What you sow is not made alive unless it dies

1 Corinthians 15:36
36 Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.

I am sure that you have been taught sowing and reaping -- if you want to reap a harvest, sow a seed. For example, if you want a financial increase, sow money into good ground in the kingdom of God. If you want more friends, be a friend to someone who is lonely. If you want more health, pray for the sick. And so on.

The harvests that we want are generally blessings, good gifts from our Father. It is interesting then, that He tells us that "what you sow is not made alive unless it dies".

As I was reading this verse one morning, the Holy Spirit reminded me of my Saviour's words:

John 12:24
24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.

Jesus was, of course, talking about the necessity of His death. Unless He dies, there would be no salvation for mankind, no born-again sons and daughters of God, no Christians, no church of Christ. God the Father sowed His only Son, so that He could reap many sons.

What the Holy Spirit was trying to tell me was this: That we can reap the blessings we want from all our sowing because of the death of all deaths -- that of Jesus Christ at the cross. What we sow in faith we will reap, not because we are good, not because we made personal sacrifices, but because of the death of Jesus Christ. Every blessing is ours to have and to hold because of Jesus' death. (Ephesians 1:3)

There is one other thing the Holy Spirit showed me. What we sow must die. It must leave our hands. We must let go of it. I can best explain this by talking about sowing money. Some believers, when they sow money into the kingdom of God, like when they put money into their church’s offering bags, their seeds don’t really die. Why? because they still hold on to them. 

How do they do this? By "telling" the leadership how the money ought to be used. "I've given my money, therefore, I have a say in how the church should use the money, how the church should be run, how the leadership should operate." Some have even asked for "refunds" because they were not happy with the leadership.

How can our seeds die and bear fruit if we choose to hold on to them? Let them go -- into God’s hands -- and watch them grow.