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Wednesday, February 17, 2016

The Seed is all we Need


I have been continuing to let this Scripture permeate my inner being:

20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. (I Corinthians 4)

I am having quite a wonderful and encouraging experience of the work of God. There are times when I can hear what God is saying with my mind, but I know I have not yet experienced that particular truth in my inner being. In the past, this would trigger the good-boy malware, and I would feel desperate to figure out how to try to DO what God wants done.

In this last while, God has been graciously ministering things into my inner being, just as I have been praying.[1] The result is that I feel rest and peace in areas of life that once caused incredible turmoil in my efforts to do the right thing. Here’s how this went further today.

God is ministering to me a tremendous freedom in accepting that the kingdom of God “does not consist in talk but in power”. It is as though I am off the hook regarding the results. The kingdom is not mine, the power is not mine, the gospel is not mine, the word of the cross is not mine. It is all God’s, and it all has him and his power backing it up.

To get me to see (and know by experience) that the power of the kingdom is in “the word of the cross”,[2] God is showing me so many different ways of understanding that the power is actually in the word of God we are already given, and, therefore, no preacher needs to add any of his own power or ability to the picture.

As I continued in I Corinthians 2, a few other Scriptures came together to reinforce why Paul would not use “lofty speech or wisdom”, why he would only focus on “Jesus Christ and him crucified”, and why he would take such great pains to make sure that “your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God”.[3]

First, I was reminded of the parable of the sower and the seed.[4] This parable revolves around a sower sowing seed, the seed that is sown, and four types of soil that receive the seed.

When Jesus explained the parable to his disciples, the first thing he said was, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables…”[5] This means that, what Jesus taught in this parable is one of the “secrets of the kingdom of God” even though he had to explain it to them so they would “know” the secret.

Jesus then said that, “the seed is the word of God.”[6] This means that the metaphor of a sower sowing seed refers to God’s servants sowing the word of God. When we preach the word, teach the word, share the word, publish the word, share Scriptures on social media, we are sowers sowing the seed of the word of God.

The rest of the parable tells us that, although the word of God, the seed that is sown, is the same for everyone who hears the gospel, the difference in responses are comparable to differences in the soil. Some people are like hard ground that is unable to receive the word. Others are like rocky soil that causes people to get excited about what they hear, but wilt away as soon as things get hard. Still others receive the word like they are sincerely interested, but they can never break free of the choking weeds of the world. And then there are the ones who are like the good soil that receives the seed, and sees it germinate, put down roots, sprout up, and bear much fruit.

The point is that the seed is the word of God, and nothing has to be done to the seed to make it effective. The four soils are the hearts of the people, and it is the hearts of people that determine the effect the word of God has on their hearts.[7] The sower simply sows the seed in the soil. That’s it. Nothing extra required.

This reminded me of Paul telling Timothy to: “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”[8]

Since the seed is the word of God, all Timothy (and all preachers) needed to do was sow the word. It did not matter whether people’s hearts made hearing the word in season or out of season, all the sower ever does is sow the word.

But that led me to see what Paul said just before that:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.[9]

That is such a beautiful explanation of why we do not need to tamper with the seed (this is why we reject all GMO versions of the gospel!). It is already breathed-out from God. How could any preacher think his preaching would rely on “lofty speech or wisdom”,[10] or, “plausible words of wisdom”[11] when we already have the breathed-out words of God in seed ready for sowing?

But then I saw what Paul said just before that:

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.[12]

What stands out here is Paul’s description of, “the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” That is the description of the seed. The seed, contained in the sacred writings, is fully “able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

If people have faith in Jesus Christ, they will be like good soil receiving the word. If their hearts are hard, rocky, or weed-choked, we cannot modify the seed to make it more “successful”. Only the seed that is the breathed-out word of God can give life to those whose hearts are like good soil.

All together, this has been a wonderful gift of freedom for me. All we need is a connection between the seed of the word, and the good soil of our hearts. The power is in the seed, the “word of the cross”,[13] and whatever happens in our hearts simply exposes whatever is in our hearts.

If we will accept whatever the word is telling us, and bring to God whatever happens in our hearts, the word of God is able to make us wise for salvation. We simply need to respond with “faith in Christ Jesus,” the means by which the perfect seed of the word finds good soil in our hearts.

© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)





[1] Particularly with a focus on Paul’s prayers in Ephesians 3:14-21, and Colossians 1:9-14.
[2] I Corinthians 1:18
[3] I Corinthians 2:1-5
[4] Luke 8:4-15
[5] Luke 8:10
[6] Luke 8:11
[7] I say this in terms of the parable, understanding that the fuller revelation of salvation shows that any responsiveness in our hearts is the gift of God’s grace bringing us to faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).
[8] II Timothy 4:2
[9] II Timothy 3:16-17
[10] I Corinthians 2:1
[11] I Corinthians 2:4
[12] II Timothy 3:14-15
[13] I Corinthians 1:18

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