DIG for Monday the 11th of September…..if you want tomatoes plant a tomato seed…..Matthew 13 v 31

I’ve written quite a bit in the recent past about seeds and how we can plant and then nourish them, in order to produce good fruit in our lives.

What we need to realise, as believers, is that this holds true for bad as well as good seeds, with the ability to produce bad or good fruit.

We know in the natural that if we want cress we plant cress seeds and if we want tomatoes we plant tomato seeds.

Yet sometimes as believers we expect to produce fruit in our lives without planting appropriate seeds.

Everything we read, watch and listen to are seeds that we are planting in our hearts.

If we require healing to be made manifest in our lives we need to plant seeds from the Word of God about healing.

If we plant seeds of doubt and negativity (and there are lots of sources of these available to us) we will reap something other than healing.

We know this principle of planting the correct seed works in the physical natural world and we need to realise the same principle works in the spiritual realm and in the Kingdom.

You would be a fool planting tomato seeds and then expect to harvest potatoes.

So we are also foolish if we are not planting the correct seeds for a good harvest in our Christian walk.

Take time in the Word tonight and plant some more good seeds in your heart, reading this DIG is a good start but not enough.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for your Word, thank you for these incorruptible seeds that I can now plant in my heart”.

Matthew 13 v 31…..Another parable out he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field

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DIG for Monday the 4th of September…..once planted things will take time…..Mark 4 v 28

As a maltster I used to process barley seeds to make malt, this then went on to be used in the distilling industry.

The process takes about 8 days in total, but for the first couple of days nothing seems to happen.

Or rather, it looks from the outside that nothing is happening.

But inside the barley seed there is a lot going on with water being taken in and hormones and enzymes being released, working away breaking down various compounds inside the seed.

After a couple of days roots appear, then a shoot, and if left to its own devices it would form a new plant and produce more barley.

It is like this when we plant the seed of God’s Word in our hearts.

It may seem like nothing is happening, from the outside everything about us may look the same.

But the Word is working away on the inside and if not pulled out or uprooted it will eventually produce fruit.

Seeds take time to grow into plants and produce fruit.

The Word of God takes time to produce change in our lives.

If we leave a plant in the ground it will grow, and if we leave the Word in our heart and not throw it away through doubt and unbelief it will generate change.

We need patience, for both natural seeds and the supernatural incorruptible seed of the Word (1 Peter 1 v 23).

My advice to you tonight, if you think you are not seeing change, is to wait and be patient and let the Word do its work.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord that your Word is the agent for lasting and permanent change in my life”.

Mark 4 v 28…..For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear

DIG for Sunday the 3rd of September…..you must understand this parable…..Mark 4 v 13

My DIG yesterday could have been one of the most important DIGs you have read so far, and that is not me saying that, it is Jesus.

You see what I wrote yesterday is so important that if you do not understand it, you will not understand much else in the Kingdom.

Jesus spoke about the power of seeds, of the Word being a seed, in the parable of the sower (Mark 4 v 1 to 20 and Matthew 13 v 1 to 23).

In Mark He said something of ultra importance to His disciples.

He said that if they did not understand this parable they would understand no others (Mark 4 v 13).

He is saying that if you do not understand that the Word is a seed and that it needs to be sown you will not understand the rest of what He said about the Kingdom.

Now that is important and needs to be listened to, this needs to be comprehended and the relevance to us today needs attention.

If you do not ‘get” the parable of the sower you will not ‘get’ anything else that Jesus said.

This says to me that we need to get a thorough working knowledge of this concept of the Word as a seed.

This says to me that we need to learn about how to plant, water and nourish these life-changing seeds.

This says that we need to get to the bottom of the parable of the sower so that we understand the rest of what Jesus is telling us.

We have to do this, as Jesus expressed its importance.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for the parable of the sower, thank you that your Word is a seed I can plant in my life”.

Mark 4 v 13…..And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? And how then will ye know all parables?

DIG for Saturday the 2nd of September…..the Word of God needs to be sown…..Mark 4 v 14

Ever since I heard Pastor Duane Sheriff preaching about seeds this weekend I have been very excited.

In a ‘previous life’ as a Barley Specialist for a major distilling company I had to know all about the barley seed.

I knew about the inside of this seed, about how special it was, about how it was actually alive.

As Duane was telling us we can learn a lot about the Word of God as a seed from how we see natural seeds behave.

And as I know a lot about how the barley seed grows I found this extra exciting.

I’ve been preaching about this for a long time, and sometimes I think the folks in my church are fed up hearing about barley!

But the concept of the Word as a seed is very important and can have a positive effect on our lives.

If we can learn to plant seeds, water seeds and nurture seeds, then we can be sure that we will see fruit (or blessings) manifest in our lives.

The Word is a seed and our heart is the ground and we must plant the seed through reading and meditating upon the Word.

We can then water and nourish through fellowship, prayer and worship for example.

But this is a process and it takes time, so you require patience.

Why not plant some seeds tonight?

Then water and nourish them, have some patience and then see the fruit of your ‘labours’ coming into your life as a blessing.

Speak this out today….”Thank you Lord for your Word, thank you for these seeds that I can plant in my heart”.

Mark 4 v 14…..The sower soweth the word

DIG for Thursday the 25th of February…..sowing and reaping, a spiritual principle you cannot bypass…..Galatians 6 v 7

God has set in place a number of spiritual laws, in the same way that He has put in place physical laws.

