This morning over coffee I read in Mathew The Parable of The Sower. (Mathew 13:3-9) According to this parable 75% of the people presented with the Gospel will eventually lose the ability to see it through to fruition. I don’t know about you but I am definitely thankful to be in the other 25%. Hearing the Gospel then is not a guarantee of salvation, it’s the very first step towards it though, and it’s an important one! Every journey starts with the first step and it is often the hardest one to take. I want to help you to plant seed today by sharing some insight on this scripture. The Seed is a symbol of the message of Jesus Christ – planted through The Word and it results in the indwelling of God in your heart – the ground is your heart – the external circumstances are the worldly forces that negatively effect the growth of the seed.
The Fowls Came And Devoured Them…
Jesus plainly tells us that some will hear it but the seed is immediately ate up by outside forces it never even gets a chance to take root. Someone tells you The Good News, it kinda falls on deaf ears, never even gets a chance to take root. The worldly forces of the evil one quickly dispatch forces that gather the seed and remove it from your life. It’s gone as quickly as it came and no effect is felt at all in the one who initially received it. Imagine sitting in the park feeding ducks or pidgeons, as soon as the bread crumb hits the ground several birds will scamper to devour it. Spiritually this happens to some people’s hearts, as soon as the seed is cast, a flock of doubt, worldliness, or unbelief swoops in and removes every little speck.
Some Fell Upon Stony Places…
The next batch of seeds in this Parable sprouted in stony places. As a gardener I know what happens here, the seed sprouts but its roots have nowhere to go, the rock or compacted soil beneath it forces the roots to be exposed and vulnerable to the sun and the plant shrivels and dies. If it does survive for sometime it is never very healthy and the first storm that comes along blows it over from its lack of roots. This seed fell on a hard heart. A hardened heart resists the message of Jesus Christ and it often comes from unforgiveness and bitterness. Being unforgiving turns your heart into a rock. That is why repentance before salvation is so important, it is like The Holy Spirit running a plow throw your heart, breaking up all that hard packed rocky soil and making it loose and receptive for the message of Jesus Christ’s forgiveness. When we repent we truly understand that we freely receive Gods forgiveness and because of such, we must freely forgive others. Since God is faithful to forgive us, are we somehow more important than God, that the sins that others commit against us are somehow worse than those we have committed against God? We must repent, to break up that soil, and allow the seed to have room to grow. Otherwise the hardened heart is not nurturing and the seed dies.
And Some Fell Amongst Thorns…
The next seed sprouts up amongst thorns and the thorns choke them out. Baby plants are vulnerable, especially those worth anything. It seems weeds and thorn bushes are ferocious in growth compared to other plants like a grapevine which takes years to be established. I have multifloral rose bushes here and they grow so thick and dense and become this big, thorny, prison that becomes impenetrable in a very short time. This seed is choked out by the thorns overpowering it for resources. Sunlight & water. We know the Bible makes reference to Jesus being both of these things – the light and the water. The thorns are hostile, actively they are attacking the volnurable little seedlings basic needs for survival. The thorns can be anything that you hold onto that separates you from God. Riches, pride,vanity, self glorying in your intellect or accomplishment, anything that is preestablished and destructive. Anything that throws shade on the new sprout. Again this is where repentance comes in, The Holy Spirit can remove all of these obstructions when we repent of them before accepting Christ! See why the Gospel continually says “REPENT AND BE SAVED”.
God prepares the heart through repentance, he makes sure the growing conditions are optimal for his seed to grow! Repentance prepares the plot of your heart to receive the Gospel and be fruitful!
And the fourth group is the group that actually hears it, has the soil to nurture it, and the space to allow it to get the resources it needs to flourish that actually produces fruit. A bountiful harvest of a hundred, sixty or thirty fold. So as we go out planting seeds for God bare this in mind, the Bible says only 1 and 4 is successful. That’s not my opinion on it, that’s what the Bible says. I would also conclude, that much like the Farmers Almanac is given each year to farmers to help them reap the most at harvest time, Jesus is telling us here what will aid us in successfully sharing The Gospel.
