Dig Deep!

By Philip Martin

This morning, during my devotional time, I came across these words in Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles Cowman: “For behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown.”1 At first when I read that verse I thought it was a translation of the Bible other than the King James Version (KJV) that I am familiar with, so I checked to make sure that it was the KJV. And sure enough, there it was, exactly as it was printed in the book.

Many times when I’m reading the Word and something jumps out and catches my attention, I start dissecting it and breaking it down, or maybe a better expression would be I “chew the cud” to get all I can out of it.

I saw that this verse really contained four independent yet interconnected thoughts.



“For behold, I am for you”

The first thing I need to know and be reminded of continually is that God is “for me.” He’s not working against me. Like the concept of Romans 8:28: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Maria Fountaine has written:

In order to come through our many trials, difficulties, battles, and temptations victoriously, it is imperative that we make this promise in Romans 8:28 a vital part of our life.

If we don’t send the events of our daily lives through the filter of Romans 8:28, if we don’t constantly view our disappointments, hurts, tests, illnesses, opposition, battles, etc., through the perspective that Romans 8:28 gives us, we will sadly miss many valuable lessons the Lord is trying to teach us. And we will rob ourselves of the peace that comes from absolute trust in this precious promise and principle.

If we learn the simple equation, “Trials equal good,” our lives will be richer, our lessons greater, and our minds more tranquil, and we will more easily recognize the Lord's hand in the events of our lives. It makes all the difference in the world whether we look at a flood of problems, trials, battles and tribulations just waiting to see the worst happen, or if we look at them with the excitement and challenge that comes from waiting to discover all the good we know the Lord will bring out of them.—Maria Fontaine2

This is the first step, the attitude we need to possess.



“I will turn unto you”

Once I have that trust in God’s love and I know that He is “for me,” and I know that all things really do work together for good, God is going to “turn unto me.” Another way of saying this is that He’s going to look at me and give me His attention, as if to say, “Now that you know I’m on your side, I can start working with you. You’re someone I can trust and use and invest in.”

At this point the pace starts to pick up. So, now we know that He is for us, He has our attention and is turned to us. What’s He going to do?



“Ye shall be tilled”

I shall be what? Tilled. Plowed. Cultivated. Cut open, dug into, and turned upside down. Basically what God is saying here is that because He is on my side He’s going to cause a major upheaval in my life. Wow! “Wait a minute. Because You love me and have my attention and I know You’re on my side, You’re going to turn my world upside down and inside out?” Yes! Exactly! Because we have that confidence in Him, we will know and trust that it is for our good.

Mrs. Cowman beautifully expresses it this way: “The ploughman is a proof that He thinks you are of value and worth cultivating, and He does not waste His ploughing on the barren sand… God does not use the plough and harrow without intention!”

In his book, A Gardener Looks at the Fruits of the Spirit, in the chapter entitled, “Productive People; Good Ground,” Philip Keller says:

Although we are not naturally “good ground,” none of us is too tough for God, the Good Gardener, to tackle. In spite of our perverseness, pride, and pollution, He can transform us from a wasteland to a well-watered garden. We should want it that way. It does not come easily. It does not happen in a single day. The digging, the clearing, the cultivation may seem to us to be devastating; the disciplining of our souls may seem severe. Yet afterwards it produces the peaceable fruits of His own planting.[3]

Too many of us as Christians are content to remain wild wasteland. We much prefer to stay untouched by God’s good hand. In fact, we are frightened of having our little lives turned over by the deep work of His convicting Spirit. We don’t want the shearing, cutting, powerful thrust of His Word to lay us open to the sunlight of His own presence. We prefer to remain weedy ground and stony soil—or pathetic pathway people.

We delude ourselves into thinking that out of our old unchanged characters and dispositions somehow a good crop is coming forth. It simply cannot be. You simply do not gather grapes from a thistle patch nor figs from wild brambles. And the good gardener does not even come there looking for fruit. It is strictly a no-crop condition. It is a total loss to both us and God.

In a good garden there are no spots still littered with stones. There are no odd corners cluttered and choked with weeds. There are no beaten paths where nothing at all can grow. All the ground has to be tilled. All the soil must finally be fitted for fruitfulness.

It will take time to do this. But it must be done. The Spirit of God is very persistent. The Good Gardener must have full management. Christ comes to take over every area made arable.

Mrs. Cowman concludes her section with, “He will not plough continually, but only for a time, and for a definite purpose.”



“Ye shall be … sown”

Now what, Lord? Mrs. Cowman goes on to say: “God does not use the plough and harrow without intention. Where God ploughs, He intends to sow. His ploughing is proof He is for, and not against us! The husbandman is never so near the land as when he is ploughing it.” The very time we are tempted to think He has forsaken us because our world is falling apart around our ears, He is actually working closest with us, and we have to trust His love in those times.

Philip Keller puts it this way:

The extent to which a piece of good ground has received and responded to good sowing is eventually demonstrated by how little soil shows. The entire area planted will be taken over, covered and smothered in a luxuriance of green growth. The onlooker will see, not the soil, but the bountiful produce on it. So with our lives, if in truth we have received the good Word, and the very life of Christ flourishes, it is the fruitage of His character, the fragrance of His conduct that will be evident to those around us.

What is God’s end purpose in all of this? Mrs. Cowman said, “The entire purpose of this entire process of upheaval, tilling, plowing, cultivating, sowing, watering, pruning, weeding is to bear fruit.”

I now know that the changes I have gone through recently were the Lord’s catalyst that got things moving, the break shot that scattered the balls so that they could be in the positions needed to be used more greatly of the Lord. I know these changes were engineered by the Lord for my spiritual growth and the furtherance of His kingdom. Prior to the “plowing” I felt as if I was losing my fruitfulness. Life was getting dangerously predictable and routine, but the upheaval and consequent uprooting of my entire life changed all that. Through this upheaval my entire walk with the Lord has changed. New fruit is starting to show up on my old branches. New buds of life are coming forth. I feel a new awakening.

By the grace and strength of God I want my heartcry at this special time in my life not to be a lamentable, sorrowful, “How long, how long, O Lord, must I suffer this? Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.” But rather, “Dig deep, dear Lord! Dig deep! Whatever it takes to make my heart fertile, fruit-bearing ground again for Your Word to take effect, I give You permission to work. Leave nothing unturned, no clump hard and unbroken, remove any rocks and bring the garden of my heart back to full fruition. Help me desire only Your golden seeds of truth and not to accept the genetically modified spiritual seeds of the enemy which are destroying the spiritual food chain of the world.”

*

We cannot have the result of the harvest without the process. The price must be paid.—Linda Cowman

*

Oh God, wert Thou plowing
Thy profitless earth
With the brave plow of love,
And the sharp plow of pain?
But hark to the mirth
Of wheat field in harvest!
—Author unknown

*

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.—Hosea 10:12


1 Ezekiel 36:9.

2 http://anchor.tfionline.com/post/trials-equal-good.

3 See Hebrews 12:10–11.