No Excuses - You Get to Choose What Kind of Ground You Are
I'm excited to keep going in this series, because today I want to correct something I hadn't emphasized enough in this teaching: what God actually intended when He sowed His Word into you in the first place.
God isn't picking your ground. You are.
Look back through this parable and notice something — every single ground is a person. "These are the ones by the wayside." "These are the ones sown on stony ground." "These are the ones sown among thorns." Jesus is describing people, and the ground each of them represents is their own heart.
He's not the one deciding which ground you'll be. He's explaining the other three grounds specifically so you can deal with what's in you and become the fourth.
You get to choose whether you press in for understanding. You get to choose whether you just receive it with gladness or let it take root. You get to choose whether the cares of this world get to choke it out.
The fruit was never meant to stay hidden
“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. 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?’”
Mark 4:20-21 (NKJV)
Notice what comes immediately after the promise of fruit — a lamp isn't lit so it can sit hidden. God's intention in sowing the Word into you was never for the fruit to stay tucked away where nobody could see it. It was meant to be set on a lampstand.
The blessing is for you first — not just to reach somebody else
Some people over-spiritualize this and say the only reason God blesses you is to reach someone else with it. That's not what Scripture says. Whoever doesn't provide for their own family has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever — and God is not exempt from His own Word.
He first and foremost does good to His own household, simply because you belong to Him and He's in love with you. If it also reaches the world, He's glad for that. But He was never so focused on reaching the world that He'd let His own children go without.
Think about David and Goliath. God wasn't willing to let David die on that battlefield just to make a point to Goliath. He blessed His man, kept His covenant, and the reach to the world happened as a result of that faithfulness — not instead of it.
Depends on how much you water it
Whatever you need, find out what the Word actually says about it, and sow that into yourself. Want peace? Get into the Word and let it speak to you. Want healing? Sow the Word on healing. Want finances in order? Sow the Word on finances, and act in line with it.
And you'll still have to fight the same three grounds the whole way — understanding, enduring past the emotion, and refusing to let worry and the deceitfulness of riches choke it out.
As for how much fruit you actually see — thirtyfold, sixty, or a hundred — that comes down to how much you water it. Some people receive more than others, not because God loves them more, but because they've watered more consistently than the rest of us.
Everything you need has already been provided. You don't come to God trying to convince Him to give it to you — you come because you already believe He has. Come get it.
Fight To Win.
