"It is given to you"

It started with a simple prayer: “Jesus, you are going to have to show me how to live like I have given up everything...”

He took me to 2 Corinthians 2:16 “And who is sufficient for these things?”
2 Corintihans 3:5 “But our sufficiency is of God.”

Then, He directed my mind to the parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. There are of course several types of soil listed that represent several types of hearts.

The “Wayside Heart” cannot receive the Word. It may be the veiled heart that is referred to in 2 Corinthians 3:14.

The “Stony Places Heart” recieves the Word with joy, at first. But there is no depth of soil, and it soon withers.

The heart “Among thorns” has allowed the cares of life to choke out the Word.

The soil cannot prepare itself. The Sower must do that. The soil can only respond to the work of the Sower. (Hebrews 6:8)

I am sure that I have been each of the first three types of heart.

Unbelieving, unable to receive. Hard. Satan the Master of Unbelief takes the seed before it can even “sink in”...let alone reach the inner man, even on a surface level.

Receiving with joy, only to fall away under hardship. The Sower amazingly lets the seed fall even here. This heart allows God to prepare it...to a certain point. It “has to” hold on to some things of its own. This is probably a form of idolatry. More or less adding God to my own agenda. As long as He prospers my way, I will follow with Him. As soon as hardship or tests come, all interest in God...evaporates. If God does not equal ease for my flesh, I am out of it.

Among thorns. The Sower in mercy allows seeds to fall even where thorns and thisles have roots. The cares of this world may not even have an apparent control. The roots, to say nothing of the seeds of “things of this world” are still there, very much alive under the surface. Even though the soil appears to be prepared. They spring to life as soon as the life giving seed starts to grow in the heart. Assuming that this heart is somewhat undiscerning, the cares of the world are allowed to grow. The Word is choked out.

But the heart that the Sower prepared...

It is called “good ground”. The Sower made this soil good.

It is not involved in a “numbers game”. The same heart received the seeds that produced 30, 60, 100%. Perhaps this is a way of saying that the heart produced more and more and more fruit.

Perhaps this is a parable about the same heart. First it is a hard heart. Then it is a stony heart with a bit of soil on top. Then it is a heart with a lot of tendencies to be caught up in the cares of this world. The Sower keeps sowing...and preparing...and cleaning...until there is a 100% harvest.

Jesus says to His disciples “it is given to you to understand”. To some, what He says is “interesting riddles”. Principles to try to live by. Something to try to add to my already full lifestyle.

Some find the Word of Jesus Christ to be their life. “Understand” seems to involve more than saying “I get it”. It is a picture of the word “sinking in.” The mind grasping it, quite obviously. But sinking beyond that, to the heart, the very core of the inner and “real me.”

God who knows the heart prepares the heart. He tries the heart. He gives His life to the heart. And, in His good time, God gives the increase to the Word that He has sown in the heart.

Source: http://jpb-thinkingthrumyfingers.blogspot.com/2010/08/it-is-given-to-you.html