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BREAK UP YOUR FALLOW GROUND Part II
WHAT ARE THESE THORNS WEEDS , TREES AND RUTS THAT CHOKE The WORD OF GOD IN OUR HEARTS?
Jesus gave us in Mark 4:18-19. They include "worries about all the things they (His people) have to do and all the things they want to get” (msg) In Matt. 13:22, the Bible tells us “weeds, worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun" (Msg).
Friends the first thing we need to do is to search our hearts. Remember these:
i. Not many of us can truly declare that all the soils of our heart are free of worries, cares, anxieties and issues the word of God warn us against. If not so the word of God should bountifully produce in our lives.
ii. Look back and consider your thought life and actions. Are there ingratitude to God for all He has done for you? Lacking in love for God and fellow man? Neglecting to study your bible and act on the word?
Struggling with unbelief and unforgiveness? lust?
Neglecting quiet time with God especially in prayers, family prayers? Lacking in love for lost souls? Neglecting family responsibilities?
Bitterness, pride, envy, slander and lying; cheating, robbing God in tithes, and offering, sinful anger, adultery, fornication and covetousness? Oppression? Indiscipline? Dishonest gains? Secular religion? Liberal or progressive Christianity?
Don’t forget 1 Peter 3:7 in your marital relationship. It tells us ”…You husbands must give honour to your wives. Treat her with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift or new life. If you don’t treat her as you should, your prayers will not be heard” (nlt).
Besides listen to this, “where your pleasure is, there is your treasure, where your treasure is, there is your happiness”
Is your heart with God?
In Jeremiah 17:9-10, God tells us “ The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I God search the heart and examine the mind. I get to the heart of the human …..” (Msg)
Friends like David, let us ask God for the right heart that God can dwell and His word can produce. When we are face to face with our sin hear him in Ps 51:5, 9,10, “Behold I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me…..Hide your face from my sins. And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a new heart, O God. And renew a steadfast spirit within me” (nkjv).
Where do we go from hear?
Friends without repentance there can be no restoration. No matter our prayers or intercessions we receive, if our heart is full of thorns it will not nurture the word of righteousness sown in us, so we must clear the weeds and cut down the trees and remove their stumps, so let us return to God in true repentance and He is willing, like the father of the prodigal son, to restore our privileges and fulfill His promises to us.
Isa 55:6-7 assures us “ seek the Lord while He may be found call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
Let him return to the Lord and He will have mercy on him and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (nkjv)
For fiends who are yet to receive the wonderful gift of salvation by grace and faith in Jesus. To receive forgiveness and obtain mercy and help to clean up our hearts, that is to break up our fallow grounds we need to repent of our sins and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. As all mankind by nature is in sins’ bondage it is Christ who sets us free, no one else and no other way. We all have sinned through Adam and are by God's divine plan set free in Jesus through His sacrificial death on the cross of Calvary.
When Adam sinned, sin entered the entire human race. Adam’s sin brought death! So death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned” (nlt).
Adam’s sin and later our own sin also have put us in enmity with God with no man qualified to deal with it and reconcile us to God. God sent Jesus His Son who died on the cross and saved us from all our sins and restored our loving relationship with Him
John:3:16 says “ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life’ (nkjv) and in another place God says “ For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trust in and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteousness, acceptable to God,) and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith in Christ) and confirms his salvation” Rom.10 ; 9,10 (Amp).
This is how the Philippian jailer ( Acts 16: 26, 30-31) received salvation “ He ( the jailer brought them (i.e. Paul and Silas) out and said” Sirs, what must I do to be saved? So Paul and Silas said “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household” (nkjv)
Friends this is your opportunity to be saved for eternal life with God in heaven and to establish a new relationship with God so that His word will produce in your life. Just declare this right now with all sincerity and faith from the bottom of your heart.
Lord Jesus I have all along lived in sin. I have been rebellious to Your word and scornful to Your name. But to day I repent of all my sins and all the evils of my life. I turn away from them and forsake them. O Lord I come to You for forgiveness
I lay all my sins, my burdens, my evil ways and the Idols of my heart at Your feet and ask for Your mercy and forgiveness.
I accept You as my Lord and Savior. Come into my heart and take control of my life, I accept Your gift of salvation . I believe You are the son of the living God. You died on the cross of Calvary and took away my sins and made me free of them. I receive You into my life, make me Your own in Jesus name I pray. Amen.
Thank God for this step you have taken. With the help of the Holy Sprit you can examine your heart and receive help to break up your fallow ground.
Friends we cannot of our own break up fallow grounds of our hearts. We need God's help all the way. “ For by strength no man shall prevail” (1 Sam 2:9)
Prayer is therefore indispensable if we must get our hearts prepared and ready to receive the word of God and have it produce for us to the glory of God.
1. Father show me and soften all the places in my life that have become hardened and unresponsive to you.
2. Father help me to guard the soil of my heart by allowing the Master Jesus through whom I was made and for whom I was made to work out the right condition in my inner being so that His word sown in my heart will bear much fruit to the glory of the Father
3. Father help me to yield all my past experiences, every hurt, unforgiveness and distractions over to you.
4. Father in you there is light and no darkness at all. Shine your marvelous light into every dark area of my life so that all hidden places are absorbed by your marvelous love.
5. Lord I submit my heart to You and lay it at Your altar. Help me break up my fallow ground in search of You that Your word will produce in my life in Jesus name.
6. Father circumcise my heart so that I do not sow in the midst of thorns but in obedience of Christ and reap a hundred fold.
May the Good Lord answer your prayers and not pass you by as He blesses His children through His word. Amen and Amen. Enter Message Here