Just about twenty years ago now I made the decision to stop being god. I turned my life and soul over to Jesus Christ. I called it my sudden conversion. In those days the revelation of scripture and truth was pouring out and over me is very real ways almost every hour every day.
My thoughts were constantly filled with epistemology and growing in the knowledge of the Christian worldview. I was constantly in prayer in ways I must admit have laxed over time. God was front and center in my life. He became my identity. And I was new to his church.
In those days the gift of exhortation was quickly birthing in me, yet I still didn't understand it. The Holy Spirit was teaching me about God's church. And I was seeing things I didn't understand and watching people behaving in ways I couldn't appreciate from the context of biblical understanding. I wanted to heal the church of its ignorance and unholiness. I wanted to do God's will where I could, but I was being frustrated by the lukewarm church. There didn't seem to be a genuine belief in the sovereignty of God. People were living their faith like believing in God's sovereignty wasn't necessary for their faith to be genuine. They were living as so called "carnal Christians", humanists. It seemed to me that the church didn't truly understand what grace is.
I still recall the day while I was on the job, working at a client's house weeding the large perennial garden I had installed there. And as I was struggling with the stubborn weeds and the good plants too. It seemed as if the whole garden was acting like weeds, and the Holy Spirit gave me a vision and revelation about how God sees his church today.
I'm on my hands and knees weeding and praying for inspiration. And in those days, I could ask, and it would come with little delay. Christ's spirit was right there always, and I loved it. So I'm at work and at prayer. Suddenly I jump up inspired by a story that I swear I did not imagine. My mind had just filled up in an instant with this story, and I had a driving urge to run to my truck and get a pad so I could write it down before I lost it. This was before the ever-present iPhone.
What follows is that story word for word and unedited from that first writing.
Be blessed my friends.
Inspiration from: The Holy Spirit - Transcribed by me
Matthew 13:30
“Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time, I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.”
There once was a gardener who was working in the flower garden that he had planted and cared for, for many years. Every season his garden would yield many beautiful blooms, and he observed that it also produced several perennial weeds that the gardener worked diligently to control year after year. The gardener would spend his time and effort pulling at the offensive weeds and since the gardens were vast and the gardener was very busy. He noticed that he was too quickly pulling at the weeds, and often pulled the top growth only from the weed, leaving behind much of the root.
As each season passed the gardener noticed that the weeds often grew from the same places that they had the season before. With each passing season the gardener noticed the same weed growing stronger and even more difficult to pull as its root became heavier and grew deeper. The gardener tried breaking and cultivating the soil around the weed to make it easier to reach the whole root, but he then discovered that the freshly turned up soil made a seedbed for new weeds to take root.
One day, quite by accident, the gardener noticed that if he would very carefully reach beneath the foliage of the weed and gently apply pressure to the root, pulling again and again, coaxing at the stem of the weed, he could eventually ease that weed free from the ground, root and all. With this gentle pulling technique, disturbing the weed only, and leaving the ground undisturbed around it, new weed seeds had nowhere to take root.
Many seasons had passed, and the gardener observed that the thriving flowers that he had so lovingly cultivated would grow seeds of their own kind, and these seeds would fall and find places to take root throughout the garden. The gardener felt blessed that he had so many new flowering plants sprouting up. Yet he was concerned that they commonly took root in areas of the garden that would not be suitable for their characteristics, they often grew up within and around their neighbors robbing them of vital nutrients and water. The gardener would find himself pulling out these new flower seedlings, just as he had the weeds. This troubled the gardener, for the seedlings seemed bent upon self-destruction, growing beneath or too close to other plants.
Finally, one day the gardener decided to prepare a new garden and he transplanted the new flower seedlings into that new garden where his works could continue to flourish and be nourished according to his design.
Over the lifetime of the gardener, he had planted many new gardens in this manner from his new flower seedlings, and thereby he transformed the entire landscape.
The End
Further Growth
1. Who is the gardener?
2. What or who are the weeds?
3. What or who are the flower seedlings?
4. What does the new garden represent?
The moral of the story is the body of Christ is made up of wonderful, beautiful vibrant misguided children who are often doing things and saying things that are simply not productive. They do these things mostly out of habit or nature. Therefore, they need to be nurtured, and guided by a faithful loving shepherd who will manage the future of the church for the glory of God, in-spite of the body parts and all their flaws. The church needs a clear, confident, and focused leadership who will guide the many into One way and tolerate the weeds among them as the Lord had commanded them.