My devotional reading talks about sowing seeds too. This time it is not wheat or grain, but God sowing His people in the earth and being kind to them. They did not do anything to deserve His blessing, but He intended to change their hearts and make them His people.
Then I will sow her (Israel) for Myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ and they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ (Hosea 2:23)The Bible often uses illustrations from farming. In the New Testament, Jesus also talked about sowing seeds. This time He refers to a basic principle; unless a seed dies in the soil, it cannot produce a crop.
I tell you for certain that a grain of wheat that falls on the ground will never be more than one grain unless it dies. But if it dies, it will produce lots of wheat. If you love your life, you will lose it. If you give it up in this world, you will be given eternal life. If you serve me, you must go with me. My servants will be with me wherever I am. If you serve me, my Father will honor you. (John 12:24–26, CEV)I’m not too sure how many heads of wheat grow on one plant produced by a single seed, but that increase is a farmer’s livelihood. It also makes no sense that a seed will grow once it is planted. That single seed seems to rota and die yet something remains and it sends out a living shoot. It grows and eventually produces a harvest.
Jesus is illustrating a principle for spiritual fruitfulness. Those people trying to preserve their lives will lose it when it comes to eternity and to living for God. No one can serve the Lord and be selfish. Instead, Jesus calls for death to self and to all that I want to do with my life. To serve Him, I must die and as He says, this death will produce a harvest.
A harvest of what? The Bible says I am to be fruitful. Jesus mentions this dozens of times. He says, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me” (John 15:4) making it clear that to produce a harvest, I need to both die to self and cling to Him.
Some of this is attitude fruit. Galatians 5:22-23 says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” I know from this and from experience that these things come from the Lord Jesus Christ, and without Him, I cannot produce such attitudes. Selfishness can fake them, but not for long. Eventually fake fruit rots without any harvest whatsoever.
Jesus also spoke of a different kind of fruitfulness, that which produces a harvest of souls. This is a metaphor for bringing people to salvation through faith in Him.
But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:36–38)Some Christians seem to be gifted in soul-winning. They are winsome and bold, able to draw people to God. I’m not one of them. Yet this does not excuse me. I’m to bear fruit in the sense of letting the Holy Spirit fill me with good attitudes, and in the sense of being part of the harvest by telling others about Him.
None of this happens unless He is first my God, and second, I am abiding in Him. This is about total trust and total abandonment. This cannot happen unless I’m filled with the Holy Spirit, as opposed to being filled with me, myself, and I. I have to tell people about Jesus, filled with Holy Spirit attitudes. As one saint says, sometimes I must also use words.
My life cannot bear fruit unless God plants me in this earth. I need to die to all that I want and do what He wants. Each time I see a field of ripening wheat, God uses it as another reminder that this is why I am here.
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