Greetings in the Name of Jesus and welcome to the PLN Sunday Night Bible Fellowship!

We're still discussing the types of SOILS Jesus described in the "Parable of the Sower and Soils" (Mark 4:3-20 and Matthew 13:3-23; this week see also Luke 8:14). To highlight the main points we've covered in the last few weeks, keep in mind that this Parable refers to the Word of God as SEED and the basic nature of this particular SEED is that it will ALWAYS grow when it's SOWED into GOOD soil. The SOIL is the MIND of the Believer which is designed to receive the SEED and either it receives and uses it for growth and transformation or it fails to receive it and growth is hindered. Connected to this process is the fact that the devil is committed to doing whatever's necessary to help hinder the SEED from producing GROWTH in the lives of Believers.

As we've also discussed, Jesus identified through this Parable four unique types of SOIL, which is to say four different MIND conditions that the SEED can expect to encounter once it's been sowed. As a brief reminder following is a description of these four conditions and three of the four are incapable of producing anything useful for the Kingdom of God:  

1. Packed down soil by the side of the road that's been so hardened, the SEED can't penetrate it; so the enemy comes and easily steals that SEED away before it can produce any transformation.  

2. Rocky ground with shallow soil where the SEED can't grow down far enough to develop a healthy root system; so the plants are soon scorched by the sun and wither away.  

3. Soil that's full of thorns and the SEED is choked out by the presence of those thorns so it can't grow and produce a viable "crop" for harvesting.

4. Good soil with which the SEED is able to produce a healthy crop that multiplies the SEED by thirty, sixty and a hundredfold. 

Now this week we're going to discuss the third type of SOIL where THORNS make it impossible for the sown SEED to produce a mature harvest. If you missed the previous articles, be sure to click above on the Archives to access them. For this week, here's the situation that the SEED has to contend with as described in Mark 4:18-19 when it's sown into thorny ground:

"And others are the ones (people) on whom SEED was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful."

The natural, physical THORNS that Jesus would probably have been alluding to in this scripture weren't those little rose bush thorns we're used to seeing. The fact is you can still find today a type of wild plant thriving outside Jerusalem that's largely indigenous to the Middle East and full of dangerous THORNS that are two or more inches in length. The plants grow up to 20 feet high with THORNS from top to bottom and wherever they're growing they've taken over everything because they use ALL the nourishment in the SOIL and all the available space. Even if some other hearty plant-type were somehow able to survive in there, how could anyone harvest something? No, the ONLY way to convert those areas into GOOD SOIL that's productive is to remove those THORN plants, roots and all.

Don't try this in the natural by the way without a lot of help because THORNS are part of the Curse that came from Adam's sin. Anyone wanting to remove these THORNS will have to sweat a lot and work very hard to get the job done (Genesis 3:18-19).

Thorns Come from the World

When we talked previously about the #2 rocky SOIL, remember that all those ROCKS represent the inner-man attitudes and beliefs and customs and traditions and values we've allowed to become entrenched in our MINDS, which make it impossible for the SEED to take root and grow. But as we now take up the third SOIL type, please note that this time Jesus is talking about three external influences from the World that we should be particularly concerned about if we're really serious about producing FRUIT (transformation and spiritual growth) in our lives:

• Worries (anxieties, fears)
• Deceitfulness of riches (covetousness)
• Desires for other things (pleasures)

As we consider this third SOIL and the influence of the World on our ability to grow spiritually, there are a couple of scriptures that are particularly relevant to our discussion:

"And do not be conformed to the World, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:2); and,

"Do not love the World nor the things in the World. If anyone loves the World, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the World, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the World" (1 John 2:15-16).

The three main THORNS that Jesus is telling us about don't occur in the Kingdom of God. You can't find them there. You can only come in contact with them in the opposite, counterfeit system the Bible refers to as, "the World." Now the World is evil (Galatians 1:4 KJV) and corrupted by lust (2 Peter 1:4); it lies in wickedness (1 John 5:19), is deceived by Satan (Revelation 12:9) and its wisdom is foolish (1 Corinthians 1:20). On top of all that the Bible says further that the World hates Believers (John 15:19 and 1 John 3:13) and that Satan is the "god (also prince and ruler) of this World" (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Ephesians 2:2 and 1 John 5:19).

In short, the World is not some place Believers should want to be. On the contrary it's clearly a place to avoid. It's corrupt and evil and full of the THORNS that choke out the WORD that we're trying to renew our MINDS with. And since Satan is the "god of this World," he's very adept at using his domain to cause the THORNS to come into our lives and then to make them hang around bothering us until we finally use our authority and the WORD to kick them out of our SOIL. As long as the THORNS are there in our MINDS, the SEED won't be able to take root. And if the SEED can't take root then we're stuck in a place where little to no spiritual GROWTH can ever take place.    

