Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; cursed is the ground because of you. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:17-19.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Thorns. They choke the growing seed of My Word. You started out so well, so joyfully drawing water from the springs of Salvation, what happened that put your soul into darkness? What caused you to lose hope? Thorns. Anxieties, cares, and disappointments in yourself and others—desires for success in your undertakings and dreams that just did not happen, choked off the Word, and when they did that, they also choked off your joy. John 15:11; Jeremiah 15:16. And these things also hardened your heart to My voice. The voice of the bride was silenced and her eyes do not see and her ears do not hear, lest she should turn to Me and I would heal her. Matthew 13:14-15. But the bridegroom never stopped singing. Zephaniah 3:17; Psalm 32:7.
Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have not borne! Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed; for the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous than the sons of the married woman. Isaiah 54:1. Fear not, for you will not be put to shame; and do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced; but you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your husband is your Maker, whose name is the LORD of hosts. Isaiah 54:4-5.
My Son told a parable, in fact, it was His very first parable that He shared with the people, and it was about how My Kingdom works. If you do not understand this parable you will not understand His other parables. Mark 4:13. So you would be wise to understand it. The parable was about the sower going out to sow seed in a field. The seed, He tells you, is My Word, and the field is the people of the world. He compares your hearts to soil that either rejects or receives My Words.
Jesus discusses four kinds of ground: stony, shallow, thorny, and good planting soil. And you do not just fit in one category during the course of your life, or even in different areas of your life, you may fit into different categories at the same time, or at different seasons off your life. If you are depending on outward circumstances for your joy and fruitfulness, you will never come to harvest time, because you will have trials in this life. But you do have a way to overcome them—faith in My Word that you grow by cultivating the seed and keeping the soil of your heart fertile, free from rocks and thorns, and open to receive the imperishable seed. “Receive the implanted Word, it has the power to save your souls.” James 1:21.
The first kind of ground My Son speaks of is stony ground. A heart of stone. Hardened hearts cannot hear My Words, they won’t penetrate. The Pharisees hardened their hearts to My Son’s Words, which are Mine. The Israelites hardened their hearts to My Words to Moses. Satan, the god of this world, operates the same way he did with Adam, he steals the Word by blinding the eyes of the hearts of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is in My image, He reflects Me to you. No Word, no light. And no Word, no harvest, nothing but a wasted, unfruitful life.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because they have rejected knowledge. Hosea 5:6. And in rejecting My Word you reject Me. You cannot be a minister to others if you do not let My Word minister to you.
And second kind of ground My Son spoke about is rocky ground that has very little topsoil. This represents when you receive My promise with great joy, but have no root in yourself into My Word, but are temporary, then when affliction or persecution arises, immediately you fall away.
The third kind is the soil that grows thorns in it that choke off the planted Word. This is when you are a believer in the Word but you permit worries, anxieties, stress, trials, and disappointments to wear you down and take the joy and hope out of you. It is when you give up resisting and fighting the good fight of faith that you will go down to a very low place, you will be unfruitful. Satan will step up his attacks if he sees you are being fruitful. I do not want you to be unaware of his tactics. Laugh at him and keep on standing on My Word. It will come to pass if you just refuse to give up and give in.
The fourth kind of soil My Son speaks about is the good, honest, generous, and steadfast heart that refuses to give up My Word of promise no matter what—the one who continues to speak, read, meditate upon, and listen to My Word until the harvest of that Word manifests. Luke 8:15. But even here, the harvest can differ among believers, some will be thirty-fold, some sixty-fold, and some one hundred-fold. It depends on your diligence with respect to declaring and keeping on My Word.
How do you make and keep you heart good soil so you can have My promises manifest one hundred-fold in your life? Let Me show you.
Stony hearts. You need to break up the stone. I can help you with that. David sang, “You visit the earth and cause it to overflow; You greatly enrich it. The stream of God is full of water; You prepare their grain, for thus You prepare the earth. You water its furrows abundantly, You settle its ridges, You soften it with showers, You bless its growth. You have crowned the year with Your bounty, and Your paths drip with fatness (the anointing). The pastures of the wilderness drip, and the hills gird themselves with rejoicing. The meadows are clothed with flocks and the valleys are covered with grain; they shout for joy, yes, they sing.” Psalm 65:9-13. My job is to prepare your heart with the regenerating water of the Spirit and sow the seed of My Word therein. I lead you and prepare you, I complete the good work I have begun in you. I give you the anointing and clothe you in Christ. And what do you do? You see, the meadow of your heart shouts for joy, yes, it sings! Make melody to Me in your heart and stop the dirge that the thorns sing to you.
And you will see the same in the promise I gave to Ezekiel, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring a famine on you. I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that you will not receive again the disgrace of famine among the nations.” Ezekiel 36:25-30.
I am like a luxuriant cypress; from Me comes your fruit. Hosea 14:8. For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up, and instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, and it will be a memorial to My Name, for an everlasting sign which will not be cut off. Isaiah 55:12-13. When you have been hit with whatever trial or hardship the devil has side swiped you with, even in tears, begin immediately to sow the seed of My Word and it will not return void but achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11. But once you have sown (declared) My Word of promise over your grief there is only one way you will harvest it—you sow in tears but you reap with JOY. Shout the victory before you see it and get ready to reap it. Be like Paul in the midst of a trial, sing, “Thanks be to God, who always causes me to triumph in Christ Jesus My Lord!” 2 Corinthians 2:14. And watch the prison doors swing open. Even storms, shipwrecks, and snake bites could not keep Paul from declaring, “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice!” And I made all things work together for good for him. I delivered him out of them all. And I did the same for David. And I can do the same for you if you will just receive and cultivate the seed with the voice of thanksgiving (do you remember what that is? If not, go back and read those lessons of Daily Manna and be enlightened).
Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. Colossians 2:6-7. “The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree; he will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green.” Psalm 92:12-14.
I put My Spirit in you and I write My law on your hearts. I plant My Word in your born-again Spirit. But you must water it and cultivate it. And how do you do that? You speak to it. You shout, you sing, and you are a doer of the Word and not just a hearer. It means you are ROOTED AND GROUNDED IN LOVE. Then you will have the hundred-fold harvest. But how do you keep yourself in My love? Jesus told you like the branch in the vine you must remain in His love. How do you do that?
Read what My servant Jude wrote and you have your answer: “But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.” Jude 1:17-25.
The answer to keeping the thorns from choking your seed is to pray in the Holy Spirit. Tongues. When you pray in tongues you edify yourself, that is, build yourself up. Paul prayed in tongues more than any of you, and the trials, afflictions, and stress never took him down.
I love you. Watch for the birds that steal the seed, the rocks that block its growth, and the thorns that choke it off. Stop worrying and start taking authority by declaring and moving the mountain. I told you to do that. Mark 11:22-24. My promise grows in you as you declare it. Keep speaking the Word and your heart will stay good soil. It is up to you to keep your hearts soft, not stony. I have given you all you need to do it and I am present within you to help you. And how do I change stony hearts? By putting My Spirit in you and writing My Words in your hearts. Pray in the Spirit, sing in the Spirit, and speak the words of the Spirit and you will not satisfy the lusts of the flesh (thorns that will choke you in the long run).