Think Like God

"We will not grow in revelation of the Father, of who we are in Him, and who the Savior and the Spirit are in us, as long as we are distracted from our Word by OUR MIND."

THE SOWER SOWED THE WORD. In this parable, the Word is compared to a Seed tossed on the ground and, following the planting habit of Jesus’ day, then churned into the soil. Not all of the soil responded to the Seed the same. The Seed on hard ground did nothing. The Seed on stony ground grew only for a time. The Seed growing amongst thorns was soon choked by them. Only the Seed on the good fertile soil produced a harvest.

The Sower is the Father, but the Sower is Jesus. Jesus was the one speaking here, the one sowing seeds into men’s hearts. Jesus is also the Word, sown by the Father. Jesus came to do the works of the Father and only spoke the words of the Father, so both descriptions apply. He is the exact representation of the Father in nature, character, methods, and principles. The Seed is Him as a person. He came to earth to die for all men as the fulfilling sacrifice of the Law. But in dying, He would rise again, Resurrected in a glorified body. He cannot die anymore. He defeated death, and now, His life lives in men and women who accept Him. This is one sense of it.

“For Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. Jesus is the very nature and substance of Divinity manifested in humanity; he is the channel through which God’s character, methods and principles flow into mankind, and through him you have been given the character of Christ who is the supreme Lord over all other powers and authorities.” (Colossians 2:9-10, Remedy)

But the Seed is also the spoken Word, the rhema, and the logos, the written Word of God. The Words of God are planted in the human heart, our spirit man, by our revelation of them. The revelation of the Words we hear are the harvest grown. The fertile ground which produces a harvest does so because every Word of God has power in itself to come to pass. They are filled with the life of God to grow within us what God has given to us in salvation. But the harvest implied in the parable is wisdom and understanding of God. Being more specific to Jesus’ intent, the Seed sown brings revelation of the Father.

The verses in the Word of God can have many applications. This parable is no exception. But though some have used the parable to apply the harvest to physical things, that was not its most intended meaning. Jesus came to bring the kingdom of God to earth, to rescue mankind, and send the Holy Spirit to us. He is Christ. Jesus came to place Christ within us, not just Himself but the Spirit who is the anointing upon Him. And Jesus said of the Spirit that He was our Teacher, here with us to show us the Word of God and to Guide us through our daily lives. He is within us bringing revelation of God’s Word. In essence, growing the Seed.

The Seed changes our behavior. God’s Word on loving one another, on blessing our enemies, changes us from malice and insolence to kindness. His Words do that. God’s Word on health and healing, changes us from speaking sickness and disease to being filled with faith and hope. Planted in our hearts through hearing ears, these Seeds grow into a tree with fruit that affects those around us. We overflow with who God is.

This then focuses us back on the parable. Because with three types of soil the harvest did not produce. In Matthew 6:19, we learn why. Jesus explains the parable saying, “When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart…” A lack of understanding IN THE MIND kept the Word from taking root, and the enemy, speaking His own deceptions TO THE MIND, stole the Word away.

We see THE MIND as the problem in the second form of ground as well where, though the plants sprung up at first, offense caused that person to lose interest. They loved the message of the Word initially but heard something that made them angry. Or somebody picked on them because of their faith, and though they didn’t turn aside from it, now they are too upset to do the one thing Jesus commanded, love our neighbor. They are caught up in their own emotions, their own rights.

In the third type of ground, the hearer has the Word choked out by worries, by bills, by family troubles. They are focused IN THEIR MIND on the wrong thing. To overcome what life throws at us, what the enemy wants to steal from us, kill us with, and destroy us through, OUR MIND must be renewed. We will not grow in revelation of the Father, of who we are in Him, and who the Savior and the Spirit are in us, as long as we are distracted from the Word by OUR MIND.

“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” (2 Corinthians 10:5)

God’s Words to us are not a sidenote, not entertainment, not what we do in our spare time. They are necessary to life. They are what cleanse our mind, what changes our motives, what gives us a new vision. We see ourselves from God’s perspective because of the life in His Words. Salvation is not simply a vow we make. It is the rebirth of our spirit man. Man was made in God’s image and after His likeness. We are a spirit with a soul which is contained in a body. God is a Spirit and must be worshiped in spirit. When Adam and Eve sinned, the spirit died, and as a result, the body died. Sin introduced sickness and disease and all forms of malevolence. Suddenly, men hated each other and destroyed each other, until Noah and his family were all that were left righteous on the entire earth. God is righteous and men were no longer in His image.

What I want you to see is without the life of God, which comes from the Word of God, we are dead men, and OUR MIND gets in the way. The enemy uses THE MIND to cause us the lust after people, after food, after money, after clothing. He uses the mind to cause us to hate one another, to desire to steal from each other, to kill one another. It is the enemy’s work in the mind that makes people think abortion is okay. No, it isn’t. God gave men an imagination to create fantastic things. Used as He desired it to be used, we have joy and peace. But if we allow our thoughts to run where they will then we will continue to struggle in our thoughts, with our moods, and the fullness of God’s truth will not sink into our heart.

Because having ears doesn’t guarantee we are hearing and hearing the words doesn’t guarantee we are understanding it. And any opening the enemy can find to steal the Word from us, and twist to fit into his desires, he will use. We must pull down all our incorrect thinking. We do this through time spent in the Word. The enemy would have us believe we are wasting our time reading, that we’ve gained nothing. After all, we feel the same. But what begins in the spirit works its way back up into our thinking. We read God’s truth, it sinks into our heart, and rises back up. Thence we are changed. And a man changed will no longer struggle with the things of the flesh. We are to walk in the Spirit and be led of the Spirit. This is an ongoing, minute-by-minute, thing. When we become Spirit-led, hearing Him, aware of Him, who we were will no longer be.

It is a choice which God desires us to make. For this reason, He sent Jesus to earth. For this reason, He compiled the Word of God. For this reason, it has prospered and become the most read book in the world. For it, men have died, and for it, men have lived. Well, prospered, happy. Forever.

“He answered, It is written, Man cannot live by bread only; there is life for him in all the words which proceed from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4 Knox)

Image by Piyapong Saydaung from Pixabay


----------
Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com