When it comes to a seed unfolding into the "fullness of life" it one day becomes, what you see in its final form "above the ground", is pre-determined by what first births "below the ground" - namely THE SEED. But as the "unseen spirit" of the life that shall later be apprehended in all its glory, before that seed even falls to the ground, for a season at least, that same seed first requires a temporary host within which to fully mature. In much the same way, the seed that is man's spirit, being that which is utterly unseen, it too requires, for a period of seedtime, a host within which it can also mature, before it too unfolds into the very fullness of the glory that in the afterlife it is yet to become. What the spirit of man does in this life, its "gestation period", so as to progress towards fullness of maturity, will later echo in eternity.

     And true to the nature of the Father that is ours, with His heart and spirit of teaching and shepherding all those who are His precious own, He provides us with signs and wonders that become the very proof points of all that He later reveals. Everything that we have just described as seedtime, He has already shown to us before, in a variety and multitude of consistent ways. Take yet the parallel principle that is a child. Before a child is yet born, the unseen seed matures in the safety and sanctuary of the nurturing womb for a season into what will ultimately pre-determine all that will later be seen as the fullness of life that becomes the man.

     In the same way, this "first life", being this life of man now on earth, is the "incubation period" by which the seed that is man's spirit is shaped and nurtured into the completion that is a "full gestation-period maturity". And as with the umbilical in the womb, the seed of man's spirit is nurtured into maturity and fullness of life with the umbilical that is the life and spirit of Christ. In fact, this umbilical infusion of Christ begins right at the beginning of time with the very first breath we breathe, being that breath that God personally blows into the nostrils of the dust He stands up as each individual man. And it is for this reason that those who sadly reject God and His love are like all those premature foetuses that painfully miscarry before carrying to the conclusion of term. Each and every occasion of miscarriage comes with a deepness of sorrow and an unquenchable grief. And at the same time, this is why for those who successfully carry to term, they so thoroughly fill the bosom and heart of the Father with the overflowing abundance of love and a bursting of joy.

     God says that the words He speaks "are spirit, and they are life". As spirit, they are that which is UNSEEN. As life, they are that which is SEEN. God also says that the WORLD'S (being that which is seen - LIFE) were framed by WORDS (being that which is unseen - SPIRIT). In "LIFE", being that which is seen, the maturation of a new born child as the seed of the man it ultimately becomes, the "NATURE versus NURTURE" arguments abound widely. In the same way, when it comes to "SPIRIT", being that which "is unseen", for the unseen seed which is man's spirit, the same nature versus nurture variables of maturation also apply. It is our "fallen" NATURE to deny the love of God, but it is His NURTURING spirit and life that woos us to "rise up" once again, in and through real love.

     For the seed that is the "unseen spirit of man" that in THE GOOD SOIL of the afterlife shall become the evidence of a life seen, during this incubation period that is this current life on earth, the "parameters" that ultimately FRAME and NURTURE this seed into maturation are based on the "twin axes" of "RIGHT STANDING" and "RIGHT RELATIONSHIP". If we could portray the maturation of the spiritual seed of man on a graph, these twin axes would be the "X" and "Y" axes of that graph. As the horizontal X-axis, "right standing" is where we stand jurisdictionally in relation to God. In other words, are we rightly related? Have we accepted and acknowledged Jesus first as "SAVIOUR". This is the "horizontal parameter" that sets the "foundation" to our subsequent maturity in Christ. It is THIS parameter that allows us to be established upon the foundational rock whereupon we are to then subsequently build our life.

     In God's Word, the principle of "Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on a rock. The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it didn't fall, for it was founded on the rock." - Matthew 7:24-27 is the X-axis. Being "rightly related" is the horizontal FOUNDATION, or the "wisdom", that, by necessity, must precede what is to thereafter follow as THE EDIFICE we vertically build upon that foundation. "By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures." - Proverbs 24:3-4. This is the Y-axis of "right relationship". Instead of acknowledging Jesus as SAVIOUR, "right relationship" is instead the evidence of us accepting Jesus also as "LORD". Living and walking with Jesus "as LORD of our lives" is about right relationship. For to become a mature seed, we are to accept Jesus both as Saviour AND as Lord, not just as Saviour.

     Once the foundation of the rock of wisdom is established , thereafter, through "right relationship" with the sovereign source of all spirit and life, the rooms of the edifice of our lives are subsequently built and filled with understanding and knowledge. And so it is that when God says, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few." - Matthew 9:37, He also means that when it comes to the plentiful labour of preparing the seeds of Christ for planting and thereafter harvest, He alone is the labourer. For we are His creation. We are His handiwork. He alone is the Potter, and we are the clay. He alone is faithful to do it. He is the author and finisher of the substance of all that we hope for. But in the spiritual factory of that preparation, the part we play is that, by our own free will, we are to willing YIELD and voluntarily SURRENDER upon His potters wheel for Him to be able to then lay the left hand of His "spirit" and the right hand of His "life" to the beautiful task of moulding each clump of clay into a majestic vessel of honour (seed of Christ).

