Answer:
According to Paul the workers do the planting and the watering and Christ brings the increase…
1 Corinthians 3:5-9 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
He also writes in this chapter, and compares his work as laying a foundation and another helping to build upon that…
1 Corinthians 3:10-11 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
I love the way Paul ends… For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
I believe what Paul wants to convey is that really Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. No work anyone does could be accomplished without the first foundation being laid which is Jesus Christ, and no work can increase and flourish without Jesus Christ. Christ can also accomplish any step in between (even planting the seed as we often see where someone has a revelation or dream about Jesus when they were never witnessed to before).
My own pastor often tells me…somedays I sow seed, somedays I water, somedays I harvest…but it is ALWAYS Christ who brings the increase!!!!
Good question,
Pastor Brad