Ecclesiastes 3:1,9 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?

1 Corinthians 3:6-8 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

Don’t we all want to see the seed of the gospel planted by us come to that point where the shoot breaks thru the surface and embraces the light? The nature of the seed will determine when germination will occur. No matter how many times we are told to scatter the seed we tend to linger and watch to see production from that germination. That seed can and often does lay dormant until the Holy Spirit swells within that heart and imbibition happens. It is not something we can make happen.

Our hope is to see fruit and in lingering too long where the seed has been scattered we seek profit rather than glory for God. We want to make a check mark on our record of souls saved but it is not ours to determine who is saved and who is not. Salvation belongs to the Lord and only He knows the end of all things.

He gave some to be evangelists, some to pastor, some to teach and nowhere do I see it said one man does it all. Being that there is a time and a season for all things, it is God who determines how the gifts He has given you will be used. We should not do the work of another when God has not prepared us to perform. That is self-determination and the leading edge of pride.

God resists the proud. (James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5)

John 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Here Jesus speaks to the heart of the germination I spoke of yesterday. You can relate to this spiritual concept in your born again life by comparing spiritual with the natural. In this the first three stages of germination directly relate to being born again.

Those three stages are imbibition, respiration and light. All three must occur before the root grows into a fruit bearing tree. (ref Psalm 1:3)

Consider again that the seed is the gospel being planted in your heart. The nature of the seed is to achieve God’s will in your heart.

Imbibition is a swelling of the seed and causing expansion by the introduction of water. Water spiritually is represented by the spirit. The spirit causes the Word to expand in your heart until like the corn of wheat, the container, bursts.

Psalm 34:18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

Second is respiration and perhaps the easiest to understand. God breathing life back into us.

Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

The third is light. God’s Word, Jesus Christ.

John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

This is how God’s love germinates our souls.

But first, the seed must be cast abroad liberally where it might lay dormant until the spirit seizes the right time for Imbibition.