But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it.  This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown. – Matthew 13:23

I want to write about one of the many details I experienced last week in Wilmore, Kentucky.  I had been there for over two hours basking in the Lord’s Presence and Him doing all kinds of work in my heart.  But I remember specifically when it all ended for me.  It ended when I looked at my phone for the time.  As soon as I looked, I thought of the drive home and started calculating when I’d get back home.  As I drove home, I thought of the parable of the sower, “the worries of this life make it unfruitful.” (v. 22)

I believe what has happened over these past couple of weeks is simply God plowing the ground and planting seeds.  We won’t know the real result of this revival until we see a period of seed, time, and harvest.  Thousands of young men and women are repenting and allowing God to plant His Word in their hearts.  What gets produced will depend on the type of ground it lands upon.

I have come to believe that this parable is for us to check the honesty of our own hearts.  The first ground is the hard path in which the seed can never begin the process.  The second ground falls on rocky places where there is no depth of soil.  It springs up for a bit but dies when the sun scorches it.  The third ground falls among thorns, which represents the cares of this life which become more important than God.  The last ground is the productive ground, and even it yields different amounts of crops.  Some ground is more productive than other ground.

Which ground represents you?  I doubt any one of us would say that we are the productive ground producing a hundred-fold.  But I do believe we can be honest about where we are with God and He will break up the fallow ground of our hearts and make it more and more productive.  

I want this revival to last and to spread like wildfire.  But more importantly, I want it to grow on good ground.  It is this growth over the next 5-10 years that will produce changes in human hearts that will produce visible changes in our country. 

Pray that the Word, being preached all over this country, will fall on good soil.

Lord, there are four different types of ground.  Those that don’t want to hear it, those that hear it and change for a little while, those that hear it but just can’t move forward because the cares of this life are crushing them, and then there are those who are producing.  I know where I am.  I pray that many, many others will be made aware of where they are, and will repent.  If even a tithe of the people who said they were a Christian was a thirty-fold Christian, this nation would be so different.  In all honesty, the majority of American Christians are made up of the first three soils.  I pray that You are changing that at this very moment.  May we sow righteousness and reap mercy.  Amen.