ARE YOUR SEEDS SOWN?

Last week my husband and I were cleaning a house of one of our clients that we happen to know fairly well.  He is a very nice man, but has questioned our decision to be Christ Followers, and let us know that "No-one believes that stuff any more, it's just a waste of time."  We continue to love on him and be examples to him of Christ's love. 

As we were cleaning, my husband was doing an extra good job dusting some shelves and he was pulling books and things out and dusting behind them, when he pulled out a Bible.  He called me in the room to show it to me, since we both know this man's opinion of "such things".   I said, "Wow!  I never expected to see one of those here."  My husband opened it and a church bulletin fell out that was dated February 1994. "That was a while ago!" he said to me.  Then he flipped to the back of the Bible and there was a pack of tomato seeds sitting between some pages.  I thought to myself, "Now that's weird!"  

As I went back to work God began speaking to me about that pack of seeds.  They have been, as far as we could tell, sitting in that Bible for the past 15+ years.  Then He said to me, "As long as those seeds remain un-planted, they will never produce the fruit they are created to produce.  But the minute they are set in soil, and watered, they will sprout and grow and produce many, many more tomatoes, and many more seeds as well."  

You see, as long as the seed remains unplanted, it will remain dormant and unproductive.  Much like that Bible that sat on the back of that dusty shelf.  The seeds in that packet had the ability to produce a crop of tomatoes and seeds, which would produce even more tomatoes and seeds, and so on!  The Word of God is a seed!  Jesus explained that to us in Matthew 13.  But unless it is planted and watered, it will not produce what it is created to produce.  Not in your life, and not in my life.  The Word needs to be read, meditated on and studied.  That is the planting and watering process.  When we do that, we will begin to see an abundance of fruit produced in our lives, not only for our own benefit, but also to feed others.  We can own as many Bibles as we want, in as many translations as we want.  We can lay them all over our house, in our car, on our desk at work, and look like we have it all going on.  But in reality, if we are not IN the Word, and allowing it to take root in the soil of our hearts, what we have is like that packet of tomato seeds sitting in that Bible for 15 years.  Just a packet full of seeds not producing anything. 

In all this that God was showing me about the seeds, He also showed me that some of those seeds are carefully handed to us.  Placed right in the palm of our hands by our Pastors and teachers week in and week out.  What do we do with those seeds that are handed to us?  We can hold it in our hand and admire it.  We can tell all of our friends what a great seed it is.  But untill we allow that seed to be planted in our heart, and watered by meditating on it and studying it out further,  it will not produce anything in our lives, and thus we won't have the seeds to hand to others when they need a seed from us.  Instead, we stick the seed in our pocket, and a few weeks later we are in our Pastor's office getting counsel over an issue in our life that would be resolved already if we would have sown the seed that was handed to us and watered it.

I want to issue a challenge today.  SOW THE SEEDS!  Get them deep into the soil of your heart, and water them daily.  I guarantee we will look more like the Church God meant for us to look like, and when someone comes along with a need for a particular seed in their life, you will have produced more than enough to meet their need! 

DUNAMIS!

I was reading in 2 Timothy 3 today and decided to do some digging and dissecting, and I am amazed at all I found in just the first 5 verses! Check this out:


2 Timothy 3:1-5 (New American Standard Bible)
1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.


That's a pretty long and ugly list. But the verse that caught my attention was verse 5: "holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power." Now I have heard this "power" described in a lot of ways and I am sure many of them have truth in them, but I decided to dig a little. The word "power" here is "dunamis", which means 'miraculous power, might and strength. Not just a human form of power, or human might, or human strength. . .MIRACULOUS! Something that is undeniably WAY bigger than our own abilities as human beings. It carries the "awe-factor". It is super-natural!

The word denotes miracles! Miracle working power!! When was the last time you saw a bona-fide miracle? Something that could not be explained by any human reasoning other than Divine intervention? For me I would have to say a few weeks ago when I witnessed a woman raised from the dead. Not by human effort, but through prayer. I have gotten to see this only twice in my lifetime, but I will tell you, THAT is miraculous power! Dunamis!! Awe-factor to the extreme!

 Jesus' life and ministry was marked with signs and wonders and miracles. Did you know that He Himself said that WE, that's you and me, would do GREATER works!!

John 14:12 (New American Standard Bible)
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and GREATER works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.

