Ears to hear

Greetings to all my friends in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ!  All the glory to my Lord and my Savior, Jesus Christ!

Lk.8:18, ‘Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.”’

 Jesus narrated a parable to His disciples about a sower in Lk.8:5-15 and then spoke these above verses. The emphasis is on how we hear the Word of God. The fruits that is brought forth later determines the way we have heard the Word today. Nowadays, the Bible is easily available in many nations & there is no dearth of messages. We have them easily available in all kinds of media. With technology, the Word of God is spreading into almost all nations of the world in an amazing ways. But the Lord comes to see the fruits. The halls and the stadiums might be full of souls listening to the most well known preachers of the world. But the Lord comes to see the fruits.

Verses 5 to 15 talks about four kinds of ground, which refer to the four ways of hearing the Word of God. Usually, when we read this passage, it seems that the four grounds represent four kinds of lives. One is forever on the way side, the other is forever rocky, while yet another is forever thorny. But we need to realise that the good ground, which bore fruits, was not good from the beginning. It chose to be good, by resisting the fowls of the air, ploughing out the rocks and chopping off the thorns. Jesus said, ‘take heed how you hear.’ This shows that it is our choice as to how we should hear His Word. The way we hear it determines the type of ground.  Every time we hear His Word, we need to take care as to how we do it. If the fowls of the air, the rocks and the thorns are an obstacle, it is only because we have allowed them to be an obstacle, by choosing the wrong way of hearing the Word.

The first ground is on the way side where the seeds are trodden down and taken away by the fouls, which refers to the evil one. Such lives hears the Word but do not understand the same (Mt.13:19). Neither root nor fruit is seen here. This ground ended up in the way side because of lack of submission. When we hear the word of God, we need to listen with the attitude of ‘submissiveness’. In the sense that we need to decide beforehand that we ‘will’ obey the Word of God, through which alone we can express our love for the Lord. A submitted life aspires to understand the Word. In Acts 8:26-40, we read about an Ethiopian, who after reading the verses of Isaiah 53, yearned within his heart to understand the same. The Lord who saw this heart immediately sent Philip to him, who explained the scriptures to him. Soon the Ethiopian believed and obeyed the Word of God by taking water baptism. Here, the inability to understand the Word did not make him ignore the same. Instead, his submissiveness to obey made him yearn to understand and obey the scriptures.  If hearing the Word is like seed falling on the ground, submitting to understand & obey is like pushing the seed deep into the heart of soil, where no fowl sees and no feet can trod. A submitted life is a powerful life, for only such lives are empowered to resist the devil. James 4:7, ‘Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.’ In other words, an unsubmissive heart ignores the understanding part of Word and obedience & thus, invites the fowls and treading feet.

The second ground is rocky ground, which refers to hard heartedness. It’s the sins that make a heart hard. Often we assume that we are clean. But as we close our eyes in prayer, and stand before the Holy God in our spiritual realm, our inner eyes open to see the innumerable falls, which takes place in our daily lives. It’s the prayers about our relation with God that enables us to see ourselves through the Lord’s eyes. And such prayers lead us to a repentant life, which ploughs out all the rocks and becomes tender with tears of repentance. Mt.13:21 says that the lives with rocky ground are offended when persecution and tribulation arises on account of the Word of God.  For a repentant life, the relation with the Lord is of utmost priority, who willingly bears the cost of persecution and tribulations. Do we hear the word of God with a repentant heart? Do we spend time in praying over our personal relation with our Lord? No roots are seen where no relation is there with the Lord.

The 3rd ground is the thorny one. The seeds fell and sprang up. Here, the roots did grow, but soon the thorns, which also sprang up with it, choked it. V 14 says that it brings no fruit to perfection. This shows that even the fruits had come up but got crushed and choked with the thorns. These things i.e. the cares, riches and pleasures of life are termed as thorns because they easily distract our attention or meditation from the sown word of God. The thorns grew because they were allowed to grow. No life is free from any cares or from the options of pleasure and riches. But the lack of complete trust in our Lord for all our needs make us anxious. And the love for the riches and pleasures snatch away the first love for the Lord. This gives enough space for the thorns to grow. To chop off these thorns, we need to discipline our mindset. We need to take deliberate efforts to bring our thoughts to the sown seed of His Word. This is not easy but neither is it impossible. Only a deep commitment to discipline our thoughts will be an overcomer. Fruits of only such lives will be brought to perfection. Just as the ripe fruits are only harvested, the lives with fruits of perfection will only be harvested into eternity.

The 4^th ground, the only fruitful ground is the honest and good heart (Lk.8:15) which patiently keeps the word to bring forth fruit, a hundred fold, sixty fold and thirty fold. Let’s note here that it’s the honesty that makes a heart good, patient and fruitful. Honesty is speaking what you mean and meaning what you speak. There is complete unity among the intentions of the heart, words of the mouth and actions of an honest person. An honest person is honest in his submissiveness, prayerfulness, relations with God and men and in every aspect of his life. Such lives are like open book, with no double characters & no deceiving words. Seeds of God’s Word falling on such grounds will never go unfruitful. They have the ears to hear. They hear the Word with submissive hearts. They hear the Word to obey and to bring fruits. Its heart breaking to be in a world where people, both inside the so-called churches and outside, are losing ground of honesty. But we who are being allowed to know and understand this truth, lets submit ourselves to be honest, to be upright and to be people of integrity. Only then can we be the good ground, empowered to resist the fowls and treading feet. Only then can we plough out the rocks and chop off the thorns. Only then can we bear fruits and be harvested into eternal life with Christ, our Lord.

In Lk.8:8, ‘Jesus said, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.’ Our Lord has given us freedom of choice. That is the proof of a genuine unconditional love. By choosing to hear and obey the Word, we choose to love Him. But when we allow the fowls, rocks and the thorns to hinder the same, we choose to betray Him. If we betray Him, our destruction is our own choice. Time is flying off and the time to join our eternal home is approaching fast. Let’s make the right choice to be in the place where He wants us to be. In Lk.8:21, Jesus said, ‘My mother and my brothers are these which hear the Word of God and do it.’ It’s such a privilege to be called as our Lord’s family members. Let’s not loose this great privilege. May we all be the good ground bearing much fruits for the glory of our Lord.

God bless us all!

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