376. Prosperity
Amos 9:13 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed, and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
This prophecy about the Messianic Age is a promise of prosperity, abundance, plenty and fertility. The awesome physical harvest of crops symbolizes a spiritual time of prosperity. Since we don’t see the spiritual abundance of the Kingdom of God brought to our hearts by the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we must visualize it through the lens of earthly realities we can see. Our faith transfers the picture of prosperity and extravagance over to the spiritual blessings we have received through faith in Christ.
The promise for us is that The Days will come; indeed, they have come in the coming of the Son of God into human flesh on our earth. The Kingdom has come, and we pray for its glorious harvest to be realized in our hearts, “Thy kingdom come.” The days have come; the kingdom has come; the harvest is plentiful. But we pray In the Lord’s Prayer that the Lord might reveal the blessings to our spirit.
The farmer who is plowing in the Spring is catching up to the reaper of last Fall’s harvest. The crops are so plentiful it is taking that long to harvest it all. The reaper of last year’s crops is still reaping when it time to plow and plant this year’s fields. The treader of grapes is still working the winepresses of last Fall’s harvest when it is time to sow again in the Spring. This is an amazing and extravagant picture, but we are able to visualize it if we know anything about growing wheat and making wine. And when you see the vineyards on the hillsides it looks so purple with grapes that it appears like dripping wine.
God wants you to know how wealthy you are and what riches you have inside you. It is really more than you can handle. Jesus gave signs of this Age when he turned water into more and better wine than ever and when he fed the 5000 with a little bread and fish and then had more left over than when He started. God wants us to see how good He is, how rich and generous, how extravagant and over the top. It is hard to imagine what spiritual riches we have received when we received Christ: forgiveness, life, health, provision, protection, everlasting salvation, eternal life, inner peace, lasting joy, a confident hope, and steadfast love. Plus all the promises and blessings in the Bible are ours to enjoy forever. One could take a lifetime of meditation to appreciate all the abundance of spiritual blessing we have in us.