Thorns Come from Having the Wrong Priorities

The Word of God is clear and direct in warning Believers to stay away from the World. But despite all the warnings, it continues to seduce many of us into its activities and values and systems. In fact, many Christians don't even think about it. We live in the World and do things day after day the way the World does. We say the things they say even though those words produce death; and we manifest the same ideas and worries and wrong priorities. In the process we inadvertently, even ignorantly allow the World to rob us of our peace and victory.

The Truth is we should be viewing the World along with understanding that we're engaged in a WAR against its commanding officer who's working really hard to cause our SEED to be unproductive. Many of us are dependent on the World's financial and employment systems instead of looking to the Father as our Source. Others look first to the World's medical system instead of to the Healer who's already redeemed us from the Curse of sickness and disease (Deuteronomy 28:61). And still others are praying for a secular government to take care of them instead of looking to the Good Shepherd for His government to take over.

Friend, if the World is Satan's domain, why do so many of us look there for solutions to our problems instead of to the Kingdom of God? The answer is that our priorities are messed up. The World is where the THORNS are and we're looking for answers there where the THORNS are instead of seeking first the Kingdom of God. We're trusting in ourselves and our Flesh instead of in our Father.

Another question you might ask is, "how did I get all these messed up priorities anyway?" The answer is you already had most of them when you got born again and came into the Kingdom of God. They're external. You were used to them, you were comfortable with them and you thought you understood how they worked. Your FLESH which is the still unredeemed physical part of you is hanging onto those THORNS.

"Transformation" then includes the concept of throwing off worldly ideas and priorities and ways of doing things that you had before you got born again and then replacing them with KINGDOM ideas and priorities principles of life. And, you're the one with the help of the Holy Spirit and the Word of Word that has to root out all those two and three-inch thorns that are filling up your mind with ideas and priorities and ways of doing things that don't work in the Kingdom of God and are keeping you from receiving the SEED that will transform you into the person that God sees in His heart.

The bottom line is this: in order to become a FRUIT-producing, victorious, overcoming Christian we have to pull all the THORN plants out of our SOIL by the roots. There's an exchange to be made: give up your THORNS and receive the SEED. How? We can only do it by consciously and purposefully and aggressively renewing our MINDS through FAITH in the power of God's Word. Let me repeat here for the particularly "thorn-weary" folks reading this article: the ONLY way to grow into victory and success in the Kingdom of God is by increasing your UNDERSTANDING of the Word. UNDERSTANDING the Word releases its POWER and the POWER removes the THORNS. There is no other way to do it but it works 100 percent of the time!

Thanks for stopping by tonight. We'll be looking for you again NEXT Sunday night on February 1. In the meantime may the Lord bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), compelling you to PROSPER in every area of life!

Sinners' Prayer

If you've never invited Jesus to be the Lord of your life, you need to and you can do it today just by saying out loud the following simple prayer:

Jesus I declare today with all my heart that I believe in you and that God raised you from the dead. I acknowledge that my sins have been forgiven and I ask you to come into my life today and be my Lord and Savior. Thank you for salvation and eternal life.

If you were sincere as you prayed this prayer, God has already come into your life and you are a new creation, a totally new species recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be equipped to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.

And, when you get a chance have someone help you look up the following scriptures because they confirm what you've done by saying this prayer today and believing what you said:

Romans 10:9

2 Corinthians 5:17

Ephesians 2:8

Prayer Requests

If you have a Prayer Request, please connect to the Link below and follow the promptings. The PLN staff members pray over Prayer Requests every Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM eastern time. Agree with us for God to answer your petition.

http://www.creditcounseling.net/prayer-request.aspx  

Donations

If you've been edified by Prosperous Life Newsletter, you may want to consider making a SEED FAITH offering to support the Ministry (Galatians 6:6-7). God has instructed us to simply provide folks with an opportunity to sow seed into good ground so in due season you'll be eligible to reap a harvest and the rest is up to you as the Spirit leads. For your information PLN is a nonprofit gift to the Body of Christ so your financial offerings will usually be tax deductible (consult your tax advisor). Just go to the secure Shopping Cart on the Cornerstone web site by connecting through the following link. We appreciate your support and generosity.

http://www.creditcounseling.net/shop/item.aspx?itemid=1    

About Prosperous Life Newsletter

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