The Ultimate Test

I got this story am about to share through email more than 3years ago and is still very relevant today:

Boiled Seeds Does Not Sprout..Never

An aging king woke up one day to the realization that should he drop dead, 
there would be no male in the royal family to take his place. 

He was the last male in the royal family in a culture where only a male 
could succeed to the throne - and he was aging. 

He decided that if he could not give birth to a male, he would adopt a son 
who then could take his place but he insisted that such an adopted son must 
be extraordinary in every sense of the word. 

So he launched a competition in his kingdom, open to all boys, no matter 
what their background. Ten boys made it to the very top. 

There was little to separate these boys in terms of intelligence and 
physical attributes and capabilities. 

The king said to them, "I have one last test and whoever comes top will 
become my adopted son and heir to my throne." Then he said, "This kingdom 
depends solely on agriculture. 

So the king must know how to cultivate plants. So here is a seed of corn 
for each of you. 

Take it home and plant and nurture it for three weeks. At the end of three 
weeks, we shall see who has done the best job of cultivating the seed. 

That person will be my heir-apparent." 

The boys took their seeds and hurried home. They each got a flower pot and 
planted the seed as soon as they got home. 

There was much excitement in the kingdom as the people waited with bated 
breath to see who was destined to be their next king. 

In one home, the boy and his parents were almost heartbroken when after 
days of intense care, the seed failed to sprout. 

He did not know what had gone wrong with his. He had selected the soil 
carefully, he had applied the right quantity and type of fertilizer, he had 
been very dutiful in watering it at the right intervals, he had even prayed 
over it day and night and yet his seed had turned out to be unproductive. 

Some of his friends advised him to go and buy a seed from the market and 
plant that. 

"After all," they said, "how can anyone tell one seed of corn from 
another?" But his parents who had always taught him the value of integrity 
reminded him that if the king wanted them to plant any corn, he would have 
asked them to go for their own seed. "If you take 
anything different from what the king gave you that would be dishonesty. 

Maybe we are not destined for the throne. 

If so, let it be but don't be found to have deceived the king," they told 
him. 

The d-day came and the boys returned to the palace each of them proudly 
exhibiting a very fine corn seedling. 

It was obvious that the other nine boys had had great success with their 
seeds. 

The king began making his way down the line of eager boys and asked each of 
them, "Is this what came out of the seed I gave you?" And each boy 
responded, "Yes, your majesty." And the king would nod and move down the 
line. 

The king finally got to the last boy in the line-up. 

The boy was shaking with fear. He knew that the king was going to have him 
thrown into prison for wasting his seed. 

"What did you do with the seed I gave you?" the king asked. 

"I planted it and cared for it diligently, your majesty, but alas it failed 
to sprout." the boy said tearfully as the crowd booed him. 

But the king raised his hands and signaled for silence. Then he said, "My 
people, behold your next king." The people were confused. "Why that one?" 
many asked. 

"How can he be the right choice?" The king took his place on his throne 
with the boy by his side and said, "I gave these boys boiled seeds. This 
test was not for cultivating corn. 

It was the test of character; a test of integrity. It was the ultimate 
test. 

If a king must have one quality, it must be that he should be above 
dishonesty. 

Only this boy passed the test. A boiled seed cannot sprout." Never!! 

We live in a society that has become obsessed with success and many show 
success at any cost. We say the end justifies the means. It is the tragedy 
of life. 

You see, failure often is an invitation to God to show that he is all 
powerful and does not need help to make us great or to bless us. 

You know, sometimes God looks for people who will trust him completely no 
matter what so he could show the world that it is not by might or by power 
but by his spirit. 

God sometimes ordains failure?. 

But many seek to circumvent divinely ordained failure by resorting to 
dubious means. 

When a civil servant builds a big house and sends his five children to 
expensive schools when he does not have a second source of income, is that 
not a case of a boiled seed sprouting? 

When a minister of state is able to sustain a lavish mistress and at the 
same time put up houses from his income as minister, is that not a case of 
a boiled seed coming to life? 

Or a Former President of millions of poverty stricken people can build up world class private secondary school and university, within a short time, able to sustain numerous wives/concubines and fathered and educated about 45 children, own vast farm lands all over the country, travel round the world at an average of one trip per month, while the people of his country remain the poorest in the world! That is a case of boiled seed yielding hundred folds 
We should stop cheering rogues in WORLD!. 

I believe that we have all been given lives to lead according to God's plan 
and if we are living faithfully, we should all have different results. 

The Bible says the race is not for the swift and the battle is not for the 
strong. So how come, that in the WORLD the swift wins the race and the strong 
the battle? 

It is because we are refusing to remain faithful to God and refusing to 
allow God to be God in all things and in our affairs. 

Boiled seed does not sprout. Never!!! 

Next time you see a successful person, find out what kind of seed he was 
given and ask him, "how come your boiled seed has sprouted?"