The Way Of The Farmer

“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” (John 12:24, NIV)

Life really does become easier when we understand how God works. This verse is one of those holy explanations—an unveiling of the Father’s ways. The Kingdom does not operate by earthly logic. God often moves in patterns that look like loss before they look like gain, and reduction before promotion.

Here is the Kingdom lesson: when God is about to make you bigger, He will often make you smaller first. Before increase comes a kind of death. Before multiplication, a burial. This is not punishment—it is preparation.

Jesus chooses a farming metaphor on purpose. A seed in your hand is already good. You can grind it, bake it, and sustain life for a moment. But if you dare to plant it—bury it, lose it into the ground—something miraculous happens. In the darkness of soil, watered and warmed by forces it cannot control, the seed becomes something entirely new. What looked like loss becomes transformation.

When God Buries Good Things

We too walk through seasons where we have something good, yet God knows something better lies ahead. So He plants us. Or what we had. Or what we thought defined us. The burial feels brutal. What was bright becomes dark. What was clean becomes dirt. Taken from the safety of the seed bag and placed alone in the soil, we feel isolated, misunderstood, forgotten.

Often it’s hard to hear God explaining what He’s doing because we’re busy protesting the darkness. We feel pitiful about the loneliness, angry about the burial. Purpose feels lost. Favour feels absent. Life feels like dirt.

But if we wait—fully surrendered to the Farmer—life begins to find us in the dark. In ways it never could in the light. Something starts shifting. We begin to change, to transform, to metamorphose. We can’t fully explain it to others, but something deep is happening. We are adjusting to a new future.

Reaching for the Sun

If we stay surrendered instead of running away to a prodigal pity party (and oh, it’s tempting), we start reaching upward. Growth resumes. Strength returns. Promotion follows. Light breaks through. From seed to stalk, we rise—until what we once had becomes multiplied in the hands of the Creator.

If only we could see life from God’s mountain. We would recognise that the job loss, the broken friendship, the betrayal, the painful ending, the team that folded, the easy season that suddenly became confusing—was God burying a good seed. Waiting is never just waiting. It is transforming. Preparing. Shaping.

The burial is not the end. It is the announcement that God has chosen to do something beautiful in you. We may prefer spring to winter, but those who understand the seasons—like the sons of Issachar—find comfort in knowing the ways of the Father and the Farmer (1 Chronicles 12:32).

Are you buried right now? Rejoice—bigger days are ahead. Are you in the dark? Look for transformation. Water your soul with the Word. Warm your heart in worship. It speeds up germination. Are you alone? Sing louder. There are other seeds nearby—Paul and Silas sang in the dark (Acts 16:25), Daniel stood faithful in the den (Daniel 6:22), and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego found promotion through fire (Daniel 3:30).

You will too.
It’s just how God works.

Believe & Confess Meditation & Declaration

I trust that as I surrender to God’s process, what feels like loss will produce abundant life (John 12:24). I believe that the Lord is working all things together for my good, even in hidden seasons (Romans 8:28). I declare that though I walk through darkness, God is transforming me from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). I confess that those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength and rise higher than before (Isaiah 40:31). I believe that in due season I will reap a harvest if I do not give up (Galatians 6:9). I declare that the God who began a good work in me will carry it to completion (Philippians 1:6).

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STRONGER: includes a 40 day devotional

This book is all about where we find strength. Jarrod writes that “God provides us with strength builders along our path” – some we need to pick up and use, others will simply happen to us along the way, by a kind of divine providence. But knowing these seasons of muscle building are from heaven (‘cos they usually look like they’re from hell at first!) is vital to recognising God’s plan for your resilience.

Now STRONGER comes with an additional 40 day devotional taking you on a journey building attitudes and beliefs that will release divine wisdom and strength in your life. Each day presents you with a scripture, an inspirational short piece to get you thinking, followed by a prayer, action point or declaration.

Take a look here 👀