You will learn that a hardness of heart will not only keep you from understanding the word of God, but will also keep you from Becoming Mighty in the Lord.   We see that Jesus spoke in parables to expose the hardness in peoples heart's.  Do you have good fruit or bad fruit.  What is the hundred fold return. 

 

Anyone who has ever planted a garden can relate to the parable of the sower found in the Gospel’s of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  When we turn the soil over (till) and remove the rocks, weeds and clay, we are preparing the ground to receive seed.  Then we may add a chemical fertilizer or some fresh compost.  We do this to ensure that we have good rich soil that will yield to us all its strength. 

 

One of my neighbors spends much time preparing his garden each spring; and by mid-summer he has more fresh produce than he can use.  I usually find a bag or two of fruits and vegetables left for me on my front door throughout the summer.  This is how the word of God works too.  We study His word and pray and when the Holy Spirit gives us a revelation it not only provides for our needs but can feed others too.  Just like the loaves and few small fishes.  That meal was meant to feed one child, but Jesus used it to feed over 5000 men plus the women and children that were with them.  Then afterwards the disciples took up 12 baskets full of fish and bread.  That equates to one basket full for each disciple.  This could be used to feed even more people.  

 

The next block of scripture in Matthew 13 tells why Jesus spoke to them in parables.  One reason was to fulfill scripture.  It was also to allow those who had pure (cultivated) hearts, who sought to know God through relationship and not through religious practices, to have an understanding of God’s heart.  Why else would Jesus say in verse 9 “He who has ears, let him hear."?  We see that after Jesus explains why some cannot hear, He then explains to those who can hear. 

 

Matthew 13:3-8 - 3 And He told them many things in parables, saying: "A sower went out to sow.  4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.  5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil,  6 but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away.  7 Other seeds fell upon thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.  8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

 

10 Then the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?"  11 And He answered them, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  12 For to him who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.  13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  14 With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says: 'You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive.  15 For this people's heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn for Me to heal them.'  16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

 

Most people look at verse 16 and believe that the disciples understood the parable because it says that they have eyes that see and ears that hear.  I don’t believe this means that they had knowledge but rather were able to understand it as it was explained to them, because we see in the next few verses that Jesus ends up explaining the parable to them too.  Also Jesus explains why the others cannot understand.  Their hearts are dull, ears are heavy and their eyes have closed.  It reminds me of a child who covers his ears with his hands and closes his eyes and makes noise with his mouth while someone else is trying to tell him something that he does not want to hear.  The religious people there were not about to hear what the Spirit of God was saying through Jesus, because they thought they already knew it all.  These were people who knew the word of God on the surface.  Religious people will always resist what God is doing and talk about what God has done in the past. 

  

I use to think that the parable of the sower only applied to…