Did you notice He said 'truly' twice? He put great emphasis on this, because He wants us to hear and understand fully what He is saying here. Most assuredly, no doubt about it, you can take it to the bank Jack! So now, I have to do some inventory in my own life. . . are these things active and working in my life? Is the ministry of Jesus something that I flow in on a daily basis? I mean, I am a believer. . . and if I am a believer I should be active in the 'greater works', right?
Let's go back to the text in 2 Timothy 3. Verses 1 - 5 are capped off with the statement "AVOID such men as these". Now I can easily understand avoiding all of the characteristics listed throughout verses 1 through 4. That makes sense to my reasoning as a Christ Follower. But at the very end of that list, in verse 5 are 'those who possess a form, or appearance of godliness' - they look right, talk right, act right, show up for church every Sunday and even Wednesday, give to the poor, visit the sick, always busy with Kingdom work. . . . - BUT deny the power, the dunamis, the miracle working power of God!

Will anyone join me saying a big huge "OUCH" right here?  Why are we not walking it out? Why are we not seeing the miraculous works of God touching others through our lives and our hands every day?

I think the answer is simple, and it is something that God has been showing me the past few weeks. We don't need to study more before we can obey what Jesus commanded us in Mark 16:18b:  "they SHALL lay hands on the sick, and they SHALL recover."  We don't need more degrees or classes or meetings to obey His clear command. What He needs us to be is "conduits" of His power! All we have to do is place ourselves in the position for Him to work through us! Do you know Him as Lord? Do you have two hands? Do you have a mouth? Find someone who needs a miracle, put your hands on them and speak to that mountain! God will do the rest! He will back up His Word with signs following!

And right here I am going to make it even easier for you. You do NOT have to have all the right words and know a bunch of scriptures by heart and pray long exhaustive prayers. Most times that is just pride, and it usually detracts from God and puts the focus on your own knowledge.  Although it is important to know the scriptures that promise healing, for our own faith, so that we know we can step out and lay hands on people in obedience to His Word and expect Him to act.  Look through the Gospels, what did Jesus do when He healed the sick, cast out demons and raised the dead? He did exactly what He instructed us to do! He spoke to that "mountain" and commanded it to be removed. Sometimes He did not even speak a word! He placed His hands on the person and it was done! SIMPLE! We have made it so hard, I know I have! We think we must articulate perfectly what we are praying for, quote 5 scriptures, turn around 3 times and touch your nose. Sound silly? That's because it is! Jesus said, "Get up!" "Be healed!" "Arise and walk!" "Come out of him!" "COME FORTH!"

You may argue that we are not God. No, halleluia, we are not! But we are filled with the Holy Spirit! And Jesus left us the perfect example to follow in every area of our walk! Thank You Lord! And I really think that the more we say when we pray for a person, the more likely we are to think we actually had something to do with the miracle other than being the conduit. And we also can fall into the danger of making a "formula" out of something because it worked once.

I have really been getting shaken awake the past few weeks with these truths, and I am purposing in my heart, and asking Him to help me, to be a conduit for His miraculous power! I am actually beginning to pray that God would bring people into my path in my everyday life, that need a miracle! Join me? I think if we will simply walk out what He instructed us to, we would begin to see growth and increase in the Kingdom of God to a degree that we haven't seen in our lifetime! Jesus got people's attention with healings and miracles! And He is still doing it today! Our only decision needs to be whether we want to be a part of it or not!

I'm in!!

PEARLS, PIGS & PIT BULLS. . . .

Matthew 7:6 - Don't give holy things to dogs, and don't throw your pearls before pigs.  Pigs will only trample on them, and dogs will turn to attack you.

God has been teaching me a very valuable lesson in the past year or so. . .  OK so I am getting it, but it is taking some time.  The lesson. . ."Shut your mouth".   No, he is not saying "Shut up".  God is not rude and mean like that.  But the bottom line of all He has been showing me is, in my language, to shut up.

I am one of those people who gets so excited when God gives me a revelation on something, or does something huge in my life that changes me and makes me more like Him.  Usually that's a bit of a painful process because He has to expose the things in my life that are not like Him, and through teaching and life circumstances He begins to purge and pluck out and purify.  And the result is beautiful.  BUT, I get SO excited that I just HAVE to share it with my friends.  I'm sure you know the feeling.  God illuminates something in His Word, or speaks to you on a certain subject, and you get so stoked that you can't wait to share it! Yeah, we've all been there. 

Those revelations, that God-given wisdom, the life lessons. . . they are like pearls.  They are precious and valuable, and a treasure to you.  You feel like God just gave you a beautiful gift and you want to show everyone!  How many women do you know who got engaged and hid the engagement ring so no one could see it?  No way!  They are holding that hand out and showing it off to everyone they meet.  But when it comes to the treasures that God gives us, many times, if not most of the time, it is an intimate and special thing that He wants us to hold and treasure and value and care for.  There was a lot of time and effort and many times pain that went into Him working those things in your life.

