Do you believe with the God kind of faith?

I have asked myself that question more often than I’d like to admit, when going through a “faith stand” and not seeing the results that I hoped to see. Thank the Lord for being there when I needed answers for the next thing that I would encounter in life; the problem we all must face. God is never the problem, He is always the answer. You will find that the difficulty exists in us, not Him.

Mark 4:14 it says “the sower sows the word”, then he mentions the type of ground the seed is sown into as mankind journeys along in his life. (vs 15) Mark 4:16-19 clearly defines the ground. Hard ground; which is not good for seed to take root in. (tribulation or persecution) The other ground that is mentioned is thorny ground, where cares of this world, deceitfulness of riches, the desire for other things choke the seed. Money is there answer to all their problems.

The sower sows the word in verse 14, and we clearly see in verse 26-28 that the earth yields crops by itself. Then he goes on to say in verse 29 that when the grain ripens, we go to harvest it. We now get to partake of what the ground was capable of producing by itself, or “what we permitted to grow in us”.

Please take a closer look at the good ground in verse 20; “who hear the word and except it.” Notice, it bears fruit and it grows. Look at verse 30. This is an example of seed planted in GOOD GROUND, why? When God gets a man saved, or born again, his spirit becomes the good ground.

Mark 4:21 is a direct reference to Proverbs 20:27. “Is a candle brought to be covered up, is it not to be set on a lamp stand?” The Lamp stand is the example of our outward man. Back to Mark 4:16, notice, “they received the seed, liked what they heard” until what they heard offended them through tribulation or persecution; the word went contrary to their desires.

The Greek word for “received” is lambano. Which means it’s simply fell on them with no purpose in mind, but liked what they heard.

The word for “accept” in verse 20 is the Greek word para- dechomai: to embrace alongside of one’s self on purpose, to conform to it.

God’s life works from the inside out, not the outside in. The purpose of the life of God inside us, is to bear fruit in our outward life. Again, let’s refocus our attention on the parable of the sower that we mentioned in our April letter as well as this month. (Matt 13:18-23)

Mark never mentioned the parable of the wheat and the tares but Matthew does in verse 24-26. In the book of Mark, Jesus is the sower, but in the book of Matthew, he adds another “sower” in verse 39; the devil!

The thing to keep in mind is verse 38 the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom but the tares are seeds from the sons of the wicked one. Mankind then is the product of both.( Jesus or Satan) The world is the recipient of both. That is why we need to be careful how we hear.

Notice the tares are sown when men are asleep. Read Ephesians 5:14-16, 1 Thes 5:58. There are times in our life we should be alert but unfortunately we are not always. Those are the times that tares (wrong teaching) can be planted in us and we don’t realize it until we need to partake of what we allowed to be planted in us. The thing to keep in mind is both seeds have the potential to take root in us. There are certain teachings that have been sown into the body of Christ that sound fine, but remember it’s only the truth that sets us free. (John 8:32)

Listed below are some examples of tares sown into the body of Christ. Learn to recognize these teachings as they come from the sons of satan according to Matt 13:38, 1 John 4:1, 2 Cor 11:13-15.

1) God uses evil to instruct us by allowing it

2) Gifts of the Spirit passed away with the last apostle

3) Mustard seed faith moves mountains

4) Tithing is old testament only

5) Once saved always saved

6) Tongues are of the devil

7) There is no such thing as a rapture

8) No second baptism of the Holy Spirit

9) Calvinism

10) Paul’s thorn in the flesh

11) Wrong concepts of grace

12) I cannot overcome sin

13) The natural mind is renewable

14) There are many ways to God.

Please take time to read Gen 3:15, it will help to clarify what I’ll be writing next month for our June letter.