Skip to main content

Hardened

By
God's Favourite House Devotional October 30th, 2016

 A farmer went out to plant some seed.  As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds came and ate it” Luke 8:5 [emphasis added]

Jesus explained our Scripture reference today to mean, “The hard path where some seed fell represents the hard hearts of those who hear the words of God, but then the devil comes and steals the words away and prevents people from believing and being saved” Lu.8:12 [LB, emphasis added]. To understand the footpath, you have to look at it from a farmer’s perspective. The footpath is the trail the farmer takes when he is sowing seed or irrigating his farm. So it is usually narrow and hardened because the soil there has been compacted by the farmer’s feet.

Sometimes when he is scattering seed, some fall on that pathway. But because it is narrow and particularly hardened, the seed does not go into the soil. So it does not germinate and birds just come and pick it up. This is the problem with some of us. We have become narrow-minded. Our image of God is restricted and our hearts are hardened. And as a result, we cannot grow spiritually.

For you to grow spiritually, you must allow God to disabuse your mind. God cannot be put in a box. You should be flexible enough to allow God to mess with your theology. You need to understand that if you put God in a box, you cannot grow spiritually. God is not religious at all. In fact, religion by definition is man’s way to God. Christianity by origination is God’s way to man - complete opposite! So a lot of us are narrow minded and hardened like that footpath. And because of this, we cannot receive the seed [God’s Word]. The seed does not penetrate so it cannot germinate.

There are so many things around us today that make us closed and narrow. Systems particularly, some people are so stuck in “this is how we do it or this is how it is done” that they shut themselves out of the newness that God is birthing. At our Thrive sessions in God’s Favourite House for instance, for the first thirty minutes we say sit quietly and talk to God [pray]. Some people struggled with it because they thought we were trying to buy time. The truth is that they have put God and church in a box. If you come to God with a box- like approach, you will miss Him.

Prayer: Precious Spirit of God, please open me up to the newness of God each day so that I will not miss God, in Jesus Name.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

You've been blessed through this reading share with Others. Share the DO's and the DON'T.

Popular posts from this blog

Dominion Mandate Daily Devotional Thursday,March 3

By
THEME: You Can Create Whatever You Desire John 16:21-27 The instrument with which you exercise dominion over creation is your mouth.You can create whatsoever you desire by speaking that thing into existence.Whatever you say begins to exist in the spiritual form.Jesus said in John 6:63,"The words that I speak unto you,they are spirit,and they are life". In like manner,you create whatever you say and the things begin to exist in the spiritual form.What you create through words also have life and they continue to live until they find physical expression.  This is exactly what happens when you pray.The things you declare in prayer come alive and begin to exist in their spiritual form.They remain in that spiritual form until they are converted to their tangible equivalent through work. Jesus said,"until now you have asked nothing in My name.Ask,and you will receive,that your joy may be full" (John 16:24). Don't make the mistake of relaxing after you have pray...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dominion Mandate Daily Devotional Friday, March 18th 2016

By
You Must Forgive Yourself Hebrews 12:1-11 You have heard quite a lot about forgiving those that have offended you – and that you must do. It happens often that the person you must really forgive is yourself. You may have committed an offence or a sin and your conscience has condemned you, just as the Holy Spirit has chastised you. You may also have repented of this sin, confessed it to God and resolved not to go back that way. But you discover that the heaviness, clouded vision, and the erosion of confidence occasioned by the sin you committed continue to weigh you down. At such moments, you need to make another type of confession to God in order to regain your liberty from the weight that holds you down. You have to confess your unbelief in His word that says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). When you have genuinely repented of a sin and confessed it to God; and you have pleaded ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sin Stained...or Blood Washed?

By
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.  (Hebrews 10:16-17) The Bible tells us that under Levitical law, an animal had to be offered every year to atone for the sins of the people. That word atone means "to cover" and it's used continually throughout the Old Testament. But let me tell you something exciting. It's never used in the New Testament. The Greek word used to describe what Jesus did for us on the cross is a different word altogether. It doesn't just mean "to cover"—it means "to remit; to do completely away with something." Do you know what that means? It means there is no longer a sin problem. Jesus solved it! When you made Him your Lord, He didn't just cover your sins, He put you into right-standing with God and re-created you by the Spirit of God a...
Post a Comment
Read more