Many believers carry around a disappointment and confusion as to why their prayers don’t get answered. They pray for various things and yet never seem to see their answers arriving. Because of this some believers lower their expectations of God and themselves and even adjust their theology to match their experience rather than what the Word of God promises. But what if there was a way to supercharge our faith and get it working so that we actually started seeing more miracles and breakthroughs in our lives? Well there is a way and it’s actually more simple than you think. The Gospel is not complicated. Man complicates it, but actually the Gospel is very simple. It’s not about trying to have more faith. It’s about removing the things that hinder faith so that God’s Word can grow and produce a harvest in our lives.

All we need to do is a little bit of gardening in our heart to clear the soil so that the seed of God’s Word can be received and grow to produce a harvest of faith and fruit.

Here’s the reality, faith will only work in a heart that trust only in Christ and not other things. Therefore if we clear our heart of trust in other things, so that we trust only in Christ, we’ll see our faith starting to work more. A clear heart is able to hear and accept the seed of God’s Word into it and produce a harvest because there is nothing else hindering it in the heart.

In Mark 4 Jesus gives the parable of the sower. Jesus gave this parable to teach us how to make our faith work. He speaks about two very simple concepts: the “seed” which is the Word of God, and the “soil” which is a person’s heart. The problem was never with the seed it was always with the soil. God’s Word, His seed is perfect and will work every time as long as it has good soil. If the soil is bad the seed will be hindered and won’t produce. In the parable Jesus talks about four kinds of soil but only one of them produced a harvest. This was the good soil that had no rocks, thorns or hard pathways in it. It doesn’t matter how good the seed is, if the heart has got other things in it the seed can’t produce.

Here’s the parable in 5 verses and then we’ll look at the revelation. While you read it try to identify what the path, rocks and thorns represent:

Mark 4:3-8 “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

The path:

The path is hard soil. It’s hardness in the heart and it represents unbelief. You ever heard someone say, “I’ve been there, done that, tried it many times but it didn’t work so why would it work now?” When we have this hardness in our heart the seed cannot get in. Instead it’s quickly snatched away and can never produce a harvest.

God accused Israel, who failed to enter the promised land during the time of Moses, of having hard hearts of unbelief and called them evil hearts (Hebrews 3 & 4). Even though God had promised they will enter the land they hardened their hearts and rebelled against God by not believing what He had said. God’s Word was a promise that they would enter and yet because of fear and unbelief they did not believe His Word. And because of that they failed to enter. If we are not entering into the promises of God, let us not have hard hearts of unbelief that take us down a pathway away from the Word of God but let us rather humble ourselves, believe His Word and ask God to help us with our unbelief.

In Mark 9, the disciples tried to heal the demonised boy and failed, yet when Jesus turned up He healed the boy instantly. We, like the disciples, may be tempted to say that it’s not God’s will to heal this situation or give us a miracle in that area but Jesus is our perfect theology, infinitely more than our experience. He showed it’s always God’s will. If we are not seeing our faith work we need to go back to God’s Word and not our experience and we need to humble ourselves and ask God to help our unbelief. Just like the boy’s father who said to Jesus, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). Our problem is we don’t want to admit we don’t have faith. We want to make it about someone else or something else or that it’s not God’s will. The reality is that it is God’s will but we are not accessing it because we don’t truly have faith. Humility says, “Help me Lord with my unbelief”.

If you read Mark 9 and Matthew 17 you’ll see Jesus has no problem telling the crowd and his disciples that the reason they couldn’t get the boy healed was because of their unbelief. And that if they had faith they could heal this boy and that nothing is impossible to them that believe.

Matthew 17:16-20 “I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

The way we get rid of the hard pathways in our heart is to humble ourselves and admit we have unbelief, and then ask God to help us to believe His Word rather than our circumstances. By doing this we will soften the hard soil so that it can receive the seed. It means that when we hear God’s Word we will believe it and accept it above what we may be currently experiencing.

The rocks:

The second soil that couldn’t produce a harvest was the soil that had rocks in it. I believe the rocks simply represent the Law that was written on stone. This is when a person trusts in works rather than on Christ. When you do that your faith won’t work. You have to get the rocks out before your faith will work. You have to get trust and dependence on your works out of your heart so that you rely only on Christ and His work for you.

