Behind closed doors

In every seed is a potential plant and in every plant are potential seeds. This is a multi-level dimension dynamic that many people, institutions, and organizations have understood and employed. It is the brain behind many multi-level marketing schemes. 

If a seed has this potential, yet it remains alone in your hand, then what happens to it when it's buried, that it comes out multiplied?  

This can be likened to the ideas and visions in your head that you have allowed the spider of procrastination to build cobwebs over.  Except those ideas are brought into time, by way of execution, they remain in the realm of imagination.

A seed in the ground is more active than it is outside the soil. In that soil, the seed goes through the four-stage dynamics of death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. Most times, we are only aware of the life-giving factor of a seed, but forget to find out how the interplay goes on underground. Welcome to the scene behind closed doors, where everything is taking place secretly or without public knowledge.

Let's see the seed pentagon.

The Fall

I assure you and most solemnly say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone [just one grain, never more]. But if it dies, it produces much grain and yields a harvest.

John 12:24 AMP

“Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over.

John 12:24‭- MSG

From both versions, we have established that for that seed to replicate itself many times over, it must first fall to the ground and die. Amplified gives it's narrative quite a unique rendering, it tells us for certain that the seed must fall, and what happens to it after it falls, death, but it adds a specific location where the seed must fall, "into the earth".

If man was made a spirit, but his physical body was created from clay, this implies that man is an earthen vessel. Now we can understand why we receive seed, because the seed must fall into the earth. 

This fall may be interpreted as negative, but it's for our good. When next something negative happens and you are in the centre of God's will, don't be disturbed. Don't worry you took that career fall, it's all part of the process. That failure was not a full stop, it was just a fall. Prophet Micah gave us perspective to this fall, that it was a momentary setback which was part of the process when he said, " Do not rejoice over me [amid my tragedies], O my enemy! Though I fall, I will rise; Though I sit in the darkness [of distress], the Lord is a light for me". Micah 7:8 AMP. 

So, the first step to becoming fruitful is to take that fall. The fall here, may be doing something unconventional. Falling out of public opinion in pursuit of what God showed you. Siwimming against the tide in answer to your conviction and beliefs.  Doing what God said to do, even though it lacks public acceptance and recommendation. 

Any seed that is afraid of falling, is not prepared for fruitfulness.

Another dimension to the fall is what Jesus did when He left heaven to earth. The fall meant that He had to give up some benefits for the meantime. For instance, He left His throne and glory when He came down. He gave up divinity for humanity. He gave up immortality for mortality. 

To have remained on that throne would not have made Him less a Son of God, but the implication is that He would have remained the only Son of God. However, through the fall, He became the first among many brethren.

The fall is also a show of humility. Never forget that you are a queen because you are married to the king.  Learn from the foolishness of Queen Vashti.  Never forget that you are who you are because God made you so.

Death

Death is not an end in itself but a transition into another life, realm, or reality. The seed came alone, it has taken that risk of getting into the ground, while others are out there maximizing the life and enjoying themselves. It has defied the crowd to walk this lonely path. Now it is about to meet the consequence(s) of its choice. 

John tells us that except the seed falls and dies, it remains alone. It is not enough to fall, that seed must die. To die is to become insensitive to what is going on around you. A dead man feels no pain, knows no shame, and suffers no embarrassment. 

Romans 6:7 tells us that "For he that is dead is freed from sin". 

And 

Hebrews 12:1 tells us that sin besets us. 

This means that this death frees us from those things that trouble or disturbs us persistently.

This shows that even though we have decided to live for Jesus, we need to die to sin for our decision to profit the Father.  In dying, we relinquish our lives and live for Him, this is the motivation behind what Paul meant in Galatians 2:20 when he said I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

That goes to say that whatever you are still alive to, Jesus has not become Lord of, and that area of your life cannot profit Abba.

