ALL BY ITSELF
26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
Mark 4:26-29
This parable is vital to remember because it takes the labour out of ministry in the kingdom of God. Everything in life begins in seed form. Every believer has been entrusted with the seed of the kingdom which is God’s word. It is constantly being scattered by speaking it, reading it, or living it. The important thing to remember is that it has the power within itself to germinate and grow.
The measure of its fruitfulness does not lie within the seed but with the soil into which it falls. The farmer’s task is to prepare the soil, sow the seed, care for the soil and wait for the harvest. There is nothing he can do to the seed to make it grow because its power to reproduce lies within itself.
So what does this mean to us? If we want a harvest, we have two responsibilities: to prepare the soil through prayer and teaching and to sow the seed in our own lives and in the lives of others by teaching, preaching and speaking the word.
It is not our opinion or interpretation that counts. It is God’s word that is the seed. It is the “sperm” that fuses with our lives and produces new life. It is the nutrient that nourishes our new lives and causes our understanding of truth to grow and mature. It is the truth about God, ourselves and the world we live in that gradually replaces all our wrong notions and mistaken ideas, transforming the way we think until God’s thoughts and desires become our own.
We become what we think; we think what we believe and we become what we believe. Hence it is vital that we keep feeding our minds with the truth so that we leave no room for lies and deception to breed in us. The more we read, meditate, inwardly digest and obey the Word of God, the greater will be the harvest of righteousness in our lives and the power to transform other lives by sowing the Word.