Faith
Parable of the Sower
The Mystery of the Kingdom of God.
"And He said to them, 'To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that 'Seeing they may see and not perceive, And hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, And their sins be forgiven them'" (Mark 4:11, 12). Notice that this is the mystery of the Kingdom of God, not one of its mysteries.
The Strong's Concordance defines mystery as the Greek word: musterion {moos-tay'-ree-on}; from a derivative of muo (to shut the mouth); hidden thing, secret, mystery; generally mysteries, religious secrets, confided only to the initiated and not to ordinary mortals.
I believe that mysteries in the Bible are things that are hidden from ordinary understanding but are meant to be revealed to those who passionately dig for them and who meet the conditions to receive revelation knowledge, rhema, from God.
In this book about faith we have been discussing what faith is, what it's intended value is, how we receive it, and many of our responsibilities for adding ingredients to it. Jesus simplified the faith process in the Parable of the Sower in Mark chapter 4. He made it simple enough for the uneducated fishermen of His day to understand, but so simple that it confounded the learned and lettered religious people of His time. Interestingly, it is still hidden from many Christians today.
Desperation.
I recall back in the early 1980s when and how God revealed this mystery to me. It crashed into my soul like light crashing into a dark place. It was during a time of great need and desperation in my life. I had always been hungry to hear God speak, but when He spoke this time, it came in with a loud crashing and life-changing event.
Notice in the above Scripture that Jesus stated that He intentionally has this mystery hidden. I often wondered why He would say, "And hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, And their sins be forgiven them." He was referring to Isaiah chapter 6 wherein it is recorded that Isaiah had a new revelation of the Lord. This occurred when his King Uzziah died. Uzziah had been a great and powerful king of Israel. He brought prosperity and safety from enemies. But when he died, Isaiah's hope turned only to the Lord. It is out of that desperation that God reveals Himself to people. In that same chapter, God called Isaiah to go preach an unusual message.
"And He said, 'Go, and tell this people: 'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.'' Then I said, 'Lord, how long?' And He answered: 'Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate'" (Isaiah 6:9-11).
When Isaiah asked the Lord how long he should preach this strange message, the answer was, in my paraphrase, "Until they become desperate."
The Parable of the Sower.
Mark 4:1-25
1 And again He began to teach by the sea. And a great multitude was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea.
2 Then He taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching:
3 "Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.
4 "And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it.
5 "Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.
6 "But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away.
7 "And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.
8 "But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred."
9 And He said to them, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
10 But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable.
11 And He said to them, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables,
12 "so that 'Seeing they may see and not perceive, And hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, And their sins be forgiven them.'"
13 And He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?
The seed is the Word of God, the ground is the heart. The Word is intended to and is capable of bringing to you everything you need for life, but too many people forfeit the treasure! Why? Like the natural farmer whose crops fail, they fail to tend the garden.
14 "The sower sows the word.
[Luke 8:11 says, "Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God."]
Hard ground, a hard heart.
15 "And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.
The shallow heart. Too much trouble.
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.
Wherein lies the failure?
I have seen too many believers absolutely forfeit their inheritance by giving in to their emotions when trouble and persecution hit them. Complaining, being unthankful and many such ungodly attitudes gives Satan what he is looking for, a seed that he can steal. The inheritance that God desires for these people is then lost. The only way our faith will produce is to maintain a godly attitude during our trouble and persecution. We must be forgiving and walk in love, which includes taking up our cross against ungodly emotions.
Watchman Nee wrote:
"And he said, 'Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the LORD to you: 'Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's''" (2 Chronicles 20:15).
Fight to get the victory, and you have lost the battle at the very onset.
Your discomfiture as a Christian starts the moment you begin to reckon that you must win. Suppose Satan sets out to assault you in your home or in your business.
Difficulties mount up, misunderstandings arise, a situation you can neither deal with nor escape threatens to overwhelm you. You pray, you fast, you struggle and resist for days, but nothing happens.
Why? You are trying to fight into victory, and in doing so are relinquishing the very ground that is yours. For in the person of Jesus Christ God has already conquered. Victory is ours because it is his. He has given us his victory to hold. Satan is a defeated foe. It needs but a breath from the Lord to finish him off, and here you are trying to raise a hurricane! What then is the secret? Simply look up and praise him. "Thy victory, Lord, is all-inclusive. I praise thee it covers this situation too!" Then be at rest in a triumph already secured for you by God.
The worldly heart. Too much pleasure.
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 becomes unfruitful.
The good heart is the noble and honest heart.
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."
[Luke 8:15 says, " But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience."]
This is called grace. This is watching God's seed becoming a full grown plant in your life. It is an absolutely amazing experience!
To see God provide for your needs beyond what your own ability could accomplish is amazing. Beyond that, to see God reach out to save and heal others beyond what your ability could accomplish is even more amazing. How can I describe it? You have to taste it for yourself.
Seeds do not hide in the ground forever.
21 Also He said to them, "Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand?
22 "For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light.
