And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, 27 and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.  28 For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”  Mark 4:26-29 NKJV

A new life is a changed life. To live is to grow and to grow is to change. In order to change you must commit to the new desired identity and let go of the old (1 Cor. 5:17). But we often struggle with letting go. In order to plant a seed for change and growth, we need two things: (1) commit ourselves to the seed and not dig it up or disturb the soil in which it has been planted and think only of the harvest; (2) we must let go of the old.

The seed is the Word of God—not corruptible seed but incorruptible (Mk. 4:14; 1 Pt.1:23-25). The incorruptible Seed will never be destroyed, neither will it ever die. In the kingdom of God, unless there is an unqualified commitment to the “Seed”, you can never experience a harvest of change and growth. For example, Lot’s wife looked back (lingered) because she hadn’t made a commitment to leave Sodom. Thus, she was turned into a pillar of salt and never experienced a change of life as promised by the Word of two angels sent by God (Gen. 19:17, 24-26).

Commitment is the flip side of the same coin as letting go—letting go of the “Seed.” You can’t commit to go until you’ve made a decision to leave. You can’t commit to go grow until you’ve made a decision to refuse non-growth. Whatever you truly commit to, you’ve already made a decision to let something else go. Israel, i.e., the first generation, could not commit themselves to Canaan’s promised land because they couldn’t let go of Egypt (Num. 11:5); therefore their lives didn’t change with a harvest of promised blessings but they perished in their wilderness wanderings. When planting seed for change and growth, you have to understand that you are letting go of the old in anticipation of the new.