God is Planting Redwood Trees in the Desert

From the Parable of the Sower

Part 2
Jesus shares in the story of the Sower that there are different kinds of soil. He clues us into what those different kinds of soil are when He says:

"And the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart..."

The soil represents different kinds of hearts. We know that this is one type of soil He calls good - "an honest and good heart". Everyone wants to be spoken of in that way. In the parable Jesus describes three other kinds of soil, or conditions of the heart. I'm seeing for ourselves through this parable different ways of responding to the present circumstances. It's like God is highlighting this passage to illuminate what He is wanting for us... as well as what He is hoping we will avoid.

We know what happens to the "honest and good heart". It says: "And the other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times and great." It also says of these people: "And the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance."

As I understand it, it's saying that those who hear "the word" of God and hold on to it, believing, trusting , allowing themselves to be changed, to grow up, so as to produce the fruit of mature love, faith, hope etc.., that persevere, that are steadfast in their believing, that love the truth and understand and live in the goodness of God, will see a harvest of fruit, "a crop a hundred times as great." In other words they will increase. The blessing in their lives will multiply. The harvest in their lives will be enlarged.

I feel like God is saying this situation with Sarah is to multiply blessing in our lives. We are in a season of multiplication. God wants to use this situation with Sarah to bring increase to us, to enlarge our hearts. He is wanting to mature our love, to grow us up into the things of God. He wants us to be fruitful and to multiply. Having a child is multiplication. What more demonstrates fruitfulness than having children? This fruitfulness is not limited to just Sarah, though that is a major part of it. The fruitfulness I feel He's speaking about is our lives, and the lives of our friends and family. It's a fruitfulness that is to touch all aspects of the way we live and approach God, His Kingdom, and the world we live in. God wants to multiply His goodness and life in us through this circumstance we are facing with Sarah. Our hearts are being enlarged through His word as it finds root in us, as it grows and matures insides us, as it accomplishes all that it was sent forth to succeed in.

Listen to Isaiah:

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways," declares the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth, and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be which goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." - 55: 8-11

We are learning again in this situation that the way God thinks about things is different than we do. We are learning that God wants to enlarge our hearts and bring increase, multiplying His goodness in our life through "a way" we would never have chosen. I love that He says; "It (His word) will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it." We are not to be left empty. If God is saying His Word won't return to Him empty, why should we worry that it might return to Him empty through our lives. We shouldn't... we should trust. God's desire is to be accomplished and the word is to succeed. He sent it with real intent and purpose and it won't return to Him without doing that.

God is saying to us, "let your meditation be on this, that I'm successful in all that I do. I accomplish what I desire. My words are like the rain and the snow coming down upon the earth, upon the fields of your heart, upon your circumstances, causing the seeds in your life that I've planted there to bear and sprout life. What I'm doing in you will furnish for you a multiplication of that seed. I'm producing in you a harvest of life."

I feel God is strengthening us in who He is in our lives through this circumstance. He's not just adding to us one life in Sarah, but telling us that through Him as He is giving to us Sarah that our lives in God are in a season of multiplication, especially as it relates to Joy, peace, rejoicing and laughter. Listen to the verse that follows the one above:

"FOR (connecting word) you will go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up; and instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up; and it will be a transformation of the desert as a memorial (a name) to the Lord, for an everlasting sign which will not be cut off."

The Lord keeps emphasizing to us the importance of joy. Here it's repeated again. We are being led forth with peace. We are going out with joy. Through this circumstance with Sarah God is giving to us His joy and peace, His laughter and rejoicing. I feel we can pray this over this situation. We will not have thorn bushes. We will not have nettles growing here. We will see growing in us, in this situation, trees of the Lord - the cypress and the myrtle. We are praying for the desert, where ever we find them in our lives to become alters of worship and praise, so as to bring glory to God. They are to be testimonies of His name, of who He is. In the most difficult places, in what seems like impossible circumstances where only arid plants live, myrtles and cypresses are being planted by God. Plants that need lots of water to thrive in. In other words, God is planting redwood trees in the desert. That's what we are praying for. Imagine what that will speak of His name then.



I'll cover the other heart conditions in Part 3