A Fruitful Harvest: He provides

4.  He provides

After planning, preparing and planting the gardener now provides the necessary elements for the plants to grow.  They need food and water.

Food:

Plants need food to grow strong and healthy and to produce abundantly.  Without the proper nutrients, they will be weak, sickly and stunted.  They will never reach their full potential.

In the same way, we also need spiritual food.  God’s Word is food for our spirit.  After we have been planted in Him, we need to feed on His Word so we can grow strong and healthy and bear fruit.  Without this food, we will be weak, sickly and stunted in growth.

       I Peter 2:2 “Like newborn babes, long for (crave) the pure milk   
                         of the Word, that by it you may grow in respect to
                         salvation.”

       Matthew 4:4 “Jesus answered and said, ‘It is written, ‘Man
                         shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the 
                         mouth of God.’”

      Jeremiah 15:16 “When I discovered Your words, I devoured them.  They are my joy and
                         my heart’s delight.”

      Psalm 119:97;103; 116 “O how I love Your law!  It is my meditation all the day…How
                         sweet Your words taste to me; they are sweeter than honey to
                         my mouth…sustain my according to Your Word, that I may live.”

Water:

Water is essential.  Without it, the plants will wither and die. 
A deep soaking is always better than a light sprinkling.

Water is the vehicle that carries the food into the plants…it is necessary for them to absorb the nutrients.  Food and water work together to give life, health and growth.

       Psalm 1:2-3 “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in
                             His law he meditates day and night.  He  
                             will be like a tree planted by streams of
                             water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.”

Water also helps to keep the plants healthy by washing the dirt and bugs from the leaves.

      Ephesians 5:25-26 “…Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her that He 
                        might make her holy and clean by the washing of the water of the Word.”

In Israel, flowing water was called ‘living water’. It was fresh and clean and life-giving as apposed to stagnant pools that were foul and carried disease.

      Isaiah 58:11 “The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength.  You will be like a well-watered garden like and ever-flowing spring..”

      As the Master Gardener, God lovingly provides all we need to grow and flourish and bear fruit.  His Word is our food… the Holy Spirit is the water.

      John 4:14 “Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the 
                        water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to
                        eternal life.”

      John 7:38-39 “He who believes in Me, as the scripture says, ‘From his innermost being
                       shall flow rivers of living water.’ This He said of the Spirit, whom those who
                       believed in Him were to receive.”

Just as water is necessary to carry the nutrients into the plant, so also the Holy Spirit is necessary to carry the Word into our hearts so we can be nourished by it.  Without the Holy Spirit to give the understanding, the scripture becomes just words on a page to us.

      I Corinthians 2:11 “No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own
                     spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.  And we
                     have received God’s Spirit so we can know the wonderful things God has   
                     freely given us.”

      John 14:26 “The Holy Spirit…will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all
                     that I said to you."

      John 16:13 & 16 “The Spirit will guide you into all truth.  He will tell whatever He 
                     hears from the Father…He will take the things that are Mine and will reveal
                     them to you.”

~~Watering early in the day gives the plants what they need to carry them through the stress of the heat later on.

~~In the same way, we are better prepared to face the challenges of our day when we have taken time to feed on the Word and have allowed the Holy Spirit to bring it into our hearts.

                  Our Master Gardener has provided everything we need to

grow and be strong and fruitful!

~~~Are you taking the time to feed on His Word and to allow the Holy Spirit to bring the understanding into your heart?

~~~Are you allowing Him to wash you, revive you and refresh you daily?

      I pray you will see the importance of feeding on and drinking in what God has provided for your spiritual life…and that you will take time out for a periodic “deep soaking”… so your roots can go deep as you grow into all He has planned for you.

        Hebrews 6:7 “Ground that drinks the rain which often falls upon it and brings forth useful fruit, receives a blessing from God.”

       2 Peter 3:18 “Grow in the grace, recognition, knowledge and understanding of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

     

A Fruitful Harvest : He plants

In previous posts I have talked about how the gardener has the plan in his mind for his

garden.  He has a purpose for each plant.  Then he prepares the soil to be ready for

planting.   He breaks down the hard soil and adds amendments to make it soft so the seeds

will be able to put their roots down deep and grow up into healthy plants that bear fruit and

bring beauty. 

      Luke 8: 8 & 18 – “And other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great…And the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit.”

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3.  He plants:
   ~Now he can begin to plant.  Each seed has been planned for and the soil has been

prepared. 

He buries each seed in the area of the garden that is just right for that particular plant. 

He waters, waits and watches.  Soon small specks of green begin to emerge from the soil. 

But what comes up out of the soil is not the seed!

When seeds are planted in the ground, an entirely new thing is born…the old part dies and new life emerges from it…something completely different. 

          ~So…how does this relate to us? 

                   ~How are WE planted? 

                            ~What does that really mean?

Col. 2:12-14 – “For you were buried with Christ…And with Him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead.  You were dead because of your sins. Then God made you alive with Christ, for He forgave all our sins.  He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.”

In John 3, Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be born anew…not physically...but of the Spirit…a spiritual birth. 

      John 3:6 – “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

      I Peter 1:3 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

     ~ When we place our lives in Christ and trust in His death for the payment for our sin, God...the Master Gardener, plants us into Him.

Romans 6:5 – “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection”

     ~We are now identified with Christ in His death for us and we essentially have died to our old sin nature.  We are made a new creation…we have a new life by His Spirit now within us. 

2 Cor. 5:17 – “…anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone a new life has begun." 

Eph. 2:4-6 – “But God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God's grace that you have been saved!) For He raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”

I Peter 1:23 – “For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable.” 

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     ~Are you planted  in Him? 
             ~Have you been buried with Christ ....
                          ...died to your old life....and been raised up to new life in Christ?

            My prayer for you is….

“That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend…

                          ~what is the breadth                                      
                                       ~and length
                                               ~and height
                                                     ~and depth

   and to know the love of Christ...which surpasses knowledge.”

Ephesians 3:17-19