Planting the Word

Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow.

Mark 4:3 (KJV)

The Bible is clear about the nature of man: he is spirit, soul and body. All these parts of his nature are essential if he is to live a successful life here on earth, which is to say, a life pleasing to God. This is why God has given mankind an instrument able to build, correct and strengthen, and among many other things to harmonise, the threefold nature of man: His Word.

The Word of God is the source of everything created. Everything physical and spiritual, visible and invisible, exists from the Word. This means that the very substance of man's nature originated from the Word. Every part of him, spirit, soul and body, can be reached and transformed by the Word, because the Word created it. The Word is powerful over spirit, soul and body.

Yet the Word does not seem to work, or yield the desired results, in many lives, even though many people read it. There are many factors, but Jesus gave the answer in His parable of the sower. The issue is not the sower, nor the seed, which is the Word; mainly it is the ground, the heart, in which the Word is sown, which may be hard, parched, or full of thorns and stones. The order is this: the Word must first be planted in the heart before it can affect every other area of man's nature and life.

For the Word to affect the soul and the body, it must first enter the spirit. This is the process of transformation, and many who handle the Word with their souls and bodies cannot comprehend it. The Word has power when it flows from the spirit. David speaks of hiding the Word in his heart; I call it planting the Word. There is a process, and if we observe it, we will experience thirtyfold, sixtyfold and hundredfold manifestations of the Word.

We know who the sower is, and what the seed is, and it is clear how the seed is sown: through the mouth, for Jesus said that the Word is heard. The Word is not sown until it is heard. The inference is that the ear and the mouth are the main instruments for sowing the Word into the spirit. The Word must be heard and spoken if it is to have any chance of reaching the spirit. The mouth and the ears are gateways into the spirit, soul and body of man.

Anyone with a mouth and an ear, then, can plant the Word in himself. Hearing yourself speak the Word carries it into your spirit and plants it there. If you do this consistently, your spirit will begin to gain ascendancy over your soul and body, unleashing the potential of God, and the scripture "Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered" will become a reality in your life, because true transformation begins in the spirit. If you keep the order, you will see results. Do not seek to handle the Word with your soul, passively reading through it with your eyes only; you would be using the wrong tools, and cannot expect a harvest from the Word.

There is a reason the Holy Spirit uses your own voice to speak through you, or the voice of the one through whom He is speaking: your voice is a transmitter. It is better than playing any audio Bible. Become an audio Bible. Create the discipline of speaking the Word, not merely reading it or listening to it, and you will be using the tools designated for planting. You will see the potency of the Word demonstrated in your life. Plant the Word, and reap a glorious, hundredfold harvest.