“Hear what the spirit is saying”; what an astounding statement! Yet I fear the statement has lost a great deal of its original impact. On many occasions we have heard the instruction given by Yahshua (Jesus) terribly misused. From childhood through adulthood, I have heard ministers use this statement to add impact to a declaration just made. The intention was to give validity to what the audience had just heard him speak, with the hope of persuading them to believe and accept his viewpoint as the Gospel.The problem is too many of these ministers never give thought to the consequences of their statements. The consequence is the scripture does not seem to have the impact on us that it should. It is almost like the little boy who cried wolf when there was none; the peoples senses had become dull to the cry. It is my earnest prayer you will let the Ruach Ha Kadesh (Holy Spirit) impact you with this scripture as the Father desires.
Allow me to share with you what I believe Father Yahveh has shown me concerning these words. It was Yahshua Himself that gave this instruction to His disciples in the Gospel of Matt. 13th chapter, 9th verse: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” These words were used by Yahshua to open the understanding of His disciples concerning the parable of the sower and the seeds. Yahshua addressed some very real and very human attitudes present in that day and present today, hindering mankind from receiving the truths of Yahveh (God). The message is very clear in this statement: everyone has not been given the ability to hear the Spirit. The ability to hear, is the gift of Yahveh once you have made Yahshua the Savior of your life and have been cleansed by the precious blood of the Lamb. Everyone who has been washed in the blood of Yahshua has been given ears to hear. The instruction again, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
By this statement, it becomes very evident that just because we have ears it does not guarantee that we are hearing. It is my firm conviction, the majority of the church today does not use the ears they have been given. There is such a ‘Greco-Roman’ mind-set today. Anything that hints of the commandments is bondage and many can’t even hear what the Spirit is saying about the Sabbath. I am not talking about Sunday (which is named after Apollo, the sun god), but the Sabbath. Now do not misunderstand me. There is nothing wrong with worshipping on Sunday, but there is something wrong with ignoring the day Father Yahveh set forth as a day of rest to keep holy.
“SOME SEED FELL BY THE WAYSIDE”
Yahshua began to reveal to His disciples the conditions which existed in the society of that day. The same conditions that exist in our society today are not much different from then. Yahshua warned them of four conditions which would render the Word ineffective in their lives. The first one He spoke of in Matt 13:3-4 (NKJ) “Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.”
The world today is full of skeptics; many who do not believe in any kind of divine creator. They think things just happened coincidentally. Everything just naturally changed and things continued to evolve until man arrived on the scene. There are many such philosophies. The one thing they all seem to have in common is all of them tend to exalt and focus on the creation while ignoring the creator. By their actions and philosophies these attitudes deny the existence of the one true God (Father Yahveh). David describes very well the person that Yahshua was talking about receiving the Word in the wayside. Ps 14:1-2 (NKJ) “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good. Yahveh looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.”
This Psalm is a perfect description of many attitudes today. Why seek something they were convinced didn’t exist? The answer to this question is: they wouldn’t. Therefore, they heard the Word but it had no effect on them. The Word could not effect changes in their lives because they had no understanding of Father Yahveh or any awareness of His existence. Paul stated the summation of it all in 1 Cor 1:18 (NKJ) “For the message of the stake is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” To those who received the Word by the wayside, the Word is foolishness. The most profound, life changing words they could possibly hear went by almost completely unnoticed. Because they have no understanding in their heart, they say there is no God. Therefore, they are yet perishing.
WHEN TRIBULATION OR PERSECUTION AROSE, THEY STUMBLED
Probably this one condition is the most common of spiritual maladies residing in the church today. The description of the malady is the same today as it was in the days when Yahshua walked the earth. How many times have you seen people walk the aisle and supposedly ask Yahshua to come and save them? They were filled with emotional reaction but had no understanding of what is encompassed by the request. The statement: “I surrender my life to Yahshua” has a big commitment attached to it. There seems to be no understanding of the required commitment to Yahveh’s Word, or of the requirement of determination to change personal priorities and behavior patterns.
Consequently, it is not uncommon to never see those people in church again until they are brought by the hearse. They seem to have no interest in doing anything to promote the Kingdom of God. How can this be? I believe the cause of this condition to be very simple. The Word had a profound impact on them. It was so awesome to hear that the Father is so committed to save them from destruction that they fell in love with the idea of Father Yahveh being obligated to keep His promises and perform His Word.
However, they were not informed of their obligation to obey the Gospel; therefore, with great joy they received the Word. But receiving the Word alone was not enough. They had need of understanding what they were supposed to do with the Word. They had no idea how to implement the Word into their lives, neither did they understand they were obligated to live their life according to the Word. The concept of actually making decisions about their lives based on the requirements of Father Yahveh’s commandments had not been taught to them. Because there was no understanding of the requirements of the covenant they had made, or its boundaries, they stumbled. They did not even have a hint when they gave their life to Yahshua that the world system and those in the world system would hate them, ridicule and persecute them. No one told them the world system (basically Satan) would do everything in his power to get them to quit, turn back and forsake the Word.
This condition was described by Yahshua to the detail in Matt 13:5-6 (NKJ) “Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away”. In this parable, obviously the soil was ill prepared to receive the seed.
This condition exposed the seed to unbearable pressure from the surrounding environment. It is apparent that Yahshua was aware of the politically correct generation we live in today, where everything is acceptable except a holy lifestyle. This condition left the door wide open for Satan to come to harass and discourage them. The Word became an offense to them, due to the trials and persecutions they began to encounter as a result of the world’s reaction to the Word in them. This rendered the Word of no positive effect in their lives.
