How Does Your Garden Grow? – The Planting

This post is a continuation of  “How Does Your Garden Grow? – The Preparation.”  You can read that post here.

II.  The Planting

The next step is the planting.  It’s important that we do not use just any seed.  It must be the right seed.

I have a feeling that if you were to walk into your back yard and find a bucket of seeds just sitting there and you had no idea from where they came or what kind of seeds they were, you probably would not want to plant them.  From those that I have known that have an annual garden, they are very particular and specific about what varieties they plant and grow.  It is not easy to talk them into anything else.

My point is that we must be careful with the seeds that we plant in our spiritual garden.  Because the enemy will do everything within his power to plant tares and thorns in our life.  We must do everything within our power to keep that from happening.  We also must do all that we can to make sure that the seeds we plant are pure and right.

Several months ago, I preached a message entitled, “The Seeds Of Revival.”  I used that verse that is so often referred to as God’s recipe for revival.

 2 Chronicles 7:14
 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

There are very important seeds found in that verse.

The first seed is Humility.  God told Solomon, “If My people which are called by My name, shall humble themselves….”  It is impossible to over-emphasize the importance of humility in a Christian’s life.  We must humble ourselves before God.  We need to realize who He is, and who we are in relation.  That revelation ought to bring about the proper response which is humility.

The second seed is Humger.  God went on to tell Solomon “…and seek My face….”  Hunger is such a blessing.  How sad it would be if we were to sit down to a banquet table with every imaginable culinary delight and we weren’t hungry.  God wanted us to know that it is important for us to hunger after Him.  Jesus even said that those who were hungry were “…blessed…”

Matthew 5:6
 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

 The more we hunger for God, the more likely we are to do whatever is necessary to allow Him to bring a spiritual harvest in our lives.

The third seed is Holiness.  God let Solomon know that we have to turn away from sin and turn toward Him; “…and turn from their wicked ways….”  We must be seeking to be holy.  I understand fully that our righteousness doesn’t save us.  I know that we absolutely cannot be good enough to be worthy.  But if we are hungry for Him, that hunger will naturally draw us to set ourselves apart from the world and draw us closer to God.

The fourth seed is Hope.  This seed is the motivation for the whole process.  God did not give Solomon a list of things to do without a promise of a Divine response.  We must hold on to the hope that when we humble ourselves,  and when we seek after Him, and when we turn away from sin, God “…will…hear from Heaven, and will forgive…and will heal…”

We can rest assured in the hope that if the ground has been prepared properly and those seeds of revival have been planted with care, something amazing is going to happen.

In the natural, when you plant a seed, that seed is alive but dormant.  It is waiting for conditions to be just right for the seed to germinate, take root and start to grow.  Once that seed is in the ground, the moisture and the soil activate the seed.  First, it starts growing a system of roots establishing it’s source of life-giving nutrients and moisture.  Then it starts it’s journey toward the top of the ground.

In the spiritual realm, a very similar things starts to happen.  Those seeds of revival have been dormant, just waiting for conditions to get right.  Once the ground has been prepared and the seed has been planted, the rain of God’s righteousness rains down and waters the ground.

Did you notice the end of verse 12 in our text?

Proverbs 12:12
 … but the root of the righteous yieldeth fruit.

The roots are absolutely necessary if we ever want to bear fruit.  So, first of all, the roots of revival reach down to the Rock to be established, and then it starts the process of breaking out of the ground and rising up for the purpose of bearing fruit.

(Continued here…)