Mark 4:26-29 “And He said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, (27) and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. (28) For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. (29) But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above our Lord Jesus taught us that the kingdom of God operates in the same manner as farming operates in the natural. The farmer in the natural sows his seed and then lets that seed grow. He does not know how the seed grows for it is God who gives the increase, nevertheless he waits patiently for his harvest to ripen and when it does he reaps his harvest. In the spirit it is no different. It may be that in your stage of spiritual growth the seed is still growing beneath the soil and you can’t see any results yet. Some of you are starting to see the blade coming up, i.e. you are starting to notice some changes taking place in your life. Whichever stage of growth you are at know that there will come a time when your grain will ripen and you will be able to harvest your crop. This takes not only faith however but also patience working with your faith.
James 1:2-4 “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, (3) knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. (4) But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”
Without patience the believer will never become perfect and complete. This truth is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit in the above quoted passage of scripture. And so we see that patience is a key component to the development of the character of the believer. The Holy Spirit teaches us it is our faith that is being tested when we go through the various trials of life. So just how does faith respond to trials? This passage teaches us that it does so by allowing patience to be produced in the life of the believer. I want you to notice that the Holy Spirit encourages the believer to let patience have its perfect work so that the desired results can be made manifest. The Holy Spirit makes that comment because He knows that when some saints do not see immediate results then they are tempted to give up on their faith rather than allowing patience to be produced in them.
Michael E.B. Maher
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