1. When a seed grows in an alternate environment and survives, it is said it has adapted. How many times have you adapted? Whether we like it or not, adapting is a part of life. Our attitude about it is something we can control.
2. Some seeds planted in harsher environments, and live, can have its DNA restructured to become a hardier plant for that environment in the future. This is simply fascinating! It reminds of what James tells us in those first few verses in his opening chapter about counting it all joy because of those trials and what they produce!
3. The seed within the fruit of a plant gains information from its “mother” about what she experienced in her environment to better suit it for the next generation (this is called maternal environment effects). Experiences modify the DNA and impact which genes are expressed in the next generation. Wow ... okay, just ... wow! If it does this in the natural world within a seed, just think of what this does for spiritual seed!
Looking back on part 1 and now part 2, I am trying to glean some truths and principles from studying What's in a seed. I am sure this list is only a drop in the ocean!
● Within every seed is the history of all previous seeds, and the promise of every future seed.
● You will reap what you sow (quality/like/kind), you will reap more than you sow (quantity)--the size of the seed does not determine the size of its product.
● Seeds are mysterious, miraculous, even “magical”--there are some things about seeds we do not understand = we know enough and we learning more all the time.
● The power of the seed cannot be experienced until and unless it is sown
● There are various types of seed; there are various types of faith
● Future seeds can become stronger and more powerful than past seeds
● The environment has much to do with the success of the harvest (the product of a seed). For example: A sower went out to sow and some fell = path, rocks, thorns, good ground.
● We do not control the harvest, we prepare for it = make room for it and adjust our schedules to when the fruit arrives. The same is true of a church--we must adjust to each harvest as well as being a part of God’s plan of seeing that fruit refined in holiness for future generations.
● The legacy of Jesus is yet to be seen in you and me. The legacy of your faith is yet to be seen in your children and your own household—but it will be.
● You can have other children = those you bring to God by adoption and leading them to Christ.
I want to shift gears just a little and take you to Acts 8:33 where Philip picks up on a teaching with the Ethiopian Eunuch about Jesus from a very strange passage: Isaiah 53. “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”
The passage is brilliant in its timing and application because it meets the eunuch where he is--who can speak of eunuch’s descendants? Philip shares that Jesus meets him there because Jesus was the sheep who was slain without offspring too--slain for the sake of the eunuch. Jesus came not to have offspring himself, but to gain offspring and descendants (brothers and sisters) for his heavenly Father--OUR heavenly Father!
GOD himself purposed every seed, its kind, power, shape and destiny. It was GOD who created the ground and the womb for seed and give it what it needs to help seeds move forward to their destiny.
A harvest is the end and also the beginning of the ongoing cycle of reaping and sowing.
A harvest is the end and also the beginning of the ongoing cycle of reaping and sowing.
The legacy of our church has yet to be seen; however, we have glimpses of it in our elders. Those who have gone on before us. Who have your elders been in sowing seed into your life?
Will it be a legacy you leave behind for those who come after you; after you are gone, will the faith seeds you have sown have their best chance?
What comes out of a seed is what has been put into by prior seeds. We have a responsibility for what we put into our seed (holiness, character, hope, faith, love). YOUR character development--the quality of the person you are and the quality of person you marry will bear resemblance in the seed to come.
PRAY to the LORD of the Harvest, to send forth laborers and disciplers into the harvest fields.
For more information on maternal environmental effects, see:
It is a great read about how the mother plant adapts to her climate and nutrients which effects the next generation of seeds. This spoke to me about the structure of the church and how we need more intergenerational educational opportunities.