Engage

“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55,10-11 (NKJV)

Imagine planting a seed in the ground and the soil never receives rain or it’s never watered. It is a certainty that no fruit will come out of that ground. As we read in the opening Scripture, God gives an analogy for His Word: RAIN. The purpose of sending rain is to water the earth (ground) and therefore make it flourish and give grain. Grain that will be seed to plant next time and grain that will be food to eat. God continues to say: so shall His Word be. There is a purpose in God sending His Word!

Jesus gave a parable in Luke 8,4-18: the parable of the Sower. The story is about a sower who went out to sow and the seed fell in different soils. He later explained that “the seed is the word of God” (Verse 11). And the ground is a representation of the heart of an individual.

Combining the two portions of Scripture, we have three elements: The seed, the soil and the rain. In summary, there is the Word of God planted as a seed into the heart of a person (being the soil) and there is the Word of God as the rain to make the seed grow and therefore produce fruit.

 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Matthew 7,24-27 (NKJV)

God speaks to us. And we need to learn to recognize when He is speaking and pay attention to what He is saying. It’s when we set our hearts to understand the meaning of what we heard that we truly understand.

The word of God as a seed may start you on a journey but the word of God as the rain will guide you on that journey. So, it is important to listen to the guiding voice of God so that you reach your destination.

Whenever you hear the Word of God (preached or read in the Bible), know that you are hearing it for a purpose. You may not know that purpose in that moment. But God knows and He sees ahead. It may be for your edification (to strengthen you), for your safety, for your protection, for the preservation of your heart, of your mind, of your life.

In the Scripture above, Jesus said that to hear and to do is to build on the rock. And He likens someone doing otherwise as foolish; because storms eventually come ('rain' here is used in a different context: a storm; i.e. troubles).

Child of God, know when God is speaking. May you never take it lightly; because when God speaks it's for your benefit. In the words of the Apostle Peter: “Be sober, be vigilant” (1Peter 5,8)

Always remember that the Holy Spirit is with you to nudge you and empower you to ‘do’ the necessary at every step.

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 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; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 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.” James 1,22-25 (NKJV)