The new garden the Lord has recreated is the Spirit filled life of the new creation of God. When we were born again and recreated in His Image and Likeness, God prepared our spirit to produce "in kind" like it was supposed to do the first time in the Garden of Eden.
After Adam's fall, only death and darkness could come from the "garden" or spirit of Adam. It was supposed to produce life, light, dominion and children in the Image of God. The Father's plan for His family has never changed from the beginning. And, now because of the new birth, we have within us a new and living spirit. The Holy Spirit Himself is now living in and with our new spirit.
We have determined that God's Word is the "seed" that will reproduce what He has purposed it to do, according to Isaiah 55:11. Mark 4:14 says, "The sower sows the Word." And, 1Peter 1:23(Amplified) lets us know that we were, "Born again by the seed (Word of God)."
If we the study the Word of God or seed, planting it in our hearts, God will see that it prospers in what He sent it to do, according to Isaiah 55. We, however, are called to tend and guard the garden (the heart).
Jesus told the parable of the sower in Mark 4 and warned that we need be careful what we hear and guard our hearts. Proverbs 4:23 says, "Out of our hearts flow or spring, the forces or issues of life." So, when we determine what "seed" or word enters our heart, we are guarding the garden.
The person planting the garden determines what grows or doesn't grow in it. Some gardeners who especially like sweet corn or have a market for it, only plant corn seed. Others who can their own food or have a wider market for their crops, might plant other vegetables. Every Word of God is seed, but not all seed will produce the same thing even all of its produce is "Kingdom" fruit.
God's Word contains seeds of salvation, seeds of healing, seed or receiving the Holy Spirit, seeds that will produce speaking in other tongues, seeds of peace and faith and hope and love and seeds of righteousness, along with many other kinds of seed. All of these seeds will "Produce after kind," according to Genesis 1:12 (Amplified).
"Seeds of healing will produce healing and health," according to Proverbs 4:23 (Amplified). If we will "hear and believe" and guard and watch over it, then we can determine what it will and will not produce. Matthew 12:35 (Amplified) says, "The good man from his inner good treasure, flings forth good things, and the evil man out of his inner evil storehouse flings forth evil things."
Do you remember how the children of Israel were told to go and spy out the Promised Land in Numbers 13:22 (Amplified)? The spies returned with and "evil report" in Verse 32 which says, "So they brought the Israelites and evil report of the land which they had scouted out, saying, The land through which we went to spy out is a land that devours it inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature."
The results of "not heeding" or not being careful of what they heard can be seen in Numbers 14:1 (Amplified). The produce of the seed (word) they allowed in their hearts is seen in Verse 1, where we see, "And all the congregation cried out with a loud voice, and (they) wept that night." Verses 2-3 say, "All the Israelites grumbled and deplored their situation, accusing Moses and Aaron, to whom the whole congregation said; Would that we had died in Egypt! Or that we had died in this wilderness! Why did the Lord bring us to this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and little ones will be a prey. Is it not better for us to return to Egypt?"
What God called an "evil report," was their allowing the seed of doubt, fear and unbelief to produce in their heart instead of faith in what "seed" or Word He gave Moses that the Promised Land was a "land flowing with milk and honey."
Being stewards over the garden of the Lord is the same mandate God gave Adam, "Guard the garden and tend it." As children of God, we are called to guard our hearts and be very selective about what seed (words) we allow to be sown in it.
There are too many times that we hear words (seeds) of fear and failure being sown by sowers. They often time are not meant to be "evil" seed or words, but they become like Poison Ivy and Poison Ivy is poisonous (whether we knew it to be or not). When we hear words (seeds) being sown that aren't good seed, then we must be certain they don't enter the garden of the Lord.
It doesn't mean we're evil if we speak an evil report. It simply means that we've allowed wrong or evil seed to be sown in our hearts. Every garden must be weeded periodically so the weeds don't 'choke out the seed," according to Mark 4. Simply weeding it once won't work. It must be tended on a regular basis.
The enemy is always casting seed and hoping it will produce for him and choke out the good seed! We are always hearing evil reports that contradict the Word of God. Many of these reports are being accepted just like they were in Numbers 14:1-3. These are those the Lord spoke about in Hebrews 4:1-2 (Amplified) saying, "He was displeased with them because they did not believe (or receive) the Word in faith."
We are living in a world that is mostly negative concerning the seed or Word of truth. Even in Christian circles, we've had plentiful "evil reports" be sown into the good soil of the Kingdom. We are each required to tend our own heart or garden. God said in Numbers 13 that those who allowed the evil report or seed of the enemy to produce, also reaped the harvest of the evil one. John 10:10 (Amplified) says that, "The thief has come only to steal and kill and destroy."
The harvest they brought forth destroyed an entire generation. Those who guarded their hearts like Proverbs 4:23 says, brought forth victory and blessing from the seed they allowed into their hearts. I can't determine what my neighbor sows in his garden, but I can guard my own heart against evil reports. Sometimes, we don't look at the sees long enough to see the difference between evil and good.
A counterfeiter tries making money that resembles the real thing. The more real his money appears, the easier it is to pass off. We can't always distinguish between the two because the counterfeiters keep changing and improving their money. We can, though, become so familiar with the true seed that the fake seed is easy to detect.
Much of the wrong seed has been coated with half truths. And, by doing this, the enemy has been very successful with his harvest of fear, doubt, unbelief and misery in the believer. Genesis 3:1-4 demonstrates how the enemy wrapped the seed of death in the false narrative of "God is holding out on His children."
In Matthew 4:6, the same lying devil tried this evil report on Jesus. Jesus simply guarded His heart against the evil report and only allowed the true seed to proceed out of His "inner treasure" of His heart (garden). Jesus said in both Matthew 12:35 and Matthew 12:37 (Amplified), "By your words you will be justified and acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned and sentenced."
Those who received the evil report in Numbers 14 were condemned and sentenced by the seed that produced in their hearts. Their own words brought forth a wrong harvest for them.
Tend your garden!
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