Heart Tracks - The Seed

"But other seed fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Matthew 13:8-9...."Jesus preached the Kingdom and reaped Kingdom lives."...
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The verses above are from Jesus' parable about the sower and the seed. Of how the sower, representing the Spirit, spread the seed of the Kingdom, His Word, upon different types of ground. There were varying responses to the seed, from total failure to produce "fruit," through a short lived response to the seed that had initial fruit, but then withered and died, to that seed which produced an abundant crop. My questions for each of us are these; just how often have you heard this parable, and, what kind of "ground," that is, your heart, are you? What kind of ground am I?

In Jesus' ministry of the Kingdom to those who came to Him, He spoke constantly about His listeners "receiving" that Kingdom, of receiving His words. This implies something far more and deeper than just hearing the words, or even memorizing them. To receive His words means that they take root in our hearts, that they become a literal part of us, of who we are. Out of that flows Kingdom fruit. There are so many who have heard the word, who "know" His word, but who have never received His word. His words have no real power in their lives, have produced no eternal fruit in their lives, because those words have never really been received into their lives. As someone put it, they may know what the particular verse says, but not what Jesus said, and meant in that verse, in those words. There's a very great difference. As I heard it put, when His word has its way in us, we live, work, and yes, look like Jesus. That's the proof, the fruit of really receiving His word.

One of the greatest definitions of what real discipleship is, said that to truly disciple someone, we have to teach them to really hear Jesus, to hear the voice of the Spirit. We see this in the ministry of Christ to His disciples. For three years they literally sat at His feet, listened to His words, yet continually missed the fullness of what He was saying. They heard the words but missed His meaning. It was not until Pentecost, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that all those words He'd spoken to them, began to have growing and deeper meaning to them. They began to understand. That is how we "teach" people to hear Jesus. We don't just give them verses to memorize; or even a Savior to "accept." We lead them to a Christ who will saturate their lives with His. He will then till the "soil" of their lives, as He tills the soil of ours, removing all the stones, thorns, and shallowness found there, making it rich in His Kingdom. When we come to Him in every part of our lives, He comes into every part of our lives with Himself. That is what is meant to receive Him. He enters in, and He is not satisfied with anything less than full entry into all of our life. This can happen only at the cross. Has He had full entry into ours?

Jesus said, "To you has been given the mystery of the Kingdom." He does not mean that it should remain so, but that He would then open that mystery to those who receive Him, and it's a process that begins in this realm and will continue throughout eternity. His expectation then is that we who have truly heard and received His word, will then begin to sow that word into the lives and situations we encounter every day.....starting with our own. Are we doing that?

Jesus said, "Freely have I given, freely must you receive." He has already given us the fullness of Himself, who is the Living Word of God. Have we ever truly received? The answer is in our fruit. We may know all that He has said, yet know nothing, experience nothing of what He meant. What springs from the soil of our hearts? Do we know what He has said, but have no understanding or experience of it?

Blessings,
Pastor O