THE SEED PRINCIPLE
Developing Your Spiritual Identity
When you examine the world in the natural, you can begin to understand the design of God’s creation. You began as a seed, planted in the womb of your mother, becoming a single cell. When the seed of your father penetrated the egg of your mother, and received nutrients, you began to grow. One cell became two and two became four and four became eight and so on, until you were given birth with clearly visible body parts according to the genetic information in that seed.
Taking a moment to think about this simple information, we can’t help but find it amazing. That single cell, not even visible to the naked eye, multiplied into billions to become what you are now. This is a principle established by God since the beginning of time and is the basis for all growth and creativity.
Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 8:22, "While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease," and Genesis 1:28-29, "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat."
Through this principle the natural world is replenished and fruitful.
Now, we know from the scriptures that the things which are seen are shadows of the unseen. Romans 1:20, "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse."
The natural seed time and harvest laws are shadows of spiritual laws or governing principles.
TWO DIMENSIONS
There are basically two dimensions in which the seed principle presides, the spiritual and the physical. The latter being a result of the former. That is, the physical is a result of the spiritual. In Hebrews 11, we find that through faith we understand that God spoke the universe into existence. That the things which appear were created from things which do not appear. The tangible is a manifestation of the intangible. That the higher order of law is in the realm of the spirit. Hebrews 11:3, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." The things we see in the physical world were made from things we do not see in the spiritual world.
Therefore, studying the seed principle in the physical realm is helpful to understanding the spiritual dimension. This is why Jesus uses an illustration of sowing seed in the physical realm to clarify the concept of seed in the spiritual realm. Mark 4:14, "The sower soweth the word." In other words, the planter that is planting seed, plants the Word in this particular parable. He also used the physical seed to illustrate faith being implanted in the heart and growing. The
Mark 4:30-33, "And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the
THE SEED OF THOUGHT
We all know how the physical realm of the seed principle basically works, in that all seed in that dimension contains within it the genetic code for physical reproduction. However, there is another kind of seed in the invisible realm. An invisible seed from which all other seeds have come. The seed of thought. It is the beginning of all things, even the universe, which God created by His spoken word. God's word is His very thought. It is Him; He and His word are one.
John 1:1-2, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God."
It is translated in the New Testament basically from two Greek words. The first one is "logos," meaning spoken or written thought - something reasoned or computed. The other is "rhema," an utterance individually or collectively of a particular matter or topic. Note: The emphasis is on utterance rather than written, in this case, as opposed to the word "logos." Both of these words are used predominantly in reference to God's word, but can refer to words spoken by any rational being, good or evil. Examples of this can be found in Jude 1:16 where logos is used to translate "great swelling words" referring to man’s words, or in 1 Corinthians 1:17, "Not with enticing words of man's wisdom," where logos is used again. We also have a reference where man's word is translated from the word rhema in Acts 16:38, And the sergeants told these words unto the magistrates…" So you see it's not only a word that is used to define words spoken by God himself but also man, or any other rational being, good or evil.
Satan also utters his thoughts to others and to himself as is evidenced in Isaiah 14:13-14, "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven," notice he was speaking to his own heart, "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most high," also the things he said when he was tempting Jesus in Matthew 4:6, "And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone," and Matthew 4:9, "And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." The things that the devil is saying to Christ in these particular references are the things that the devil had premeditated. So we see that God’s word, man’s word or even the devil’s word is spoken thought. But only God’s word can bring life and possesses spirit and life in itself.
John 6:63, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life."
God’s very word is spirit. It is life. The devil’s word, by contrast, is a lie and breeds destruction and death. John 8:44, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."
God’s Word, or seed, is full of truth, life and blessing and will set us free. Satan’s word, by contrast, is a lie and has a curse in it, and will put us in bondage.
THE TWO KINDS OF SEEDS
Man is a relatively young being in comparison to the fact that God has eternally existed and the devil, formerly Lucifer, existed even before the creation of the first man.
