CONCEPTION

CONCEPTION

                “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel.” Gen 3:15

                In the Bible we see a war going on that started in Eden and will not end until the Creator returns and deals a final and fatal blow to the bad seed and its progenitor. This final harvest of seed, both good and bad is summed up in Jesus’ parable of the wheat and tares in Matthew 13:24-30

                In His parable the world is likened to a field in which God planted good seed. But during the night an enemy came in and sowed bad seed in the same field. This presents a real problem. First of all it is very hard to tell the good seed from the bad at the beginning. Secondly, even as the tares begin to manifest themselves as bad seed, Jesus came into the world to redeem bad seed and so He doesn’t want to rip the tares out of the field prematurely because some of the bad seed will receive the gospel of our salvation and become good seed.

                Thirdly, we have a delicate problem because the good seed is supposed to love the bad seed and to invite as many as will come into the kingdom. Fourthly, we find that bad seed very often will persecute the good seed and try to take over the whole field.

                Lastly, the good seed and the bad seed will begin to become evident near harvest time. Good seed is heavy with grain and its heads are bowed by the weight of its fruit, but the bad seed stands straight and tall, having no fruit worthy of the harvest.

                In the Old Testament God gave us a physical demonstration of physical seed, both good and bad. God came into the earth and chose one man (Abraham) and from his physical seed, He built a chosen nation. Abraham’s physical seed became the nation of Israel through which God would plant His Law, His Word and eventually His Messiah. Through this one seed (Israel) God established all of the foundations upon which His spiritual kingdom would be built.

                When the promised Messiah finally came into the world, He came as the promised Seed. And John tells us that as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to be called the children of God, even to those who believed in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12, 13.

                Now Paul explains this to us saying: “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “and to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your Seed,” That is Christ. Salvation can only come from one Source… from the one Seed, which is Jesus Christ, who is both Creator and Savior of the world.

                It is interesting that all of history past, present and future, it all boils down to one SEED. And the Word tells us that all of God’s promises were written to that one Seed. So one gets the picture that all of time focuses on that one Seed and to one judgment and one point of salvation in which our Messiah took our judgment and in return, gave us His life… His eternal life.

                So Abraham and his seed lived by faith in that coming Seed, just as we live by faith in that same Seed, which is Christ and through faith we become Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise.

                There is only one family of God in this earth. It is made up of Abraham’s seed, through whom God brought the promised Messiah. And we are grafted into that family when we receive the promised Messiah by faith. As such we become Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise.

                So everything in History points to the arrival of that one Seed and even to this day we celebrate the birth of the Messiah, His life, His death in our place as He received our judgment upon Himself, and then His resurrection in which He was caught up to the Most Holy Place as our High Priest, applying His blood on the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant on our behalf.

                So just as the physical seed was planted in the earth through Abraham, through which the promised Seed, the Messiah was born, so also was the spiritual seed planted in this earth by our Messiah, but when was that seed planted?

                Well, first of all it was planted in Mary. Gabriel came and announced it to her saying: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason, the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God.”  Luke 1:35

                 So the spiritual Seed was first planted in Mary. She conceived and bore a Son, the Savior of all mankind and the Source of all good seed from then until now. That Seed planted in Mary produced one Son, Jesus, the Son of God, so when was that good seed planted in the world?

                Jesus told us in Acts 1: 8 saying: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; ( just as He came upon Mary) and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth.

                By faith we receive the same spiritual seed that Mary received when we say: “Be it done unto me according to your Word.” And the Holy Spirit comes into us and a new life is conceived in us which is Christ in you the hope of glory.

                Jesus sowed His own seed in us in order to bring forth many sons. “For it was fitting for Him for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through suffering, for both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from ONE FATHER:  for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Hebrews 2:10, 11.

                Do we have any concept of what this means? That when we receive by faith the very same seed that was planted in Mary, we become brothers and sisters of Jesus? That we become a part of His royal family and joint heirs of the throne?