Jesus here, was speaking into a context in Jerusalem where Israel was trusting in their works righteousness to be saved and to merit God’s blessing and favour. Jesus was revealing himself as the saviour and that it’s by God’s grace that we are saved and blessed.

The problem is there is so much confusion in the Church today about this as people are mixing Christ with works. Because of this their faith is not working properly. The soil of their heart is still full of rocks. You cannot mix grace and works. It’s either all by works or all by grace. It’s not some of Jesus and the rest by my works. No salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. Not only is salvation by grace but so is healing, deliverance, provision, victory and all miracles. At the Cross Christ took up our sin, our sickness, our poverty and our defeat and therefore forgiveness, healing, wealth and victory all come through grace and never through our works of righteousness!

Galatians 3:5 “So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?”

We receive miracles simply by believing what we heard about Christ and His grace which is God’s riches to us at Christ’s expense. What stops us receiving is when we are relying on our works to earn God’s salvation, healing, provision, favour and blessings. Works nullify faith and stop it from working.

Galatians 3:12 “The law is not based on faith”.

If we want our faith to work, we need to get the rocks of trusting in our performance out of our heart so that we trust only in Christ. As long as the rocks are there your faith is always going to struggle to work. Clear the soil and get the rocks out so that the soil of your heart can accept the seed of God’s Word and you’ll see an increasing harvest or miracles!

The thorns:

The thorns choked the growing seed so it could not produce a harvest. Later Jesus explains that the thorns represent “the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things” (Mark 4:18-19).

I believe this very simply is speaking about idolatry. Idolatry is to trust and hope in other things rather than God. Idols are anything we have in our heart that replaces God. If we are trusting in our possessions, people and power rather than on Christ, our faith won’t work.

You can tell if someone has idols by how much they are caught up with the cares of this world, if their focus is money, and if they are always desiring after other things and are not satisfied and trusting in God. These idols are things that will choke the Word of God and prevent miracles in your life. These idols are okay for the seed to grow a little, but as soon as it starts to grow big and threaten to replace the idols, the idols react and choke the Word so it cannot grow up and produce a harvest.

If you are trusting in other things rather than God, then you have idols in your life that are hindering your faith from working. If you want to get your faith to work you have to get the idols out of your heart. Your reliance and pursuit must be on Christ alone, and not possessions, people, power and pleasures. Maybe it’s time to do some serious gardening to get those thorns out. We place such high value on these things and don’t want to give them up and yet Christ’s loving word to us is that these things choke what is true life- His Word which wants to get your faith working and produce a much better harvest in your life.

Matthew 6:25-33 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

The good soil:

Mark 4:20 “But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

If the soil of our heart is good it will accept the seed and produce a harvest. We don’t have to try to have faith, all we have to do is remove reliance on other things and rely only on Christ. When we do this, our heart will easily accept the Word of God.

Romans 10:17 (NIV) “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.”

Having faith is not as hard as people think. It is simply believing in the finished work of Christ and that all of God’s riches come to us by grace through faith and not works. When we believe this our heart is good soil and can believe and accept anything God promises us in His Word.

If you’re trying to be saved, stop trying through your works or by hoping in other gods or things and simply have faith in Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

If you are sick and trying to be healed, stop relying on your works to qualify you for healing and rely only on Christ.

Matthew 8:16-17 “That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

If you are struggling financially, stop believing you are under a curse (paths), stop relying on works to qualify you (rocks) and stop trusting in other things (thorns), but put your faith in Jesus, he alone is your source and supply. It is because of grace that heaven’s riches comes to us and we simply receive it and walk in it by faith.

2 Corinthians 8:9 “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

If you’re struggling with condemnation, temptation, defeat by the enemy then stop trusting in your works to qualify you or overcome the enemy, trust in what Christ did for you at the Cross. It was His work and His work alone that sets you free from sin, condemnation and the power of the enemy!

Colossians 2: 13-15 “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”

All of these scriptures I have given you (along with many others) are seeds that need to be planted in good soil. If you do this and believe them and meditate on them, your faith will begin to work in these areas and you will start seeing a harvest growing in your life. It may not all happen immediately as sometimes it takes a little time for the harvest to grow, but the main thing is get the seed into your heart and eventually it will lead to a harvest!

Matthew 17:20 “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Mark 9:23 “Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

 

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5 ways to get on fire for God. (Read)

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Walking in the Spirit Covenant. (Listen)

Walking by your reborn spirit. (Listen)

Walking in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. (Listen)

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