A fresh look

Beth Moore....wow. The Lord led a friend, and this friend led me. Where to? Grove City Church of the Nazarene, Friday evening, a telecast from Louisville, KY to 715 satellite churches from around the country - Canada, Guatemala, Japan, Puerto Rico, and at least 2 others that I can't recall - 70,000 women in all, for what? To get a fresh word from God. Did we? Well, I for one, not only got a fresh word, I've been chewing on quite a few for 24 hours now, meaning I got much more than one!

Living Proof Ministries, if you're not familiar with them, check it out. I've included Beth Moore's site to the right, just take a moment, you will definitely be blessed. Well, last night Beth walked us through the parable of the sower found in Luke 8. Let's look at Jesus explaining this parable:

11-12"This story is about some of those people. The seed is the Word of God. The seeds on the road are those who hear the Word, but no sooner do they hear it than the Devil snatches it from them so they won't believe and be saved.

13"The seeds in the gravel are those who hear with enthusiasm, but the enthusiasm doesn't go very deep. It's only another fad, and the moment there's trouble it's gone.

14"And the seed that fell in the weeds—well, these are the ones who hear, but then the seed is crowded out and nothing comes of it as they go about their lives worrying about tomorrow, making money, and having fun.

15"But the seed in the good earth—these are the good-hearts who seize the Word and hold on no matter what, sticking with it until there's a harvest.

I chose to use the Message version here because last evening, they put together an amazing power point presentation with the very same words, became so fresh for me. Now, this harvest that is quoted lastly, refers back to verse 8 where is talks about the seed that fell upon good soil. "It came up and yield a crop, a hundred times more that was sown." Beth expounded upon this hundred fold, or one hundred times over concept. Basically the Lord states that anything you lose for my sake, I will return 100 fold. Loved when she said, "God does not exaggerate."

Anther place that you find this concept is in Genesis 26:12 when it states, "Issac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him." Keep in mind, an average crop yield is 7-15 times. Here's my summary: 1 seed sown = 100 x impact. What is this seed? A look back on verse 11 tells us this seed is the word of God. God's word having maximum impact in our lives.

She went on to speak about how do we yield a hundredfold harvest? First, treasure the wonder. Verse 10 in Luke 8 states, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to use." Secrets! Sweet! We are privy, or allowed access to the knowledge, insight and discernment of God. Basically God gives us revelation of the revelation.

She went on to a word study of 2 Timothy 4:16, which talks about being "thoroughly equipped". After breaking down the word meanings for us ("artios" and "arti"), she concluded with the words: competently competent. We can claim this and walk in this!

Secondly, we yield a harvest when we protect our hearts. Verse 12 states the devil comes and takes away the word from hearts. She actually verbalized my thoughts... can he really do that? Yep. Verse 5 talks about the birds eating it up. The devil wants to make sure we are ill-equipped for our calling.

The devil's theme - in order that they may not...
Jesus' theme - I came that you may have.... (John 10:10)

The devil wants to take the word before we assimilate it into the marrow of our bones. We need to chose to "hide them in our hearts" in order to state that these are NOT up for grabs.

Whew, I could go on, but I think I'm supposed to stop here. Beth goes on with 5 more phrases. Check them out on her site, and keep pursuing Him!

Amazing things to ponder...an amazing God we serve.