                We talk about it, but we don’t really understand it, because if we did, we would not treat grace the way we do. We would never tell people that they can receive Jesus as a sort of sideline and then go on doing our own thing in this life because God understands. NO, NO, NO! We have been conceived by the Holy Spirit! We have become sons and daughters of God, in which we are to grow up in all aspects into the “measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” Eph. 4:13 There is a false Gospel being preached in the world today that absolutely goes against all that Jesus Christ came to accomplish. The sad truth is that about 65 percent of young Christians today no longer that Jesus is the only way to heaven or that the bible is the only infallible Word of God. Neither do they preach that we must live holy and sanctified lives. It is a different Gospel.

                “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the first-born among many brethren…”Romans 8:29.

                There it is again. We were conceived by the Holy Spirit and that seed in us is to be brought to maturity so that we attain to the fullness of the stature of Christ. If we don’t believe this we are among those who are falling away from the faith and as such, 2 Thess. 2:3, 4 says that we are making way for the antichrist to be revealed. Many Christians are embracing the “dark side of the Force” so to speak and they are preparing to wonder after the Beast. This is a frightening thing.

                Now, I don’t care how you slice it. This Christian life is a whole lot more than most people make it out to be. This is not about becoming members of a church, or adopting a certain set of doctrines, or creeds or traditions: this is about receiving the same Seed that Mary received so that we can grow up into sons and daughters of God who are just like Jesus. He is the Head and we are His Body. The head is born first and after that the Body.

                In a very real sense then, the church was not born at Pentecost, but conceived at Pentecost with the hope and promise of bringing many sons to glory. That seed has been planted in us and we must nurture it and feed it and live by it until we come into maturity as sons and daughters of God.

                We were born of the flesh. We entered this world as sons of Adam. We were born into a fallen race. We are born as the seed of Satan    and there is simply nothing our flesh can do to change the situation. When asked if they are saved or not, many will answer that they have tried to live a good life, but that is not the right answer. We are only part of the family of God if we have received His Seed. The Holy Spirit must be conceived in us and this cannot happen unless we enter by faith into Christ’s death and resurrection.

                Through this transaction we die to Satan’s kingdom. In other words, we are of his seed until we die, and when we die then we are born again of incorruptible seed. This incorruptible seed cannot die, for it is born of God. In other words, we receive His eternal life when this life is conceived in us by the Holy Spirit.

                Jesus explained this to Martha concerning Lazarus and us. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.” In other words, we may die physically, but an eternal seed has been planted in us that will never die. We HAVE eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

                How unfathomable it is that we should treat as common such a miraculous gift as eternal life. We often go through life is if we are no different from the world. We sweat and strain to do the right thing, even as the person of the world does. We are trying to please God in the flesh instead of learning how to live by that precious Seed that has been planted in us.

                                Jude, the brother of Jesus said: ”But you, beloved, building up your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” Jude 20, 21. We are to build up our spirit by praying in the Spirit and we are to grow up into Christ by living by that Spirit and not by our flesh. His Seed is in us!

                This is why Paul is so emphatic in exclaiming: “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Rom. 8: 14. This is a very real thing and not just some kind of spiritual metaphor. We can live our lives by the Spirit of Christ.

                He also said: But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit WHO INDWELLS YOU.” Rom. 8:11

                The same Holy Spirit that was conceived in us by faith is the same Spirit that will raise us from the dead at the resurrection. This same Spirit is in us now, if we have received Christ and it is this same Spirit that will raise us from the dead if our bodies die before the Lord comes. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves… we are always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” 2 Cor. 4:7, 10.

                As we think about conception and birth at this time of year, may we also come to a deeper realization of what this really means and how it changes everything when we are born again. We now belong to a different kingdom. We operate from a different power source.  In Christ we have become good seed. We have a new destiny. We have eternal life!

                In order to discern the Body of Christ in the world today, we must look for those who are living by His Holy Spirit, who are walking in the Spirit, and praying in the Spirit and ministering in the Spirit. Everything else is just religion.

                If you have never entered into this kind of relationship with god before, then invite the Son of God to be born in you today. Receive His Spirit by faith just as Mary did and you will become a child of God.