In the Parable of the Sower [Matthew 13], we see a farmer throwing seeds liberally as he moves along. Some seed fall on the pathway; some on rocky ground; some on thorny ground; and some on good ground. We all know how each of type of ground responded to the seed thrown and sown to it.
As I was pondering on this parable – it was preached by my pastor two Sundays ago and was one of the topics in my discipleship class – the Lord gave me the following revelation:
The farmer merely scatters the seed, but he has no control of the type of ground the seed lands on, or how much growth it will achieve – if it grows at all. The farmer sows the seeds freely, leaving the growth process to the forces of nature. Although the growth of the seed is not in the control of the ground it falls on, the type of the ground does determine the growth of the seed and its fruitfulness.
The Lord showed me that though the leadership in my congregation has been “sowing” seeds of the Kingdom to us (through the preaching Sunday after Sunday, through sharing in cell group meetings, through teachings in discipleship classes), the pastors, ministers and cell group leaders can only do so much. No matter how many seeds they throw our way, if our hearts are not open, ready and right before God, no reception of seed can take place and no growth can happen.
God revealed to me that while it is only the Holy Spirit who can produce maturity and growth in us, it is nonetheless our responsibility to prepare and cultivate our hearts to become good ground in which seeds of His Kingdom can be sown. We are accountable for clearing out the thorns in our hearts, removing the rocks that might prevent roots from going down deep, and keeping the birds from taking the seeds.
Kingdom seeds of leadership, submission, loyalty and faithfulness (among others) are being liberally sown in our congregation. I don’t think our pastoral staff and leaders are short in that department. The congregation – if we are at all spiritually attentive and alert – is being bombarded by good seed. And many of us are not taking advantage of this opportunity.
The problem is the state of our hearts! We have thorny hearts and we do not pull the thorns out. We have rocky hearts and we do not remove the stones. We have hardened hearts and we do not plow. We are not tending our garden and we are not keeping the foxes out. And we wonder why we are not getting breakthroughs in our lives or why we are spiritually dry.
Seed is useless if the ground won’t yield. We can stock up on all the seeds we can get, but if our hearts are “pathway” hearts, the birds will come and take the seed away; if “thorny”, the seedlings will get choked up; if “rocky”, the sprouts will be shallow-rooted and easily fall away.
We are to break our fallow ground. We are to cultivate our hearts and soften it to receive Kingdom seed. Yes, it is only God who can cause all things to grow, but it is our job to prepare our hearts – by being humble, yielded and teachable. God can do (and has done) great things through us and for us, but there are some things that He wants us to do for ourselves – He has given us free will after all.
There are plenty of good seeds to spare, scattered all over the proverbial agricultural field. The question is:
Have we made our hearts a good place for God to sow Kingdom seed in?
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