Have you ever read about how a pearl is made?  It's really amazing.  ­The formation of a natural pearl begins when a foreign substance slips into the oyster between the mantle, which is an organ that produces an oyster's shell, and the shell, which irritate­s the mantle. It's kind of like the oyster getting a splinter. The oyster's natural reaction is to cover up that irritant to protect itself. The man­tle covers the irritant with layers of the same 'nacre' substance that is used to create the shell. This eventually forms a pearl. 

So basically, the beauty comes as a result of something foreign in the oyster being covered by the mantle producing substance. . . .I'll let you chew on that for a minute. 

Now when we look at how precious these treasures are, and we understand then how precious the "pearls" God gives us are, we should really begin to desire to hold and guard those things much more than we want to blurt them out to anyone who will listen.

How do the pearls get trampled by the pigs? 

Well, one way is they critique what you just shared.  Have you ever had a great experience with God and He revealed so many wonderful things to you and you excitedly share it with someone, only to have them respond with doubt, criticism, and a chain of theological babble on how that just can't be because according to their doctrine. . blah, blah, blah. . .  The deflating feeling that brings is unbelievable.  The smile fades from your face, and you even begin questioning if you heard from God.  I mean, if it was really God, they would 'get it'. Right?  WRONG!  When God speaks to us He speaks within our own language.  The language of our life, our current circumstances, our level of understanding, and into what He wants to accomplish in us and where He is taking us.  Unless they are on the exact same page as you, it's not going to be the amazing treasure to them as it is to you.  

Another way the pigs trample the pearls is what I like to call 'culturing pearls'.  Cultured pearls are man-made.  They are not nearly as valuable and rare as a true pearl.  They may look nice, but still. . .   These are the folks who feel the need to 'add to' what God is speaking into your life.  They feel like they know personal areas of your life that need changing or tweaking, so they add their opinions to what God is telling you, with statements like, "Well, you have to be careful not to. . ." Or, "You really need to watch that you do this, or don't do that. . ."  As if God left something undone in you and now they must come along and finish the job.   Or here is my favorite; They will 'pray' with you but use that prayer to actually send you a message of what they think you need to be doing and not doing.  That one absolutely floors me.  How can anyone use prayer like that is beyond me.  See, the problem we run into when we blurt out all that God is saying and doing in us, is that, number one: In our zeal we tend to leave things out.  Number two:  He may not be finished with His work in that particular area of your life yet.  And number three: Other people's opinions really only damage what He is trying to do in you, because they are not based on a full understanding of all the details that are involved.

The third way pigs trample pearls (and there may be many more, these are just what I have come up with), is silence.  Silence can be more damaging than them adding their two cents.  Your mind begins reeling and questioning if you have even heard from God.  You have no idea what they think (which, by the way, if you haven't guessed by now, is irrelevant) about what you just shared.  DO NOT allow the enemy to come in and lie to you.  If you are in a relationship with Jesus Christ and you are in His Word regularly and you sit under sound teaching, you know God's voice!!  Period!

No human response is an indicator of whether or not you have heard from God.  That is only measured by His Word and His Spirit.

I believe the "pit bull response" is self explanatory.  Some folks will absolutely tear apart everything you say and believe God has said to you.  They will arrogantly tell you "God won't do this"  and "God will only do this in this manner".  They use life experiences and church affiliation to form their doctrine, and are so rigidly opposed to anything else that they will absolutely shut you down with their attacks.  You can walk away from those encounters bloody and battered and scarred for life. 

So God, in His infinite wisdom, has provided us a solution in our scripture text. . . .

Matthew 7:6 - Don't give holy things to dogs, and don't throw your pearls before pigs. Pigs will only trample on them, and dogs will turn to attack you.

In other words. . . Shut your mouth.

Unless you know for a fact that God is leading you to share a particular thing, don't!  He gives us many treasures.  Some are meant to be shared, but many of them are meant to be held in our hearts and meditated upon and valued as something intimate and personal from Him.  If we are sensitive to Holy Spirit we will know which is which and what He wants us to do with them.

He may also place a person in your life that you CAN share most things with.  That person will usually be in a trusted mentoring type position in your life.  Someone who you have given the right to speak into your life.  That you feel safe sharing things with and they have constructively guided you through many aspects of your walk and growth with God.  Like your Pastor maybe.  I am blessed to have that in my life.

I wish I could tell you I had all of this down in my life, but I am preaching to myself here as much as anyone else.  But I am learning, most of the time painfully, but learning.

I would also like to add, that when we experience these reactions to what we share, it is a great time to reflect and find out if we have been a pig or a pit bull and hurt someone else when they have shared their 'pearls' with us.