Many folks eagerly await spring for one main reason - gardening. Whether a vegetable garden or decorative flower garden, most of us have planted something and enjoyed watching it grow. Even if you have not actually planted something yourself, you know some things about planting from observing professional farmers and hobbyists. Therefore, most all of us are familiar with some basic and very general principles of planting. God has used some of these elementary principles of planting to explain spiritual truths.

Consider the parable in Matthew 13:3-23. This is the parable of the sower. Jesus tells the parable to the people and then interprets the parable for the disciples later. This parable uses a farming principle that most everyone understands. The principle is: if you expect that which you plant to live, you must plant it in a suitable place. No one would expect to produce a corn crop by driving down the highway and throwing the kernels out the window. The kernels would land on the pavement and in the road ditches. Chances are the birds would eat the corn within the hour. But, even if birds did not eat the kernels, certainly one cannot grow corn on asphalt. If by chance, a few corn kernels did land in the ditch where birds would not see them and there was dirt, the weeds growing in the ditch would not allow the corn to grow.

Everyone knows that to raise a successful crop a properly prepared field must be available. Without going into any other reasons, suffice it to say that not just anywhere will produce a crop. In the parable that Jesus gave, the soil is representative of the person who hears. You, friend, can be compared spiritually to a type of soil. Are you sun baked soil? Soil that is so dry and hard that it is like concrete. This soil has not been cultivated nor irrigated. It probably has been trampled on for a long time and the soil is packed hard. Whenever you hear the word of God it just has no effect on you. The seed of the Word never penetrates your conscience. After a short while any remembrance of the Word is gone. Two other types of soils described by Jesus are soils that do receive the seed at first, but cannot sustain the growth of the plant. One reason for this is because the soil is stony or rocky. That is, the dirt is shallow. There is not enough soil for the seed to take deep root. When the hot sun warms the earth, the tender seed is destroyed because the root could not penetrate past the rocks in the soil to get to water underneath. Is this the kind of soil you are? Do you enjoy hearing a good sermon. Do you love going to church, even revivals, camp meetings or bible conferences to hear powerful preaching, yet leave wondering who it was God was talking to? You may even be moved by what you heard but somehow it just never takes root in you. What you hear moves in you, but it does not change you. This is like what II Timothy 3:7 says, 'Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.'

Maybe you are the good soil. Soil that has been prepared to receive seed. If you are good soil, you are by the grace of God. No soil is ready to be sown with seed without preparation. You have been selected to receive the seed. The selected plot is then cleared of all that may hinder the crop's growth. This is why a person must give up anything that requires more of him than God allows in order to be saved. But remember what you give up is the briars and brambles and stones that prevent the growth of the crop. The ground must be broken and tilled. Some say the soil is turned over. Finally, do not forget that the soil must be planted with the seed. Notice how all the work is not done by the soil but by the farmer. All the soil must be is available. "How do I make myself available?" you may ask. First of all, ask yourself where you are. Are you in a place where the farmer plants? Are you in a church? Is that church where God wants you to be? Remember, you can attend church and still not be receptive soil. So, if you feel that you are in the right place, is there anything that needs to be removed before God can do anything with you. For example, are there things of the world that you must lose before God will do any planting in your life. If there is, God will identify those things to you. Jesus told the rich young man in Matthew 19:21 what he must be willing to have cleared out of his life. The rich man could not clear the love of worldly possessions from his life and tragically he did not ask Jesus for the grace to help him. Oh, if that rich man had said, Master, I cannot do that. Please have mercy on me and help me. Finally, are you broken soil? This too is the work of God. This comes by Holy Spirit conviction. Jesus tells in John 16:8 the work of the Holy Spirit, 'And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:'

Jesus told us that we are all like soil. The question is, what kind of soil are you? To have the word of God planted in you, you must be prepared. No one is naturally prepared soil. Are you willing to be made acceptable to receive the word of God that brings life and fruit production?

- Brad Hill