One of the most profound truths of the mystery of life is the reality that the joy of living always comes through the struggles of life. Whereas this is the reality of living, most in their interacction with people desire to experience the joy of life without the actual living of life. They want to tiptoe through the tulips without thinking or dwelling upon how the bed of flowers happened to be there in the first place. All of us in our most basic instincts want the bloom of the flower without the planting of the seed.

Just as a seed that falls to the ground to bring forth its fruit, the human genre also germinates and grows in the same manner. The seed, with all the potential essence of the particular plant contained within its being, is moved on by the forces of nature to perform its designed goal. Likewise, humanity accomplishes its intended purposes by experiencing the grace of God. As with the seed, God works his will on the lives of all men.

When the likeness of the outward hull of the seed in man is being destroyed to bring forth the essence of true life from within the seed, the believer must understand, like Jesus, that it is for this cause that he has come. The man who experiences the faith that knows this does not falter. He realizes that the heavenly Father is at work to bring forth the glory of his Son Jesus Christ. Just as the fragrance of a flower comes only in the bloom, the glory of man comes only in the manifestation of Jesus Christ.

The experiencing of the kingdom of God, the manifestation of the life of Jesus from within the believer, is solely in the control of the heavenly Father. Since it is within the times and the seasons of God, the believer will struggle to trust God from a two-pronged assault. First, the believer will struggle to understand how it can be done: "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how" (Mark 4:26). He will also be tempted continually to try to make the good life happen within his own time frame: "And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them" (Luke 17:22–23).

Jesus does not leave the believer without hope. After he informed his disciples that "the Father hath put in his own power . . . the times and the seasons," He stated, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). With the word "witness" meaning "martyr", Jesus is stating that by the power of the Holy Spirit the believer can be taken to the end of himself to enable Christ to be raised out of him. The believer can be girded by another and be taken where he could not and would not go himself.

This salvation for man must come from outside his present frame of reference, his conventions, or his thinking. God must reach down to him, not through his mind but through the Spirit who dwells within him. The solution for the problems of life for man can come only by God reaching the heart of man through his Son Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit. It was what God intended from the beginning--man experiencing life because he was hearing and experiencing God in his heart.