God's Garden

A scientist once said that a thorn on a rosebush is flower that hasn’t bloomed yet. Some of us a christians go through the growth process and develop into beautiful roses. Some don’t (Don’t worry I won’t name names) and become thorns in the Body of Christ, always sticking and hurting people if they are touched wrongly. People go out of their way to deal with them in a certain way so they won’t get upset or hurt another person. So you can see this growth process is very important. 2 COR 5:17 says Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!



When you are born again 9 seeds were planted. These are the seeds for growing the fruit of the spirit. The nine seeds are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are found in Galatians 5 and are referred to as the fruit of the spirit. I will be focusing on one aspect of these fruit over the next few postings. Today we are going to consider the growth process. "Gardening"
Once a seed is planted it goes through a process from
seed
tender sprout
young seedling
Tree with leaves
Tree with blossoms
Tree with fruit
flower and vegetable seeds as well as our Holy Spirit Seeds need four types of nourishment to continue growing.





The first thing a seed needs is SOIL or a -Good heart to receive God’s Word
a seed also needs WATER . Water keeps the soil of your heart soft and pliable in God’s hands. Water is the-Holy Spirit and The Word which cleanses us in(Eph 5:26) says Jesus gave himself for the church to make the church holy, cleansing the church with water and the WORD
a seed also needs light- which is the Word of God (Ps 119:105) Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. and Light is also fellowship with Christians as their light or testimonies can be sunshine to your heart.
A seed also needs TIME-Eccl 3:11 He makes everything beautiful in its time.
A seed does not become a full blooming tree overnight. Growth is a process









There is another picture that God gives us in the Bible to understand how we are designed. John 15:1-8.
Jesus is speaking here-I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the Word I have spoken to you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
So We are the branches and the vine, which is Jesus, is what brings the nourishment out to the branches.
If you are walking and find a branch lying on the ground would you expect to be able to plant it and have it grow into a full blossomed tree-no way! It just stays a broken branch.
If even a TINY branch stays on the vine IT continues to grow into a strong, thick, healthy branch.

Can a branch by itself grow fruit-no it has to stay on the vine. Do not allow yourself to be broken off of the vine. Without the vine you can do NOTHING.
Now once you have a plant you need to be careful of a few things. If you get too dry-you have to be watered of course , we talked about the four things you need to GROW, but also there are pests-bugs, slugs and wormy things that can chew your leaves. There are weeds that can choke your healthy plant right out of there. So For bugs and slugs you need a pesticide. For each of the fruits there are several bugs and slugs like discouragement-the pesticide would be Joy. Impatience- the pesticide would be patience. Anger, gossip, critical speech, behaving out of control, buying too many shoes, laziness, pridefulness, bitterness, unforgiveness, jealousy, worry -all these are bugs and slugs and need to be taken care of with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Weeds are much the same. They can choke out your beautiful roots and kill your plant or your tree. Weeds are sins that need to be uprooted. Now the only way to get rid of sin is to confess it and to turn a way from it. But one way of turning from it is to apply the word of God. One weed is fear. The bible says perfect love casts out fear. So you apply the love and the fear is uprooted and thrown out.
Just like an abundant garden which takes good earth, sunshine, water and time. We don’t become mature the moment we are born again. Maturity is sure come but it will take a process of time. Keep pressing on to maturity, but remain in peace and rest during this season of growth. Pray to be content at each stage of your growth in the Lord, pressing upward and onward daily.