(Ver 1.3)  This is Part 1 in a series of advanced Bible lessons designed to help you to recognize the extreme value of the Word of God.   I had a funny thing happen to me the other day when a three year old picked up a kids book and said to me, “this book is broken, I can’t read any of the words”.   I thought that was very cute reasoning from a three year old.  Well I laughed and said to myself that is the way the Bible is to many people.  There are a multitude of people in the world who have tried to read the pages of the Bible and they have concluded “this book is broken” because it does not make any sense to them.  Because of this, we have many in the world that look down on the Bible and like my three year old little friend, they do not understand what they are doing or saying.  I have seen others on TV laugh at Christians and they look at the Bible and call it a foolish book of fables.  All of these erroneous conclusions are based upon ignorance and their inability to see any value of the words that are written on the pages.  I use to be this exact same way until God opened my eyes and I began to understand the deep hidden spiritual information that is encoded on the pages.  All of a sudden the pages of the Bible became alive to me and these living words began to speak to my heart and I began to see and understand the real spiritual things of God like never before.  This new perspective changed my life forever!

1Co 3:6  I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

1Co 3:7  So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

I was given a question from one of my readers; so I thought if one person had this question there might be many others that could benefit from the same answer.  As you can see from my key verses, God is describing a spiritual ministry process in the terms of planting seeds and watering them and God causes them to grow.  This seems to not be that difficult on the surface, but yet what does each of the elements represent in these verses and how do they work together?  Why does someone plant and someone else water?  What is the seed and what is the water?  These are some of the questions that I will attempt to answer in the rest of this lesson.

The Bible describes itself in many fascinating and unique ways that make it a book like no other.   Today I will attempt to address just three of these unique descriptors to allow you to see the Word of God from a new and different perspective.  I will be teaching about seed, water and light primarily and what they each represent.  If you have ever planted a garden in your backyard, then God has taught you several spiritual lessons without you even knowing it.  You see God tells us the hidden things of God are clearly revealed in the things that He has made, so men are without excuse (Rom 1:20).  I remember one year we planted tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and broccoli to name a few vegetables in a garden and we carefully tilled the soil and put the seeds and the plants into the ground and then watered them, cared for them, built a fence around them and over time they grew.  We enjoyed and ate a lot of really fresh food from just a few rows of vegetables in a garden over that summer.  After studying the Bible I learned that farming was a created concept from God that applies to us learning about the Bible.  You see God created these natural farming processes to reflect a much greater truth about how things work in the unseen spiritual realm.  I have written on this subject before, but not in this direct relationship of God’s word being three different aspects that are essential elements to our spiritual growth process.  So today’s lesson will be watering some seeds that I planted before.  Uh oh, I think I just got ahead of myself.

In the natural garden world there exist four natural elements that are essential for our natural food production.  These four essential elements are light, water, seed and soil.  Without any one of these four we would not exist on this planet.  These four essential natural elements are all symbolic representations of spiritual things and that is my primary subject today.  Of course light comes from the sun and is probably the first major basic element that permits all life to exist on our planet.   We live in a solar system that is our life sustaining force and our planet exists in the perfect position in order to sustain this life here.  If we were closer to the sun, it would be too hot and if we were further away it would be too cold.   So we live on a Goldilocks planet, one that is just right for human habitation and this is not by chance or accident.  I totally believe that it was by design.  So the first subject that I want to focus on is the Sun and who or what this represents to us in our Christian walk.

Mal 4:2  But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

We will briefly examine why Jesus Christ is described to us to be the “Sun of Righteousness”?   I will briefly tell you that God does not have to call Him the “Sun of Righteousness” if there are no other suns that exist.  In other words God qualifies Jesus to be righteousness and this implies there is a sun that is unrighteousness.   I do not have time to explain this fully today, but Satan is the unrighteous sun, I believe.  You see in Isaiah 14:12, Satan is called “Lucifer” and this name in the Hebrew means “bright morning star”.  Wow, that is tough to understand isn’t it?  You see Jesus is also called the “bright and morning star” in Revelation 22:16.  Both Jesus and Satan are called by the same name, but one is the Sun of Righteousness and the other is the “sun of unrighteousness”.  You have to understand that this “morning star” is a coded reference to our sun, the star that rises in the east every morning that lights our day.  I’m sorry I do not have time to elaborate on that more today since it is not my primary subject.  Just understand when you are looking at the night sky that every star that you are looking at is a different sun than ours.  So there exist many suns by the design and creation acts of God.  Let’s continue to look at Jesus.  You see Jesus called Himself the “Light of the World” and the “Light of Life” in John 8:12.  Jesus is clearly telling us that He is the source for all Spiritual life.  There are many verses in the New Testament that confirm this reality, if you choose to see them.  If you want to look up some of the names, titles and descriptions of Jesus in the Bible you can read my lesson on this subject called “Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols of Jesus in the Bible”.   I have concluded that Jesus is the Spiritual Sun of the Spiritual Day and you can read about this in more depth in my Bible lesson called “Understanding Night and Day”.  The next factor that I want to associate with the sun is who Jesus is according to the Bible.  We certainly understand that Jesus is called the Son of God, but God describes Him in another key way that you should see:

Rev 19:13  And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

This verse in Revelation is describing Jesus Christ and God is calling His name something entirely different.  God calls His name the “Word of God”!  By the laws of mathematics created by God we can substitute Word of God for Sun of God and we can even go further and say the Sun of Righteousness is equal to the Word of God.  This is a very substantial part of my lesson today.  God’s Word is the key factor that brings us Spiritual Light and Life and this is an essential part of God’s spiritual farming lesson.

