By Tal Haroni

“But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Matthew 13:23 NKJ)

In Yeshua’s parable the soil is the heart on which the seed falls, and the seed is the word of God. How important it is to prepare the soil of our heart for the seed of the word of the Lord. We would all like to bear a 100-fold increase of fruit in the kingdom of God. Amazingly, God called Adam to invest in working the land in Genesis 2:5; and Yeshua calls us to a similar task as well, to prepare “good ground.” We need to aerate the soil, remove large stones, and remove old roots liable to steal the plant’s nutrients (Hebrews 12:15).

We too, in our life before the Lord, want to invest in the soil of our heart – to “rake away” false beliefs and misconceptions, to be healed from the hurt and wounds of the past (Isaiah 31:1), to uproot the lies that steal the Lord’s peace from our lives, to pull down fortresses and everything that rises up against knowing God and subdue every thought for the sake of obedience to Christ! (2 Corinthians 10:5)

For 12 months we prepared ground physically. We chose to keep Shmita, a sabbatical year of letting the land lie fallow (Exodus 23:11). During this period we expanded the cultivated area with our main team, which consists of both Jewish and Arab Israelis, along with representatives from the nations, and many volunteers and discipleship participants who joined in. The volunteers even included some not-yet-believer Israelis.

Then at the end of Sukkot, the sabbatical year ended and we all mobilized for planting and sowing. The first seeds planted in the ground were sown by the children of the moshav, and we believe it is prophetic that the children are the first to sow after a long rest of the land. We planted several thousand seedlings in the expanded field, and are continuing to sow and plant.

Good soil will produce good fruit – both material and spiritual. The field which we are cultivating just outside of Jerusalem, is first of all meant to be used to grow people! Now we are preparing for the next discipleship program. In January we will receive a group of new discipleship students for a three month intensive season, and they will be like seedlings sown in the field spiritually. Our team will work together toward seeing good fruit for the kingdom in their lives. We create the framework, and invite the Lord to act in the students’ lives. The disciples pray and ask Yeshua to work in them, and He brings the increase. The inner man is changing into the image of Yeshua (Romans 8:29), becoming sons and daughters of God.

We are also planning a “market day” (yom shuk) – which will attract people from the surrounding area to the community of believers where we live, with the goal of fostering relationships and also having opportunities to share the Gospel. Additionally, we plan to start bringing vegetable baskets every week to households in the area, along with a prophetic verse of encouragement and a prayer.

All glory to the Lord of the Harvest!