knowing He was coming with the answer to prayer. The foolish five are the forgetful hearers. They fell asleep like the lazy man in proverbs, in their slowness of heart to believe. They forgot who they were, and they had never stored up oil – they neglected to look in the proper Mirror & could not remember their Image.
In scripture, the eye is described as the lamp of the body – it symbolizes perception, or the understanding. The foolish virgins’ understanding was dark because they never looked into the Spirit, to hear what to believe (what to ‘do’). They looked into the natural mirror & didn’t even hear the truth because of it. They found they had no oil, no wisdom, and the wise virgins say to them, you had to buy the truth from God yourself – He is the source of wisdom… & we’re keeping ours!
The wisdom God showed me in all of this was that I need to hear from God who I am. I need to look into the face of Jesus and see that I am a son of God, and so I know that I will hear from Him the truth I need to focus on in my situation, and so I look & listen (I watch & I pray!). Because there will come the temptation to not believe, to give up my oil before I enter the wedding. I need to keep the word in the midst of my heart, giving my attention to it & not forgetting. Grace comes to help me wait & I take from what I heard from Him, His words as my oil, to keep my lamp from going out.
I rest while my lamp is burning, I sleep, closing my eyes to the natural things while my spiritual eyes are full of light from the oil in my lamp, from the understanding God has given me. And I see the hope. This is me living by the faith of the Son of God.
And so, a hearer and a doer is someone who believes until the completion of their faith. Until they see what they prayed for. They are ‘doing good‘ – sowing, & believing, the word. First they hear from God & receive the seed, then they sow it by agreeing, saying the same thing. Simply believing. And as Paul quoted ‘I believed and therefore I spoke’, they also believe & then speak. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45). It is not a magic thing, it is simply coming out from belief, & that is when words create.
Those that hear and do are those who patiently endure and receive the promise – the answer to their prayer.
Again back to what James is talking about in chapter 1 verse 25, this is what he means by being ‘blessed in what he does’.
We can say it like this: the one who looks at Jesus for his identity knows everything good from his Father is going to be a yes simply because he is a son. And as he continues in this consciousness, not forgetting, but believing & therefore speaking, this one will be blessed in what he believes because he will receive what he believes!
When I remember I am a son of God I will operate that way – & draw from the Spirit, that oil He gives me, His words that are Spirit & life & then I will sow them to the Spirit. I will speak what I believe, and it will come to pass.
The word ‘doer’ in James 1 is the greek word ‘poites’ – which has the meaning ‘a maker, producer, author’. It is also where the word ‘poet’ comes from.
If I am a HEARER and a DOER, then I am also a maker, a producer, an author….WITH God. I let Him write like a poet His words on my heart, to give me fresh oil, & then together with me, He brings it to fruition. My desire becomes fulfilled, birthed, brought forth, or manifested, because we BOTH remained faithful until the end.
I know that Jesus is the author and finisher of my faith, but the thing I need to understand is that He won’t do it without me. He is fully ONE with me. He does not see His ‘being’ as separate at all from me, from any of us. Therefore I am also the author in this – & the finisher. It is done as a co-laboring. We co-make, we co-create. Not in the sense of work, but rather like a pregnancy. Like being pregnant with a promise, our heart being the womb. And He is faithful all the way through to the end, to the experiencing of the promise, & He gives us grace to carry us all the way, to strengthen us for the final push!
We then reap of the Spirit in our ‘due’ time because we did not lose heart! We see our ‘baby’!
So the reason why God wants us to ‘do good’? To believe to the end? Because He wants to give us the desires of our hearts! It is His good pleasure to give us the kingdom!