CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“SMALL SEED – GREAT FRUIT”
HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU KNOW WHO SEE THEIR LIFE AS NOTHING MORE THAN A “RIDDLE OF EXISTENCE”? THEY REALLY DON’T KNOW WHO THEY ARE AND WHY THEY’RE HERE IN THIS AWESOME WORLD? A MEANINGLESS EXISTENCE DOESN’T HAVE TO BE “BIRTHED OR IMAGINED” BECAUSE DOUBT ABOUT LIFE’S MEANING, AT LEAST FOR THEM, HAS DUG THE GRAVE ON BIBLICAL FAITH,MERCY,AND THE LOVE OF GOD,WITH A SIN-NATURE,A SATANIC BLINDING,AND A “LOST WORLD’S DISPOSITION” OF OPPOSING GOD IF THEY AT LEAST ADMIT HE IS AROUND AND ‘MAY’ HAVE CREATED THE WORLD!
AND IF ‘YOU’ HAVEN’T FIGURED IT OUT YET,AT LEAST, BE ASSURED THAT YOU’RE NOT ALONE IN YOUR DOUBTS AND FEARS, BECAUSE NATURAL MEN WHO BAR THE DOOR TO SPIRITUAL TRUTH AND ITS REALITY ARE ACCOMPLICES OF TYRANNY IN OPPOSITION TO THE GOD THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW! THEY ARE “SEED” WITHOUT ANY “SUBSTANCE” OR UNDERSTANDING ABOUT EVEN WHY GOD WOULD BIRTH A FALLEN PEOPLE!THE TRUTH IS THAT HIS DESIRE FOR HIS SPIRITUAL KINGDOM WAS THAT, AS HE CREATED NATURAL KINGDOMS AND MASSES OF PEOPLE, HE WANTED “ALL” TO HAVE A CHOICE OF A GOD-RELATIONSHIP OR NOT! HE DIDN’T WANT ‘PUPPETS’ ON A STRING MEETING HIS EVERY DESIRE! HE WANTED PEOPLE WHOM HE CALLED TO HIMSELF WHO WOULD BE PEOPLE ALIGNING WITH HIM ON HIS TERMS! IN FACT, HOLY GOD PLANTED IN ALL OF FALLEN MAN’S EXISTENCE THE REALITY OF LIFESTYLE CHOICES: “FLESH OR SPIRITUAL”, “NATURAL OR SUPERNATURAL”, “EARTHLY OR HEAVENLY”, “BEST EFFORT” OR “BLESSED REST” IN A SAVIOR’S FINISHED WORK ON THE CROSS”, ‘WILLFUL MINDFULNESS’ OR “SOVEREIGN MERCY”, ‘MAN’S MAN-MADE BROAD HIGHWAYS’ OR “GOD’S NARROW WAY OF LIFE IN CHRIST ALONE”, ‘ACCEPTABLE RELIGIONS’ OR “SPIRITUAL FREEDOM IN THE TABERNACLE OF GOD’S MERCY & GRACE”!
IT WAS BY AN ANONYMOUS WRITER BUT I LOVED IT. IT WAS IN “THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS QUOTATIONS”,P.107, THAT SAYS: “GOD MADE BEES, AND BEES MADE HONEY; GOD MADE MAN, AND MAN MADE MONEY, PRIDE MADE THE DEVIL, AND THE DEVIL MADE SIN; SO GOD MADE A COAL-PIT TO PUT THE DEVIL IN.” LIFE’S CHOICES? A BLACKENED COAL PIT WITH SATAN, OR HEAVEN ON EARTH IN THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST?
