Separating Seeds of Righteousness & Wickedness

No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. (1 John 3:6-9, ESV)

This post is very similar to one I wrote over a year ago called Mixing the Counterfeit in with the Genuine.  We’ll be dealing with the same passage of Scripture I used as the starting point in that article, only today I’ll be taking a different approach and making a different emphasis,  writing from more of a personal level and not so much a corporate level for the whole Body of Christ as that post.

Recently in one of our meetings at Centro De Fuego (The Fire Center) here in Lima, Peru, Ron Smith shared a message on this subject that I felt unlocked some pieces of the puzzle of what the Lord has been showing me in the past 15 months, so I decided to pen this article, which is very similar to a series I did on parables out of Matthew 13.  Clicking on that tag below to read the rest of them is highly encouraged for understanding the framework I’m working with.  I’ll try not to be repetitive, but some assumptions I’m making today are hashed out in more detail in those posts.

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said,’No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” Matthew 13: 24-30, ESV

The devil always comes that he may steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10).  It’s harder to steal a tree than it is to steal the seed of that tree in its early form.   One of satan’s most effective strategies, is to scatter lies and deception in seed form early on in the harvesting stage.  When you take two different seeds in the palm of your hand, you typically will not know what they will bear until you’ve planted them and seen what fruit is produced.  Obviously skilled and experienced gardeners and farmers would have a keener eye than the average person on what specific seeds are and what they will yield.  But for all intents and purposes, the end result or outcome is not obvious just by looking at the seed in the early stages.  You know what a tree is and will become, by the fruit it produces.

In our parable out of Matthew 13, we’re told that the farmer sowed good seed, but it was an enemy who came in and ALSO sowed bad seed.  The strategy behind this is that the same water, the same nutrients from the soil, would feed both the good and the bad, and attempting to rid the soil of the bad weeds would be detrimental to the health of the good crop, and the two in this parable are allowed to grow until the same specified period, upon which time one is harvested and the other is destroyed. When you have the two different seeds absorbing the same nutrients, and dividing where the soil’s resources will be used, the good crop suffers in terms of how much of it could have been produced.  If you had a whole field with only good seed, you’d yield more usable crop.  But when you take that whole field, half of it (the weeds) will be destroyed at harvest time, you’re going to suffer loss in terms of what good harvest you could have produced with the whole field.

Too many Christians live their lives that way: letting both seeds take root in their lives and then later having destruction come to destroy works of the flesh, whether it be from sowing and reaping, judgment, or just plain suffering consequences of actions resulting in those seeds going unchecked and coming to fruition in other forms.

Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:15)

You can’t feed both natures without suffering loss to one or the other.  Scripture says you can’t serve two masters, for you will wind up hating one.

Romans 8:5-11 says

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

When it comes to struggling with the flesh, and trying to live holy, I’ve heard it likened to having two dogs at war.  One representing your sinful nature, and the other, your new born again nature.  If you throw a piece of meat on the ground and let both dogs go after it, one would get it, eat it, and become stronger.  If you did the same thing the next day, the one who got it the day before has an advantage in that he’s got more strength and vitality after having eaten the meat it had previously obtained, and most likely will win the piece of meat this time as well.  Eventually the stronger dog will always overpower the weaker one and keep on getting the meat and feeding itself, continuing to get significantly stronger, while the weaker dog keeps on getting weaker and eventually dies.   Such, although not a perfect analogy by any means, is similar to the struggle we each are waging with our sinful nature, crucified and washed by the blood, but many of us have mindsets that haven’t changed and need constant renewal (Romans 12:1-2).

When a person becomes born again, they are not changed over night.  The old nature has been crucified, and God has transformed the believer.  But something interesting is stated here in 1 John 3:9–that God’s SEED abides in us.  The interesting thing about a seed, is that it in and of itself is clearly not the finished work of whatever that seed is going to produce and grow into.  There is a lot that we could discuss and meditate on in just thinking about this concept of the kingdom of God, and the articles I’ve already written and posted probably just barely scratch the surface of some other thoughts about this.  But one thing worth repeating or bearing in mind is that a seed basically contains the image, or the DNA of what its yield will contain.  But many of the passages I’m referencing–and other Scripture references we could look at–all have a common thread in that we are in charge of how much we ‘water our seed’, or cultivate our new nature in the Spirit.

