Walking in the Spirit (Part 3)

Learning to Seek the Lord

Based on my own experience, I would say that applying your heart to seek the Lord is the single most important discipline in the Christian’s life. Scripture also affirms this as we will soon see. God has determined to conceal the truths of scripture while at the same time putting everything within the grasp of each and every Christian. I don’t know why God chose to make seeking such an integral part of our lives, but He has chosen to do so. The difference between theoretical faith and experiential faith is found in the command to seek. When I say experiential faith, I am referring to the daily lifestyle where you see God working in every area of your life and speaking to you daily through His word. Until you begin to seek God with all your heart through His word, the promises you hear and the life you live will never truly meet. You may have times of excitement and see glimpses of God working in your life, but until you truly begin to seek, you are missing the mark by a long shot.

Most Christians go into church, hear a message and quickly forget what they have heard. At the beginning of this study I said that I cannot change your life nor can this study. No book, study, sermon, teacher or any other thing can change your life. I can share with you the principles that have been so effective in my pilgrimage and have revealed God and His ways to me, but I cannot make you understand or apply these things to your life. Proverbs 2:6 reveals to us:

For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;

My goal is to impart understanding, but I can only give intellectual understanding. Only God can give you spiritual understanding. I can teach you exactly what I learned and you still will not grasp the truths of the Spirit unless the Holy Spirit opens your eyes. This is why you can read the Bible dozens of times and still see new applications to your life each time. Obviously we cannot grasp everything at once; therefore, God reveals to us what we need to grow and then as we grow, God reveals more. If you do not respond to what has been revealed, your spiritual growth will be severely hindered. This is why the average Christian never leaves spiritual infancy. Paul explained this in Hebrews 5:12-14  

¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.  ¹³ For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.  ¹⁴ But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Even though the church in Paul’s day had been taught enough so that they should already be spiritually mature enough to become teachers, they were still in need of being taught. Continuously the church needed to be taught again and again the first principles or basics of Christianity. They were stuck on the milk. As it was in Paul’s day, it is in our day. The vast majority of church members are unskilled in the word and are in need of the basics. Why? Because if you do not apply the scriptures to your life, you will quickly forget and maturity is impossible.

Parable of the Sower

Jesus’ parable of the sower is a good illustration of this. Jesus told a parable of a sower that cast seed out and some fell on stony ground where it quickly withered, some were eaten by ravens, some were choked by thorns and some fell on good ground. Now look at Matthew 13:10-23  

¹⁰ And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"  ¹¹ He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  ¹² "For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.

…
¹⁸ " Therefore hear the parable of the sower:  ¹⁹ "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.  ²⁰ "But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;  ²¹ "yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.  ²² "Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.  ²³ "But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."

This is a parable to everyone who hears the word. In our churches each week the word is cast out and very little of it falls on good ground. If we examine our own lives, we will see that there are many things that prevent the word from taking root. Let’s look deeper into this parable to get an insight into how this applies to our own lives.

The Lost Word

Matthew 13:19 "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.

When you read or hear the word, it is a seed sown in your heart. The potential for that seed is to create in you a fruitful, godly life. In order for spiritual maturity to occur, the word must grow and prosper in our lives. To know the Bible is vital, but head knowledge alone cannot produce fruit. The Spirit must be involved in order to understand the word. There are certain things anyone can understand, such as ‘Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit murder, adultery, etc., but the spiritual things God reveals to us can only be understood through the word by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. This is explained in 1 Corinthians 2:14  

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

This is why we must know Christ  before we can understand the truth of scripture. The Holy Spirit must be within us before we can be guided into understanding. Even with the Holy Spirit within us, there can still be a lack of understanding. Just like the Hebrew Christians, we can remain unskilled in the word and in need of basic understanding if we are not actively applying the word in our lives. The wicked one is Satan and he will do everything in his power to take the word out of your heart. This is done by distractions, sin, complacency and apathy. When you receive the word, if you do not do anything with it, you will be a forgetful hearer. James 1:25 states:

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

You are not blessed by only hearing, but doing the work instructed to us in the word. You must apply your heart to understanding. The one who hears but does not understand, does nothing with it and soon it is forgotten. It is the Lord that gives understanding and as we will examine shortly, there are biblical principles that God has given us to follow so that we gain understanding. If we follow God’s principles, we will understand and if we apply what we understand we will begin to mature. If we are a forgetful or complacent hearer, we will lose what was sown in our hearts.

