John 12:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (ESV)

While we have been trying to understand how we can learn this language of faith, we have seen that we need a new heart to receive this word of faith and that we need the Holy Spirit to translate faith into understanding. In these devotionals we are still at those beginning stages. Yesterday we spoke of a heart prepared to receive this faith seed. Now let us look at the process of this new life experience.

This seed of faith is planted in our prepared heart, now what? Allow me to point out that this faith seed is the gospel of grace which is the Good news, that faith in Christ and His work on the Cross, is your dying moment, to be reborn with this new heart.

Romans 6:3-5 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

Note the use of the word planted in verse 5. Here is that connection between the seed of faith, the prepared heart and death required for rebirth. It is all tied together in where you place your faith. Only placing your faith in Christ will produce this result.

Romans 6:6-7 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.

In the beginning of this thesis I said it was sin that was keeping us from God. This is His answer to the problem, this is God taking sin out of the way. Once you are freed from sin you can hear God by faith.

Proverbs 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord.

Do not look for this term prevenient grace in the bible, you will not find it. It is a term that has been coined in order to express the grace extended to the unbelieving in preparation of the heart to receive the gospel.

The experiences of prevenient grace are as varied as the believers who have received it. It can be as gentle as loving parents who nurtured a child in the love of the Lord and the child came to know the love of the Lord by their expression of love mingled with the Word of truth. On the other end of experience is the child who was stabbed in the chest and shot in the head and left for dead in the Everglades for days. That child was found unharmed and unmarked by any bug or wild beast and survived his human wounds. Both cases are absolutely true and equal in grace.

My experience of prevenient grace was the removal of my anger and violent nature before I went to war in Vietnam. I earnestly believe I would not have survived Vietnam with those anger issues. God used His sovereign power to change me, I had no part in that. I met God even though I had not yet believed.

I do believe that all believers, once they have come to know the Lord, should be able to look back at their life experiences, no matter how good or how bad, and see the hand of God preparing their hearts to receive the gospel of grace, that gospel of faith that leads to salvation and a new heart.

Please take the time to examine your own experience. Do you have that prevenient grace experience that prepared your heart to receive the gospel? Make it a part of your salvation story.

Perhaps some of you are just now seeing for the first time that God is preparing your heart and that the seed of faith has not yet been planted. Will you receive the Word with understanding now? I hope so.