THE WORD IS THE SEED - HOW GOOD IS YOUR GROUND?
From The HeartPublish date: 11/28/1999
Mark 4:14-20 (NKJ)
14"The sower sows the word.
God sows the seed of the word in our hearts. His word is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews
15"And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan
The word does not go very far into some people. It lands right beside them, not inside them. They allow the devil to steal it immediately. The moment they hear it, they have already forgotten it. “In one ear and out the other!”
16"These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness;
17"and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble.
The “stony ground” people receive the word and allow it past their ears into their heart, but because the ground of their heart is hard, the word is not allowed to dig down and be
18"Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word,
19"and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it be
Some “weedy” and “thorny” people hear the word, but because they allow worries, greed, lust and covetousness into their hearts, the word is choked right out of their hearts. You can’t have the weeds and the good seed of the word growing together. The nature of weeds is to overtake and destroy the good plants. You will have to weed your garden and root out all the bad attitudes if you want the word to produce in your life.
20"But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred."
Your heart is good ground only if you hear the word, accept it and bear fruit. The word must be allowed to take root in you in a clean, soft patch of heart that is not being choked by the weeds. Each person’s fruit is going to be different – thirty, sixty or one hundred fold – depending on how good the soil is, how deep the roots go and how often it is watered. You cannot just be a hearer of the word you must be a doer too.
James 1:23-25 (NKJ)
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.
Luke 6:46-49 (NKJ)
"But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do the things which I say?
"Whoever