Resurrection
“Show me how resurrection works. Give me a diagram; draw me a picture. What does this ‘resurrection body’ look like?” If you look at this question closely, you realize how absurd it is. There are no diagrams for this kind of thing. We do have a parallel experience in gardening. You plant a “dead” seed; soon there is a flourishing plant. There is no visual likeness between seed and plant. You could never guess what a tomato would look like by looking at a tomato seed. What we plant in the soil and what grows out of it don’t look anything alike. The dead body that we bury in the ground and the resurrection body that comes from it will be dramatically different. The corpse that’s planted is no beauty, but when it’s raised, it’s glorious. Put in the ground weak, it comes up powerful. The seed sown is natural; the seed grown is supernatural.”
- 1 Corinthians 15:31-42
Struggle is nature’s way of strengthening itself.”
The glory of the seed doesn’t rest in the seed. It doesn’t depend on me. It resides in the nature that moves the seed into higher living. God builds and imparts capabilities made natural to the seed, but its end doesn’t lie beneath the surface soil. Our ‘refining’ space isn’t our destined space. The place we take roots isn’t the place we remain. God is a dad who delights in journey, in process. Because end results alone don’t bring us complete revelation of His fullness, of the cost. The “X” we land on isn’t the enlarging tool of my heart. The hand that shapes me extends from the gap of promise and reality. It unveils the cost of the mover of life. The process reveals the raw nature of His mercy to change us. A greater nature is fully understood when the smaller nature dies. In this process His merciful extension is understood. Just as the example of the seed.
The “primary” shoots that tear from the seed extend to the right and to the left, like hands of the cross submitting to a death for a greater purpose. Death for a greater dream. The seed carries the dream in hand from planting till fruition. And so I ask: What do I really have without resurrection? What is the seed without this shift from death to life? What’s it all about without a superior force to lift my hopes like He lifts my face?
What God buries in the ground He always lifts out in a different form. What we plant looks different than what we reap in the end. God always brings us back to promise. He extends completion to broken hopes. Extends heaven to detatched dreams. Interlocks His fingers with misguided destinies. And pulls the life from the shouting womb. Removing the scales from the seeds we left behind.
I’ll come forth from this seed with a sword in my hand.
Just as Christ let Himself become a seed, so must we submit to a smaller place of our will to a greater hand, a stronger arm, a bridge to boundless growth and glory. And to allow the place of “smallness” to outgrow our perceptions and strivings. It’s the place of smallness that bows before great wide wings. Saying break me-then carry me, extend this dream to where I can’t. Erect a tower inside this tiny seed of me. That small seed lets death become her and lets birth transform hope from death to life again, from darkness to light.
The small plant listens to God’s word speaking her upright, as she twists and moves, dies and bursts. Evolving from glory to glory. From story to story. The testimony of Jesus. Taken from hearsay to the lived day.
From death to life, and life again.
A well watered garden restricts what it grows.” -Bill Johnson
“Where there is no vision, no redemptive revelation of God, the people perish.” -Proverbs 29:17-19
“For a tree there is always hope.” -Job14
Germination can imply anything expanding into greater being from a small existence.”
“A typical seed includes three basic parts: an embryo, a supply of nutrients and a seed coat.
The embryo is an immature plant from which a new plant will grow under proper conditions. Germination is the process whereby growth emerges from a period of dormancy.
The part of the plant that emerges from the seed first is the primary root. This allows the seedling to become anchored in the ground and start absorbing water. After the root absorbs water, the embryonic shoot emerges from the seed. Once it reaches the surface, it straightens and pulls the shoot tip of the growing seedlings into the air.”
Within the very dna of God contains resurrection power. A death defying nature.
Resurrection: to come back to life after apparent death, to bring back into use something that had been stopped or discarded
A seed does not carry the nature of resurrection in its own strength. By its own nature, it cannot erect itself and stand. In context to prophetic promises we carry in the vaults of our hearts, we cover an embryo of God’s word preserved through a season with nutrients and protective covering. We hold and wrestle with treasures protected in smaller spaces. At times we need to rest in smaller spaces to become strengthened and prepared before we break apart and rise.
Struggle is nature’s way of strengthening itself.” -Lost
The glory of the seed doesn’t rest in the seed. It doesn’t depend on me. It resides in the nature that moves the seed into higher living. God builds and imparts capabilities made natural to the seed, but its end doesn’t lie beneath the surface soil. Our ‘refining’ space isn’t our destined space. The place we take roots isn’t the place we remain. God is a dad who delights in journey, in process. Because end results alone don’t bring us complete revelation of His fullness, of the cost. The “X” we land on isn’t the enlarging tool of my heart. The hand that shapes me extends from the gap of promise and reality. It unveils the cost of the mover of life. The process reveals the raw nature of His mercy to change us. A greater nature is fully understood when the smaller nature dies. In this process His merciful extension is understood. Just as the example of the seed.
The “primary” shoots that tear from the seed extend to the right and to the left, like hands of the cross submitting to a death for a greater purpose. Death for a greater dream. The seed carries the dream in hand from planting till fruition. And so I ask: What do I really have without resurrection? What is the seed without this shift from death to life? What’s it all about without a superior force to lift my hopes like He lifts my face?
What God buries in the ground He always lifts out in a different form. What we plant looks different than what we reap in the end. God always brings us back to promise. He extends completion to broken hopes. Extends heaven to detatched dreams. Interlocks His fingers with misguided destinies. And pulls the life from the shouting womb. Removing the scales from the seeds we left behind.
Just as Christ let Himself become a seed, so must we submit to a smaller place of our will to a greater hand, a stronger arm, a bridge to boundless growth and glory. And to allow the place of “smallness” to outgrow our perceptions and strivings. It’s the place of smallness that bows before great wide wings. Saying break me-then carry me, extend this dream to where I can’t. Erect a tower inside this tiny seed of me. That small seed lets death become her and lets birth transform hope from death to life again, from darkness to light.
The small plant listens to God’s word speaking her upright, as she twists and moves, dies and bursts. Evolving from glory to glory. From story to story. The testimony of Jesus. Taken from hearsay to the lived day.
From death to life, and life again.
A well watered garden restricts what it grows.” -Bill Johnson
“Where there is no vision, no redemptive revelation of God, the people perish.” -Proverbs 29:17-19
“For a tree there is always hope.” -Job14
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