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Precious seed

A thing is precious because a price must be paid for its possession; a price must be paid in reception. Much effort must be dedicated to its preservation. If a seed, it also requires a prize being paid to cultivate it. Being precious also takes adoration; it sets an end value in the heart of the owner. Every opportunity to sow is grabbed with joy and careful consideration because of what it brings.

Where to sow

A life is partially sustained by what it possesses, although its fullness, that is, its fulfilment does not come from these possessions. There are two aspects of a man’s life. The one is his earthly part that makes up his flesh - physical outlook and character disposition. And the other heavenly part making up our spirits. This suffices for our discussion.

The spirit of a man like his flesh has the stature and therefore must mature. Alas, Adam did the worst. He killed, not reduced, the height of our spirit man. A maim spirit or a quenching one can be restored. But what becomes of a dead one? It can only be regenerated!

Regeneration

Generation is to artfully derive a thing from an existent one. Man was generated; he is a derivative of an existing image. He is made from God. God was the template from which man was modelled. When man’s spirit died by Adam’s rebellion, however, he lost this image. Hence the need for regeneration.

So long man did not lose his flesh or earthly part by sin, regeneration efforts must be tilted towards his spirit. What He lost by death, in the beginning, must be regained. Thus, the restoration of man are efforts made by God to grow him spiritually by first breaking the power of what occupies the place of his dead spirit.

The Spirit of God, conveying the mind of God can only communicate with His kind. But when the spirit is dead, what can this righteous Spirit do? Jesus came to destroy the works of the flesh. The death of the spirit shut out the voice of God and His will whatsoever. And man’s flesh occupied two places: his outward man, and the throne of God - where the Spirit of God erstwhile occupied. Thus, all that man now cares about is himself. He is now very idle. What could be done by only one region is now the constituent of two realms. His brain and his heart were enough to think and keep man fit. By extension, he now carries an empty spirit, and the sustenance of himself naturally flooded the vacuum.

Every strife, every jealousy, self-seeking spirit were a result of man’s dead spirit. They only occupied and grew in man’s spirit because the Spirit of God, which should have rebuked and rebuffed their appeal at entry, is now out of place. It is dead.

“And Jesus came…”

The whole replacement of spirit’s place by the self is a scheme all masterfully planned by Satan. Stubborn and hard; Jesus came to destroy the works of this flesh. Man sins because it as natural to him as eating. Therefore, man is sin; He came to cause crisis between the flesh and our spirit. And by regeneration, our spirit being so little, when regenerated is continually set against our will - his father by age.

By the singular act of the Holy Spirit exposing our deep darkness in sin to us, we see how unclean we are. He also shows us the magnitude of God’s wrath hanging on us. And also the mercy for pardon offered by Christ Jesus. But if we cry for mercy, the Holy Spirit will sweep over our deep darkness and in the course of brooding, there will be Light. The Light here is the birth of little baby Jesus in our Spirit man. This is regeneration, Hallelujah! That is, that inner man of our spirit, which was killed by the rebellion of Adam, has now been re-created in the original image that it was made in the beginning.

Sowing

Now, the flesh - our person without the Spirit of God - has enjoyed a lot of attention till now. In age, it is like a father compared to this newborn Spirit. Therefore, this spirit-man deserves nursing. It deserves monitoring. Just like the flesh, it can be mal-nourished, it can be quenched, it can be sick, especially when left unkempt at the cradle. Yet efforts can be invested into its growth. These are what Paul meant by sowing.

The flesh (i..e. the physical man) has only one end - the grave. And whatever ends in the grave is subject to decay. This is corruption. We are, therefore, admonished that if our investment efforts are geared towards the flesh, all our best efforts will be in keeping with a vanishing unproductive vacuum. If conversely, every opportunity is to enhance the growth of our Spirit man, we shall become immensely rich. We shall be wealthier than life. Such that, the sustenance of our life will be by the proceeds of the investments into the Spirit man. And when all truly prosperous men shall be arrayed in heaven, we shall not be found as gate-opener poppers.

How to sow towards the Spirit

Infant Diet

The Spirit is tender, if newly saved, therefore needs milk. But it need be desired. Every child displays the ability to naturally express his anger, though it may lack the ability to meet its need. Thus the baby cries out in anticipation that it will be heard and attended to. The spirit within us, when lacking food, cries out Abba Father. He cries out for the sincere milk of the word. Thus, the word of God may be a physical piece, but it milks in a way that is obscure to the ordinary eye. Though earthly mothers could forget their suckling, God never does. He feeds. You make out time to open the scriptures and cry, “Lord, bear me up!” And he will pipe milk into your mouth. All that is needed to be sown here is the manifestation of hunger and thirst for God.

Adult Diet

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son. At all cost as the bread of life. Because Jesus died to give us life and in another, He said His body must be eaten and He who does not eat has no sustainable life. At the time He mentioned this his body had not been chopped into bitable bits. This happened only on the cross. Thus John 3:16 can be paraphrased thus: “For God so loved the world, that HE gave His only begotten Son as bread, that whosoever eats of Him will not perish but have everlasting life.

It follows immediately clear that milk-intake begins life. And that bread continues life’s sustenance as maturity sets in and appetite naturally enlarges.
By this, we may know if we are maturing: If our appetite for God grows, as our years of Christian walk grows. Or isn’t it a blessing to hunger and thirst for righteousness? Or to be spiritually poor?
At this stage, aptitude to anything as God will have us do, and believe in Jesus over every other person or phenomenon, must be invested. This is a link to the next level.

The skilled’s Diet

Not only do Christians at this stage savor a balanced diet, but they also know how to dish it to growing or infant Christians. As we know, the knowledge of Good and evil was to come to Adam through discernment. After he had heard much, done much and seen much more from His God. These experiences were to accumulate into his vault of inspirations from which He draws at needed instances. But alas, he bowed to Eve’s pressure.
Yet by maturing in the skillful use of the word of righteousness, we are brought to the understanding that the only life-sustaining nutrients here are bones. Of course, one has to get past meat (also termed bread in many bible renditions) to gore out a bone and crack it.

Here exercise of the will must be sown. Readiness to be a doer of what is heard is a real investment to make, to attain the full height of skillfulness.
For example, while a babe will busy herself with baptisms, laying on hands, the resurrection of the dead, and God’s eternal judgement. A maturing child of God will outgrow dependence on miracle-based trust in Jesus. Such will be able to discern the greatness of Christ and His testament over earlier and later prophets. The skilled, however, has nothing at heart but readiness to bear all burnt to become perfect like his Master. All that satisfies Him is pleasing God, hell-bound or skyward oppositions regardless.

This is not to say the maturity process is distinctively graduated. No one will be able to stand the Christian walk without each. Every Christian needs all this diet altogether. But as age goes by, there should be a reduction in the proportion of the less satisfying. Because generally, we do not outgrow milk, for example, in the flesh but outgrow dependence on it for other more belly-filling diets. Thus, every spiritual growth-bound activity is an activity aimed at dissatisfaction with our growth stage. And by seeing the stature of Christ, we determine to grow into it. To the carnal Christian, this is all nonsensical. But if you see the slightest truth in this write-up, you may as well yield yourself to that voice which calls through it, saying, come up higher!

References

[^a]: Genesis 30:16-18
[^b]: Genesis 37:22
[^might]: Genesis 49:3
[^lion]: Proverbs 28:1