How the Smallest of All Seeds Becomes the Largest

God thinks big, but he does that by thinking small. He knows the potentials of "small." With small, we easily focus on the few details that really matter, uncluttered by nonessentials which often occupy big spaces and dominates the whole screen or stage. Small keeps us accurately faithful to God and his Kingdom. Big tends to overwhelm us with nonessentials. That's how the smallest of all seeds becomes the largest of all garden plants in God's Kingdom.

Photo by Joshua Lanzarini on Unsplash.

Then God grows us big. Remember, real growth in the Kingdom comes only from God, not us or anything we do. Growth manipulated by our hands may get applause in this world but never in God's Kingdom. It's merely vanity. So God wants us to stop thinking of our imagined greatness and just focus on accurate faithfulness. We keep our focus on the few really important things that matter.

How Small Grows

First, it needs to be planted, buried in the ground. In the soil it dies. Jesus said, unless a seed dies it remains a single seed. But when it dies, then it has the potential to increase. In fact, "the largest."

"(God's Kingdom) like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.” [Mark 4]

Don't think this is just about numerical growth. It could be, but the real point here is the growth of the Kingdom, and that Kingdom is within you, said Jesus [Luke 17.21]. Jesus added that, often, it's not something seen by the naked eyes, so that you say "Here or there it is." It's spiritual growth. The Kingdom in you grows but physically people may not see it.

A Mustard "Tree"?

I mean, do mustard seeds really grow into big trees? I have planted mustard seeds in my gardening days and I know for a fact they never grow into big trees. But it happens spiritually in the Kingdom, for everything impossible is possible there, and everything weird here is normal there. Real Kingdom growth is like that. It's spiritual. It happens within you. A "growing" church in the Spirit should be seen this way, not through membership size, income, programs or facilities.

In fact, it's an abnormal seed. It's not normal in this world for a mustard seed to become a tree, but it's the norm in the Kingdom. Real Kingdom churches are "smallest" in people's eyes---particularly the eyes of natural men---and it's how the smallest of all seeds becomes the largest of all garden plants in God's Kingdom. The least is the greatest. That's among powerful Kingdom principles in Jesus' unseen Gospel.

That's why often I say, the true church in Christ is abnormal.

Seed Becomes Shade

Then the tree from the small seed becomes a shade or covering. Genuine Kingdom people and churches who maintain Kingdom meekness serve as spiritual covering or protection for people connected to them in the Spirit. They become "big branches" that support people who find them a secure place to perch on, providing ample and protective shade. So people naturally seek refuge in them.

And didn't Jesus, the true Vine, explain how we are branches attached to him? In a sense, Jesus is the Kingdom within us. He was like a tiny, small, minuscule, unimpressive seed---seen like that by big-time religious leaders who thought they were somebody. But Jesus grew to unseemly proportions after dying and rising (or planted), although mortals hardly saw it that way. They still belittled Jesus and mistreated his ragtag church after he left.

But to real Godly men, the Kingdom spread and advanced even if to most people it perished in the persecutions. Later, some men started their own churches which were worlds different from what Jesus had introduced and started, again belittling the smallest of all seeds and preferring large ones. In fact, to this day, many treat that seed outmoded or irrelevant (worse, even persecuted), though given utmost importance and kept in glass frames in magnificent museums called "church buildings" where God's things are kept sacred (but unused).

Small is Big to God

Definitely, God wants all men to be saved [1 Tim.2.4], and wants us to "compel" folks from the outskirts of town to attend and eat his banquet "so that my house will be full," [Luke 14], but he nonetheless wants us to keep small---because small is big to him. Small though big. Big though small. (I love these Kingdom reversals!). Have you seen a big-time rich guy acting like a small-time, low-profile, simple, common folk? In fact, like a poor Nazarene carpenter? That's the idea. And that's how the smallest of all seeds becomes the largest of all garden plants in God's Kingdom.

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.” [Zechariah 4.10]

The Work has small beginnings, and it grows enormously inside while appearing small. And it's not the physical size that matters but the "plumb line" held in "Zerubbabel's hand." That plum line ensures accuracy in the Work, making sure everything is according to God's Kingdom patterns alone. Zerubbabel (symbolic of God's servants in his temple, which is our bodies) should focus on this alone, not on physical size, income, programs, or what-have-you. These are merely added when we focus on the smallest of seeds.

[Continued]

UNSEEN GOSPEL: 

And even if our gospel is unseen, it is unseen to those who are perishing. [2 Corinthians 4.3]