Forgive my assumption that all readers of this are mature, but when a man gives his seed to his wife in the marriage act and a child is conceived, all that has transpired is a seed has been shared.  An actual full size adult human being is not implanted into the woman, but the image of what that human being will become is all contained in that seed.  Hair color, eye color, physical traits, but those things will be nourished and developed in the womb and eventually outside of the mother’s body when the child has been born.  Everything the child will become is not obvious just by looking at a pregnant woman who is expecting, or even from looking at the baby in its crib as an infant.  The same way that the groom gives his seed physically in the natural example of the marriage act, Christ, the Bridegroom has given us the seed of righteousness to the Church, His Bride.  For lack of a better way of describing it, He has implanted His nature into the born again believer upon salvation and regeneration.  But it’s not obvious right away.  It takes cultivation.

This moment is then the devil’s greatest opportunity to corrupt that seed–early on in the development stage.  That’s why, for example, tobacco advertisers aim their ads at youth and young adolescents.  This is why many corrupting images are sent our way through television and media.  It’s a spiritual and even natural fact that we are most impressionable when we are young, therefore it’s the habits we develop early in life that lay a foundation and form us for the rest of our lives.  The same is true spiritually.  The young formative seasons of a believer’s walk with Christ are important for growth as this is the most easy time for the devil to scatter other seeds in the soil.

Consider other things Scripture tells us about sowing and seeds:

First Corinthians 15: 36-37 states that

“What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.”

This is consistent with the death to self that we are to be constantly engaged in in order that our spiritual nature matures and strengthens.

Sowing, whatever the seed may be, always results in reaping.  We usually hear this used in order to coax people into giving money in offerings when we hear passages like 2 Cor 9:6 which say whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Whatever seed you’re sowing bountifully, you’ll reap bountifully (the context of this passage is giving financially).

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:6-8)

Make no mistake about it, the negative sinful stuff we sow to the flesh will grow, build, and culminate, and if we’re not careful, dominate our lives, and then eventually kill us.    It’s a spiritual principle that all too often I only hear about money (sow money and you’ll reap money), but if left unchecked, bad habits in our lives will grow to severe levels.  It’s better to deal with these issues in seed form early than to let them fester and germinate.

Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. (James 1:14-15, NLT)

Even when the hordes of darkness sow seeds of deception into the church or into your mind, it’s usually always mixed in with the truth.  We see this in the Garden of Eden when the serpent asked Eve questions about what God said, and helped confuse her as to what the truth of the matter regarding eating of it really was.  He even appealed to her desire to be good, to deceive her into disobeying what she was told.

Deception is usually always rooted in some form of truth, and corrupting that truth.

In conclusion, the best way to deal with these issues of sowing to the flesh, is to sow the opposite–to the Spirit.  If anybody reading this has gone so far done a path that you are trying to overcome a sin that has snared you, even though you love God and want to overcome but can’t seem to, my best advice is to follow the same pattern that led you in that direction, but with spiritual seeds.  It’s true the power of the blood of Christ is enough to set you free instantly from any sin that entangles us, but for the most part the problem lies in our unrenewed mind.

Begin the same process with the Word of God and seeds of righteousness in your thinking that you led in an unregenerate way to get where you may find yourself now.  I remember Neil T. Anderson, author of The Bondage Breaker and other books about spiritual freedom, used an analogy that fits:  if your mind is dark and polluted from all sorts of sin and un-regenerated thinking, imagine it like a coffee pot.  The pot is full of dark liquid, and you are taking the word of God and placing the equivalent of one pure ice cube into that pot every day.  A little bit of dark coffee will spill out, and the ice cube will melt and dilute into the coffee.  Change won’t be obvious right away, but doing this daily, eventually the coffee pot will get purer and clearer, until eventually no more traces of coffee are left, and eventually the whole pot is pure.  This is my opinion of what kind of things happen as we renew our mind with the Word of God (Romans 12:2), and it’s also necessary to get rid of and cut out of your life the things that caused that coffee pot to get so dark in the first place or else you’ll have these two different natures remaining at war with one another, rather than your spiritual nature dominating and ruling over your flesh.

If you need to avoid certain people who influence you, do so.  If you need to get rid of objects you have access to–such as internet or television, do so.  Cut the weeds out, they are not harmless!  In order to let in more light, you have get rid of the darkness.

Remember dear reader, you are an overcomer in Christ.  It is positional truth.  It’s just the battle is in your mind and takes some sowing to the Spirit.

_______________________________________________________________

For other stuff to chew on, meditate on, and teachings to listen to:

Fire On Your Head podcast episodes:

What Is Renewed Thinking?

What Is True Repentance?

Is it Possible to Live a Holy Life?

Dave Roberson Teachings – these have helped me a lot and made a tremendous impact on my mind renewing and holy living:

The Prison Is the Mind (4 part series)

Sin Shall Not Have Dominion (3 part series)