The Bible tells us that with the heart man believes (Romans 10:10).
Your heart is really a mixture of your spirit and soul,
not your spirit alone.
God has given everyone (who
believes in Him) a measure of faith. (Romans 12:3, Ephesians 2:8).
When this seed-measure of faith
germinates up into your soul, and you believe and confess Jesus as Lord,
salvation results. You are born again (Romans 10:10, John 3:3-7).
But the seeding’s growth is just
beginning.
One who is born into the family
of God is one who does the will of the Father (Matthew 12:46-50),
which is to believe in Jesus
(John 6:29). But the will of the Father is not just to believe in His Son, but to
do as Jesus did—which was to submit His will to the Father. We are to believe
in Jesus, and then do the same as He did—submit our will to the Father (Luke
22:42, Luke 9:23).
When your soul so fills with
belief in God—when the old strongholds of pride, self, and that which opposes
Him are replaced with submission to Him and His will in obedience to His
Word—then you have true faith in God. Then you can move mountains. (Mark 11:22-23).
As the old root systems of your
soul are removed, the Word of God is given room to grow so it can take deep
root in your heart, and fill every place of your heart and soul. Full
commitment, full surrender. Full death to the old self. This is what it means
to take up our cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23). Then, evidence of your
faith—fruit—will be seen in your life.
Prayer: How much do I still feed
on what I can “get” out of God? How many of the old thought processes and
belief systems do I have? Holy Spirit, purge these from me! I want pure faith
in God!
The will of our soul wants to
stay in charge. It wants to keep the old roots there, and then as the Seed of God’s Word is
planted within us, it wants to feed on that. It wants to consume the Word for
its own purposes, devour it for purposes that feed self and oppose God, instead
of leaving it to grow and produce the fruit of God’s will in our lives.
In the garden, Adam and Eve were
told to leave the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil alone (Genesis 2:17).
But they didn’t, and lost the
presence of God. This seed of their disobedience is already in our soul when we are born. Will we
cultivate it? Will we eat of its fruit? Or will we leave it alone? If they
would have left it alone, their obedience to His Word would have allowed God to
continue to walk with them in the cool of the day. But they consumed that fruit
for themselves, in disobedience to Him, and were driven from His presence.
Today, when we leave that seed
which opposes God alone, and eat of the tree of Life instead—by obedience to Him—we
are keeping the presence of God within, allowing Him to dwell in us, walk with
us, and fill our heart and soul.
We are born again of the
imperishable Seed of the Word of God (1 Peter 1:23). It is life, eternal. We
partake of that tree of Life when we believe in Jesus, but then we must water
that Seed, nurture that Seed. Just as a seed draws nutrients from the soil around
it, and the substance of the plant is formed and created from that, so must we
give soil to the Seed—the Word of God which yearns to grow within us. We want
to allow the Word-Seed to draw us into it, as seed does soil, so we
become what the Seed is meant to become in us—Christ-like. We must give our
heart and soul over to the Word of God.
We don’t want to neglect to
pursue understanding of the Word of God that we hear or read, allowing it to be devoured. We
don’t want to crowd it out with our rocky strongholds, nor allow compromise to
compete with its place in our life (Matthew 13).
God placed Adam and Eve in a
garden with the tree of Knowledge fully grown, bearing fruit; fruit which was
to be left alone, left for God’s purposes. Yet the tree of Life was to be
consumed, and their obedience to what God said would water it so it could grow and bear
fruit in their lives. Yet we have the seed, the fruit, of that tree of Knowledge
in our soul. We inherited it. The only way to not reap the results of that
seed, is for the Seed of God’s Word to be planted in us, for us to be born-again,
and then for us to nurture that Seed, submitting our will to the Father’s,
living in obedience to it, and receiving the life from it.
Today, as believers, we have His Seed
planted within us. We’ve been born again of the imperishable Seed of the Word
of God. Will we allow it to grow and fulfill God’s purposes in us? What He has
destined for us to become? What He has written in His book for us? What He has
created us for? Which is to be conformed to the image of His Son, the Word of
God, the same Seed. (Romans 8:29). This imperishable, unstoppable Seed will accomplish the purposes of God, as long as we maintain faith in Him, and not let it slip (Isaiah 55:11, Colossians 1:21-23).
They were in a garden with two
trees.
We have one of the tree’s seed
planted in us at birth.
The other Seed is planted in us
at our new birth.
Will we nurture the wrong seed,
keeping God’s presence from us?
Or will we give the Seed of His
Word room in our life? Will we give it the soil of our heart that it needs to
grow us into the image of Christ?
This is why our hearts must be
pure, our will (soul) submitted to Him, for us to have answers to our prayers
and power to our words. We must first be made into His image.
Are you a Christian? Are you
Christ-like?
Is His Seed growing in you? Is
that the one you are nurturing?
Being born again is just the beginning. Feed off the right tree. Feed on the Word of God.
Check out Rose's free download, 21 Days to Die; What it means to take up your cross and follow Jesus, and live a resurrected life in Christ.