In actuality, their last state was probably worse than the first. The result being, they’ve been there, tried it, and it didn’t work. This makes it real difficult to get them to stop and be still long enough to receive the understanding they need to become a deep, moist, soil eager to nurture the seed (Word) until it matures in them and bring forth its fruit (righteousness).
THE CARES OF THIS WORLD CHOKE THE WORD
It seems to me, Yahshua gives us the answer to the problem that plagues the church today. He tells us in Matt 13:22 (NKJ) “Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.” If the answer is not readily discernible in this verse, the definition of the problem is very plainly stated. The problem plaguing the church today is the absence of dramatic life changes. The Word going forth many times does not make the lasting change the Bible describes. Far too many times the Word stirs up an emotional reaction, but in a vast majority of these reactions or decisions, the commitment that permanently changes lives is absent.
I have asked myself this question for years and the same answer keeps resounding in my ears. The answer to this question is the same one Yahshua described in the verse above. The Word comes forth and is gladly received (emotionally), then when we leave the meeting the pressures and cares of this world come in like a flood. Immediately, we start thinking of excuses why we can’t live our lives according to the dictates of the Word. There are many varied and illustrious excuses ranging from “my job is too demanding, nobody lives like that today,” to “we are saved by grace and God does not expect us to strictly adhere to the Bible in these modern times”, or, “the Bible was written in a much simpler time about a much simpler lifestyle. What I am saying to you, preacher, is Paul didn’t have the pressures and distractions in his life time that we have in ours.”
I have to admit, the last excuse may have some truth to it. It is true, Paul never had to make a decision about whether he was going to spend the evening in prayer or whether he was going to watch the half naked men and women on TV, rape and kill one another. You are right! Absolutely right! He did not have to deal with that dilemma. However, there were just a few small temptations of which could have distracted him, but nothing like the ones today. The only thing he had to deal with was whether he was going to continue to preach when he healed from the most recent stoning or beating. How can we compare his simple life style with this complicated life we have today where we have 120 channels to choose from. Paul only had to worry about whether he was going to spend the rest of his days in prison, lose his life because of the gospel or be crippled by stoning and be faced with an even greater hindrance to preaching the wonderful story of love, grace, mercy and discipline. Who would dare to compare the minor distractions Paul had to the ones we have to deal with today?
The truth is, as it was in Yahshua’s day, the pressures of this world and our attraction to the things of this world (such as getting ahead financially and our obsession with the excitement of the flesh) is the only thing that cause the Word to be unfruitful in our lives. Last but not least, Yahshua speaks of one who receives the Word on good ground. Matt 13:23 (NKJ) “But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
SOME FELL ON GOOD GROUND, WELL PREPARED SOIL
In this scripture He talks about one who heard the Word and understood that man could not live by things money could buy or by the pleasures of this world, but by hearing every word that came out of Father Yahveh’s (God’s) mouth. There are those still today who will not bow down to an idolatrous church system that Constantine instituted when he created a government church. This system was saturated with pagan rituals and ideals. This system not only missed the mark of the Word; it totally violated the Word of Yahveh. Out of this system came the idea of salvation by knowledge. That is, if you knew and recognized Jesus (Yahshua) as the Son who came and died for your sins, then, you were saved. No matter how much you rebelled against God you were still saved by the knowledge that Jesus (Yahshua) came and died for you so you might be saved.
This system is the system that taught us the doctrine of universalism (the doctrine of purgatory or that everybody makes it to live with God eventually. This was the doctrine of Al Capone and other like figures who believed no matter how they violated God’s Word they would be eventually saved.) That same system is still plaguing the church today. Most all of the church systems or denominations we are familiar with today are to a greater or a lesser degree but still variations of that same system. Constantine has been pictured as the church’s friend, but the truth is Constantine was the one who gave power to the system. Dan 7:25 (NKJ) “He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time.”
There has been no other man in the history of the church who has successfully changed these things but Constantine. He changed the day of rest from the seventh day to the first day of the week and the day of worship from the seventh day to the first. He made a bunch of rules honoring pagan gods. In so doing, he made it unnecessary to keep the commandments of God but he also made it against the law to violate the laws of the Government (Catholic) church . The system Constantine empowered was and is to this day steeped in paganism and traditions of man. These are the things which poison the soil of the soul just as surely as the chemicals are polluting our land.
This is the Babylonian system we are instructed “to come out of” in Revelation 18:4-5 (NKJ) “And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.” There are many who have heard the cry of the Ruach Ha Kadesh (the Holy Spirit) saying, “come out of her.” There are many of us today who are saying we don’t want to share in her sins neither do we want to receive any portion of her plagues. The horrible thing about all this is the church, for a large part, is still to this day judging people by the decrees of men who were motivated largely by pagan and political purposes. This is a shame !!
However, there are those who will not let the Council of Nicea or any other part of the Babylonian system tell them what the Word of Yahveh is saying to the saints, but depends on the very Breath of Yahveh (the Ruach Ha Kadesh) to breathe on the scriptures and teach us of love, mercy and commitment to one another as we demonstrate our love and commitment to the God of all creation, Father Yahveh. He has already demonstrated His love, mercy and commitment to us. It is time we broke up the fallow ground and studied the Father’s Word without the perversion of the sleazy, easy grace concept and bask in the true grace of Yahveh that falls on all of the children of obedience.
Matt 5:17-18 (NKJ) “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” My dear, dear friends, we are still obligated to obey the ten commandments, all ten of them, including the fourth commandment. He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit hath to say.
Your servant in Yahshua: The Trumpet of Yahveh