Burial

A person is only buried when confirmed dead. To be buried is to be taken out of public view. To be buried is to be isolated from the world and all its varying disturbances.  To be buried is to withdraw from  the world into your solitary confinement. To be buried is to dwell in the secret place. Many times, all we need is not more power, but a little more time to ourselves. Not more money, but more privary. Not more anointing, but more time alone. A man may be dead but still tossed to and fro by pallbearers. He may lie dead, but if truly he could hear and speak, he would have complained of the disturbing wailing noise by mourners and sympathizers. He may be dead but he is at the mercy of people he doesn't know to clean and dress him up for internment.  But once in the grave, he is free from all these. Little wonder, the grave is called the final resting place.  It truly is a resting place. Where you are free from the vicissitudes of life. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. If in Jesus we can find rest, that indicates that we can only attain and maintain that posture of rest when we are buried in Jesus. To be buried in Jesus means we cease to live our own lives. We cease to have our ambitions. We do what He wants us to do, not what we want to do.  To be buried in Jesus means to withdraw from the world and be lost in Christ.  A grave contains the remains of whoever was buried there, but rather than seeing what is inside, all you see is the grave.  Rather than seeing you, all they see is Jesus.  This is the revelation behind John 3:30. "He must increase, but I must decrease". To be buried in Jesus, is to allow Jesus to be seen. 

Resurrection

It is in that grave that resurrection starts. You become dead to self and alive to God. Dead to your will and alive to God's will. Dead to your plans and ambition and alive to God's purpose for your life.  The essence of God empowering a man is for that man to fulfill His (God's) counsel for his (the man's) life.  God will never give you power, influence, wealth, anointing, or other forms of graces, just to proof your agenda. Remember, God is a businessman and profit crazy.  All you need do is die to your will and leave the rest to Him. The prophet reminds us in Isaiah 48:17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. Don't worry your head with the dynamics of resurrection, just decide to die, and be rest assured you will rise a different man. One striking beauty about the resurrection is that you never rise the same and you never rise alone.

Now you have risen, don't expect the world to come rushing to you immediately. Remember you resurrected with another body, another mindset, another business idea, another ideology, etc. So creation is still understudying you. They are both in awe as to the fact that you slept an illiterate and work up an erudite. They are still trying to understand how a weakling could become so mighty. They are still doubting if the once timid you, are now the bold person they see. You went into obscurity alone, nobody wanted to identify with you, but on your return, you didn't come back alone, the forces of favor, goodness, anointing, power, fame, influence, wealth, etc. came back with you.  The last time they saw you, nobody wanted to identify with you.  They held their heads in their hands and asked, "Can anything good come out of this one?", and just when they had given upon you, against all odds, up from the grave you arose.  They saw you battered and beaten by the negatives of life and left you for dead, but beyond their widest imaginations, you are still living.  How? they ask. There is another life at work now in you.

Ascension

After all have been said and done, now the seed is ready to appear. It went into the ground alone, died there, was buried and resurrected, yet no one knew, cared about or remembered it. Now it has come back to life with all these possibilities and rather than celebrating you, they are amazed. Even Jesus, though wise and strong in spirit, remained in the wilderness until the day of His appearing unto Israel. Ascension never changes you, it only reveals what you have already become.  If you went into that grave and refused to die to self and become alive to God, you will ascend the same way you descended, if not worse.  

The timing of your ascension or manifestation is solely God's discretion.  It is determined by His predeterminate counsel and sovereign will. You cannot decide when your world sees you, God shows you to your world at His right timing. However, while awaiting your manifestation, continue to take roots downward. Build tap roots in prayer, word study, character development, mind setting, etc., because when the day of your ascension comes, you are back in the public space and may not have all the time to retreat, fast, study, pray for long as you usually did before. You will be preoccupied with serving humanity with your fruits. And woe betides a tree that runs out of fruit like the fig tree, it gets cursed rather than blessed. With this curse, comes a withering which will cause it to vanish into oblivion. 

How beautiful and majestic would the life of a man be, who has mastered to repeat this circle over and over through life. If you are tired of a particular level of result, take a fall, get buried in your secret place, die to your current level, resurrect with another superior mindset and ascend into your world, a sign and a wonder. You will always leave your generation in awe of your life and your God.

This is the full scope of what happens behind closed doors.

Grace and Mercy!!!

Amb. Emmanuel Etukudo

Kingdom Wealth Ambassador