What makes a seed grow? We do know the basics from what we learned as a kid in science class, that a seed needs water and sunlight to grow and mature. It was always very interesting to me to learn about cells, biology and science is an amazing study. The process of photosynthesis was one of my favorite fascinations regarding plant life. But if you take the growth of a seed further from just the basic watering and sunlight you will find some amazing discoveries and insight into a physical process that God introduced to his creation before man was even made. Take for instance germination. Germination is defined as the growth of an embryonic plant contained within a seed. No one can see the blueprints of what the seed contains. You can’t crack an apple seed open and see an image of the apple. You can’t see its color nor can you see what shape or form it will take. When flower seeds are planted you don’t know how much beauty is contained inside of that flower seed. You have no idea just by looking at it how colorful it will be and definitely have no idea that it can even have a pleasant smell to delight your senses. This is the same with the things that God plants inside of us. God has a plan and design for our lives. We are not here on this earth for no reason. If you are still living and breathing then there is purpose for you and your purpose lies inside of you, those things that you have a passion for. Sometimes we don’t know all that we have inside of us and God has to show us by taking us through the germination process.
The
germination process is a matter of various phases. One of the phases of
germination is the period of quiescence. What is quiescence? This is a
plant stage where there is no “active” growth. It is a quiet stage where
all is still. There are spiritual seasons that we go through as
christians and just as we go through our spring and summers, we also
will experience some fall and winter seasons as well. There will be
times in our lives when all is still and quiet and this quiescence phase
is just a part of the process of our spiritual development. Although
there seems to be no outward or active signs of growth in our lives
whether it’s in our personal lives, our business, our finances, our
dreams or goals, there’s still life, there’s still growth. Maybe not
“active” growth that is visible to the eye, but development is underway.
In
the life of a Christian, as we grow from being a baby Christian into a
more mature stage of spirituality we first learn about salvation then
discipleship, we learn about obedience and sacrifice, and we learn what
it means to take up our cross and follow Christ. We are willing and
eager to do any and everything to follow Him. We want to learn more
about God. We ask God to use us, not really understanding the full
potential of what that means. But if God gave us a picture of the entire
roadmap of our spiritual journey, most of us wouldn’t even go. We would
resolve to just being a “regular” Christian and being content with just
salvation and the thought of making it into heaven. But life is much
more than that. God has a plan for His people. There are things that He
planted on the inside of us.
During
the time of germination a seed can survive adverse climate conditions
until circumstances are favorable for growth. Spiritually there are
seasons that we go through as Christians where all is quiet. We are
wondering what is going on, where God has gone, why He’s not speaking to
us, and what is happening. God what are you doing is what we often ask.
Where are you? Then when go into a stage where we sometimes wonder if
there’s something that we did to cause us to not hear from God or bring
about our storm. Everything that happens to us in life is not always the
result of sin. When you know that you are living right and following
God’s laws to the best of your ability and it seems like all hell still
breaks loose, and then you are just going through. We go through tests
and we go through storms. There are tests that are be performed on a
natural seed to see if it is viable; moisture test, purity test, seed
weight, and germination testing. When you go through tests in life it is
not meant to crush you, it is meant to strengthen you and cause you to
exercise your spiritual muscles and it is meant to see how viable you
are so that it can be visible what is going to come out of you under
pressure. You get a little rain (moisture test) and then after some
testing you need to be purified so you go through a purity test. Once
you’ve gone through the purity test your weight can be determined. After
all of this testing then comes germination testing. Various plants
require different variables for successful seed germination. Water is
required. It is interesting that in the natural, mature seeds are often
extremely dry and need to take in significant amounts of water, relative
to the dry weight of the seed before cellular metabolism and growth can
resume. Spiritually speaking, to whom much is given, much is required.
The greater the test, the more God has implanted inside of you that He
wants to get out of you but also, the greater the blessing when you are
in your season. There is seedtime and then there’s the harvest. Once
germination has taken place that seed breaks starts to swell and break
open, it then starts growing roots and then starts to bear fruit. One
thing that is also interesting is that temperature affects cellular
metabolic and growth rates of a seed. Depending on the seed variety,
there is a temperature range within the seed by which they will
germinate and break dormancy and they will not do so above or below this
range. Many seeds germinate at temperatures slightly above room
temperature, while others germinate just above freezing and others
germinate only in response to alternations between warm and cool. There
are some seeds that even require exposure to the prolonged cold
temperatures of winter before being able to fully produce in the spring.
In the spiritual realm, God knows how much we can bear and He will not
put more on us than we can bear. He will only allow so much pressure. He
knows when to turn up the heat and when to cool things down to get us
to the place where we can bear much fruit. Sometimes it seems like we
may go through a long winter season where all is still and quiet, you
are praying and fasting and doing everything you know to do but still
haven’t seen the fruit just yet and you’re wondering if your day will
ever arrive or if you are even on the right track, but if you hold on a
little while longer you will bear fruit in your season.
Eccl 3:1
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