This is a teaching on how the Spirit of God empowers the word of God. In fact He is the one who reveals the word of God to us. There are no words written anywhere that the Spirit honors or stands by other than those founded on His word, as seen in the Sciptures.

For example, one night I sat reading the Bible and wanted to know what was going on between Jesus and the Father in the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-44). I did not realize it at the time but I was led to read the Bible, and it was when I reached the place where Jesus was praying to the Father, like he was in an agony of his soul, that I stopped reading and wanted to know what was going on. I wanted to "understand it". "What's he doing? Why is he doing it? What's going on?" I asked myself. And as I sat and contemplated what was going on it all slowly but surely came to light.

The Holy Spirit was bringing it all to light. I suddenly found myself in an amphitheater type setting overlooking the whole scene. It had all just appeared right there before my eyes. The understanding of what was going on just dawned upon me. I suddenly found myself there (or was I here?) where I finally realized and understood that Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, was about to go to the cross - and he was about to go there for the likes of - - "Me"! Me? Yes, Me! It was right here where it all hit me! I was blown away by the power of such love: "Thy will be done", that was being shown to me. Jesus was going to the cross to save me, me? a wicked sinner. I stood dumbfounded as I realized this, and I cried and cried, saying thank you, thank you, Lord, over and over again. It was all I could do!

Let's stop here because I only want to emphasize the enlightening power that the word of God contains. ( The rest, if you're interested, can be read at: mystory.htm )

Let's examine the Parable Of The Sower. In the parable (Matthew 13) Jesus describes the word of God as "A SEED" that is being sown. When one Hears / Receives the True Gospel (i.e. the word of God) it enters into their heart. These are the people who have heard the word and have responded to it in some way or other. Now so long as the Seed remains in their heart it seeks to deeply root itself and grow fat. Somewhere down the line the faith in which we first believed with and that we first heard with begins to be tested in order to see if it will bear fruit! "Bearing Fruit" is the parables bottom line, and the way to bear fruit is to first understand what God is saying to us, then go and do what He is individually telling each of us to do, from the heart.

In this parable we are made to understand how the Seed grows into a plant in order that our faith in God be tested to find out (i.e. rather, for us to find out) if our roots had penetrated deeply enough into His words to start bearing fruit (i.e. IF we will do His will or not). What needs to be known and shown is whether or not our initial faith is of such a quality and character that it will obey Him to the very end....
Genesis 22:12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

Now, as for the seed that was sown by "The Way Side", Jesus says: Matthew 13:19 "When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side."
By this we can see how important it is to Understand the word of God. Can anyone receive the Seed and not understand exactly what it was they received? According to Matthew 13, yes they can. But if they continue NOT to understand it in order to obey it from the heart then they will lose it altogether (see Matthew 13:20-22).

The person represented by the "Shallow Ground" in the parable (Matthew 13:5-6, 20-21), are usually very shallow people. They are the kind of people who do not like their boat to be rocked, let alone become capsized for Christ. However, because they only partly understand it at best is exactly why they receive the Seed with joy in the first place. They somehow think (contrary to all the scriptures that say otherwise) that nothing bad or no tribulation will ever happen to them because of the word of God and that they are saved forever by this kind of a faith. However, Jesus says of them, that when tribulation and persecution and trials or testings come their way because of the very word they at first gladly received, they soon become offended by it (Matthew 13:21), and turn away from it.

Most shallow grounded people live life for the NOW. So when this person begins to be persecuted (i.e. take some heat) for their faith, because of the word (Seed) they at first heard and accepted into their heart, they become offended by it, feel hurt by it and soon disassociate themselves from the Holiness (i.e. the Spiritual part) of the word altogether. In other words: they reject teachings on holiness (i.e. what God says) in doing His will. These are known as the Shallow Ground because they are shallow, they think shallowly and are flighty people who have no depth, no solid substance to them. Everything (including the Seed) must be fun, fun, fun to them. They really believe (because they refuse to sit down and weigh the costs) that there is absolutely NO COST in becoming a Christian (i.e in their being associated with Christ).

The person who is represented by the "Thorny Ground" in the parable (Matthew 13:7, 22) is the type of person who can't bear to part with anything. We know this because we see that they do not remove and clear off all the thorns from their heart (i.e. all the cares associated with this life) in order to make a way (i.e. to make straight a highway) for the word of God to enter their heart and do as He says.

So the thorns represent all the crooked cares and worries they have for this world, along with the deceitfulness of riches that end up choking off the word when it begins to springs forth. In both cases the word becomes unfruitful and never grows up to maturity. They too may have heard and received the seed with joy at first, but they never realized what doing that might do to their own hopes and dreams in this life. The Spirit uses the power of the word in order to Test or Try every person who professes to have faith in Jesus Christ At Their Weakest Point, ala Genesis 22:12, because of the very word they at first received.

Which takes us to those who are represented by the "Good Soil" in the parable. Right off the bat Jesus tells us that these are the ones who not only Hear the word but Understand it as well (Matthew 13:23). In fact they understand it so well that they sat down and studied what it was and what it asked of them before setting about making straight a highway in the heart for the Lord. These are the ones that God speaks of. They're the ones who mature and bear fruit. They Understand the word, they obey it from the heart, and that is why they bear fruit. The word speaks to them personally and they rightly respond to His voice.

John 15:4-5 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

As I said before, each and every person who professes Jesus Christ needs to have their own Abrahamic Experience (Genesis 2:12) or Burning Bush Experience (Exodus 3:2-6) with God in order to find out and understand just what it means to honor God by the way one walks upon Holy Ground! They need to know what True Holiness is, what it means to walk in the fear of the Lord and to come and Bow Low before the Lord God Almighty. Because if they don't know this then neither have they been Born Again!

Many times Jesus says (for instance in John 14:23-24:) that we will Keep His words IF we love Him. The next verse says: and IF we don't, we won't. That's pure and simple enough! He speaks of a "Sanctified To The Truth Love" here, the kind that is known only after one has known God, after one becomes Christ's witness and after walks in the fear of the Lord for themselves. You see, the most important part of our walk with God is not so much our claiming to know Him (Luke 6:46), but His claiming to know us by knowing our hearts (John 10:27).

So we see that The Seed contains everything we'll ever need to bear fruit! But it's only by our cooperation to His voice ("in giving our yes Lord, or no Lord" to Him - as we see in Genesis 22:8-12 and Exodus 3:3-6) and by our remaining in and walking after the Spirit can we bring to fruition what comes forth from what started out as a "Seed" and ends up "A Brand New Creature" (Galatians 6:15 ; 2 Corinthians 5:16-17).