The Withered Word

Matthew 13:  ²⁰ "But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;  ²¹ "yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

The believer’s life must have depth in order for the word to grow. Many people receive the word but then look at the Christian life from a self-centered, worldly perspective. I call these ‘Precious Promises Christians’. While the promises of God give us hope and encouragement, the promises cannot be claimed without obedience to the word. Personal gain is not our sole reason for living. Look at John 6:26-27  

 ²⁶ Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.  ²⁷ "Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."

In this passage, Jesus has just finished feeding five thousand men. After eating, the people proclaimed that Jesus was the Christ and planned to take Him by force and make Him king in Israel (John 6:15). Jesus sent His disciples away to get them out of this brewing problem and then departed privately. When the people could not find Him, they searched until they did find him. Jesus cut to the chase and declared that they were seeking Him for no other reason than personal gratification. The people Jesus is referring to are the ‘Precious Promises Christians’. They look to God for blessings and prosperity but they cannot endure it when God conflicts with their human wisdom or self-centered ambitions. Every Christian says, “God is good, or Jesus is Lord” when they are fat and happy, but the disciple proclaims He is Lord even when they are offended. Offenses will come. God will even offend you to see if you are seeking Him or just merely want to feel blessed and filled.

Jesus spoke the truth to the masses; however, He presented it in such a way that He knew would offend them. Once offended, those who were truly disciples became evident. Most of the very people who just proclaimed that He was Christ and should be king were now angry and abandoning Him. Look at John 6:66-68   

⁶⁶ From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.  ⁶⁷ Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Do you also want to go away?"  ⁶⁸ But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

This is exactly what Jesus was talking about in the parable of the sower. The seed on the stony ground is those who receive the word with gladness and quickly spring up, but they are soon scorched by an offense and wither away. Have you ever met a Christian who gets mad and quits church? Have you ever gotten mad at God because He did not give what you prayed for, had a difficult problem that cost you or had to suffer in some way? It is not a popular idea, but God does offend. God will test you and allow you to be offended. Sometimes God’s word is offensive. The believers that are looking only for the promises will only walk with the Lord when they see the blessing; however, the true disciple will walk with God even when they do not understand. Faith sometimes calls for obedience when God does not show us all the information. Sometimes we don’t understand – and this is by design. Consider Proverbs 3:5-6  

⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;  ⁶ In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

It is true that the Lord gives understanding, but it is also true that sometimes God calls for us to trust Him even when we don’t understand. Sometimes we are happy in this life and sometimes we will not be happy. In happiness or sorrow, our answer should be the same as those who stayed with Jesus, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Are you seeking the blessing, or are you seeking the word of life? You can pack a church by promising peace, health, prosperity, but who wants to hear all the words of Jesus? People will gladly follow the teacher who proclaims that they can command sorrows to depart, but few want to hear the words of Job, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10). Keep in mind that God proclaimed that Job is the only one who spoke rightly of Him during Job’s afflictions. Consider the testimony of King David in Psalm 119:66-69  

⁶⁶ Teach me good judgment and knowledge, For I believe Your commandments.  ⁶⁷ Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word.  ⁶⁸ You are good, and do good; Teach me Your statutes.  ⁶⁹ The proud have forged a lie against me, But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.

Sometimes affliction is used by God to turn us back when we go astray. Sometimes God uses afflictions to shape our character and grow us. Sometimes God uses afflictions to reveal those who are and those who are not His disciples. If you are seeking to eat and be filled, you will likely get offended and wither away. If God is a source for blessings and wealth and you are seeking prosperity, you will wither when God sends offenses.

Finally, notice what Jesus said about the withered hearer of the word, “he has no root in himself”. Tribulation and offenses will come. If you are rooted in Christ, you will endure. If your roots are focused on yourself, you will wither. Colossians 2 explains:

⁶ As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,  ⁷ rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Many of God’s promises are future and eternal. The promises are for our encouragement so that we are focused on obedience and walking in God’s will during this time. You can seek the Lord with all your heart knowing that God is seeking your good. You don’t need to seek the blessing; God will provide as He sees fit. We know that God loves us and has proven that He is seeking our good; therefore, we can seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness knowing that He will add all these things to us. I don’t need to seek my good for that is God’s job. I need to seek the will of God. That is what a loving relationship is all about.

