Whole Grain Bread is a blog with a particular objective: To provide those who desire to walk more fully by the leading of the Holy Spirit with spiritual food for their journey. Living in the Spirit requires more than religious platitudes. A successful life in, by and with the Spirit can only be sustained with solid food. Without solid food the body of Christ will not be able to satisfactorily fulfill its calling to grow and multiply.

God’s blessing to the Man He had created in His image was that he would be fruitful and multiply.

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)

When thinking about fruit in a Scriptural sense, I am captivated by the close relationship fruit has with multiplication. The purpose of fruit is multiplication. In fact, without fruit there is no multiplication.

The creation account tells that God created trees with a fruit bearing capability. What’s more, the fruit also contained seeds. And the seeds were of the same kind as the tree. That means seed from an apple tree will produce an apple tree, banana seeds a banana tree and so on. Trees are living reproduction mechanisms.

Seeds are even more interesting. They contain life. Put a seed in the ground, add some water, wait a while, and miracle of miracles a brand new living organism breaks forth out of the dirt. A new plant or tree is made just like the one the seed came from with one significant added quality … the new organism is unique, unlike any of its kind that has ever existed or ever will.

Was God trying to show us something in this spectacular miracle of His creation? I believe He was. Like the other Bible stories, the explanation of the creation of trees, shrubs and plants, all bearing fruit containing life-producing seeds is, in my opinion, completely true. It is nothing less than the truth. And this story, like all the others in the Bible, is also a parable. It contains more truth. Hidden truth.

God commanded Adam to be fruitful and multiply. In other words, Adam was to be like a tree, bearing fruit and multiplying. Noah and his sons were given the same command after the flood (Genesis 9:1, 7). Isaac used the same words as a blessing as he instructed Isaac regarding taking a wife.

So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him, and said to him, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples.” (Genesis 28:1-3)

John the Baptist told the Pharisees and Sadducees who had come to be baptized that they should, “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” (Matthew 3:8) Jesus also taught about fruit and it’s ability to reproduce in like kind.

“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:15-20)

The apostle Paul names bad and good fruit as the Fruit of the Flesh and the Fruit of the Spirit.

Of the fruit of the flesh he says:

Now the deeds [fruit] of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

And he describes the fruit of the Spirit as follows:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Fruit contains seeds, and seeds produce new life, and a tree can be identified by its fruit. The body of Christ is to be a fruitful body that grows by means of multiplication. Jesus said it this way when He concluded His explanation of the parable of the sower.

“And others [seeds] fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.” (Matthew 13:8)

The seed that causes the body of Christ to grow is the Word of God. We believers are to sow the seed of Truth, and when it is taken in and nurtured by other believers, whole congregations grow, flourish and multiply. This is clearly evidenced with the preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost when 3,000 who heard his sermon were brought into the body of Christ in one day.

Seeds of Truth are nothing less than the solid food necessary for believers to live according to the Spirit and thereby to first sustain life, to grow to maturity and then to multiply. It is with this intention articles will be placed in the TMSW blog, Whole Grain Bread.