Gravity is an example of a physical law, and sowing and reaping is an important spiritual law.

In the same way that we cannot bypass physical laws such as gravity we cannot bypass spiritual laws.

As in nature, if you want a harvest you have to plant some seeds, and you have to plant seeds of the same type us your intended harvest.

Everyone understands that you have to plant barley seeds if you want a crop of barley; we know we don’t plant wheat seeds for this.

Yet people who want friends for example don’t realise they should go out and be friendly.

I had a dear old friend say to me one day, ”Why are the people in the church so nice and friendly to me”; I replied, “It is because you are nice and friendly to them”.

We will reap what we sow.

God has set up this principle and therefore we cannot mock or sneer at God by trying to bypass this spiritual law.

The main area that people try and “skip” this law is in giving; believers want to receive more in terms of finances yet will not give to others or into the Kingdom.

That is trying to bypass the principle of sowing and reaping and Paul says it is sneering and sticking your nose up to God (Galatians 6 v 7).

Sowing and reaping is a principle or law just areal as gravity.

Don’t deceive your self and don’t mock God, get into the principle of sowing and reaping today.

Speak this out…..”Thank you Lord for your spiritual principles such as sowing and reaping and thank you that we can participate in that principle today”.

Galatians 6 v 7…..Be no deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap

DIG for Monday the 11th of January…..keep sowing seeds…..Mark 4 v 14

Tidying up my desk tonight I found some notes I had made a few months ago, notes about my ministry and what I had to do in the future.

Written in big bold letters was the following; keep sowing seeds.

This was a wonderful reminder of how important the Word of God is, and how vital it is to teach this so that people can understand.

In Mark 4 when we read the parable of the sower, we find out that the seed described here is the Word of God, His Scripture.

In order to see fruit in our lives we need to “plant” the Word of God, then see it “grow” in our lives.

As the Word works in our heart we will see manifestation of fruit, or blessings.

There is one key element to this process, and that key is understanding.

If a person does not understand the seeds (or the Word of God) that they hear then it can be stolen away from them by the enemy (Matthew 13 v 19).

Once Scripture is understood it can germinate and grow, thus producing fruit.

But there is a start to this process that requires to be done, even before understanding.

This may sound obvious, but someone has to sow the seed; someone has to speak out and teach the Word of God.

And this is not just the job of the pastor; we can all speak out the Word of God, we can all sow the truth into the lives of our family, friends and acquaintances.

I have been challenged again tonight to keep sowing seeds.

I challenge you also, keep sowing seeds.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for your Word, thank you that is it the incorruptible seed that I can plant into the lives of others”.

Mark 4 v 14…..The sower soweth the word

DIG for Friday the 9th of May……it is knowing the truth that will make you free…..John 8 v 31 and 32

DIG for Friday the 9th of May……it is knowing the truth that will make you free…..John 8 v 31 and 32

Many Christians are suffering today from any number of addictions and harmful lifestyles.

Many have gone through rounds of counseling, ministry and healing.

What many have not tried is time and the Word of God.

I had some time to meditate yesterday on a part of my ministry that I want to move into in a deeper way; that is setting people free from bondages that are holding them and then see them move into the abundant life that Jesus wants for them (John 10 v 10).

The Lord brought John 8 v 31 and 32 to me.

True freedom can only be found in and through Jesus, so it is essential for a person to be born again; this is the first step towards freedom.

The next step (a long step) is continuing in His Word and allowing that to make you free.

You do not free yourself from your addiction and bondages, you allow the Word of God to do that.

Your role is to meditate on the Word of God, in order to fully understand about Jesus and His finished work.

As you do this, your mind will be renewed and you will be transformed (Romans 12 v 2).

This, unfortunately for many people, is too long a process and (in their mind) involves too much effort.

We live in a society where people want instant gratification and instant results with little or no self-effort, but that is not the way the Word of God operates.

We are told the Word of God is like a seed (read Mark 4), so it needs time to germination, to develop, to grow and bear fruit; we need to give it time in other words.

Through time the Word of God reveals to us the truth about who we are in Christ and what we have become as a gift of grace through faith in His finished work.

These truths replace the lies that we have been told and believed, and understanding of these truths will change us, we will be transformed.

Speak this out today…..”Thank you Lord for the finished work of Jesus Christ, help me understand this more deeply through study of your Word”.

John 8 v 31 and 32…..Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free

DIG for Tuesday the 21st of August…..the Word is a seed to be planted and nurtured…..Mark 4 v 14

The Word of God is like a seed.

A seed requires to be planted before it will grow; it will then produce fruit.

A seed grows into a plant and a plant has capacity to produce fruit; this is the purpose and nature of a seed.

If the ground into which a seed is placed is good, free from stones and weeds, it will grow and produce fruit.

It also requires to be given time; apples and oranges for example do not appear and ripen overnight.

In Mark 4 and Matthew 13 Jesus describes the Word of God as a seed, and shows us that the ground is our heart.

He says that if we plant this seed into our heart it has the ability to produce fruit.

If we plant a seed into ground prepared to receive it and give it time we will produce fruit. We will live lives of a more holy nature with less sinful actions. We will be a blessing to others.

The Word of God is described as the incorruptible seed (1 Peter 1 v 23); it is perfect.

If we prepare our hearts, plant His perfect Word and nurture that Word we will produce fruit in our lives.

We have to initially plant the seed; you must read and meditate on the Word!

Mark 4 v 14…..the sower soweth the seed