- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
THE FIRST GRAIN OF WHEAT AS THE PATTERN.
By Mrs Jessie Penn-Lewis.
“Now My heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’. No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. ‘Father, glorify your Name!’ ” (John 12 v27-28).
Even the Lord Jesus Christ was troubled as He drew near the hour of desolation and suffering foreshadowed in Psalm 22. The hiding of the Father’s face was more than a broken heart, than nails and spear. He could have saved Himself, He could have spoken to His Father and had legions of angels to fulfill His orders, but where then would have been the first-fruits to God and the Lamb? “Now My heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father save Me?’ ” No, the Master’s only prayer was, “Father, glorify your Name”.
When You hide your face - Glorify your Name. When You are silent to My bitter cry - Glorify your Name. When others reproach and despise Me - Glorify your Name. When I am taunted that God has failed Me - Glorify your Name.
When I am poured out like water and My heart fails me, when My strength is dried up and I am brought to the dust of death - “Father glorify your Name”. If we follow the Lamb wherever He goes there will surely come to us, as to Him, the assurance from the Father, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again”.
“To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 3 v21-22).
FRUIT
“Unless a grain of wheat fall to the ground and dies, it remains only a
single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12 v24).
When the grain of wheat is willing to be hidden away from the eyes of others, willing to be trampled upon and lie in silence in some lonely corner chosen by God. Willing to appear what others would call a failure. Willing to live in the will of God, apart from glorious experiences, willing to dwell in solitude and isolation away from happy fellowship with other grains of wheat, the little grain has learnt something of the meaning of fellowship with Christ in His death. “Whoever loses his life for Me will find it” (Matt.16 v25). Silently the Divine Life breaks out in fruitfulness. The grain has given itself, it has parted with its own life, yet it still lives, lives now in the life of its Lord.
The buried seed-grain is content to be forgotten, for who thinks of the grain and of all the sorrow and suffering that it underwent while sown in the dark, when they see the harvest field? But the grain of wheat is satisfied because the law of its being is fulfilled. It has sunk itself and its own getting, and now lives in others, not even desiring that it should be known that from it the hundredfold has sprung up. So Christ poured out His soul to death, that He might “see the travail of His soul and be satisfied” as He lives again in His redeemed ones. Thus in God’s wondrous law, the law of nature repeated in the spiritual world, the first grain of wheat sown by God Himself is reproduced in other grains, having the same characteristics, the law being, “If it dies . . . many seeds”.
THE HIDDEN LIFE OF THE GRAIN OF WHEAT
“For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3 v3).
“Where I am, My servant will also be” (John 12 v26).
God is teaching many of His children the mysteries of the kingdom as pictured in the seed-grain, buried out of sight yet living with Christ in God in the power of an indissoluble life. Just so far as they have hated their own life to share in the life of the Lord, do they taste the “power of the age to come” (Heb 6 v5), and have the promise of their inheritance, a small portion of the very same life that shall be theirs in all its fullness when “what is mortal” shall be “swallowed up of life” (2 Cor. 5 v4). United to Christ and hidden in God, they dwell at the source of every precious thing, and in intercession at the Throne exercise even now “authority over the nations”, and power “over all the power of the enemy”, for “from the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise (strength) . . . to silence the foe and the avenger” (Ps. 8 v2). They bring forth “much fruit” by abiding in living and hidden union with the Ascended Lord. They hide in Him, whilst, according to His promise He abides in them, and glorifies His Father through them, producing fruit that shall remain and bear the test of the fire at the judgment seat.
The hidden life is the life of a little child, a little child living in its Father’s presence, desiring its Father’s will, depending upon its Father for protection from all its foes and showing its Father’s spirit to all around.
The soul abiding with Christ in God, is given:
“Hidden manna” for the sustenance of the inner life. “To him who overcomes . . . I will give some of the hidden manna” (Rev. 2 v17), and “the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me” (John 6 v57).
“Hidden wisdom” that is withheld from the wise. “God’s secret wisdom . . . that has been hidden . . . revealed to us by His Spirit” (1 Cor. 2 v7-10), and has “hidden these things from the wise and learned, revealed them to little children” (Matt. 11 v25).
“Hidden riches” only gained in times of testing. “I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places” (Isa. 45 v3). “I know your afflictions and your poverty - yet you are rich” (Rev. 2 v9).
Fed with the hidden manna provided at the Father’s table, taught the hidden wisdom that the princes of this world do not know, given the hidden wisdom that can only be gained in times of trial and darkness, surely it is true that to them that love God, He “works for the good of those who love Him” (Rom 8 v28). We can only know our God and His abundant grace as He brings us through circumstances that are a good deal beyond the possible. Each ‘impossible point’ simply casts us upon the God in Whom we hide. We have no resource but God, no refuge but in Him.
Dwelling deep in the heart of God the hidden ones are:
Hidden from the intrigues of men (Ps. 31 v20). Hidden in time of trouble (Ps. 27 v5). Hidden from the storm (Isa. 4 v6). Hidden in the shelter of God’s presence (Ps. 31 v20). Hidden under the shadow of your wings (Ps. 17 v8). Hidden, yes, hidden in the shelter of the Most High (Ps. 91 v1).
These passages tell of a life surrounded by God, for “in Him we live, and move and have our being”. The souls who are hidden with Christ in God are under His full control. He keeps them close until the right moment arrives for sending them out as “polished arrows”, silent and sure. When God wields the weapon He strikes the mark, for He knows the spot to aim at. When not in active use they are kept hidden in His quiver, always ready to His hand. Polished arrows need much polishing to get the roughness off them, but the Master Workman knows how to prepare His instruments for His use. They are kept for hidden work, awaiting in the sanctuary, entering into the counsels of God, ready to fulfill His will.
“Truly You are a God who hides Himself” (Isa. 45 v15). “His power was hidden” (Hab. 3 v4), tells us that God’s deepest work is hidden work. He is preparing a hidden kingdom, whilst permitting the kingdoms of this world to stand until all is ready. “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed . . . It will crush all those kingdoms” (Dan. 2 v44).
He is also building a hidden temple for a dwelling of God through the Spirit, and preparing a hidden Bride to share the throne of His Son. Yes, in this age He is still a God who hides Himself, and there is the hiding of His power as He silently works out His purposes, until the day when “Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (Col. 3 v4). “How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out” (Rom. 11 v33). “You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed then to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure” (Matt. 11 v25-26).
From: ‘Much Fruit’.
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