Monday, December 8, 2014

Is Our Heart Prepared to Receive the Seed?

by Cecil Paxton

Luke 8:15 NASU
“But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.”

When the Word of God like a seed is sown do we really receive the seed into our heart? Is our heart prepared to receive the seed of the Word of the Lord? When we listen to the Word of God being taught we all hear what the person is saying and we may even choose to believe what the person is saying but has that truth really become ours or is it just something that we have chosen to believe.

When it comes to the Word of God it must be something to us that is more than just what we hear and agree with. The Word of God is a Spiritual seed that must be received into our heart. Then there is a process we enter into where something is being produced that will manifest into this natural realm that we live in.

When a farmer puts seeds into the ground he expects a crop. He would not go to all the time and effort of planting the seed without expecting the benefit of his labor, the crop. If you are confident of the benefit of the crop then you will hold fast to the truth of the Word of God with a confidence in the one who made the promise knowing that He is faithful. The end result from your perseverance is fruit.

Matthew 13:8-9 NKJV
“But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

Everyone hears preaching and teaching of the Word of God but not everyone has the ears of their heart open to hear resulting in perception and understanding coming forth by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is always involved in spiritual change.

So the question again is this -- is our heart prepared to receive the seed?
If our heart is described as soil then what is good soil?
If our heart can be honest then what is an honest heart?
If our heart can be good and honest then can it be bad and dishonest?
If our heart is in a bad condition and dishonest then does that make me a bad person and how does this affect my righteousness that I experienced at salvation?

All unbelief is always about us! It is about what we believe that is contrary to the Word of God but it can be truth to us because that is just simply the way we see it. This is how we close the eyes of our heart and usually do not realize the condition of our heart that it is in a condition of unbelief and dishonest. We can always have a willingness to resolve an issue of the heart no matter how bad the issue as long as we understand that our righteousness is in our born again spirit not in our heart.

There can be an issue of unbelief in our heart but we are still righteous and in good standing because of Jesus not because of our performance. Without this understanding of your righteousness being in Christ and not in your own performance from yourself then you would not have confidence to go to God for help with the bad issues of your heart. A person with issues of sin in their heart might emotionally feel shame which could through feelings of unworthiness to want to hide from God and not run to Him for help.

Matt 13:14-15 NKJV
“And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: 'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.”

The problem with just listening to the Word of God and just choosing to believe what we were hearing is that there is no understanding in your heart of what you have heard. It is one thing to receive information into your conscience mind and another when the Holy Spirit enlightens the Word of God causing understanding to come forth. When the Word of God gives us under-standing we are able to practically apply that truth in a way that we live it and get spiritual results.

The condition of our heart is very important in receiving the Word of God. The example in verse 15 is a heart that is dull resulting in hard of hearing manifesting itself at times with an attitude since a person can feel very right about the way they see life’s issues.

The scripture says “their eyes they have closed” because we have a free will to choose and when we make the wrong choices out of a heart unprepared to receive from the Lord, He is not responsible for us not receiving, we are. The scripture says “lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, enabling the Lord to heal them." Receiving is about Jesus and not about us; it is for us.

Turning is another word for being converted which is a work of the Holy Spirit that we experience in Him giving us understanding which goes beyond the conscience mind and enters the sub-conscience part of our heart resulting in enabling us to live the ways of life in Christ.

True believing is when our heart is firmly persuaded in the process of believing to the place that we have a faith and confidence in the Lord with a constant expectation of the good we are believing for.

Luke 8:15 AMP
“But as for that [seed] in the good soil, these are [the people] who, hearing the Word, hold it fast in a just (noble, virtuous) and worthy heart, and steadily bring forth fruit with patience.”

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