The Light that Liberates Part Seven

                                                         
    Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.” And that is what happened. 12 The land produced vegetation—all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And evening passed and morning came, marking the third day. (Genesis 1:11-13 NLT)


  I have had many people ask me how to walk in a deeper relationship with God. The Lord gave me the revelation sometime back that in the book of Genesis we find all the great works of God. They are given to us in seed form however. The almighty God created the world in six days. In the first six teachings in this series we have seen how in the creation narrative we see a remarkable parallel to the work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth.

In our last teaching we saw that on the third day God caused the waters to divide and to have the dry land appear. In the same way when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior Christ is formed in us. Just moments before, we were lost and undone. Yet upon our acceptance Jesus himself came alive in our spirits. We who had been incapable of life before now just as the earth was formed out of the darkness so now we are changed.

This land begins to bear fruit right away. On this day three types of vegetation was created. Grasses, the herb bearing seed of grains such as wheat, and the seed for fruit bearing trees as well are all able to come to life on this earth. In these three types of vegetation we can see the work of grace in the human heart.

The first type of vegetation was the grasses. Grass does not require much to take hold. It mainly requires good soil in which to take root and the sunlight to produce growth and life.

Paul spoke of new believers as babes in Christ. The newly born in Christ like the grasses of the plains main job is to take root and survive. Two things are the cause and effect of this life. First of all in this living example the Holy Spirit is the sunlight. Jesus is the new land that rises up out of the darkness of our past life before we met the Lord.

We who were dead inside lost without God, now have the life of Christ inside us and the Holy Spirit causes the grasses to grow and cover the land. So many believers never grow beyond this stage. They gather together in grand assemblies and their sole purpose in being there is to experience some new thing. This is a natural state for baby believers but not so for those who have walked with the Lord for any extended period of time.

To walk in the deeper realms of God however requires a price to be paid. Jesus said that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it has no life. There comes a time when the Holy Spirit will lead us to move up higher. Jesus said unless we take up our cross and follow him daily we cannot be his disciples.

The grains of the earth represent a step up from the grass of the newly converted. We must to walk in the higher realms with God be willing to sacrifice all that we are that we might gain Christ. Our Lord came to live and die as a man that a new form of life would come into existence. To grow into the man or woman of God he is calling us all to be we must be willing to take the seed or kernel of wheat that we are and bury it in the dry land that is Christ formed in us.

We must sacrifice all the lusts and ambitions of the soul at the foot of the cross that we may then be lifted up into the risen Christ. We do this not just once but daily. Jesus is not willing to invest in the human heart the glories of the kingdom yet to come if we ourselves are not willing to sell out everything to him and in his service.

  Yet if we are willing to lay down our lives daily at the foot of the cross a new life shall be formed in us. The Holy Spirit takes the lifeless seed that our natural life is and plants it in Christ. From this union with Christ we are transformed into the living grains as seen it the wheat fields of the plains. We are raised in him into newness of life and like him we shall walk in the revelation and glory of the one into whom we have given ourselves.

How pitiful and lifeless are the temptations of hell when we see them through the eyes of the resurrected life of the Son. The first step in walking in the higher realms with God is we as individuals must be willing to die to all that we are that we might walk in his life. The wheat of the plain is the risen life of the son. We have gone from simply basking in the love of God as the grass of the field, to by willingly laying down our life transformed into beings that walk in and by the life of God.

Many things happen at this stage. The first one is we gain the internal revelation of the risen Lord in our hearts and our eyes are opened to the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit begins to reveal to us the deep truths of the word and we begin to become others minded instead of being self centered as the carnal and unbelievers are.

Jesus was the prime example of a man who laid down his life at every stage to be obedient to the will of his Father. He was here to be obedient to the will of his Father and to give his life as a sacrifice for the whole world. Those who would walk in his anointing must first of all be willing to follow him where ever he may lead no matter where that might be.

Yet the believer who has done this is more than willing to do so. Those with the grass of the fields understanding see their spiritual purpose in life as the sustaining of the life and revelation they have known by basking in the sunlight of the Holy Spirit. The shocking truth is most believers never get past this stage. They are more than willing to walk in the bright light of the blessings of the Lord, so long as it does not cost them anything.

  Their mentality is to sow that they might gain. The kingdom of God is all tied up in them and what blessing and understanding they have seen. Yet like the grass of the field they must be given the revelation by the Holy Spirit that it is the will of the Father that they move on beyond the anointing and understanding of the grass type revelation. They must allow the Holy Spirit to place within their hearts the desire to plant themselves totally and completely into the earth of the risen Christ.

The revelation that is given to the heart by the Holy Spirit is far different than the understanding they had known previously as grass. The world is seen through the eyes of the Spirit of God. This is possible because the individual so motivated has been transformed from a heart capable of merely sustaining themselves, into a grain of living wheat capable of feeding others.

This life is not just a product of the Holy Spirit. This life is a higher, deeper understanding of Christ that can only be seen or given to the heart who lays their life down that they main gain an understanding of the kingdom of God.

Finally the final vegetation mentioned is the fruit trees. Only those willing to lay down their natural life as the grain of wheat are able to begin to bear the fruit of the Spirit as typified in the fruit trees of the third day of creation. The fruit of the Spirit will only grow in the soil and life of someone who has laid his or her life down in his service.

The fruits of the Spirit are the divine attributes of the personality of God. God places far more value on fruit in our lives than how many gifts of the Spirit we may have had placed in our lives. What we are speaks volumes. Many see themselves as spiritually mature because they have been blessed by God to walk in a ministry gift or office. May the church of the living Christ so dedicate themselves to bearing fruit. The gifts without the fruit are carnal and self serving.