One of the pivotal discoveries in the world was finding that the earth is round and not flat. This very discovery underpins the several mechanisms of seasonality on the earth. One of such protocols is the rise and setting of the sun, another is the seedtime and harvest. A particular scripture that describes the impact of this seasonality on human life itself is Ecclesiastes 3:20;

All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

Particularly taking seedtime and harvest as an example. The farmer goes in to sow the seed, waters it and allows the passage of time and to complete the cycle, he must necessarily come back to harvest the crops. He cannot continue to water the seed without an expectation of coming back for harvest. Woven into these mechanisms is the protocol of the return, which says that there must be an initial seed, a passage of time and a return to harvest the yield. Increase and progress then becomes the reward of the person that follows this due process.

This protocol of the return was established by God Himself and recorded in the account of creation in Genesis 1:3 where the bible says,

And God said, Let there be light and there was light, and God saw the Light and it was good.

This same protocol was repeated all through the creation account. The 2 levels we see in the protocol is that God said and God saw. The same account however, gives us an intelligence in the phrase ‘and it was good’. The phrase gives us an insight into the intent behind God’s seeing. God wasn’t just seeing; He was looking to see something. He was evaluating. He was checking to see if what He said was consistent with what He saw. Only when He confirmed that what He saw was good did He move on to the next program on His creation agenda. Again, we see increase and progress being a reward of following the protocol.

One of the things we learn is the discipline to come back to what was said. When we draw parallels between the account in Genesis 1 and the analogy of the farmer, we see that what is said is akin to the seed, and just like a seed, what is said is sown. There is a passage of time, and at the end of this appointed time, there must be a discipline to return to the field of planting to see what was sown and to call it good.

As we draw the curtains on the year 2022, according to the time of life as we know it on the earth, another cycle is ending. The year 2022 is giving way and beckoning for the year 2023 and we will definitely be right to juxtapose this with the account of creation in Genesis 1 and the analogy of that farmer. Most people want to carry on with their days under the flat earth assumption, to assume that progress doesn’t require an evaluative return, but we could not be further from the truth. This is the time to employ the discipline to return to evaluate and check whether what you see is in alignment with what was said or what was intended.

If we are to preempt a few outcome scenarios, we may see a good outcome scenario where there’s perfect alignment; a null scenario where there’s no basis for comparison because at the start of the cycle, we didn’t pay attention to what was said; or a not good scenario where what is seen is not in alignment with what was said.

Sometimes we refrain from doing this evaluation because we lack the objective remoteness that this level of evaluation requires. After all, it’s a season to be merry and to rest from all the year’s work so we’ll rather not beat ourselves down considering what has worked and what hasn’t. For most, it’s a mindset that says, if I don’t know my score, I can’t feel bad that I scored below the mark.

Another intelligence we draw from the account is where God placed the priority. He placed the priority on what He said and not what He saw, because what we find in the first time the result of the evaluation was negative, God went back again and put in effort to ensure that what He was seeing was in alignment with what He said. Also, the bible records the account of the righteous man, who fell seven times but continued to rise up (Proverbs 24:16).

These paint the perfect picture of the mindset undergirding the observation of this protocol. That if the outcome of my evaluation is good, then just like Apostle Paul, I throw that laurel behind me and repeat the cycle again. If my evaluation is null or not good, if I failed at something that I expected to have passed or didn’t receive or transition into a phase as I expected, then I believe what was said over what I see or do not see and like the righteous man that I am, I go at it again knowing that what is said still lies ahead. For the righteous man, his identity was not locked into what He saw but what was said and that identity fueled His drive to continue to try.

The bible says God watches over His word to perform it (Jeremiah 1:12) and every word He speaks never returns to Him void but fulfills everything He commands (Isaiah 55:11). The truth is God’s Word actually does return to Him, but it returns to Him as a record of performance and a note of praise and victory. The Word stays sent until it is converted into the record of performance and a note of victory. The attitude of God until the conversion happens is to watch, to look out for and to hold in expectation.

The third intelligence as you go through the final days of this year is to remember that it must end in praise. How we transition phases in this kingdom and pass batons is praise. One generation has to praise Him into another. We praise because of the multiplier effect of a seed. The yield of a harvest is never proportional to what was sown. The concept of the harvest regardless of the outcome is an effect of mercy and grace. It’s in that atmosphere of praise that the last intelligence happens. It’s called the Crown of Goodness. It’s the atmosphere of praise where the Lord crowns our year with the goodness of a bumper harvest aligning what is seen to what was said and causing our path to drop fatness (Psalm 65:11).

So as you go through the rest of this last month, instill the discipline to evaluate, believe His Word above all else, raise a banner of praise and expect a bumper harvest!

Have a lovely rest of the week.

Olayinka Adebayo

@layinkadebayo