Excerpt from “7 Unchanging Laws for Happiness and Success” by Pastor Doug Bird
Excerpt from “7 Unchanging Laws for Happiness and Success”
Pastor Doug Bird
Doug wandered into a Church in the small town of Marysville in 1979 and that night would forever change his life. That night he met Jesus and the life of a drug dealer that had no real direction took on a whole new direction. Shortly after that Doug was called into the ministry and he began to share Jesus with all his friends and former associates, street witnessing and becoming the youth pastor at the Church where he’d been saved. Read the rest of Doug Bird’s bio.
Happiness and success in life are found in knowing and applying the fundamentals. How many times have we heard that, yet is so true. Whether it’s in business, sports, ministry, or life, happiness and success happens when the fundamentals are emphasized and applied. There are unchanging laws that God has hardwired into his universe. Law’s like the law the seed, the law the ground, the law of harvest and many more, these laws work every time you apply them and they will bring happiness and success in your life.
A natural law is simply an unchanging law, that is, it works every time. The laws of mathematics work every time. The laws of physics work every time—as long as the right conditions are met. As an example, think about the law of gravity for a moment. Gravity is a natural law that works every time. You can stand on a rooftop and declare that you don’t believe in gravity and then jump off to prove your point. Guess what? You’re not going to hover there in mid-air, somehow levitating your body against the pull of gravity. Neither are you going to sprout wings and fly blissfully away. That’s not going to happen. The law of gravity says that what goes up must inevitably come down. So, if you jump off that roof, you’re going down! Why? It’s because the law of gravity works every time, whether you believe in it or not. It’s an unchanging law.
Another example of a natural law that works every time is the law of nature itself. We might call it the law of life and death. Everything that is born will also die. We must realize that one day every human, every plant, every living thing will one day die. There’s no escaping this law. “As for us, our life is like grass. We grow and flourish like a wild flower; then the wind blows on it, and it is gone—no one sees it again” (Psalms 103:15-16 TEV).
Then there are the supernatural laws of God. These are principles at work in the Universe that are beyond the bounds of science as we know it. Natural laws are open to investigation and can be discovered by the exercise of reason.
Supernatural laws are also open to investigation, but can only be discovered by the exercise of faith. We discover natural laws through science. We discover supernatural laws through revelation. Nevertheless, like natural laws, supernatural laws work every time, provided the right conditions are met.
Ignorance of God’s unchanging laws does not nullify those laws. What is true in the natural is also true in the spiritual. If you break a law, you suffer the consequences. If you apply the law, you reap the benefits.
The number one law of the Kingdom of God is the law of the seed. Let me emphasize that point: seeds “always” produce after their own kind. That’s one of the unchanging laws of God. You might say you don’t believe it, but your unbelief won’t change the outcomes. We always reap according to the seeds we sow. Why? Because God said so. It’s an absolute truth and law of nature that God has established.
If I understand the law of the seed, I understand that everything in my life, that everything I do in my life is a seed—my thoughts, my words, my actions—everything is a seed. What kind of harvest do I want in life? Do I want a good harvest or a bad harvest? It all depends on the type of seed I sow. A seed always produces after its own kind.
Points to Remember:
- The #1 Law of the Kingdom of God is the Law of the Seed.
- The Law of the Seed is simply that everything produces after its own kind.
- We plant seeds by our thoughts, words, and actions.
- What we sow determines what will grow.
- Sometimes we need to pray for a crop failure–it’s called repentance.
If we look at the teaching of Jesus in the Parable of the Sower, we find that there are four types of ground upon which the seed falls. Each one of these types of ground corresponds to an attitude on our part towards the seed. The law of the ground is the law of four attitudes for how we receive the seed.
The Bible says that if I confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead, then I shall be saved (Rom. 10:9). Now, that Bible promise is a seed, and if I’ll receive that seed with a right heart, a right attitude, a right spirit; if I receive that seed with a no-turn-around commitment, then that seed will bring forth salvation. That seed doesn’t care that I was a burnt out drug addict. That seed doesn’t care that I was a hothead. That seed doesn’t care if I had a checkered past, even a criminal past. The seed doesn’t come up to us and ask for our resume or our references. No, the seed doesn’t care who you are, the seed doesn’t care what you have done, the seed doesn’t care about your skin color, your level of education, or what job you work. The seed doesn’t care whether you are rich ground or poor ground, church ground or non-church ground, Catholic ground or Presbyterian ground. The seed is just a seed—and it does what it is called to do, to bring forth eternal life.
But there is the law of the ground. The type of ground that the seed is planted in determines how well that seed will grow. The type of ground will determine whether or not that seed will bring forth according to the potential that is in it. According to the Parable of the Sower, there are four possible types of ground for the seed. There are four attitudes, four mentalities, four heart conditions that determine whether or not the seed will produce.
Points to Remember:
- How you receive determines how you will grow and produce in life.
- Your attitude is what determines what kind of ground you are.
- The seed promises success and happiness, but it can’t grow if it’s not planted in your heart.
- We have a choice on what kind of ground (attitude) we will be.
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