Today we continue our series entitled, “Expecting the Word to Work!” This is part 38.
We have been studying the parable of the sower for months. Within this study we have looked at the first two types of soil and we are looking at the third: thorny weeds. Let’s get back to it this morning. Jesus said:
“Others are like the seed planted among the thorny weeds. They hear the teaching, but their lives become full of other things: the worries of this life, the love of money, and everything else they want. This keeps the teaching from growing, and it does not produce a crop in their lives.” (Mark 4:18,19)
The major issue with the people Jesus likens to the thorny ground is that they have allowed their lives to become “full of other things”. The Word of God has been sown in their hearts, but they have allowed “other things” to consume their thoughts and actions. Today we will discuss what it looks like to actually clear the way for the Word to work.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
- When you read or hear what God’s position is on any given topic and it is obvious to you that your position does not line up with God, you immediately have a choice to make. You can either accept the fact that you disagree with God and maintain your position of disagreeance/disobedience, or you can make your mind up, in that moment, that you are going to change. If you change to God’s position, you are positioning yourself to walk in His best. But if you stubbornly maintain your position, even when you know it is against God, you are living a life of disobedience and it will cost you. At that point the Word sown in your heart will NOT produce a harvest because you have stubbornly decided to reject it.
- When I first started walking with God it seemed like I was discovering conflicts between God’s ideas and my ideas every day. But this was not a bad thing. I saw it as a good thing. My hunger for God was so strong that I wanted to know all the ways in which I was NOT pleasing to Him. Every time I came across a scripture I did not line up with or every time the Holy Spirit convicted me about something, I was quick to repent and head in a new direction (God’s direction). This is how we allow the Word to work in our lives. This is what God is looking for.
- If you make it a practice to clear a way for God’s Word to work in your life — being quick to repent and change EVERY TIME you find a conflict between you and God — the Word will start to work in your life. The Word will produce change IN you and fruit FROM you. You will be changed and then God will you use you as an agent of Godly change in this world. This is the goal.
- The unlimited power and potential found in the Word is God is only fully unleashed when we clear our hearts and minds of everything that disagrees with it. When we do, the results are amazing and supernatural.
- If there is a ever a conflict between God’s ways and your ways, the conflict should be resolved in seconds. You should make it a practice to submit your ways to God EVERY TIME you are presented with a choice between Him and you. Don’t even give yourself the license to debate. God is immutable. He will never change. So if there is an issue between you and God, you have the issue and you are the one who must change. If you do, you will live a life pleasing in His sight and the soil of your heart will cause the seed of God’s Word to produce a harvest in your life.
- Changing your will and ways to align with God’s is more than worth it. If you make a practice of this you will wake up one morning to realize that your ways ARE God’s ways, your thoughts ARE God’s thoughts, and your conduct IS Godly and holy. When you get to this point there is nothing God will not do FOR you, because you are allowing Him to live THROUGH you!
Closing Confession:
Father, this is a season of expectation for me. My expectation is tied to Your Word. I clear the way for Your Word to work in my heart and mind. Every time I come across a scripture that my thinking does NOT line up with, and every time the Holy Spirit speaks to me about something that is NOT pleasing to You, I am quick to repent. I won’t debate with Your will. I won’t stubbornly disagree with Your ways. I quickly and regularly repent and change. Living this way I get to the point where my will IS Your will, where my desires ARE Your desires, and where my conduct is Godly and holy. In 2018 I become the man/woman I was born to be by submitting to You in ALL my ways! I declare this by faith! In Jesus’ name, Amen!
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