We don't know how long before man, but we know the devil makes his debut in the book of Genesis, Chapter 3:1, "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman…..," using the serpent as an oracle. At the time of the first encounter with Satan, man had dominion on the earth and was in a state of innocence.
Possibly, the devil's fall and rebellion was a result of the fact that God had a special plan for man that the devil became jealous of, and, as a result, he led a rebellion against God. We don’t know, for sure. But we do know from the former reference we read in Isaiah, Chapter 14, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations," that he did lead a rebellion against God. At that time, he was seemingly the angel who was put in charge of the Garden of Eden. Ezekiel 28:13, "Thou has been in Eden the garden of God…," He devised a plan to invade man's domain and through deception usurp man's God-given dominion and authority over the earth, Genesis 1:28, "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.".
THE SEED OF THE SERPENT
Let us explore the first corruptible seed that was conceived in man. Actually you could say it was conceived first in Lucifer, himself, and he sowed that corruptible seed into man.
He first gained entrance into the mind of Eve to plant his corruptible seed by getting Eve to question God's word. Then, when the seed of his lie was conceived in her mind she acted according to the seed sown within her and disobeyed God.
Genesis 3:1-6, "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said ye shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."
I would like to point out that God never said "Don't touch it," he just said "Don't eat it." Genesis 2:17, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
Right away the devil realized that Eve did not know the Word that God had given to Adam to give to her. Now this made her all the more susceptible to deception of course, because she didn’t know what the rules were. She didn’t know her rights. She didn’t know her authority. She didn’t know what God really had said. She didn’t know her limitations.
That’s very important to remember, that we have to know what God says in order to stand firm on a solid foundation of truth.
Let's continue, "and the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat."
In this passage of scripture we can see the progressive stages of deception. The lust of the eye, the desire to be wise in one's own eyes, etc. Satan, the deceiver, always comes and deceives in stages. He never tries to sell the whole picture of deception right away. It comes in little bits and pieces. It is always mingled with truth. I guess you could ascertain that the best kind of lie is one that is 90% truth and 10% lie. It’s still an entire lie, because of that 10%, and can deceive into bondage.
Satan directly contradicted God's command of Genesis 2:17, by twisting God’s word into a lie!
CORRUPTIBLE
vs.
INCORRUPTIBLE
In Genesis, Chapter 3, we find the first reference by God of two contrasting kinds of seeds. The serpent’s seed (corruptible) which is referring to Satan’s lie, and the seed of the woman, which is a prophetic reference to Christ.
God is judging the serpent, or Satan. Genesis 3:15, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Here you can see clearly the reference God makes between the two seeds, the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman (Satan versus Christ).
In this verse in Genesis we see a reference to Jesus Christ (the seed of the woman). Her seed is changed into the personal pronoun "His" at the end of the verse confirming this fact. This was a prophetic pronouncement by God that he would send His Son, Jesus Christ, to destroy the works of Satan.
God's very word and thought formed in the womb of Mary, the representative of mankind. Luke 1:38, "And Mary said, behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. and the angel departed from her."
God gave woman the privilege of being the vessel through whom all mankind would receive deliverance from the power of death and avenge her of Satan’s deception.
Note here: The seed of the serpent bruised the seed of the woman's heel. That is, Satan bruised Christ’s heel, and the seed of the woman bruises the serpent's head or Satan’s head. The bruised head is symbolic of a death blow and also symbolic of that place from which thought originates.
This means God's word, His truth, His sword, would come against the seed of the serpent or the lie of the wicked one. The serpent’s seed has been sown and multiplied in the earth to produce many lies, moving man into a place of darkness, death, and destruction. But, of course, Jesus came to reverse this and we live with hope and faith.
In 1 Peter 1:23 the Apostle Peter also makes a reference to two contrasting seeds, by saying "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." Peter makes it emphatically clear that there are two contrasting seeds and could only be referring to the seed of the serpent when referring to corruptible seed and God's word when referring to incorruptible.
Thank you for joining me. Please check back for Lesson No. 2 of "The Seed Principle."
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