Lessons From a Pecan Tree

“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.” –Genesis 1:11

There is an undeniable consistency to the natural order of this earth.  The sun rises, the sun sets, seasons change, and if you plant then you will reap.  It is consistent and constant, we depend on the natural order of this earth to remain in order.  When we stop to consider the natural order, one will find that we can learn from it.  From the beginning God designed this earth to be a habitation of man.  If we look closely, the natural order of the physical things can teach us of the natural order of the spiritual.  Jesus of course understood this and often used nature as a teaching agent. 

Down here in South Georgia we have acres upon acres of pecan groves.  Within the tree lies the ability to produce more trees given the right environment, and if you plant a pecan tree, by and by one can expect that tree to produce pecans.  The “seed within itself will produce fruit of its kind.”  You are not going to plant pecan seed and come back 9 years later to find apples growing on it.  You are not going to sow a kernel of corn to find in six to eight months a crop of cotton.  The seed will yield fruit of itself.  There is an obvious consistency about it.  You can count on it, it is a guarantee.  The beauty of it all is that it takes both what is without and what is within to produce good fruit.  You can take a watermelon seed and throw it on the hood of a car, come summer time I guarantee you that you will not have any watermelon from that seed.  However, if you sow it in good soil, water, and weed it…..come summer time, well, you know what will happen, because the earth is dependable that way.  It takes both what is without and what is within to produce good fruit.  So what does that mean to us?  First of all, it means that we can thank God for giving us this beautiful earth that feeds us so well, but beyond that we can take these natural occurrences and apply them to the spiritual. 

Holiness is not a man-made concept no more than the earth is.  Therefore the fruit of holiness cannot be man-made either.  There are scores and scores of people who desire to be better people.  They want to live according to the Bible, and I empathize with this (me being one of them).  However, we have to recognize that like a tree we will yield fruit of ourselves.  If you do not have the Spirit of God within you than you are like a pecan tree that is trying to bear apples.  There is no holiness within a man when he comes into this world and there will never be holiness within a man unless God puts it there; but when the Spirit of God plants that seed in your heart…then it’s a whole new conversation.  The Holy Ghost in you WILL yield the fruits of holiness, but let us take great care.  It takes both what is within and without.  You cannot just throw it on the hood of a car and expect fruit.  We must have the Holy Ghost within, but we also have to position ourselves in the right place without.  We must align ourselves with Godly people, must sow our time in God’s word, spend some hours on our knees, and leave off the persons and places that hinder us from bearing fruit unto holiness.  Then the seed of holiness will yield fruit of itself.   

God created the earth as a habitation for man, and he created man as a habitation for his Spirit.  He wanted fellowship with us from the beginning and he wanted us to yield fruit after His kind.  I am convinced beyond all doubt that there are many well-meaning and kind people who are working and striving for the fruit of holiness without the seed of it, and convinced still further that there are others who have or had the seed of holiness sown within and refused to position themselves in the proper environment without.  Let us take a lesson from the pecan tree and understand that the seed of holiness, sow in the heart of man, and properly tended to; will produce good fruit.