Die to Live

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John 12:24

Jesus made many paradoxical statements while on earth. Some of His statements at “face value” seem confusing or even illogical but that’s because he spoke in spiritual terms not carnal. Jesus said in John 12:25, “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” This mentality sounds so opposite of how we have been told to think.

To “love their life” in context of this passage is to love the systems, strategies and priorities of this world. To do so is to overestimate this life and undervalue eternal life. To live this life under the guidelines of this world would lead to a dead-end. In the process the accomplishments we achieve would add nothing to our joy and peace or eternity.

To “hate our life” is not to walk around angry or disgruntled but to reject the systems of this world and fully embrace God’s word and His will. Jesus said in John 6:63 that His words give life. Not only is our joy and peace in this life at risk if we choose the ways of the world over God’s, but also our eternity in heaven.

So how do we die to ourselves that we may produce a harvest substantially greater than we could accomplish on our own? Galatians 5:22-23 contain a list of the “fruit of the Spirit,” that every believer is to produce in their life.  Notice the plurality of “fruits” is referred to as “fruit”. This is not a typo. It means that all the fruits are to be produced in our life; we don’t pick and choose which ones we would like to grow.

In order for us to see the fruit of the Spirit in our life we must die daily to ourselves. They cannot be developed with will-power or other carnal strategies. Make a decision today to surrender every successful and unsuccessful system or pattern you
have developed and pursue the fruit of the Spirit. Commit to memory Galatians 5:22-23 and ask God to transform the areas of your life that are in competition of His word and will.