“SMALL SEED –GREAT FRUIT!” IN HEBREWS 11:17-19 we read, “BY FAITH ABRAHAM, WHEN HE WAS TRIED (TESTED), OFFERED UP ISAAC: AND HE THAT HAD RECEIVED THE PROMISES OFFERED UP HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, OF WHOM IT WAS SAID, ‘THAT IN ISAAC SHALL YOUR SEED BE BLESSED; ACCOUNTING THAT GOD WAS ABLE TO RAISE HIM UP,EVEN FROM THE DEAD;FROM WHENCE ALSO HE RECEIVED HIM IN A FIGURE.” YOU UNDERSTAND –‘TESTING’ TO PLEASE GOD IS NOT MAN OFFERING THEIR SIN-NATURED SONS TO DIE, ‘THINKING’ SURELY GOD CAN RAISE THEM, BUT SONS WITH A ‘SIGN’ OF AN OPEN, YIELDING TO ‘SIN’, EVEN IF THEY DID GRASP ‘REPENTANCE’, ARE NOT, WERE NOT, WILL NOT BE BIRTHED IN THE ‘FLESH’ WITH A ‘SINLESS NATURE’ BUT ‘FLESHLY BIRTHED’ TO CARRY ON ‘SIN-NATIONALITY’, UNLESS CONVICTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, GUIDED INTO “TRUTH”, BIRTHED AGAIN THROUGH THE “SHED BLOOD OF CHRIST ON CALVARY’S CROSS”,
THE GUILTY THO’ RELIGIOUS’LIKE MOST OF THE JEWS OF JESUS’S “DAY” ARE NOT “BORN AGAIN” EXCEPT THROUGH CALVARY’S STORY, CHRIST’S RESURRECTION, CHRIST’S KNOCKING ON THEIR HEART’S DOOR TO TRULY AWAKEN THEM! WHEN HE CAUGHT THEIR ATTENTION, JESUS SAID, “REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND!”
FOLLOW ME IN 2 PETER 1:1-12!! SIMON PETER, A SERVANT AND AN APOSTLE OF JESUS CHRIST, TO THEM THAT HAVE OBTAINED ‘LIKE PRECIOUS FAITH’ WITH US “THROUGH THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD AND OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST: (SAVED FROM WHAT? UNRIGHTEOUSNESS? DISOBEDIENCE TO HOLY TRUTH? WORLD DEVOTION BLINDED TO THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD WITH FEEBLE ATTEMPTS & FAILING ATTEMPTS THROUGH ‘RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES’ RATHER THAN JESUS TELLING THEM & US, “YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN”, DYING TO YOUR WORLD, YOUR SIN-NATURE, AND ALLEGIANCE TO THE SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS OF SATAN HIMSELF?)
VERSE 2 & FOLLOWING: “GRACE AND PEACE BE MULTIPLIED UNTO YOU THROUGH “THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD AND OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST: ACCORDING AS HIS DIVINE POWER HAS GIVEN UNTO US ALL THINGS THAT PERTAIN UNTO LIFE AND GODLINESS, THROUGH THE KNOWLEDGE OF “HIM” THAT HAS CALLED US TO GLORY & VIRTUE; WHEREBY ARE GIVEN UNTO US EXCEEDING GREAT & PRECIOUS PROMISES:THAT BY THESE YOU MIGHT PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE, HAVING ESCAPED THE CORRUPTION THAT IS IN THE WORLD THROUGH LUST.
VERSE 5 & FOLLOWING: AND BESIDE THIS, GIVING ALL DILIGENCE, ADD TO YOUR FAITH VIRTUE; AND TO VIRTUE KNOWLEDGE; AND TO KNOWLEDGE TEMPERANCE; AND TO TEMPERANCE PATIENCE; AND TO PATIENCE GODLINESS; AND TO GODLINESS BROTHERLY KINDNESS; AND TO BROTHERLY KINDNESS CHARITY.
VERSE 8 &FOLLOWING: FOR IF THESE THINHS BE IN YOU, AND ABOUND,THEY MAKE YOU THAT YOU SHALL NEITHER BE BARREN OR UNFRUITFUL IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. BUT HE THAT LACKS THESE THINGS IS BLIND, AND CANNOT SEE AFAR OFF, AND HAS FORGOTTEN THAT HE WAS PURGED FROM HIS OLD SINS. WHEREFORE THE RATHER, BRETHREN, GIVE DILIGENCE TO “MAKE YOUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE”; FOR IF YOU DO THESE THINGS, YOU SHALL NEVER FALL; FOR SO AN ENTRANCE SHALL BE MINISTERED UNTO YOU ABUNDANTLY INTO THE EVERLASTING KINGHDOM OF OUR LORD & SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.
WHEREFORE I WILL NOT BE NEGLIGENT TO PUT YOU ALWAYS IN REMEMBRANCE OF THESE THINGS, THOUGH YOU KNOW THEM, AND BE “ESTABLISHED” (OR “MADE TO STAND”!) IN THE PRESENT TRUTH.”