Prayer Preps The Receivers Heart!
Start by praying that the receiver is open and willing and praying that outer influences that might want to sweep in and steal it are kept away. Pray that God starts working on their hearts, that the soil is loosening and all weedy thornbushes are shriveling and dying at the root, that their heart will be receptive to the Gospel. Pray that they are being called to repentance to really get that ground good and ready for planting. Then when you drop the seed, it has a much better chance of growing to fruition!
Healthy Mind Ministry 
I can definitely relate to the hardened heart of unforgiveness, as well as the the thorns of pride. I still struggle with both issues at times, but I made it past that first step. So thankful that God kept planting seeds despite how many times his words didn’t make it. My biggest regret is not listening to him calling me sooner! Thanks for another great post 🙂
As Dory in Finding Nemo says “just keep swimming” – one day at a time he molds us into His image ❤️
Excellent explanation of the text! This passage has been on my mind for some time.
I love it, as a gardener it makes so much sense!
Excellent explanation. That parable can be quite confusing. I especially enjoyed this part.
We cannot save ourselves, but we do have an active role in cooperating with the One who is saving us.
Except for one thing, I very much enjoyed your explanation of the parable. It is a small thing. Where does say how many will be saved or won’t be saved?
Because he sows seed and he speaks of four separate circumstances…the first is picked off by birds, the second dies from rocky soil, the third is choked out by thorns…and finally the last is successful. That’s 1 outta 4. That’s 75% failure and a 25% success rate.
During my career in the military, I became something of a mathematician. To reach the conclusion you have reached, the parable would have to provide a bit of information it does not provide.
What the parable states is that there are four distinct possibilities. Those I think you well understand, and that is the important part, I think. What the parable does not state (the missing datum) how many seeds were picked off by birds, died from rocky soil, choked out by thorns, or grew successfully. Ten percent could have been picked off by the birds. Five percent could have dried up in the rocky soil. Forty percent could have been choked out by thorns, and forty-five percent could have grown successfully. We don’t know.
Because it is not given (in the parable) for us to know, we cannot just assume each possibility has an equal probability. You may in fact be right, but the parable does not support a conclusion.
3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:
8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
He casts the seed, some falls and the birds eat it from the way side, some lands on rocky soil sprouts and dies, some falls in thorns and gets choked out, and lastly some falls on good soil and it looks as if it shows that these seeds all made it but to varying degrees of fruitfulness.
And, as you said, all we can do is try to make our hearts fertile soil for the Word.
Firstly I am very thankful that there were people in my life who shared the good news with me and many others who were praying for me in the background. I remember like it was yesterday, 3 days leading up to my born again experience I remember telling everyone (including God) that I wasn’t planning on becoming a Christian. I heard the new of Jesus and my heart went from hard to broken knowing I needed him!
Secondly I really dig your prayer prep! This is what people were praying for me for awhile, (I sure needed it lol) Very encouraging post Tamara, thanks for sharing. It has certainly got me thinking about how I see my involvement when it comes to planting the seed. Always awesome to read/hear/see other Christians perspectives.
Thank you and I’m super thankful to hear that you are born again in Christ…that is THEE BEST DECISION YOULL EVER MAKE!
Amen! Oh for sure, it all happened back in 1999. Sometimes feels like yesterday if you know what I mean. Feel free to take a look at my blog sometime.
I sure will 😁 I usually cruise around in the morning and evenings .
This spoke to me. I just finished writing the post that comes out in nine hours at this time. God REALLY spoke to me deeply as I wrote the post. And I was glad to see how you talked about praying for the person to be open. God has pressed it on my heart to work on praying for each post before I write it.
When I read about thorns, I also see blind believers being the thorns, and this is exactly what I wrote about. Believers causes division. I didn’t know how deep the post would go, but it was very deep. I think your post just affirms God wanted me to write what I did, so thank you for listening to Him. 🙂 ❤