A successful relationship is two people seeking the good of the other. A wife who seeks her husband’s good while a husband seeks his wife’s good is a nurturing relationship. In most relationships, spouses begin from the wrong starting point. A wife tries to get her husband to fulfill her needs and the husband tries to get the wife to fulfill his needs and both are growing increasingly bitter and frustrated. Those who seek self are never fulfilled; but those who seek the good of another are fulfilled as they express unconditional love toward another. The same thing is true in the Christian’s life. Most Christians have the wrong starting point. They begin by seeking to be fulfilled and upon that condition they offer praise, thanksgiving and obedience to God. In truth, we are commanded and should be focused on offering a sacrifice of praise to God first and be thankful in all things first. God has already expressed His love toward us so that even if we receive no other benefit than forgiveness and eternal life, it is enough. The promises of God reveal that there is so much more God is giving us and for this reason we should have no trouble seeking His righteousness and the will of God unconditionally. Let God bless as He sees fit, but you walk in obedience even if offenses come.

The Choked Word

Matthew 13:22 "Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

In our crowded lives, it is very difficult to live fruitful in Christ because the word of God is choked out by all the distractions. Even good things can become a distraction if we make the wrong things take too high of a priority in our lives or take it outside of God’s intended design. I have mentioned this in the past but it bears mentioning again; I have a friend that spends seven days a week participating in Church activities. There was a time in my life when I felt that it was necessary to participate in everything the church asked me to be involved with. Like my friend, people get crowded in Monday night visitation, Tuesday Bible studies, Wednesday services, Thursday committee and deacons meetings, Friday youth activities, Saturday church work days, Sunday morning services, evening services, Sunday school and other meetings and activities. Where can we find time to live out our faith and seek God if our lives are so crowded?

As odd as this may sound, church work is not necessarily serving God. I meet people all the time that equate church event attendance with spiritual maturity. In fact, I have been classified as immature because I will not allow activities to overcrowd my life. I take the approach that I must look at any church task or activity and ask two questions: Does this fulfill God’s calling in my life? Can I participate in this without interfering with or distracting me from God’s calling on my life? If the first answer is no, I proceed with caution. If the second question is no, I refuse to get involved. If you are crowding your life, you are at risk for burnout at worst and unfruitfulness at best. Many people fall into the trap of thinking that church attendance is doing God a service. While we are commanded to assemble together, this is not our work for the Lord. Church should be a place where we are encouraged, spend time in worship, and learn the word. Church activities can be very good, but it can also be taken beyond the good and used to crowd your life.

The word is also choked by the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches. The Bible is very direct on the topic of working to be rich. Do not let your career dominate your life. Not one man has ever been reported to say on his deathbed, “I wish I had put a higher priority on money”. But there are countless testimonies of those who regret not applying themselves to the things in life that really matter. The Bible speaks often on this topic. Here are a few scriptures that address this:

Proverbs 23:4-5   
⁴ Do not overwork to be rich; Because of your own understanding, cease!  ⁵ Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.

 

Proverbs 28:20  A faithful man will abound with blessings, But he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.

Luke 12:15 And He said to them, "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses."

The Bible never condemns money nor does it condemn working. In fact, the Bible sternly condemns those who do not work. Our labors are not to gain wealth, but provide for our needs. God may indeed bless us and provide wealth. The blessing is promised to the faithful man, not to the one whose focus is on laboring to become rich. Those who are in a hurry to get rich will not go unpunished, but those who are faithful will see God’s blessings. It is God that determines our level of wealth. If your heart is on money, you cannot love the Lord. Jesus even stated that you cannot serve money and Him. This is also explained in 1 Timothy 6:9-11   

⁹ But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.  ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.  ¹¹ But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.

Notice that it is not money that is the root of evil, but the love of money. Also note that it is not those who are rich that fall and are entrapped by a snare, it is those who desire to be rich. Your desire should be to live godly. If God should bless you financially, well; however, if God should choose to keep you away from the temptation of money, that is well. God knows our abilities and what will distract us from what has eternal significance. If you put your trust in God, you will be blessed in this life and the life to come while also being preserved from the things that choke your spiritual life. If you labor to be rich and your desire is for riches, you may indeed gain it, but it will not be a blessing, but a snare that will cause many sorrows. Flee the love of money and pursue the paths of righteousness.

Our lives are also crowded by entertainment and hobbies. I have hobbies that go ignored for months at a time because I am trying to keep my life from becoming too crowded. The number one challenge for most Christians today is television. Twice in my life I have gone without TV. During those times, I never missed it and my life was much better without it. When I first married, we decided to go two years without TV to remove this distraction. Four years later we decided to get cable. Our intentions were to limit our viewing but we soon found ourselves watching something every night. When I moved, we were again without TV and it wasn’t missed. When my wife and I saw a low cost satellite programming package we decided to again get it with the intention of limiting our viewing.

