The Spirit You Have Received and the Seeds You Sow

Living in the Spirit : The Spirit You Have Received and the Seeds You Sow

One of the clearest revelations of the nature of the Spirit believers have received in Christ is found in a brief but profound moment recorded in Luke 9:51–56.

Jesus was traveling toward Jerusalem and sent messengers ahead into a Samaritan village to prepare a place for Him. The Samaritans refused to receive Him because His destination was Jerusalem. This rejection was deeply rooted in long-standing hostility between Jews and Samaritans — historical division, religious tension, and mutual contempt that had persisted for generations.

When James and John witnessed this rejection, they reacted passionately: *"Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?"* (Luke 9:54)

To them, rejecting Jesus warranted immediate destruction.

But Jesus rebuked them and said: *"Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."* (Luke 9:55–56)

Then they simply moved on to another village.

What Manner of Spirit

In that rebuke, Jesus was revealing something of enormous significance for every believer. The Spirit operating in Him was not driven by vengeance, wounded pride, or religious zeal. The disciples thought they were defending Jesus, yet their reaction contradicted the very Spirit of Christ. A person can be sincere, can quote Scripture, can invoke the examples of great prophets, and still be operating from a spirit entirely contrary to God.

James and John were reacting from anger, offense, and a desire for destruction. But the Spirit of Christ produces love, mercy, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and self-control. *"Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."* (Romans 8:9) The believer has not received the spirit of revenge, bitterness, or personal vengeance. He has received the Spirit of Christ — and that Spirit is fundamentally redemptive in nature.

Elijah functioned under a covenant where divine judgment was frequently demonstrated in outward and dramatic ways. But Christ came revealing the fullness of God's redemptive purpose. The disciples wanted to imitate Elijah externally without understanding the deeper revelation standing before them. Jesus did not deny Elijah's experience. He simply revealed that His mission under grace was different: not destroying men, but saving men. Under Christ, mercy triumphs over judgment, love seeks restoration, and patience gives room for repentance.

The Spirit Behind the Action

What makes this passage so penetrating is the warning it carries about religious passion. The disciples sounded convincingly spiritual. They quoted Scripture, referenced a revered prophet, and framed their desire as defense of Jesus. Yet He rebuked them.

This means religious zeal alone is not proof of the Spirit of God. Many destructive actions are carried out in the name of truth, correction, holiness, or defense of ministry. Yet the spirit motivating those actions may be pride, self-righteousness, wounded ego, or personal offense. Jesus taught that believers must discern not only their actions but the spirit behind those actions. The true nature of the spirit operating in a man is not revealed when he is honored and accepted. It is revealed when he is offended, resisted, insulted, or rejected.

The Law That Governs What We Sow

This brings us to one of the most foundational spiritual principles in Scripture: the law of sowing and reaping. *"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."* (Galatians 6:7) Every thought, word, attitude, and action is a seed, and every seed carries within it the power to reproduce after its kind.

James and John, in that moment, wanted to sow destruction into the Samaritans because they themselves felt the sting of rejection. Jesus stopped them before they sowed evil. This is the connection between the spirit we operate from and the seeds we plant — because those two things are inseparable. The spirit motivating a reaction determines the nature of the seed being sown. A man cannot sow bitterness and reap peace. He cannot sow hatred and reap love. He cannot sow offense and reap fellowship.

Moses warned the children of Israel: *"...when ye shall do evil in the sight of the LORD... evil will befall you in the latter days..."* (Deuteronomy 31:29) Evil is not merely an external judgment that arrives from outside. It becomes a harvest produced by evil seeds previously sown. Bitterness, envy, strife, revenge, malice, unforgiveness — these are seeds. And every seed, over time, produces a harvest corresponding to its nature.

Why God Forbids Vengeance

God forbids vengeance not as an arbitrary restriction but as divine wisdom. Vengeance operates almost entirely from wounded flesh rather than divine love. *"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves... for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."* (Romans 12:19) When a believer takes vengeance — through destructive words, bitter imaginations, or deliberate retaliation — he sows corruption into his own future. Even if someone wronged him first, responding with hatred multiplies evil rather than ending it.

The flesh says: pay back, teach them a lesson, hurt them as they hurt you. But love says: bless them, pray for them, overcome evil with good. *"Love worketh no ill to his neighbour."* (Romans 13:10) Love refuses to become a channel of destruction. Love restrains the flesh. Love prevents the believer from sowing destructive seeds when he is wounded.

Walking in love is not weakness. It is spiritual wisdom. It is the believer protecting himself from planting seeds that will eventually produce broken relationships, spiritual dryness, confusion, and instability. Many future troubles are simply the harvests of seeds sown in moments of offense, anger, and wounded pride — seeds that grew silently and undetected before producing their fruit.

Mercy Preserves Future Harvests

The story in Luke 9 carries a remarkable detail that is easy to overlook. The very Samaritans who rejected Jesus in that village later received the Gospel through the preaching of Philip, recorded in Acts 8. Had fire fallen on them in that moment of rejection, an entire harvest would have been destroyed before it could come forth.

Mercy preserved future redemption. This is the long view that love operates from. The person who resists you today may become a recipient of God's grace tomorrow. Love leaves room for God's future work in people. Vengeance closes that door; mercy keeps it open.

Seeds may not produce immediate harvests. A person may sow pride, bitterness, or unforgiveness today and not see the harvest for months or even years. But the seed is growing. Conversely, when believers forgive, endure, bless, and show mercy, they are sowing divine seeds that eventually produce peace, favor, healing, stable relationships, and deeper fellowship with God.

The Perfect Seed

The Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated this law at its highest and most costly level. While being rejected, mocked, and crucified, He prayed: *"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."* (Luke 23:34) At the greatest moment of injustice ever experienced by any man, Jesus refused to sow hatred. Had He responded in vengeance, redemption would never have been manifested through love.

The cross was the greatest seed of sacrificial love ever sown — and it produced the greatest harvest in human history.

Every act of love a believer walks in is an eternal seed after that same pattern: forgiving when hurt, giving when inconvenient, praying for enemies, bearing another's weakness, refusing gossip, showing mercy, speaking kindly. *"He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."* (Galatians 6:8)

Walk in the Spirit You Have Received

The believer carries the Spirit of Christ. That Spirit is not destructive, not vengeful, not characterized by retaliation. It is the Spirit of redemptive love — a Spirit that saves rather than destroys, that sows mercy rather than judgment, that plants toward the future rather than burning it down in present anger.

The question every believer must continually ask is this: what spirit is motivating my reaction? Am I responding from Christ or from wounded flesh? Am I sowing mercy or sowing destruction? Because the spirit we operate from determines the seeds we plant, and the seeds we plant determine the harvest we will eventually live in.

*"Let all bitterness... be put away from you..."* (Ephesians 4:31) *"See that none render evil for evil..."* (1 Thessalonians 5:15) *"Follow peace with all men..."* (Hebrews 12:14)

You have received the Spirit of Christ. Walk worthy of what you have received.

Living in the Spirit is the blog of Hassan Thomas Nenger, author of * My Divine Identity as the Righteousness of God** www.hassanthomasnenger.com.ng