God's Divine Seed Engrafted into our
Hearts
Our God is a gracious God. He loves us
so much that He willingly gave of
Himself by allowing His Son to be
crucified on the cross so that we could
be drawn unto Him to be relieved of all
the misery and pain we experienced
through our self-centered ways. His
purpose in allowing His Son to endure
such excruciating pain and humiliation
was so that the divine seed of God could
be firmly engrafted into our hearts
causing us to grow into strong trees of
righteousness.
1 Peter 1:22-23
Since you have purified your souls in
obeying the truth through the Spirit in
sincere love of the brethren, love one
another fervently with a pure heart, 23
having been born again, not of
corruptible seed but incorruptible,
through the word of God which lives and
abides forever.
The question is,
how do we go about nurturing and
watering this seed so that it produces
in us the same likeness that was in
Jesus Christ, who allowed His seed of
righteousness to be planted in the earth
to produce many sons and daughters into
His likeness?
1 Peter 2:1-3
Therefore, laying aside all malice, all
deceit, hypocrisy , envy, and all evil
speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the
pure milk of the word, that you may grow
thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted
that the Lord is gracious. 4 Coming to
Him as to a living stone, rejected
indeed by men, but chosen by God and
precious. If we have truly tasted of
the Lord’s graciousness, then we must
continue in our faith journey by
embracing the cross of Christ and all
that it represents. Otherwise, the
divine seed of God will not burst forth
and produce the fruit that is necessary.
Matthew 16:24-25 Then Jesus said to
His disciples, “If anyone desires to
come after Me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For
whoever desires to save his life will
lose it, but whoever loses his life will
find it.”
In illustrating the
importance of the divine seed of God
getting planted into our hearts, Jesus
shared the “Parable of the Sower” with
His disciples and all those who were
following Him. In this parable He talked
about four types of ground in which the
seed was planted — the seed by the
wayside, stony places, thorns, and good
ground. Our goal is to make sure it is
planted in the good ground of our
hearts.
The seed by the wayside
represents a heart that hasn’t been
properly cultivated to receive the seed.
This person has no interest in trying to
understand God and His word. Their
hearts are to full of themselves, and
their self-indulgent ways. Therefore,
Satan steals the seed before it gets an
opportunity to be planted.
The
seed planted on stony ground represents
the person who doesn’t spend time
getting to know God and His word through
fellowship with the Holy Spirit and the
word of God. As a result, the seed’s
roots don’t go deep enough to withstand
the trials and tribulations of life. The
soil is filled with too many
distractions that seem to be more
important than making sure the seed is
well watered. So, when the going gets
rough they give up and return to their
self-indulgent ways. The seed is
destroyed before it has an opportunity
to bring forth new life and fruit.
The seed planted among the thorns
represents those who wanted what Christ
had to offer, but found the price was
too high amid their cares for the world
and the deceitful riches the world had
to offer them. They weren’t willing to
embrace all that the cross of Christ
represents. Therefore, the seed was
destroyed because they allowed the
deceitfulness of riches and the cares of
the world to choke the new plant before
its roots could go deep enough to
produce the necessary fruit.
The
seed sown on the good ground represents
those who hear the word and understand
it. They understand it because they
believe wholeheartedly in God and the
inspiration of the Scriptures. Even
though they may not fully understand
something, they choose to believe,
because all Scripture is God breathed
and profitable for instruction. As a
result their roots go deep into God’s
soil and they produce the fruit that is
evident of their salvation experience.
Because they allowed the divine seed
of God to be fully engrafted into their
hearts, they take on the same divine
nature that was in Jesus Christ. They
have a measure of the fullness of faith
that was found in Jesus Christ. They
experience the ministry of the Holy
Spirit breathing wisdom, revelation, and
understanding of the will and purposes
of God on a regular basis. Their eyes
are opened to the glory of their
inheritance in Christ in this life and
in their eternal life. They experience
the exceeding greatness of God’s mighty
working power as they go forth
fulfilling the ministries given to them
when Christ rose from the dead and
seated them in heavenly places alongside
Him.
As we fully embrace the
cross of Christ, may we all become the
good ground that bears fruit, and
produces: some a hundredfold, some
sixty, and some thirty having allowed
the divine seed of God to be engrafted
into our hearts through hearing and
responding to the word of faith.
— Scripture References:
Hebrews 12:2, John 12:24-26, Matthew
13:18-23, Romans 12:3-8, Ephesians
1:17-23, 2:6-7.
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