     Whereas it is solely through WISDOM that a seed becomes "rightly related", it is by "right relationship" that a seed grows in KNOWLEDGE and UNDERSTANDING. In other words, it is WISE to accept and acknowledge Jesus "as SAVIOUR". This is foundational. But only through right relationship with Jesus also "as LORD" can we subsequently thereafter build a house of knowledge and understanding. For obvious reasons, "right standing" is the HORIZONTAL axis of WISDOM in our maturing as the seed of Christ. On the other hand, for obvious reasons, "knowledge and understanding" is the VERTICAL axis of "right relationship" that frames our maturing as the fullness that is the seed of Christ.

     And only to the DEGREE that we YIELD to the twin axes of "Jesus as Saviour", being that part of the nurturing umbilical that frames us as being "rightly related", and the axis of "Jesus as Lord", being that part of the nurturing umbilical that frames us as having "right relationship", will the spiritual seed that we are created to be, then mature sufficiently to hereafter in the good soil of the afterlife, produce either a 100-fold, 60-fold, or 30-fold crop or harvest. Which is when the 30-fold seed of the Holy Spirit deposited in the secret place of all who call upon Jesus as LORD and Saviour does not "hold back, but digs its tent pegs in deep and lengthens its ropes, and enlarges the place of its tent, and stretches its tent curtains wide" (Isaiah 52:4), "becoming mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13). Which is when the 30-fold incorruptible seed deposited in "the secret place" of man (spirit) that is the tabernacle of the Holy Spirit firstly ripens outwards into "the inner court" (soul) into a 60-fold seed, and then continues on to "the outer court" (body), thereby yielding a 100-fold return, that this entire tabernacle that is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit may be without spot or wrinkle (blameless) at the coming of the LORD (1 Thessalonians 5:24).  

     So when God says that "through faith we UNDERSTAND that the worlds (plural) were "framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made by the things which do appear", we understand that the "worlds" in this regard likewise also relate to the personal worlds that the life of each spiritual seed of man will in the afterlife become, and that the "word of God" is none other than the nurturing and shepherding of Jesus Himself. It is by His spirit and life, which are the words He speaks, that we are matured into the seed of Christ that will in the next life produce much fruit (100, 60, 30-fold). "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and DIES, it remains alone; but if it DIES, it bears much fruit." - John 12:24. The word is clear. Before it can produce fruit, it must first die.

     In other words, in keeping with the imagery of the Tree of Life, as its fruit, being the very womb of each seed of Christ, the kind of 30-fold, 60-fold, 100-fold tree that the unseen spiritual seed of man will ultimately become in the Garden of Eden of the new earth, where just like the Word who was spirit became flesh before us, that our spirit seeds too will become flesh, what we ultimately become will be pre-determined by the kind of seed we allow the hands of the Potter to mould us into during this period of seedtime on earth. But unless one becomes LIKE A CHILD - unless one "surrenders" to the nurturing process of maturing by the wisdom, knowledge and understanding of "a Father" - we shall remain stillborn, or perpetuate as a premature miscarriage of the wonderful gift that is the precious circle of life that comes from above.

     However, for all those who see this season of seedtime through to its wonderful and joyful conclusion, for these God has kept private "the name" by which we shall all yet be known. And the glory that becomes the majestic life of the seed of Christ shall be from that day onwards named and forever carved into the brilliant white of stone. "To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it." - Revelation 2:17.

FOOTNOTE

"The words that I speak are spirit, and they are life." "... the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made by the things which do appear."

WORLDS are those things seen.

WORDS are those things unseen.

Once the word - which is spirit - is spoken, it becomes life.

Look at the spelling of "worlds".

Look at the spelling of "words."

They are exactly the same letters in the same sequence, but worlds has the letter "L" for life infused into it.

The spirit of "Words" become "worlds" when the "life" of the Word of God, being Christ, is added.

"My words are spirit, AND they are LIFE".

Once the Word of God, which is spirit, is released as a nurturing umbilical, all that it sustains becomes life. And the Word became flesh.

Externally, it becomes the very world that is the earth which currently sustains all life.

Internally, it becomes the very seed that is the spirit of man that will later in the afterlife become the world that becomes and sustains the fullness of life in Christ.

So, now, with full authority, it can be said:

"What We Do In Life, Echoes In Eternity"

– Matthew 9:35-38; 28:18-19

"19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-19

"35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Matthew 9:35-38

May we all, as sons and daughters of the Most High Father, become the very best of seeds in this life, so that our LORD may be thoroughly glorified in both this life and the next, and our Father in Him may be well pleased.

To God be the glory, forever and ever. Amen and amen.

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"For My house will be called a house of prayer."