Faith is most often referred to as a seed and for good reason. When I started studying nutritional seeds, I learned some interesting and very faith-building truths that apply to both types of seeds.
The term “seed” refers to anything that can be sown. I don’t know about you, but when I hear the phrase ‘sowing seeds’, I immediately picture a farmer pulling down neat rows of tilled land and methodically planting. Spiritually, that phrase usually refers to the financial seed. However, just as there are many different types of plant seeds, there are also many types of spiritual seeds.
I learned that there are three basic parts to seeds in the natural: an embryo, a nutrient supply for that particular seed, and a seed coat. The embryo is the immature plant that needs the right conditions to develop to maturity. Nutrients vary depending on the type of plant to be grown. The seed coat protects the seed until it arrives at the right time and place for planting.
I found the similarities between faith and the natural seed remarkable. Our faith is immature and embryonic until it is sown. You must get to the right place for planting and have the necessary conditions. Natural seeds must be sown in fertile, mineral-rich soil and given water and sunlight to grow. Spiritual seeds need the soil of a receptive heart, cultivated with the “nutrients” of adoration, praise and prayer, the water of the Word and the light of the Son in order to grow.
Seeds, both spiritual and natural, are living food! They contain life within them that will be released under the right conditions. I soak my quinoa overnight before cooking it. Quinoa is a seed-like grain. When I look at the little seeds the next morning, they have started to sprout! The life contained in them is activated and released by submerging them in water. In the same way, when we want to develop our faith in a particular area, we must “soak” it in the water of the Word!
Just as each seed contains the specific nutrition it needs within itself, the spiritual seed has its own specific nutrients. For example, if you are trying to develop seeds of faith for salvation, you should talk and meditate on the salvation scriptures; if healing seeds, then healing scriptures; if prosperity, then prosperity scriptures. The water of the Word is the catalyst that activates and frees our faith to grow and develop into maturity. It can then be cultivated and produce a crop.
Seeds are spiritual and nutritional powerhouses. The seed of faith is the substance of everything! Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is “THE” substance of things hoped for, the substance of things not seen. Nutritionally, the seeds are compact and highly nutritious superfoods in themselves. Inside each little grain are vitamins, minerals, fiber, essential oils, phytonutrients, and antioxidants. It is amazing to realize that every tiny chia, flax, sesame, sunflower or pumpkin seed contains within it, not only the plant in its embryonic stage, but also all those nutrients, but it does contain them.
It is equally impressive to realize that God has planted in each of us a seed of His own faith (Romans 12:3). He protects himself until there are favorable conditions for planting him. Physical seeds are sown by planting them in the ground. The spiritual seed is born by speaking it. Jesus tells us in the Scriptures that if we have faith as a seed, we will ‘say’. We speak the Word to sow it in the soil of our hearts because faith comes from hearing the Word. Once it is planted in a receptive heart, warmed by the light of the Son of God and watered with the Word, all the spiritual vitamins and minerals that it has absorbed from the ground spring to life. Just as an apple seed produces an apple tree, the seed of faith produces the specific harvest for which it was sown. The healing seed produces healing. The seed of peace produces peace. The seed of wisdom produces wisdom.
God’s Word tells us not to despise the day of small beginnings, and I think that applies to our faith as well. While your faith in a particular area may be small today, all faith begins that way! You must water it and give it the right conditions for it to grow, develop, mature and produce. And it will. God promises us that as long as the earth remains, the seed, time and harvest will not cease. And he cannot lie.
If you think you have no seed to plant, consider these: thoughts, words, money, kindness, love, respect, faith, honesty, peace, discipline, integrity, prayer, patience, encouragement, compassion, understanding, generosity, excellence, grace. , mercy, forgiveness, joy, obedience, ideas, expectation, dreams, gratitude, freedom, praise, adoration, perseverance, gifts, sincerity, smile, truth, fidelity, loyalty, action, perseverance, tenacity.
As you consider your seed, think about this: Anyone can easily count the number of seeds in an apple. Only God knows the number of apples contained in a single seed! The same is true of his spiritual seed.
Speak up and plant your seed today. Water her, she lets the light that Jesus gives warm her and give her time. Before you know it, it will sprout! It won’t fail, it can’t.