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Gifts of Life Community Fellowship is a place to fellowship with like-minded believers in collective praise, collective thought and collective unity through the Way, the Truth and the Life, Jesus, the Christ.

Monday, June 27, 2011

SEED Series: Fertile Ground

So, I decided to plant a garden.
It wasn't a last minute decision - I've been  contemplating this since we moved to the  house 4 years ago. 

I researched where and what and how, and decided I wanted a "raised planter box" because we sometimes have issues with gophers.  But when I found out that a raised box is not actually raised enough to deter gophers I looked up just "planter boxes" and found a few directions for planter boxes made out of pallets.

The instructions really were for using scrap wood and starting a planter box from scratch - so, I scratched that idea and scratched my head for another year about what to do.

Then on my morning walk one day, I noticed a neighbor must have gotten a new fence and had piled up his old fence by the gate out front.  I walked past it for months until I got the nerve to ask them for some pieces. Once I got them, the ideas and plans for a truly raised planter box took off...

And so did the correlation between gardening and God's word.

FIRST STEP: Get the ground ready.
Where I wanted to place my garden is up a little slope, so, I knew I needed to up-root the current grass and level the earth flat. I then had to dig down deep before raising up my garden.

Isaiah 51:16: "And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people."

God is the divine and original Horticulturalist.  And He will plant the heavens with His children.  There are so many parables in the word of God regarding seeds, plants, growth, harvest and everything associated with the planting process.

In Matthew 13:18-23 Jesus explains his own "parable of the sower" in which He likens the "seed" to the word of God, and the ground in which is sown as how we hear and receive that word.

So many of us today cannot receive the word of God - which is synonymous to receiving the promises of God.  Yes, the bible says some of the reasons are because we have rocky ground in which seeds cannot take root; or thorny ground that choke out the seed.  But preparing your life to be fertile ground is the same process as preparing the ground to receive a garden.

1 = Up-root the current. We have got to up-root the current ways of thinking, understanding and most especially our current belief system.  In our backyard we had grass.  It was grown from seed, firmly established, rooted, grounded and healthy.  So too are our ways of thinking.

We grow up with them as infants and grow into them until they are firmly established, rooted, grounded and healthy.  And just like our grass, which grew into a beautiful lawn - most of those ways of thinking are just fine and there's nothing wrong with them.

But when God is ready to plant us into our purpose as sons and daughters of the most high, He's got to re-work our ground to receive His word.  That means up-rooting the current ways of thinking, then...

2 = Level the ground to be even with His.  That means lining up our ways of thinking to His ways - for He says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, My ways are Not your ways," and "lean not unto your own understanding."  We need to come in line with God's understanding.  Proverbs 4:7 says, "Wisdom is the principal thing so get wisdom. But in all your getting, get understanding." That understanding is of the Lord.

3 = Dig down deep before raising up a new "you". Sometimes this is a painful process.  I know it was for me when I was digging up that dirt! It was back-breaking, and several times I just wanted to STOP!  And when God is digging up old issues, old circumstances and old pains in which you need to forgive, give and live up to His standards, it is just about as painful, if not more.  But the process is more than worth it.  It is satisfying, gratifying and even, at times, enjoyable.  The joy of the Lord is our strength that helps us get through the tougher times.

God says He will raise us up - like His own raised planter box creation - a new creature in Him.

Power, love & peace - ya'll,
~Min. Dez

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