In many churches, especially like the ones I attended, the Parable of the Sower is throw-away scripture. Once one has learned the necessary doctrine and understood it’s no longer about them, the scripture and its lesson are discarded to the “only for the lost” heap – never to be revisited. That is until the preacher needs some easy material and feels a bit more evangelistic than normal. Otherwise, life conveniently continues without looking back.
But here’s the actual truth:
There is only one sower, and it’s never the preacher: Jesus is the sower. You are forever the field.
God the Father wants you to know this: you have the potential to be any element of the field. You can be the rocks, the soil by the road, the thorny soil where the word is choked out. Or you can be the good soil that bears fruit.
This parable isn’t about salvation: it’s about your life and your perception of yourself. The parable certainly has utility for the evangelical, but it mustn’t be discarded to the useless heap we so often manage.
Father’s heart is this: He wants you to understand that you have the potential to be anything you choose to be in this field where the sower casts His word. How you receive His Word, His Heart, is up to you.
The parable of the talents teaches us that the currency of Heaven is Faith. And each of us has been given a measure accordingly. What we do with it is up to us. We can invest our faith or hide it. But the measure or quantity we have been given is irrelevant.
When the Word arrives in your field, is it
- Snatched away because of unbelief?
- Choked out because of the cares of the world?
- Withered away because of persecution against it?
- Or multiplied because of careful application of faith?
A Recovering Legalist 