The truth today is that many of us read the parables of Jesus in the gospels without really taking time to absorb their practical implications into our lives. Jesus really was not telling those parables for the sake of telling sake, there are abundant truths and deeper revelations to them than meet the eyes. There was a time His disciples asked Him, in Matthew 13:10: “Why do You speak to them in parables?” The answer He gave was this: “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

 

From there, we could deduce that certain people are not coming into terms with the message of the kingdom that Jesus was talking about, but those parables have in them coded messages for our own edification. And so today, I want us to examine the Parable of the Sower closely and its practical implications to our lives today. Let us read the book of Luke 8:4-8, and 11-15. The Bible says:

 

"And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city, He spoke by a parable: ⁵ “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. ⁶ Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. ⁷ And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. ⁸ But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.” When He had said these things He cried, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

"Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. ¹² Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. ¹³ But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. ¹⁴ Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. ¹⁵ But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience."

 

Now there are a number of things we would be examining from this passage. Three subject matter are of utmost importance to us. Those three important things are: THE SEED, THE SOWER, and THE SOIL. These three major areas formed the basis upon which the parable was conveyed. Let us begin by examining them one after the other.

 

THE SEED

What is a seed? In agriculture, a seed represent a unit of reproduction of a flowering plant, capable of developing into such plant. That tells us that if a farmer wants to reap maize for instance in a near future, he plants a maize seed, and not a mango seed. Whatever you want the outcome of your harvest to be, you simply plant a seed that is capable of giving you such an harvest. It would be an outright self deception for you to plant a mango seed and then wants to reap an orange fruit. So a farmer who has the desire to reap some certain fruits as harvest plants seeds in tandem to those fruits.

 

Scripturally, the seed is the substance of the kingdom of God and it is the word of God that is being preached to you or you are being taught. 1 Peter 1:23 and Luke 8:11 says "having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever." and "Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God." Those Bible passages simply confirms that the word of God is a seed. That tells us that each time the word of God is being preached or taught us, a SEED is being sown into our lives.

 

So, when the word of God comes to you and says "be fruitful", that then becomes a seed and it is supposed to produce fruitfulness in your life. When we look around and we don't see fruitfulness, that means there is something wrong somewhere. And most times, the problem is not with the seed because the Bible makes it clear that the seed is always good. There is nothing wrong absolutely with the word of God because we understood from Matthew 13:37b that the seed is good.

 

Also we know from the book of Isaiah that God's word will not return back to Him void until it has accomplish that which He has sent it to accomplish.

 

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.

Isaiah 55:11

 

What then does this imply? It tells us that there is nothing wrong with the word of God. When the word of God is being preached to us, and it appears that nothing really is happening, the fault is not always with the word of God, which is the seed, because the Bible makes us to understand that the seed is good. The problem is always with the adversary, the enemy of the seed, who doesn't want the seed to grow in you. So, what he does is that he creates situations and circumstances around the seed in order to choke it. Each time the devil shows up, he shows up to come wrestle against the word, and against the convictions that you have in the word of God.

 

²⁴ Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; ²⁵ but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. ²⁶ But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. ²⁷ So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ ²⁸ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ ²⁹ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”

Matthew 13:24-30

 

From the passage, we can see that the adversary will always come for the word of God. Because he knows there is a time lag between when the seed is sown and when the harvest would manifest. He knows that patience is required to be able to nurse the seed into the time the harvest would manifest. And so, he comes with all the trials and temptations available to him to make you lose that good seed, and this is where you must stand your grand against the adversary. James 1:2-4 tells us: "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, ³ knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. ⁴ But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."

 

It is the period when you must allow your patience level to be on the highest because the adversary would do all that he could to make you lose your patience. He would show you how the harvest is taking longer than necessary. You must not give in to his demands, you must not allow him take away the good seed that has been planted.

 

 

HOW TO MAINTAIN YOUR STAYING POWER ON THE WORD OF GOD

The question then is: How can one make sure that he does not give in to the adversary when he comes for the word? How can one remain resolute to one's conviction in the word of God even amidst trials and temptations?

 

1.) Wait on the Lord in Prayer

You don't stop praying until you see the harvest of the word of God that has been sown into your life. Prayer is like the water that wets the seed unto manifestation. It is like a hedge that is built around the word that keeps out intruders. Nehemiah 4:1-6 showed us how the people prayed until the wall came up.

 

But it so happened, when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious and very indignant, and mocked the Jews. ² And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish—stones that are burned?” ³ Now Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Whatever they build, if even a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.” ⁴ Hear, O our God, for we are despised; turn their reproach on their own heads, and give them as plunder to a land of captivity! ⁵ Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You; for they have provoked You to anger before the builders. ⁶ So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

 

 

2.) Stand Strong In Faith

You must never lose sight of your faith that the word of God can produce that which is meant to produce. God Himself said it in Isaiah 55:11 that His word will not return back to Him void but shall accomplish and prosper in the thing He has sent it to accomplish. But how does this happen? Through faith. See what apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16:13, it says: "Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. ¹⁴ Let all that you do be done with love." So, you watch in prayers as have been said in the previous point, and then you stand fast in faith. That tells us that faith is an essential part in nurturing the word of God into manifestation in our lives.

