Some of us have been reading abook called,  “Organic Church” by aguy called Neil Cole.  He says alot of things that make a lot of sense to me.  One of the chapters is based on some insights from the Mark4 reference to the parable of the sower  -  “Kingdom 1.01”Here is some of the insights:

• The seed is the word of God (revelation from heaven)
• The soil is the person who receives the revelation.
• The sower is the messenger who carries the revelation.

If we don’t get too carried awaywith the comparisons of the different soils we might be able to remember thatthe whole parable is designed to reveal how the kingdom of God operates andadvances in the world.

The challenge to me was Cole’scomment as to what constitutes ‘(good) seed.”  What does Jesus mean when he says that the ‘seed’ is the ‘word?’   Here is what Neil Cole says onthe subject.

“We must remember that it is God’smessage that changes lives.  Toooften we lose sight of this important truth.  We believe it, but we don’t obey it.  Instead we plant substitute seed. “We might not really give peoplethe pure Word of God.  Rather, wegive them well meaning messages about theword of God.”

I began to think of all theoccasions I had given people my own experience of the Word of God.  I am a preacher.  I read the Bible, seek revelation andon the basis of my experience of revelation I preach sermons, write articlesand produce all kinds of notes and resources.  There is nothing wrong with this of itself.  The truth is that I can assume thatbecause other people listen to what I might say on some occasion I can assumethat they have also received the same revelation.  What they have received is a testimony to my own experienceof revelation.  The wonderful thingis that it is possible that they might go on to experience the same revelation,but the way we do our Christianity is to make an assumption that we are notentitled to make.

It made me think again of myexperience of coming to know Christ. I was taken to an evangelistic meeting by a girl I was trying to impress(who later became my wife).  Iheard a preacher give testimony to his experience of revelation about theexperience of salvation.  I did notexperience any revelation at that point. Without me knowing what was happening, the Holy Spirit prompted me towalk to the front of the meeting at the invitation to know God.  I experienced a great sense ofembarrassment but no revelation of Christ.  Two people then counseled me.  The first was the trained counselor.  He talked with me but I didn’t reallywant to play ball.  Then thepreacher himself had a go and I was willing to follow his advice and pray aprayer but I still had no experience of Christ.  He told me to read the gospel of John and to pray about whatI read.  Approximately six hourslater, in the early hours of the next morning, I ripped open the cellophanewrapping of a Bible my grandmother had given me, looked up the index to findthe Gospel of John and started to read. The first few verses made me think the preacher was pulling my leg.  It made no sense to me at all.  It sounded like a bunch of religiousgobbledy-gook .  When I got to thepart where it said,  “he came tohis own, and his own did not receive him…but to as many as received him he gavethe right to become children of God…” I began to experience the presence of God’sgrace and love.  What I was readingabout literally happened to me and it continued for more than an hour.  I was a nineteen year old Australianmale blubbering and moaning in a way that I could not understand but knew wasfrom heaven.  I received theseed.  The seed was the experienceof the Word from God.  It was Godto me direct.  It was no longer thetestimony of someone else’s revelation. It was my own experience. And it changed my life forever.

In this consumerized culture ofours we are used to consuming what other people have created and offered tous.  It usually comes in a packageand so often requires no real engagement. It is offered and we consume it. It doesn’t happen that was with revelation.  No wonder we have so much trouble trying to keep peoplefollowing after Jesus.  They areoften the products of substitute seed. They are taught to live off someone else’s revelation.  As Cole later observes, so manyChristians live on the basis of “a verse a day keeps the devil away.”  They read some devotional booklet wherea verse of Scripture, divorced from its context, is at the top of the page andthen someone else’s seed fills the page. It is pleasant to consume someone else’s testimony.  But their experience of seed fromheaven is substitute seed to you if that’s as far as it goes.

 

GETTING THE REAL SEED

We need to pick up our Bible’sand read what is there in it’s own context.  Never mind the study Bibles that tell you everything someoneelse thinks.  Just get hold of the Wordand get your own experience of revelation from God.  It might take a while for you to get detoxed from adependence on someone else’s seed but it will change your life.

And by the way, don’t stoplistening to sermons and the like. But don’t be satisfied with someone else’s testimony.  Use what they testify as theencouragement to go after what they are talking about until you have your ownrevelation of what they were giving testimony to.  It is just like listening to salvation testimonies, healingtestimonies and the like, but then going after God until you have your owntestimony to tell.  That’s the onlything that will change your life. This is exactly what Jesus was talking about at the end of the Sermon onthe Mount.  If you don’t get fromthe Word you hear to the Word you experience you will be like a man building ahouse on sand.  What you have heardwill crumble around you and you will be lift with a mess.