The Parable of the Sower, or the Parable of the Soils, is THE most important parable in the Bible. Why do I say this? Well, what we’ll read in a minute is that Jesus said this particular parable is the key to unlocking all the parables. I believe this parable is one of the secrets of the Kingdom of God.

Cherise wrote on this parable in the last post, talking about different words coming into our lives, some from God and some not from God. She talked about how to deal with those words and where to find the source of truth.

Let’s read Mark 4:1-20, and we’ll talk about the four different categories of soil and what this means for us today.

Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 

“Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” 

And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’ And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 

The sower sows the word. And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.

And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” (Mark 4:1-20 ESV)

Where is this soil?

Spoiler alert: the soil talked about in this parable and Jesus’ interpretation is the soil of people’s hearts.

Did you know that you had soil in your heart? You have heart ground. And your heart grows spiritual plants. Things in your heart can block growth of spiritual plants, represented by hard ground or rocks. 

You can have ungodly spiritual plants growing in your heart. These ungodly plants are counterfeits of God’s true spiritual plants, and their purpose is to prevent God’s word over your life from growing and maturing.

The Heart

Where does it say that this soil is from the heart? It’s actually not found in Mark 4 but in the analogous passages in both Luke 8 and Matthew 13.

“The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.” (Luke 8:12 ESV)

“When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.” (Matthew 13:19 ESV)

The heart is a very important part of your body. What’s fascinating is that the heart connects all parts of your being: body, soul, and spirit. You have a physical heart, an emotional heart, and a spiritual heart. These are all connected, and the heart becomes a gateway to all three parts of your person. This is one of the reasons the Lord is interested in the surrender of your entire heart.

Heart Tablets

In Proverbs, wise King Solomon instructs us:

“Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.” (Proverbs 3:3 ESV)

“And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (2 Corinthians 3:3 ESV)

Did you know your heart had a tablet? Yes, in fact, things can be written in your heart. Do you know what’s written in your heart?

My SW Developer Friend

I have a friend who is a software developer. He writes code for a medical company. His code can receive a doctor’s office physical paper intake form that’s been scanned, parse through all the writing that someone has filled in for each blank, and put the information in the appropriate fields. It can route all the information to the insurance company and expedite approval. It saves time, money and bureaucracy.

But depending on what my friend writes in his code, he can change the outcome. What he writes can change the behavior of the program running, both in a good way, and in a bad way. 

The code that is written is very important, and in some cases, it can actually determine whether or not someone gets medical treatment, which for them could be a life and death matter.

What’s Written on Your Heart is Important

What’s written on your heart is important. You also have code running in your heart. There are real spiritual programs running in your heart that affect your behaviors.

And your heart can be reprogrammed. Typically it’s done in one of three ways: trauma, repetition, and revelation from God. 

Most of us are familiar with repetition. These can be good, bad, or neutral. The advertising agencies have figured this out long ago. That’s why they invent fun little jingles or slogans, or have that same annoying commercial play over and over and over. A spiritual seed is planted and then reinforced and reinforced. Then one day, you decide to go get the product at the store or visit that website or go do that thing, because it’s been repetitively planted in your heart, even if you’re not aware of it. Why else would companies pay thousands of dollars to get their products in a movie? You may not realize you’re being programmed by the world, but the world is actively trying to program you!

In a more positive sense, I’ve read studies that people need to hear the gospel about seven times before it really sinks in. That’s one of the reasons the Lord calls us to meditate on Scripture, a figurative “chewing of the cud” of the Word of God. Repetition allows His Words to sink down deep into our hearts and reprogram them. We get transformed by the renewing of our minds, and our renewed thinking drops into our heart, becoming heart belief. 

The Battle for Your Heart Ground

The spiritual ground of your heart is very important to God. And guess what? The devil is also interested in what’s in your heart. He wants to plant his spiritual seeds and write his own spiritual words in your heart, so that he can change the behavior of the program in the heart. The devil presents you with lies that, once believed, change the trajectory of your heart’s path. The lies give the devil a foothold in your life. These lies could be about God, about yourself, about other people, about the Bible, the world… you name it and there’s probably a lie about it.

