The Word Is The Seed (Part 1).
In Mark 4, Jesus taught His disciples Ten Parables and it all points to how the Kingdom of God works. “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth, and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”And He said to them, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Mark 4:1-9).
In verse 14, “The sower sows the word.” This means the seed represents the Word of God. Jesus was using natural laws to illustrate spiritual truths. Why did Jesus use a seed to explain how the Kingdom works? There were many reasons, but people could cheat the system if He had used the human system. For example, if He had used sports, people cheat on sports all the time, but you can’t cheat natural phenomena. The whole world operates on seeds. “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.” (Gen 8:22). We have seed, time and harvest. We plant seeds, give them time and then harvest what was planted. This is how it works. During creation, God will say something like, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”, and it was so.” (Gen 1:11). The account of creation can be wordy, but it is crucial to understand what God was doing. “Whose seed is in itself” is an expression of reproduction. God said He would not create things again after the first. He would not make another tree, plant, animal or man.
He put seeds in each of them so that they could have the ability to reproduce. Human beings reproduce by seeds. You and I are products of seeds. If you want to have a baby, you must plant a seed in your wife. I don’t care how often you pray. No amount of prayer can put a seed on the ground. You can pray till you faint but not until you plant a seed in the woman; she will never get pregnant. There is only one virgin birth, and it will not happen again. You can put the Word under your pillow, carry it in your bag, or have many of them at home, but it will not be of any benefit unless it gets planted in your heart.
The Word is the Seed
If you want a garden, you don’t clean a place, lay on it, and ask God to bless it. Christians pray to God to cancel the principles of seedtime and want a quick miracle from God. “Oh God, make me a mature Christian, oh God, please use me.” If you wish God to use you, you must be useable. “Please heal me.” God certainly wants to heal you, but what verses do you stand on to pray? We need to help ourselves for God to help us. Memorising the Scriptures are planting seeds, and with time, will make you harvest whatever you planted. It says in Galatians 6:7 that “Whatever a man sows is what he will reap.”
You do not become pregnant by standing close to a man or talking to him. Similarly, the Word will not work for us by saying something like, “The Bible say.” “I don’t know, but it is written somewhere in the Bible” won’t get you results. The Lord knew the Scripture even though they were written on scrolls. He could quote them verbatim. Until you get to the place of quoting Scriptures, understanding them and walking with them, it will not germinate. Most Christians do not emphasise the need for the seed. They pray, fast, do directions, and go through all kinds of things. Many people will agree with them in prayer, but they don’t get results because they do not want to spend time in the Word. Psalm 107:20 says, “He sent His Word to heal them and deliver them from their destruction.” Proverbs 4:20-22 says, “My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.” (Emp added). The Word is life! The Lord said in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
Nothing happens until the Word of God is sown; it is the cardinal law of God. So many Christians are upset because they asked, prayed, lived holy, done everything they could but still do not get answers because they have not sown the seed. They might have some knowledge about God’s Word, but it is not in their heart, it is not something they embraced in their life, it is not central to them, and that is why it doesn’t work.
The Parable of the Growing Seed.
“And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.” (Verses 26-27). You sow the seed (the Word) in your heart, and you know not how. You don’t need to be the sharpest person to know how the Word will grow. It is not based on your looks, age, gender, finances, race, height or anything else. All you have to do is plant the Word in your heart. You are a “dirt”. Dirt is all that is needed for a seed to grow. You see, the emphasis is on God’s Word, not on you. You do not have to be clever to plant the Word in your heart. The heart God gave you is soil, and all you need to do is plant the seed in it. I don’t know how it works, but the Bible says the man cast seeds, but he never knows how it will work. We all enjoy the produce from seeds, but we don’t see how it works. We may know the time to plant with suitable soil and weather conditions to support it, but we don’t know how it works. You can pull all of the wisdom of the human race, put every culture together, and take all money in the world, but man can produce something that looks, weighs, feels, and has the same ingredient as seed, but it can never germinate when we put it on the ground. A manufactured kernel of corn won’t grow. No one knows how it works; it is a God-given thing and a miracle by itself.
The Word is the Seed
There have been seeds taken from the tombs of Pharaohs for 4,000 years planted, and they grew. Four thousand years later and there is still a miracle in the seed. Most of us do not think this way, but we say, “I got all my groceries from the store, but not really; it all came from a seed. A beef came from a seed; pork came from a seed. Whatever you eat came from a seed. The Word of God is the seed that makes every other thing work. If you could get the revelation of this and understand that the Word of God is to the Kingdom the way a seed to the natural world, it will revolutionise you. If you want to prosper, take Scriptures on prosperity and meditate on them every day for a while until they become part of you.
