1 Corinthians 2:1-17
2 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Spiritual Wisdom
6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9 But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 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. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 1 Co 2:1–16.”
This passage has challenged me to not lean on my own wisdom and insight. It is not by wisdom or understanding that God uses me. He used a donkey to accomplish the will of God, and speak for him. Though it is not an excuse to be a lazy theological thinker. However if your strength is in your understanding of all things BEFORE speaking, you’ll never be qualified in your own understanding to preach the gospel. Where I fail, the Lord restores.
I’d rather share a 5 minute message breathed upon by the Holy Ghost, than a 45 minute rambling trying to Exegese the scripture to a point that it makes perfect sense to the one person I am most concerned about in the room intellectually.
If I can’t get to the point in 20 minutes of solo speaking, I won’t get to it in my understanding in 45.
It is the spirit of God that brings understanding and revelation. Quit wrestling with man to make them comprehend. Throw the SEED! Reap the Harvest. Let God bring the increase.
DO YOUR DILIGENCE AND KNOW THE WORD. STUDY to show yourself approved. not to man, but unto God, who looks at the heart. Man will always find something wrong with your message. But God looks beyond the mistakes, and see the conviction of your heart and desire to accurately teach the word, share the word, and transform lives. So you sow. You will sow seed, GOOD SEED, THE WORD! and even that life giving potential in seed from is promised to be plucked up, burned up, and choked out. BUT TO THE SEED THAT FALLS ON GOOD SOIL! That is a harvest.
That’s the big take away. Quit wasting time, energy, sweat, blood, tears, on growing seed on rocky soil, shallow soil, and thorny soil.
It’ll only Bruise your feet and hands (the going, and the touching part) making you unwilling to GO, and brash when you reach out, having grown used to smashing rocks rather than tilling soil.
It’ll only Burn You up and Dry You Out! That shallow soil, with no depth, it’s hot, it’s tiring, it’s lacking water, and constantly needs MORE water if even a chance of survival, which even if it grows to a full plant due to your constant watering and maintenance, it will NEVER PRODUCE FRUIT! It’s roots can no go deep enough to draw for ITSELF the nutrients needed to sustain life. Let it die. you’ll only burn yourself out.
It’ll only cut you, scrape you, snare you, and tear you up leaving you scabbed, afraid, timid, and reactionary. Jaded even. Likely driving you away from ever attempting to cultivate your calling again until the pain of the cuts fade, the infection of the wounds heal, and the scars lose their grip of trauma on your heart and mind. In thorny soil, even if the weed’s are whacked down, their roots hide underneath the surface. Blackberry bush roots can go down 5-26 feet deep! Even if the soil looked good to start, if you see that thorn bushes coming up, you MUST HAVE DISCERNMENT! That soil isnt ready for SEED! You need a season of restoring that soil before anything can grow. That requires different work. On the farm, you put Goats, and Pigs on that soil. the rut up the roots till they stop coming back. Like the prodigal son, it wasn’t until he was hamming it up with the pigs and goats that his soil was FINALLY PREPARED to go home, and receive the blessing of his father, that this time would produce life, rather than be choked out and squandered again by the briers and thistles of wicked living.
BUT WHEN YOU SOW ON GOOD SOIL!
You reap the reward, the benefit, and the life giving joy that comes from seeing that seed turn into a harvest 10-20-40- even a hundred fold!
As a follower of Jesus, as a minister of God, I believe we can get caught up in not only sowing the seed, but:
Trying to encapsulate the seed with all kinds of GMO’s, nutrients, weed killer, turf builder, pest repellant, drought tolerant, hybridized Gospel that develops a form of fruit though devoid of all nutrients and power.
An apple today has anywhere from 20% – 80% less nutritional value than an apple 100 years ago…
As a result of mass production, hybridization, soil depletion, and Genetic Modification, so the Gospel has lost it’s impact through watered down, mass produced, seeker sensitive, encapsulated inclusivity and egalitarianism, both accepting sin as permissible lifestyle choices, while stripping away the uniqueness and beauty of God’s attributes and character displayed in Masculinity, Femininity, Skin Color and Culture. Silencing our permission to even think or acknowledge someones sex, race, or skin color on account of potential offended-ness of the masses, rather than the celebration and awe of God’s INTENTIONAL and PURPOSEFUL Design CHOOSING INDIVIDUALS to be MALE, FEMALE, WHITE, BLACK, BROWN, OLIVE, or any other color or culture. Preaching the gospel of John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin, rather than the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Quit changing the seed for the soil.
The field belongs to God. Matthew 9:38 says it’s HIS HARVEST! HIS FIELDS! and the seeds are HIS SEEDS, HIS WORD! If the soil rejects it, DON’T CHANGE THE SEED! Let God cultivate that soil in his land, until it is ready to receive. MOVE ON! Keep Sowing! And come join the Father in his celebration as the harvest of the good soil is gathered.
The very seed’s you sowed on that good soil will become a tree you can rest under in times to come. You’ll never want to rest under a blackberry bush. leave that soil to the pigs and goats.
RATHER, FIND WHERE GOD IS MOVING!
Where is there growth taking place? And partner wherever the HOLY SPIRIT is giving the increase in your life, and the life of those around you! Everywhere else will just leave you jaded, tired, bruised, resentful, scared, and traumatized.
Let people fail!
Let yourself fail all while not letting it disqualify yourself in your mind. You as well regularly have, and have had good seed wasted on you. But as the Lord cultivates the soil of your heart through the renewing of your mind by His Word, rutting up the roots and shallow soil of your worldly thinking, He is preparing that room in your heart to produce a harvest in due season as you continually yield to the transforming power of Yeshua through His Sanctification Process making you like Him from the outside in, as He has justified you, from the inside out.
Those roots 26 feet down…
Have been scorched at their source by the redeeming Holy Ghost Fire. Endure the soil agitating process as those old dead roots are unearth and toss into the fire. Yield your will to His handiwork and His Word. Have patience and compassion on others who are enduring this process as well.
Do not modify the seed for soil that isn’t ready or prepared to receive it yet.
Rather fully fix your eyes on what Christ is doing, and where He is giving increase. Sow good seed on THAT soil, and in time, you will reap the reward. Though you may sow seeds in tears, you will come back reaping with SHOUTS of JOY!
PKJ and YHWH 