THE PRESENT TRUTH? THAT “YOU” WERE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST, &THE OLD LIFE THAT DIED ON THE CROSS WAS BURIED IN THE ‘SEA OF GOD’S FORGETFULNESS’, THAT HOLY GOD THEN “RAISED YOU UP IN THE “NEWNESS OF LIFE”, COMMISSIONED YOU AS A SERVANT WHO ALLOWS ONE’S SELF TO BE THE “TABERNACLE” WHERE CHRIST DWELLS, AND CHOOSES TO DO “THROUGH YOU” ALL THE FATHER TELLS YOU TO DO – YOU THEN EXTEND HIS LIFE, EXPRESS LOVE TO HIM MOMENT BY MOMENT, AND HE PROVES HIS RESURRECTION POWER THROUGH YOU AS YOU “REST IN HIM” & ALLOW HIM TO BE HIMSELF THROUGH YOU!!
“SMALL SEED”? BUT GREAT POTENTIAL WHEN “SEED PLANTED BY GOD, WATERED & FERTILIZED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, WITH THE ‘SONSHINE’ OF GOD’S MERCY BLAZING ON IT, PRODUCES CONTINUING, GREAT “FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT” REVEALING THE MERCY, GRACE, AND LOVE OF GOD THROUGH HEAVEN-BORN “TREES OF FAITH & TRUST” IN GOD’S ABILITY TO RAISE THE “DEAD” TO “NEW-LIFE IN & THROUGH THE BLOOD REDEMPTION OF CHRIST’S CROSS, HIS DEATH, & HIS RESURRECTION”!!
I CLOSE THIS MESSAGE WITH WORDS OF JAMES, THE BROTHER OF JESUS, IN JAMES 5:10-20, AS HE WROTE INSPIRED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT: VERSE 10-20, “TAKE, MY BRETHREN, THE PROPHETS, WHO HAVE SPOKEN IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, FOR AN EXAMPLE OF SUFFERING AFFLICTION, AND OF PATIENCE (OR STEDFASTNESS). BEHOLD, WE COUNT THEM HAPPY WHICH ENDURE. YOU HAVE HEARD OF THE PATIENCE OF JOB, AND HAVE SEEN THE END OF THE LORD; THAT THE LORD IS VERY PITIFUL, & OF TENDER MERCY.
BUT ABOVE ALL THINGS, MY BRETHREN,SWEAR NOT,NEITHER BY HEAVEN,NEITHER BY THE EARTH,NEITHER BY ANY OTHER OATH:BUT LET YOUR YES BE YES; AND YOUR NO,NO; LEST YOU FALL INTO CONDEMNATION. IS ANY AMONG YOU AFFLICTED?LET HIM PRAY.ISANY MERRY?LET HIM SING PSALMS. IS ANY SICK AMONG YOU?LET HIM CALL FOR THE ELDERS OF THE CHURCH; AND LET THEM PRAY OVER HIM,ANOINTING HIM WITH OIL IN THE NAME OF THE LORTD: AND THE PRAYER OF FAITH SHALL SAVE THE SICK, AND THE LORD SHALL RAISE HIM UP; AND IF HE HAS COMMITTED SINS, THEY SHALL BE FORGIVEN HIM.
CONFESS YOUR FAULTS ONE TO ANOTHER, AND PRAY ONE FOR ANOTHER, THAT YOU MAY BE HEALED. THE EFFECTUAL FERVENT PRAYER OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN AVAILS MUCH. ELIAS (OR ELIJAH) WAS A MAN SUBJECT TO LIKE PASSIONS AS WE ARE, AND HE PRAYED EARNESTLY THAT IT MIGHT NOT RAIN:
AND IT RAINED NOT ON THE EARTH BY THE SPACE OF 3 YEARS & 6 MONTHS. AND HE PRAYED AGAIN, & THE HEAVEN GAVE RAIN, & THE EARTH BROUGHT FORTH HER FRUIT. BRETHREN,IF ANY OF YOU DO ERR FROM THE TRUTH, AND ONE CONVERT HIM; LET HIM KNOW, THAT HE WHICH CONVERTS THE SINNER FROM THE ERROR OF HIS WAY SHALL SAVE A SOUL FROM DEATH, & SHALL HIDE A MULTITUDE OF SINS.”
“SMALL SEED-GREAT FRUIT”? WHAT IS HOLY GOD DOING THRU’ YOUR LIFE? ‘NO SEED-NO FRUIT’? OR “SMALL SEED-GREAT FRUIT”? IT IS AN ETERNAL LIFE CHOICE!!