I found myself coming home tired and just wanting to ‘vegetate’ in front of the TV for a few minutes. Soon it would be bedtime and I had spent a few hours watching the TV. Each day I felt tired when I got home and it became all too easy to unwind in front of the TV as the time rolled by. Two years ago lightning struck our satellite dish and destroyed our receivers. The Satellite company was very uncooperative with replacements so I cancelled my service completely. For the last two years I have had no TV and once again, I have not missed it. When you have TV you think that you will be bored without it and the shows you watch seem more important than they truly are. Now some services are offering 250 channels and on demand programming that allows you unlimited access to hundreds of shows at any time. Is it possible to have all this entertainment at your fingertips and not crowd your life? For me, I find that though I feel tired when I first get home, I perk up after a few minutes, whereas when the TV was on, I never felt revived but stayed in the same mindset until I went to bed.

It is you, the individual Christian’s responsibility to determine what is valuable in your life and remove the things that are a hindrance to those priorities. For the average person, entertainment will remain the highest priority. Some will say, “I need to change”, but then complacency quickly makes them forget and they settle into the old routine. Is TV bad? That is up to you to determine. The Bible says, “Let no one cheat you out of your reward”. Does the TV do this? If so, is it a worthy trade off? For you it may not be a hindrance, but if it is, you must decide if the cares of this life will be allowed to choke the word or if your desire is to be fruitful in spiritual things. Invest your life into what you consider to be the highest value.

The Fruitful Word

Matthew 13:23 "But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."

The seed that fell on good ground and became fruitful is the word that takes root in your heart and matures to completion. The word must be applied to your life or it has fallen on bad ground. God has given you the power to prepare the soil for the seed. You cannot give yourself understanding and you cannot make the seed grow and mature; however, you can prepare yourself to receive the word by removing the things in your life that quench the Spirit and hinder the work of God. God has chosen to reveal Himself to those who seek Him and obey Him instead of ruling over your will and forcing you to obey Him. If just hearing the word was enough, everyone would be growing. God resists the proud who choose their own ways, but gives grace to the humble that submit to Him and obey the word.

In each of these cases where the seed fell on bad ground, it was the result of neglect or selfishness that the word did not prosper. But you can prepare your hearts to hear the word, receive the word and then be a doer of the word. God will reveal Himself to those who are obedient to the word. Look at James 1:23-25  

²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;  ²⁴ for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.  ²⁵ But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

This is how the word is fruitful. Through faith, we obey and then God blesses. God produces fruit. The fruit of the word is discipleship. You first mature into a disciple by becoming Christ-like and then you produce fruit by instructing others in their progress of becoming Christ-like. As you become a disciple of Christ, God produces the fruit of the Spirit in you as He also reveals understanding of the word to you.

The person who never does this will not only stagnate, but they will also lose what they have. Look at the last thought of the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:12   

¹² "For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.

Up to this point we have been looking at Jesus’ explanation of the parable, but this statement is how Jesus explained the reason for speaking in parables. Those in the inner circle heard the same word as those on the outside. The masses all heard the word and then quickly forgot what had been taught, but the disciples that sought the answers had it revealed to them. Those who were left unseeing could also have asked Jesus for understanding but they did not. The same is true for your life. You hear the word or read the word and then have the choice to pursue understanding or let it slip away. Consider this passage from Matthew 7:7-8   

⁷ " Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  ⁸ "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

What happens to the one who does not seek? The one that does not seek will fall under Jesus’ warning that those who have not will lose even what they have. Even the word sown in your heart will be lost if you do not seek the Lord for understanding. This is why some people attend church all their lives but never seem to grow. This is exactly what Paul addressed when he told the Hebrew Christians that they should be teachers by now but instead they need to be taught the basic principles again. God gives you the word and then calls you to seek understanding from Him. This principle Jesus taught is also explained in Proverbs 2:3-6   

³ Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding,  ⁴ If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures;  ⁵ Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, And find the knowledge of God.  ⁶ For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;

If you seek, you will find. You seek because God plants His word in your heart and then calls you to seek understanding. You will either be a disciple who seeks for understanding or you will be one without who loses even what you have. He that seeks will see the word produce fruit, thirty, sixty and a hundredfold. In other words, your understanding will blossom, your spiritual life will grow, and God will use your works as you seek the Lord with all your heart through His word.

Eddie Snipes
Author of Simple Faith
Exchanged Life Outreach
http://www.exchangedlife.com

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