Building Clouds for Growth

In line with our theme for the year, purposeful growth, we will be having a look at the first component you need for spiritual growth to happen. You need faith. You need to believe that your steps towards purposeful growth will bring better relationship with God and man. That the desire for growth followed by steps for growth will take you to a new level in every area of your life.

Water is essential to life on earth but it does not support life on its own it makes other elements necessary for survival interact. You cannot drink water alone and survive. The quality of life can be traced back to the quality of water available. The seed sown in the parable of the sower in Mark 4:1-9, no matter where it falls, it will require water.

Paul even mentioned the watering of plants as part of the process of growth when he said “Paul plants, Apollos waters, God gives the increase”._ _Paul speaks about another use or effect of water in Ephesians 5:26, a cleansing agent howbeit it speaks about the Word of God. In nature, water can be found in various forms but of particular interest is water as rain.

In the bible, we see many types of clouds, pillar of cloud, cloud of witnesses, cloud of fire, cloud of rain and many other mentions of cloud but the one that affects growth of plants and food is the cloud of rain. No matter which cloud you consider, clouds pour down what’s inside of them. What is inside of you?

Clouds give what is inside of them

We have seen how natural clouds are formed which really is the sun causing water to evaporate from the earth and upon reaching a particular height above the earth, condense (gather together) until the cloud is heavy enough to deliver. The content of the cloud may be delivered as water, hail stones or even snow but they are all formed from water.

The spiritual process is similar but more potent (powerful).

Romans 10:17 gives us a clue about what kick starts our faith. It is simply the Word of God. We need to generate a cloud filled with the Word of God for us to grow. To grow in patience, we need a rain of patience from the clouds which we build by eating, drinking, confessing, memorizing and obeying the Word of God.

"So faith comes from hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the [preaching of the] message concerning Christ."

ROMANS 10:17

Hebrews 11 is full of heroes of faith. They all achieved something for God because of the faith they had in the Word God sent their way.

If clouds give what’s inside of them, then the question is how are the clouds formed? We need to have a look at what becomes the cloud which eventually come down as rain on the earth to bring about growth in plants.

“Clouds are formed when the heat of sun causes water to evaporate from the earth and the evaporated water aggregate at high altitude.” _

Why Should I care about the Rain?

Remember the parable of the sower, the seed is sown but it’s survival is dependent on where it falls and what nourishment is available to it. The rain failing on the soil will allow the soil release the nutrients necessary for plant growth. In the same way, the Word of God (the seed) which you hear will only grow and product only if you apply faith. This is not just confession of faith. This is taking concrete action in line with the spoken word.

We need to soak ourselves in the Word particularly what relates to our situation or circumstance.

Let’s take patience as an example. When you listen to a message on patience. You must go back to the scriptures, like the Berean Christians, look for verses that will help build your faith in line with the message of patience. Then you need to water the planted seed by confessing the scriptures about patience until your flesh becomes willing as the Word of God. Scripture says the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. The Word of God is one of the tools with which you can make your spirit to become willing.

Rain falling on the ground allows the ground release the available nutrients, it also allows the plant’s roots easily grow deeper and become more established. Isaiah 37:31 and 2 Kings 19:30 speaks about bearing fruit upward but the roots going downward. You need the rain but you first need to build the cloud that releases the rain. For purposeful growth to take place in our lives, and not just mere survival as a Christian, we need the rain to fall on the soil, which is our heart.

The state of our heart determines the kind of growth we will experience. The amount of water available greatly influences how easily we can take the Word of God and grow, rain washes the plant (Ephesians 5:27) and makes the heart (soil) a great platform for the release of the goodness in God’s Word. A good soil without water will be hardened and no matter how good the seed is, it will be not produce and good result.

Please note that for purposeful growth or better still for “fruitful growth”,_ _water must be available at every stage of life of the plant. Feed on the Word of God personally to create the clouds of the rain you need to grow.

AO