When a woman gets pregnant, she doesn’t know at first. She later gets to know but initially keep it a secret, but eventually, everyone gets to know it. If someone doesn’t know and hears you have given birth, they may say, “Wow, that was so fast,” but you know it took time for you to have the baby. There was a bearing process. This is the same with the Word of God. Some people have understood the Word, others have conceived it bearing it right now, and others are yet to plant it. We are in different stages with the Word, and the time of harvest will determine what we grew. You have to nurture the Word before you can harvest it.
Jesus said, “And should sleep by night and rise by day”. What if a man throws seed in the ground but rises in the morning to dip to see what is happening. I did that as a child because I was excited to see my crops grow. One of my aunties was an Agriculture Officer, so we did some gardening as kids. There is a great joy to plant something, harvest them and eat them. I remember planting potatoes and seeing them grow. Harvest time is always an excellent time, but we don’t dig up the seed every day to see what is happening to it; otherwise, they will die. Planting and uprooting daily will kill the seed. It will never release its power. One of the things you have to do is to believe that there is a miracle in the seed, and even though you can’t see it, believe it will grow supernaturally. On Sundays, we hear lovely sermons and take the Word in our hearts, but we go out there the next day to work or whatever we do and then we compromise on the Word, which is why we don’t see it grow. For example, you know fornication is wrong. You learnt lessons from that on a Sunday, but one of your exes invites you the next day, and you end up having sex. What happened was you planted a seed on Sunday and uprooted it the next day, and that is not going to work for you. You cannot compromise on it.
You have to be careful of support groups. Many Christians are part of organisations that go against God’s Word, but they see nothing wrong with it. You compromise the Word by joining groups that stand against biblical principles. Family members are one group of people who can easily pluck the Word from your heart. When our friends are critical of God’s Word, we must distance ourselves from them. You know God has called you to do something but Satan will use your relatives to discourage you. Stay away from people who pluck the Word from your heart. It is better for them to be offended for the work God has called you to do than to please them and hinder the call of God upon your life.
Different seeds have different times of fruition. You have to plant it and know it will germinate. The bamboo plant takes three years to be established, but it can grow to about 18 feet in the fourth and fifth years. Most of the growth of the seed is below the surface; it is not seen. If you see a man of God flourish in their calling, it is not some anointing that came upon them; it was due to their planted seeds. God is no respecter of persons. God can bless anyone if they are ready to plant seeds in their heart. Many pastors are frustrated today and don’t understand why their ministry is not flourishing. It can be due to many factors, but one is the lack of the Word in them. We admire people and want to be like them, but you have no idea the seeds they planted. You can start to plant seeds today but do not be discouraged if you don’t see any results for months or even years. Keep during it, and it will surprise you how the future will turn out.
The Word Is The Seed
The Earth Brings Food by Itself.
“For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.” (Verse 28). The earth brings food by itself. If you have good soil, whatever you plant in it will germinate. You can decide to plant briers, weeds, potatoes or corn in it, and it will grow. Whatever you put in, it will grow. The ground doesn’t care what seed you put in it; it will grow. Your heart functions the same way. Whatever you focus on or whatever dominates you is what will grow. If you meditate on fear or negative things, it will grow, defeat, and control you. If you associate yourself with people who speak bad things against your life, it will affect you. Whatever you plant is what you will reap. The problem we have is not the heart; it is the kind of seed we place there.
The light of the body is the eye, so whatever you focus on will reflect in your life. There are so many negative things around us, but you can decide not to focus on them. Do not allow the sewage of this world to flow through you. If you spend much time on the news and spend 30 mins in prayer and the Word, it won’t work. The things you focus on is what grows in your heart.
The Word is the Seed
The second part of the verse says, “first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.” The KJV says, “First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. There is a growth process; you don’t start from unfruitfulness and suddenly become fruitful. There is a blade stage, the ear stage, and the full corn in the ear. Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” You renew your mind to prove what is good, acceptable, and the perfect will of God. God’s will come in stages. You cannot ask God to make you a world-renowned evangelist or the CEO of a company when you do nothing. There are Christians who sit and wait for God to do something. They believe God will turn things around for them if they pray so much, but God’s will come in stages. It doesn’t automatically happen.
You don’t go from a second to a thousand; that is not acceleration; that is a wreck. If you have never taught in a Bible study or pastored a small group, don’t expect God to put you in charge of 10,000 congregants.
