Grow Faster

In nature, created things are in both processes of life and of death.

Skin is being replaced constantly. Water-based blood and other fluids are bringing nutrition to cells and washing waste out of cells. Hormones tell our bodies and they tell plants when to grow in what ways.

Basil plants will grow more and more stems and  leaves until one day they produce a hormone that says, “make flowers.” Bugs and birds move pollen from one basil flower to another, fertilizing the process of making seeds. When the plant has made seeds, it stops making any hormones, and dies, so that the seeds will dry and fall to the ground and reproduce by growing more basil plants. If you start pinching the flowers off as they appear, they will continually reappear. If they are never allowed to produce seeds, the plants will continue to produce leaves and attempt to produce flowers. I want to eat leaves, so I pinch flowers.

Our souls (heart, mind, will, emotion) need to grow to maturity. We mature in soul by becoming better at responding to situations and people with the character of Jesus, which is found in the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22,23). The more quickly we respond with the fruit, the more we are manifesting Life. We need to continually pinch off the flowers that will lead to death: the works of the flesh (Galatians 5:16-21).

Our spirits don’t die, though. Our spirits, born of God in His image and with His nature, are the sources of our strength in our hearts and minds. The fruit of the Spirit are like hormonal input through our spirits that give our souls the strength to keep growing.

You are always both growing and dying in your flesh and in your soul. Grow faster than you die. Every difficult situation is an opportunity to access a booster of life by letting His Spirit work in you to respond to it with Life. If you respond with death instead, you weaken and start to succumb to death.