In 2002, God took me to the other side of the world to an African nation to visit a group who had been using our Grow or Die book for discipleship. I saw fruit! I should not have been amazed, but I was! I saw refugees who could not legally obtain work because they were not citizens bearing fruit for their own lives and for the Kingdom of God. They had planted five churches in previously unreached villages, some of them deep in jungles. When I boarded the airplane for my trip home, the Lord said to me, "Also He said to them, 'Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed? Is it not to be set on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light" (Mark 4:21, 22). It was Father's Day in the United States of America, and I received a prophecy from a friend of mine that my Father wanted to take me, His son, on a special trip just to show him some cool things and to spend time with him. He did and I was amazed! When we see God's fruit in our lives, it humbles us, knowing that something was accomplished by grace, by Jesus in us. It causes us to respond like Peter did to the large catch of fish, "Depart from me for I am a sinful man" (Luke 5:8).
Your spiritual eyes and ears either grow or die.
23 "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear."
24 Then He said to them, "Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.
25 "For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.""
God's word is a supernatural seed. It is real!
When God speaks His Word to us, it is planted into our hearts as a seed planted into the ground. It is intended to bring fruit to our lives and to further the Kingdom of God. This is how God relates to us, through His Word in our hearts. Notice in the parable that when this seed is planted, Satan goes to work. Satan is not afraid of us, he is only afraid of Jesus. And Jesus is manifested today as the Word planted into our hearts. Living this way will certainly bring tribulation and suffering, but it will also bring the abundant life the Jesus spoke of.
After the class the students failed the test.
Immediately, the same day, after this teaching, Jesus gave the final examination to His disciples when He said, "On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, 'Let us cross over to the other side'" (Mark 4:35).
As He spoke this, the Word was planted in their hearts just as He had been teaching them. However, the circumstances immediately were contrary to the planted Word.
"And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, 'Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?'" (Mark 4:37, 38).
Jesus responded in mercy but also with a disciplinary word.
"Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, 'Peace, be still!' And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, 'Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?'" (Mark 4:39, 40).
Did they learn the lesson?
"And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, 'Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!'" (Mark 4:41).
Trust the Word, trust Him, trust His mighty power, trust His love for you, and not your physical senses.
"Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him" (Hebrews 10:38).
The Word planted into your heart is the title deed, the guarantee of His promise.
Hebrews 11:1 (Amplified Bible) says, "NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, (the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]."
It is similar to a pregnant woman who cannot yet see the baby, but she knows that something alive is in her.
What kind of fruit can you expect to see?
In general, the Word of God manifests God's plan for your life when you live by bearing fruit. I believe that since our body is God's temple that we can expect to see those items that were in the Old Testament temple to be manifested as fruit in our lives.
There are three kinds of fruit, one for everything we need and everything God needs.
1. Fruit of the Spirit. The Law. Interior fruit. This is godly character. This is the fruit that makes you like Jesus. Read Galatians 5:22-23. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."
2. Fruit for our lives. Manna. This includes our social situation, family, health and body, financial, etc. 3 John 1:2 that says, "Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." I have experienced more of my needs cared for as my character changed. Read 1 Corinthians 9:7 which says, "Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk?" John 4:36 says, "Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together."
A personal testimony.
There was a time in our lives back in 1983 when our income was not sufficient to meet our projected expenses. I got alone with the Lord in a local park, just walking and kicking rocks, telling Him about my problem.
He spoke so clearly and said, "Larry, if you will believe 2 Corinthians 9:8, put it on your lips and in your heart, and if you will speak it out as many times during the day as you can, I will provide for your needs. By the way, please tell me what your budget is." So I told the Lord the minimum that I needed to care for my family. In less than five months our income increased to just what I had told the Lord I needed! However, reflecting on this time in my life, I must admit that for years prior to this time I had been giving sacrificially, even large amounts out of my very need.
3. Missionary fruit. Aaron's Rod that budded. Fruit for others or ministry. "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples" (John 15:8). Our work for the Lord will not count for much, unless it is fruit and not the work of our flesh.
All fruit has seed inside of it for reproduction. Genesis 1:11 says, "Then God said, 'Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.' And it was so." Once the interior fruit grows inside of us, it spills out seeds that produce exterior fruit, or ministry to others.
A personal testimony.
I had never really planned to have a ministry such as International School of The Bible. I always had a heart to serve God, however. In 1995 The Lord spoke to me in two ways. He spoke Psalm 68:11, which says, "The Lord gave the word; Great was the company of those who proclaimed [published] it" (Psalms 68:11). He told me that if I wrote and published the Word, that He would see to it that a great host would proclaim it, or re-publish it.
He also spoke to me from Mark chapter 14 where it tells the story of a woman who broke her alabaster flask to pour out its costly oil of spikenard on Jesus. The Lord spoke to me and said, "Larry, will you take your substance and pour it out on My Body, just because it feels good to Me?"
These Words or rhemas from the Lord became seeds in my heart, and they are now bearing their fruit! The interesting thing is, that the seeds continually multiply with each piece of fruit, which causes the fruit to grow exponentially! It has and still is, and the nice thing is that I had very little to do with it. Sure I worked hard, but only in obedience to what I heard God speak to my heart. I attempt to avoid "my plans."
Seek intimacy with God. Prepare your heart to be good ground. You will encounter much warfare, but you will glorify God.
"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they [the KJV original version identifies "they" as men] gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples" (John 15:1-8).
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