The second essential element for life on our planet is the existence of water in mass quantities.  Our planet is often called the water planet since there is so much water on it that this water could cover it many times over if the world was flat.  However in the farming process, water is not the next essential element so I’ll leave this one to last today.  Next I want to address “seed” and you should know if you have read my other Bible lessons what this is or at least know parts of what this is.  I did a long series of lessons from the Bible on what Seeds represent and there are many things that conform to these types of created and spiritual realities.  If you would care to read about them all in detail, you can go and read “Understanding Seeds”.  However, today I just want to focus in on one lesson and really just a part of that lesson to define what Paul was sowing and Apollos was watering.  You see if you recall in the Parable of the Sower, Jesus taught us the Seed was the Word of God.  You can read this in Matthew 13:23 and Luke 8:11.  So God’s word is clearly defined to be God’s spiritual seed.  We also know from this parable that the ground or soil is man’s spiritual heart.  God tells us that those who hear and understand the Word of God are those that will eventually produce spiritual fruit.  Let me give you another key verse found in the Bible about the Seed of God:

1Pe 1:23  Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

Here is God contrasting two seeds, one is corruptible and one is incorruptible and that is two ends of two opposites.  The concept of corruptible is a Greek word that means mortal or decaying.  To be mortal is to be subject to death.  It is often associated with organic matter in the world.  The laws of thermodynamics state that everything that we can perceive around us is in a state of decay.  God is basically comparing natural things (seeds) to spiritual things (seeds) and God inform us that His spiritual Seed is incorruptible.  We can understand from the definition of this word that it means “immortal” or incapable of death.   God is basically telling you His Words are everlasting Seed that will never die, never pass away and never cease to exist.

We have now discovered two key factors to identify or describe the Word of God.  These are God’s Word is Spiritual Light and God’s Word is Incorruptible Seed.   I hope you are beginning to see and understand the increasing value of the Word of God.  It appears to me that the more I learn about God’s word, the more valuable it becomes to me.  God is telling us without His word we would all cease to exist instantly.  So let’s continue in the farming analogy and discover if God’s word is also water?  There are actually many things in the Bible that are described to be water or symbolically related to water.  People are said to be water, seas, oceans, etc. whose waves roar endlessly.    But, this is not God’s water, just the people made in the image of God who many seem to be clueless to whom they really are.   Let me show you what Jesus says to His disciples in the Gospels about water and this will hopefully begin to change our perspective on the subject:

Joh 15:3  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

If God’s word can make you spiritually clean, then God is implying a washing process like when you take a bath or shower.  God is basically telling you that the Word of God is the Water of God in indirect terminology.   Water is an essential element for life on our planet.  We drink water, we wash in water, we use water for many purposes.  You should be able to understand that water is a vital and indispensable part for life on our planet and that God is saying “My Words are also this essential” in the spiritual realm.   Let me give you verification and a second witness for this reality:

Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Ephesians chapter 5 is predominately a marriage covenant chapter and in the context of this information, God describes that His Word is a cleaning force or power.    This verse leaves no doubt in my mind that the Word of God is equal to the Water of God.   All of this information might be confusing to you or it could be very enlightening to you.  You see in the natural realm, light is not water and they are two different elements or substances, so we think.  Seeds are also not light and a seed is not water either.  So it is very complicated isn’t it?   This is why there has been a great debate in the church to the existence of the Trinity of God.  How can God be three and still be one?   It is a huge perplexing puzzle that only God can solve.  What you need to understand though is that everything that we see around us in the physical realm was created by the Word of God from the spiritual realm, so essentially all of these things are the same one thing, the Word of God.  When I learned how God created the world, it changed my perspective to many things in the Bible.  God saw and God said and then it was.  You can read this over and over in Genesis 1.  God was trying to teach you that His words became what we see around us.

Today is Earth Day and I do not profess to be a supporter of this man made cause or event.  It appears people in the world want to say “Save the Planet” and ignore the people and let them all go to hell.  The problem with this reasoning is that God tells us “heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word will never pass away” (Mat 24:35).  So people are focused in on the wrong priority entirely.  God’s word is eternal and you should be consumed with knowing as much about it as you can learn.

2Co 4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

The things of this world are very temporary and not eternal so we as true Christian should not give these natural things like our planet the first priority.  Do not get me wrong, I did not say to pollute it or to treat it badly, I am in fact saying you should be a good steward of what God has given to you to enjoy, but do not make it your life’s focus to save the planet because it will not matter in a short time from now.  Keep your eyes on the eternal things and this is just the Word of God.  Make God’s Word your first priority and it will make other temporary things seem very insignificant.

So I have given you at least three different aspects of the Word of God today.  The Word of God is Spiritual Light that causes us to live and grow.  The Word of God is Spiritual Water that causes us to be clean.  The Word of God is Seed that is planted in the spiritual soil of our hearts and it is these three factors from God that causes us to produce fruit unto God.  This is why Paul could plant God’s word first and then Apollos could come along and water those seeds that were planted by Paul.  It all reverts back to the same eternal words of God.  These are not new words; they are the same words being spoken by different preachers or teachers.  This is how it works.  God is the essential factor that causes the seed to grow.   God gives us the seeds to plant with His Word.  God gives us the water to cause these seeds to continue to produce and this is also His word.   So it is always God and His Word that is the important factors and never the preacher who sowed or watered.  Do you understand these concepts?  Do you see why I’m not important?   However, what I say is very important, but me, I am just a farmer who is either planting new seeds in you or watering old seeds that have been sown already by someone else.  I hope and pray that you enjoyed my simple Bible lesson today and may God continue to bless you until next time.

If you would like to continue reading in this series you may go to “Part 2” now.