* Planting



God's seed was planted in us at the new birth. There is power in a planted seed. His divine power was imparted to us, giving us new life...everything we need for living a godly life.

He has promised that you will escape the decadence all around you caused by evil desires and that you will share in his divine nature.

* Growing

Philippians 1:12 says to, ...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. Growth is a sign of life. We are to work out our salvation as if we were mining for gold.

Make every effort to discover the treasure you have on the inside. Be diligent, eager, and earnest, making it your business! Mine it like a gold mine. You are carrying treasure - you are a treasure chest full of everything you need to live life abundantly in this world.

* Pruning

Jesus said in John 15:3, You are cleansed and pruned already because of the word which I have given you.

Renewing our minds to the things of God by the Word of God is actually pruning us. It clears away the dead or unfruitful ways in our lives so that we may become even more fruitful.

* Feeding

God wants us to grow. There is no other way to get out of an immature, unfruitful state except to grow out of it. Peter said, Desire the sincerely milk of the Word that you may grow thereby.

If you are ever going to grow and develop out of babyhood Christianity, you will have to feed your love nature on the word of God, and exercise this love nature in the arena of life. Then you will grow in love and all the other aspects of a fruitful life in Christ.

* Fertilization

If you want to see growth, then expect some fertilizer to come your way. Tough situations will come when we must choose to be a doer of the Word. In exercising the right choice - the God-way, the way of the new man - then you will develop and grow.

We can become partakers of the divine nature by making every effort to apply the benefits of God's promises to our life. (See 2 Peter 1:5-7 AMP.)

When you exercise a muscle there is resistance. The only way for that muscle to develop and increase is when it meets resistance. Sometimes we get tired of exercising love or self-control but the more we do it the easier it gets. We get tired exercising but if we want to develop then we must exercise our godly nature even in tough situations!

* Watering

The Holy Spirit is often symbolized as water. Nothing grows or becomes fruitful without water. Even the Word of God is made alive by the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:6).

Sometimes we get so bombarded and weighed down by the natural that we forget to get over into the Spirit. But God gave us the Spirit of Truth - to lead and guide us into all truth. He doesn't even speak on his own; he speaks only what he hears, and he tells us what is yet to come.

Get to a place where you can get in the Spirit and hear from heaven. The Holy Spirit is there to counsel us, comfort us, and teach us. We need to access Him when the pressures of life begin to overwhelm us.

Remember, you have a supernatural advantage over this natural life! God has given it to you to cultivate and develop but it reaps great rewards.

Life Application - Getting a Jump Start

1.Remember you are in right relationship with God.

You have been made in right standing with God. Choose to say what God says about you. If you don't let go of your past, it will destroy your future.

There is a certain negative edge that your old man will want to wallow in. You may think you were a mistake or that you have no value or purpose. If you feel that way, it's because of your own way of thinking, not what God would do with you if you would give Him a chance. Stir yourself up to your new nature.

2.Get some good worship music.

Be filled with the Spirit by singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Instead of grumbling, try singing or humming. Take your mind off the situation and a song of deliverance will come.

In His presence is fullness of joy. He fills and inhabits the praises of His people and He fills the people that praise Him!

3.Meditate the Word - This is an example of meditating:

Think about how the joy of the Lord is your strength. Happiness is about what's happening. But Jesus, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

o Joy looks beyond what's happening to the Promise.

o He thought against the shame - He didn't agree with and accept a lie.

o He set down - He rested in who He was and His position in God.

o And YOU are seated with Him in heavenly places.

4.Pour out your heart before the Lord.

Clean out your heart like you'd clean out a closet. Take inventory. What do you really need to keep? What things need to be taken out in the trash? What thoughts need to be reorganized?

5.Pray

Get over into the Spirit where you start really praying out the will of God. You've got to get past just praying prayers from a needs perspective.

By the Holy Spirit you can get beyond the limitations of the natural with all it's pressures and demands. If you let the Spirit pray through you, together you can pray out answers you didn't even know you needed yet.