Reinforcing these lies is the use of trauma. Trauma as a child is a big one, but there’s also abuse: physical, emotional, and spiritual. Unfortunately, hurt people hurt people. When trauma goes undealt with in the heart, it comes out in interesting ways, many times manifesting as some sort of sin. Those sins aren’t necessarily a behavioral problem; rather, they are indicators of a heart problem.

Shepherding a Child’s Heart

When we were leading a lifegroup at a local church in this area, we went through an excellent parenting study called, “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” by Tedd Tripp. One of the interesting outcomes of the study was the heart condition of two of the ladies. They did not agree to the Biblical disciplining of children.

One of the ladies during that time was telling Cherise about a problem with her daughter getting afraid at night. Well, we had dealt with this same thing with one of our kids, and we taught them this simple prayer, “Dear Jesus, please protect me, because I’m scared. And I will trust in You” (Developed from Psalm 56). I’d go in and pray this prayer every time my kid was scared. And the power of praying and declaring the Word of God broke through the fear.

Cherise told the lady about our experience and recommended praying with her daughter. Very flippantly, the woman said, “Oh, that could never work for me!”

Needless to say, Cherise was stunned, and didn’t really have a response for that. Looking back, we realized that this was indicative of a huge red flag heart problem. This lady didn’t believe in the power of prayer, she didn’t believe that God would work on her behalf or her daughter’s behalf, and we now are pretty sure she wasn’t even saved at the time, just a pretender or “church goer.”

How can a parent be a Godly shepherd over their child’s heart if their own heart isn’t being shepherded by Jesus Christ? 

What God Did About Your Heart

The condition of the heart is super important. And God has done something about it.

Let’s read two prophecies from Jeremiah and Ezekiel about the condition of the heart:

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33-34 ESV)

“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27 ESV)

God’s promise to us in this New Covenant time frame is that He is writing His law on our hearts. He forgives our iniquities and forgets our sins… through the blood of Jesus Christ. 

He gives us a new heart and a new spirit. God removes the stone-cold hearts from us and gives us a heart of flesh. He puts His Holy Spirit within us, which affects our outward behaviors, giving us the freedom to actually walk in righteousness, integrity, and holiness.

Believe in Your Heart

“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:9-10 ESV)

Many of you have heard me say this, but it bears repeating.

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

It takes heart belief of the Lordship of Jesus and of his death and resurrection to be born again. This is the salvation (the Greek word for saved is sozo) or conversion experience that people talk about when they say they have become a Christian.

In the very next verse, a different word for “saved” is used, soteria in the Greek. It means deliverance.

“For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

After conversion or the new birth, a process of becoming more like Jesus starts. This process requires a new heart belief, and it also requires confession with your mouth. 

Cherise wrote a great post about this topic in 2020! I encourage you to read it if you want to learn more!

Part of this process is physically renouncing lies you’ve believed and replacing them with truth. It involves using the Word of God as a weapon and as a declaration.

God’s Word is Your Weapon

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV)

Fear is an evil spirit, and God hasn’t given you an evil spirit of fear.

But He has given you the Holy Spirit, who’s full of power, love, and gives you a sound mind or clear thinking.

So your declaration becomes (spoken out loud, a confession with your mouth): 

“God hasn’t given me the evil spirit of fear, but instead, He gave me the Spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. I am full of Holy Spirit power, I’m full of Holy Spirit love, and I’m empowered to think clearly through the Spirit.”

Questions to Contemplate

How is your heart doing? Do you know what your heart believes?

Have you believed in Jesus with your heart, or with just your head?

How is the ground of your heart? Have you asked the Lord to help make the soil of your heart good soil? Are you willing to work with the Holy Spirit to break up any hard ground, remove any rocks, or pull up any weeds in your heart?

Why don’t you take a little bit of time, get with the Lord, and talk to Him about your heart? Let me tell you, it’s worth every bit of the investment!

Part 2