What God Wants to Grow Will Grow

What God Wants to Grow Will Grow

 — By M.T. Clark — P-1970, 05/22/2026 —Today’s Audio Podcast 

Today’s Message on YouTube:

Today’s photo of a large purple rhododendron in full bloom, accented by deep red blossoms tucked beside it — set against a chain-link fence, surrounding evergreens, and a backdrop of bright spring trees — comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this simple view of beauty in the corner of my own back yard,  down by the River , in Stuyvesant, NY on May 23, 2021.

Well, it’s Friday, and at the end of another work week I share this photo as a reminder of how the Lord faithfully causes good things to grow in the places we have planted ourselves. Some weeks we end in full bloom. Some weeks we end weary and worn. Either way, the same God who is at work in the soil of your life today is at work in it on Monday too.

Our series, “Walking in the Spirit,” continues today with a truth about what the Lord causes to grow.

What God Wants to Grow Will Grow

There are things in your life the Lord is determined to grow, whether you cooperate or not.

The Spirit-led life is a partnership with God — we plant, we water, we tend, we steward but only God helps us to grow. 

Paul says it plainly in — 1 Corinthians 3:6-7 (NKJV):

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.” 

The increase belongs to God. Always. Paul could plant. Apollos could water. But neither of them could grow anything. The growth comes from the Lord. The same is true for the Holy Spirit’s work in your life and mine. 

We can read the Bible. We can pray. We can show up at church. We can do the spiritual practices but none  of these things produces fruit in themselves.  

Have you ever known “religious” people who were bitter, angry, indifferent, or unloving?  Their religious disciplines didn’t grow the fruit of the Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit produces the fruit. 

Our part is to make ourselves available to His work.

Here’s the wonderful thing — and the convicting thing — about how the Lord works.

When God has determined that something is going to grow in your life, it will grow. Even when you try to ignore it. Even when you push it down. Even when you stop watering it. Even when you actively try to cut it back. The Lord’s purposes for our sanctification do not depend on our enthusiasm for the project. 

God is sovereign over the growth. He decides what He wants to produce in us, and He produces it. 

I have seen this in my own life again and again. There were areas of my walk with the Lord that I tried to ignore for years — habits He was calling me to break, attitudes He was calling me to surrender, relationships He was calling me to mend. I did not always cooperate quickly. I sometimes did not cooperate at all. 

But the Holy Spirit did not stop working. He kept bringing the same issues back to my attention. He kept tilling the soil. He kept watering the seed even when I refused to. 

And eventually, in His time and not mine, the growth came. The thing He had determined to produce in me showed up — sometimes years after I had given up on it.

This is one of the most encouraging realities of the Spirit-led life. The Lord finishes what He starts.

Paul writes in Philippians 1:6 (NKJV) : “… being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” 

He who has begun the good work in you will complete it. 

It doesn’t say “He who has begun it will try to complete it” or “He who has begun it will attempt to complete it.”  It says “He will complete it. “ God will complete it. Not me. 

The growth God is producing in you right now — the fruit of the Spirit, the renewal of your mind, the transformation of your character, the formation of your purpose — that growth is going to happen. 

God has decided what He will grow in your life and the  only question is how much you will enjoy the process.

This is also a warning. 

The Lord is gracious enough to keep growing what He has chosen to grow, even when we are not paying attention. 

But there are also things in our lives that He is NOT cultivating — things we are watering ourselves, sometimes for years, that He has been quietly asking us to let die. 

Those things will fade when we stop tending them. 

The Spirit-led life involves discerning the difference between what God is growing in us and what we are growing on our own. The first is fruit. The second is weeds. Both look green for a while. Only one of them lasts.

So trust the Gardener. If He has put something in you that you have been resisting — surrender it to His care and let it grow. 

If you have been watering something He has not been cultivating — let it dry up and turn your attention to the soil He is actually working. 

Either way, He is not finished. He is still in the garden. He still has a harvest in mind for you. 

And remember — what He wants to grow will grow. So keep on walking and talking with God and watch and see how He cause you to grow. 

— M.T.

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“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”

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