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THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER PART 1 : THE WAY SIDE HEART
Our discourse has been on preparing, positioning and repositioning our hearts to return to God and be healed of the devastations of our acts of rebellion toward God so that His word can bear fruit and bless us. We need must do this to avoid His fierce anger in disobedience to His instructions, through His word, prophets and counselors.
To the people of Judah, Jerusalem and Israel at the time and to us today God said through prophet Jeremiah in the Book of Jeremiah 4:3 “ Plow up the hard ground of your hearts (Break up your fallow ground NKJV)! Do not waste your good seed among thorns” (NLT). Through prophet Hosea in Hosea 10:12. He warned “plant the seed of righteousness and you will harvest a
crop of My righteousness. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts (“Break up your fallow ground” NKJV) for now is the time to seek the Lord that He may come and shower righteousness upon you” (NLT)
Because we are dealing with God’s concern with our heart condition toward Him and His word, we seek and receive direction through the Lord’s parable of the sower in the Books of (Mathew 13:1-8, 18-23 and Mark 4:3-9, 13-20).
For the Lord is equally concerned with our repentance unto salvation and that His word taught and preached lead to the transformation of lives of the people He died for so that they can be His fruitful army to dislodge the rule of satan, the dominion of evil and the power of sin from the seven mountains of influence, enthrone His rule, His principles, His values and the lifestyle of the kingdom He preached so forcefully while on earth thus expanding His kingdom and implanting the glory of God in all the earth so that the Kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. For every believer and the church must fulfill the great commission and disciple the nations of the earth by bringing them into God’s kingdom.
So we look at the soil of our heart and begin with the ‘pathway heart.’ In the Lord’s explanation of the parable of the sower He said in Mathew 13:19 “ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is He who received seed by the way side” (NKJV).
From the Lord’s explanation the hearer of the word with the pathway heart lacks understanding. Why do we lack understanding?
Firstly what is the meaning of understanding?
From vine’s concise Dictionary of Bible words, the Greek sunesis, ‘understanding’ means to set together, to understand, reflective thought as in 1 Cor.1:19 ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent” (NKJV).
From Sakal (Heb) it means “To be prudent, act wisely, give attention to, ponder”. It denotes to look at, to give attention to as illustrated in the parallelism “that they may see an know, and consider and understand” (ISA 41:20 NKJV)
From ginosko (Greek) it also means to perceive, as in John 10:6 “Jesus used this parable (illustration) with them, but they did not understand what he was saying” (NKJV).
There is also pisteuo (Greek) which means “believe” Act 8:37 Then Philip said “If you believe with all your heart, you may” And the Ethiopian eunuch answered “I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.”
Here we observe that the Ethiopian eunuch understood the scripture he read after Philip explained it. He listened and paid attention to Philip. Then He understood and believed and so we can further explain that to understand denotes comprehension of knowledge resulting from intelligence and reasons. It implies a mental grasp of the nature and significance of something with discernment and good judgment,
Reasons for lack of understanding which we must guard against.
1. Impenetrability of man’s heart by the word of the Kingdom, powerful as the word is (sharper than any two- edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow…” Hebrews 4:12b NKJV) is caused by wickedness and sin. Exodus 9:34 says “And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more, and he hardened his heart” …(NKJV)
2. The heart of man is the dwelling place of the Spirit and the Lord Eph 3:16-17 “…. May Christ through your faith (actually) dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts. “ (NKJV). Where a man does not make room for the Lord in His heart he cannot enjoy the benefit of a heart that is receptive to spiritual things.
3. Where someone is an unbeliever in the work of Grace of the lord Jesus or even on the redemptive power of the cross, his heart will be a hard place and unreceptive to the word of the kingdom.
4. A proud heart will not gain understanding because to him the simplicity of the Gospel makes the good news of salvation and the gospel of the kingdom foolishness to him and the word of God preached or taught will find no room in his heart. The devil must part with it.
5. Furthermore persons whether believers or unbelievers who fail for whatever reasons to listen, be attentive and expectant when the word of God is being preached or taught cannot hear it no matter who was delivering the message. It is not unusual for even a personal prophecy to be given to someone yet the person heard and understood something different because of the mindset and other barriers the hearer has allowed to frustrate the entrance of the word to his heart. So he heard but failed to understand and could not retain the word and benefit from it.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WAY SIDE HEART
1. He hears the word, does not understand it and does not ask any question like the Ethiopian eunuch did with Philip in Acts 8 and so can never understand. The word is lost in social media, in his wandering mind over natural things of this world and the devil readily takes it away. In many cases such hearers do not even remember the word of God they heard or read.
2. They are superficial hearers upon whom the word of the kingdom has no effect. The word as the saying goes enters ‘the east ear and leaves immediately by the west ear’.
3. The truth of the Gospel is constantly being contradicted by their preconceived ideas and doctrines of demons. Today there is the satanic conflict between God and science and humanistic philosophy and what is called progressive Christianity.
4. Such hearers do not realize their personal need of the word of God or even of salvation of their souls. For them hell is not real.
5. Many of such wayside hearts have not had the benefit of sound teaching. Prosperity messages which have not benefited them condemn in their hearts the whole power and veracity of the word of God.
They even refuse to listen or study the word of truth or listen to prophetic messages for many of them there are no prophets today.
Consequently they cannot bear any fruit because the word preached was not acceptable to them. The Spirit of God is shut out of such souls and the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit and the word of God cannot transform such lives. They remain totally fruitless and a playground for demonic powers.
The Lord’s will is for all to come to Him. He is not interested in any man to perish because He died for all. He wants all men saved and all nations must be brought into His kingdom. For “the kingdoms of this world must became the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ”. (Rev 11:15 NKJV). God needs fruitful men and women(who are called, chosen, and faithful) to serve Him. These are not people with wayside hearts.
Again Jesus is the lamb that was slain who worthily received power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessings. These are all attributes of majesty tied up in the seven mountains of culture: Family, Religion, Economy, Government/Politics, Media, Art and entertainment and Education. These are currently controlled by demonic powers who control the minds and activities in nations under them. If the people of these nations have no understanding of the word of God, then they will perpetually be under the influence of these evil powers. Therefore believers must intercede and evangelize to bring these hearts to Christ so they can receive the gospel message. God has given His word and His Spirit to the church to accomplish this as part of their main discipleship activities.
To enable people with this type of heart to gain understanding and grow in the faith, they must know the Lord. They must be brought to the same position of the two disciples of Jesus. In Luke 24:45 Jesus spoke to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus and He “ opened the disciples’ understanding so that they could understand the scriptures about Him”
The word of God is powerful and with the help of the Holy Spirit, wayside hearts can become receptive and fertile to bear fruit for the lord and allow the promise of God to the fulfilled in their lives.
Friends it is important to hear the word of God, your creator and be able to listen, pay attention and understand so you can apply it for your good and for the transformation of the lives of others.
Remember, like King David we pray to God to hear us and attend to our supplications. Is it not profitable that when He speaks to us we listen to receive wisdom and provision to run our life?
Indeed it is the desire of God that the church and every believer should receive power to occupy the seven mountains of culture that control nations which unfortunately are now occupied by demonic powers who control nations of the earth?
How can we do this without listening, considering, meditating upon and understanding the word of God?
In Revelation 17, the demonic power sitting on many waters i.e. “ peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues and that rules over kings of the earth can only be dislodged by Christ and those who are “called, chosen and faithful” (Rev 17:14, 15, NKJV). You can be one of them! Purpose in your heart to hear the word of God, listen to it, ponder over it, meditate on it and the Holy Spirit will grant you understanding. Then you will bear fruit unto God
Peace be unto you.