Birth Of A Seed
2020-2021
This is a painting I had been seeing the past few months and got the opportunity to work on before the new year. Amidst the 24-hour prayer and worship night of New Year's Eve 2020-2021, I believe God gave me some understanding of the painting through both natural (His creative design) and scriptural means. I pray He will show to others more than He has revealed to me.
Apparently, there are some seeds that are only able to be activated by fire in the natural. A few examples are the Jack pine, lodgepole pine, Eucalyptus, and Banksia plants that have cones or fruits completely sealed with resin. The heat of the fire melts the resin or bursts the cone and causes them to release their seeds. Once the fire releases the seed, water (the Word) and exposure to the sun (Son) are able to come in and help it grow. Other annual plants or shrubs need the chemical signals generated from the smoke or charred plant matter in order to break the dormancy of the seed (they need what the fire generates). These fire-activated seeds have sometimes remained buried in the soil for decades until a fire awakens them. The fire literally breaks their dormancy. These seeds, which have been present yet dormant for years, even decades, can literally be born in a day.
Isaiah 66:7-9 "Who has ever heador such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children. Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?" says the Lord. "Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?" says your God.
In Daniel 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did not rest their faith in a miracle of deliverance, but rather placed their complete trust in God. Daniel 3:24-25: Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, "Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" They answered and said to the king, "True, O king." "Look!" he answered, "I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God."
They survived the fiery trial because they trusted the Lord and the Lord met them in that. They were protected in the fire and met the Lord in it. Yet the fire caused a birth, a change, that altered the course of events in both the men's lives and in the nation. It caused Nebuchadnezzar to bless God and decree that no one could speak against the God who could deliver, and the three men's lives were also changed as they ended up being promoted in the province of Babylon.
Those that trust in God germinate their seeds in the heat of the fire. Fire often results in a change, but when paired with trust in God, it can change a nation or birth something new. Matthew 13:37-38: The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom... What has the Father planted inside you, the seed, that is ready to be released into the earth? This is the birth of a seed.
RM