Sowing and Reaping - Matthew 13
God sows His kingdom into the earth by human agreement. He gave the earth to man:
Psalm 115:15-16 NKJV — May you be blessed by the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s; But the earth He has given to the children of men.
The world I am experiencing around me is the way it is because of what I am praying... Not just saying... Listening, taking in, and repeating. The earth around me is mine to tend. How am I tending it today?
Psalm 115:15-16 NKJV — May you be blessed by the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s; But the earth He has given to the children of men.
The world I am experiencing around me is the way it is because of what I am praying... Not just saying... Listening, taking in, and repeating. The earth around me is mine to tend. How am I tending it today?
The results all around me tell me for sure. If I am letting the world choke out the kingdom... Or hard heartedly resisting the kingdom, though I am excited about it... Or just distracted and missing all the goodness that could be my testimony... It isn't that God isn't speaking, it's that I'm not doing anything helpful with what He is saying! Am I living in the reality I actually want?
We open our heart to receive the truth God sows. God makes the truth grow inside of us and we sow, more and more into the world around us.
Fruit is full of seeds... The fruit of the Spirit is fully able to multiply no matter what circumstances are happening on the ground. Peace can pass understanding, joy is not circumstantial, kindness can be toward enemies, etc…. If I am willing to participate in the kingdom actually growing.
Isaiah 55:10-11 NKJV — “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
This is what the parable of the sower is really about... Receiving, and producing, from the words God speaks. Our part is small, but essential. In the parable, we are receivers that then produce... we are the soil... the dust… God imparts the life.
Matthew 13:18-23 NKJV — “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: “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 wayside. “But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; “yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. “Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. “But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
The seed is God's words to us... Yes, the written word, but even more importantly, the still small voice received in faith. Most of the people in heaven never owned a Bible, they were possessed, or filled, with the Spirit of God.
Ephesians 5:17-19 NKJV — Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
If I take the time to look God's way in faith, ask Him what He is saying, and then take in the words He whispers (or sometimes shouts) in faith, and act on them... The small faithful acts of reception... The kingdom will surely abound more and more around me.
I could know everything about what should happen and still never make myself a part of it actually happening! That would be a total waste of my life.
James 1:21-25 NKJV — Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
We open our heart to receive the truth God sows. God makes the truth grow inside of us and we sow, more and more into the world around us.
Fruit is full of seeds... The fruit of the Spirit is fully able to multiply no matter what circumstances are happening on the ground. Peace can pass understanding, joy is not circumstantial, kindness can be toward enemies, etc…. If I am willing to participate in the kingdom actually growing.
Isaiah 55:10-11 NKJV — “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
This is what the parable of the sower is really about... Receiving, and producing, from the words God speaks. Our part is small, but essential. In the parable, we are receivers that then produce... we are the soil... the dust… God imparts the life.
Matthew 13:18-23 NKJV — “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: “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 wayside. “But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; “yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. “Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. “But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
The seed is God's words to us... Yes, the written word, but even more importantly, the still small voice received in faith. Most of the people in heaven never owned a Bible, they were possessed, or filled, with the Spirit of God.
Ephesians 5:17-19 NKJV — Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,
If I take the time to look God's way in faith, ask Him what He is saying, and then take in the words He whispers (or sometimes shouts) in faith, and act on them... The small faithful acts of reception... The kingdom will surely abound more and more around me.
I could know everything about what should happen and still never make myself a part of it actually happening! That would be a total waste of my life.
James 1:21-25 NKJV — Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
This is the way Yeshua showed us to recieve the truth unto life.
On Friday, the Lord was put into the tomb, on Saturday, God was still working...
John 12:23 But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. 24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
On Friday, the Lord was put into the tomb, on Saturday, God was still working...
John 12:23 But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. 24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
Praise You Lord, may Your word grow deep roots in my heart and produce fruit. Give me eyes to see Your Kingdom as it increases in Your glory and beauty.
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