 

 

3.) Let Your Hope Be In The Word

 

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
And in His word I do hope.
⁶ My soul waits for the Lord
More than those who watch for the morning—
Yes, more than those who watch for the morning

Psalms 130:5-6

 

 

THE SOWER

Now, the sower too is as important as the seed. The sower is the preacher or the teacher of the word. In the case of the parable under consideration, the sower is the Son of Man (Matthew 13:37b), which is Jesus. Any message today being preached that is not centered around the WORD OF GOD or the person and the message of Jesus Christ is not a correct message. The message must be about the God and His kingdom. Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians in Galatians 1:9 that "As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed."

 

There are many sowers today sowing different things in the hearts of men. People are no longer sowing the undiluted word of God, but rather, they are sowing cultures and traditions to men. Jesus didn't sow cultures and traditions of men at the time, and no wonder His message was able to deeply penetrate the hearts of men. See what 2 Peter 2:1-3 says about some sowers of today.

 

"But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. ² And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. ³ By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber."

 

So, Peter said "there were false prophets among the people." As they were then, they are still so much around even today. They are sowing the wrong words and the wrong messages. No wonder we have such a huge body of Christ with believers who aren't growing and maturing because the right words to grow and mature them aren't been sowed in their hearts. They sow "heresies" and "deceptive words" that takes people away from the path of the truth. These ones are not the right sowers. The question then is: Who is sowing what into your life? Who is your Pastor, your Mentor, your teacher? Are they sowing the truth to you or they are sowing their own carefully crafted words? Does their message lead you back to God or does it lead you back to somewhere else outside God? You need to think about this really.

 

These set of sowers at the end of the day would be judged. 2 Peter 2:3b tells us "for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber." Such sowers would receive their rewards at the end of the day, which is destruction. Even Prophet Jeremiah talked about them a bit. Jeremiah 23:1-2 (AKJV), the Bible says:

 

"Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord. ² Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord."

 

They won't go scot-free. They will eventually be judged at the fullness of time. But you must watch out as a believer who sows what into your heart. Don't allow anyone plants junks in your heart calling it the word of God. You must be able to sieve everything through the lenses of the word of God. Apostle Paul wrote about the Berea church folks, how that they were more noble than the Thessalonica folks because each time they receive the word of God, they go back home to examine those words again (Acts 17:11). This should be our attitude in today's world.

 

Listen To Podcast: The Parable of The Sower: The Practical Implication To Us

 

THE SOIL

The word of God is a seed which is sowed into the hearts of many, but is it not everyone that would experience the full harvest. For a farmer to experience a full harvest, there is need for him first and foremost, select the good seeds to plant, and then look for the right soil to plant the seed. How the word of God impacts our individual lives would be determined by how we receive them in our heart. Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:18 that "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." You would see that the message is the same, but different people received them differently.

 

There are different kinds of hearts. The first is a HEARING BUT AN UNRESPONSIVE HEART. Verse 12 of Luke shows us this. It says: ¹² Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved." Many people hear the word of God today but unfortunately, as the word comes in from one ear, it goes out from the other one. For this people, the devil did not even allow the word to stay in their heart talk less of it changing them. These set of people don't see the need for them to be saved from whatever it is that has held them captive.

 

The second category of heart is a HEARING, RESPONSIVE BUT NOT A MEDITATIVE HEART. Verse 13 of Luke 8 shows us this category of people. ¹³ But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away." What makes the word of God takes root in our hearts is in the place of meditation. We ponder upon the word until we begin to see it form in our lives. So, because the word has not taken roots in them, at the slightest of temptation, they fall for the adversary's gimmicks.

 

The third category of heart is a HEARING, RESPONSIVE, MEDITATIVE BUT A FEEBLE HEART. Verse 14 of Luke chapter 8 shows us the people in this category. ¹⁴ Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity." The challenge with this kind of heart is that is lacked the staying power to retain the word of God until it starts to see the manifestation of the word.

 

The fourth category of heart is a HEARING, RESPONSIVE, MEDITATIVE AND A STRONG HEART. Verse 15 of Luke 8 shows us this kind of heart. ¹⁵ But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience." Patience is one of the hallmark of this heart. It is a heart that knows and has been fully persuaded that the word of God cannot fall to the ground, but must produce after its order. The heart is strong enough to withstand every trial and temptations being thrown at it by the adversary in order to render the word of God useless.

 

If the word of God would ever make any impact in our lives, it has to be received properly in our hearts. And what is it that really makes the word of God productive in our lives? It is meditation. Meditating on the word of God makes it produce the desired outcome.

 

I believe you have been blessed!

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Obayomi Abiola Benjamin!

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