Relationship with God

Understanding our part in our relationship with God

EnglishRose First we looked at Mark 4:14 -20 The parable of the sower.

EnglishRose 14The sower soweth the word.15And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when

they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

This is the one that almost doesn’t hear it at all. They either reject it outright or just don’t want to understand what

they are hearing.

EnglishRose 16And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word,

immediately receive it with gladness;17And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when

affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.

They received the word but don’t want to put in time and effort to receive the fruit of it, get upset when people disagree

with them or give up when life gets difficult.

EnglishRose 18And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, 19And the cares of this

world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh

unfruitful.

EnglishRose Focus on the Lord and not problems, making money, lack of time or wordly ‘things’. We can hear

the Holy Spirit but don’t always do what He says. Let no thing be an idol to you, that is anything that has become more

important than your relationship with the Lord. This requires an active diligence

diligence in your thought life to ensure that you remain focused on Him.

We established that we are to sow the word in our hearts by reading the bible, and we must take our thoughts captive to

make sure that the cares of the world do not come in and choke the word.

The ‘only’ sin is to not rely or trust on Jesus. So anything that stops you relying on Him is sin.

We have 3 important things to remember from this parable.1. Make sure we find time to be in the word.2. Don’t focus on

sin.3. Don’t focus on the circumstance.

When we achieve this mindset we can sow on good soil Mark4:20

20…they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some

sixty, and some an hundred.

Hardness of heart

Hardness of heart is an insensitivity to God which builds up because our focus isn’t right.

The issue is the hardness of the person’s heart. Living in a natural world, and / or being a materialistic person, makes

our hearts hard to God and His word. We learn instead to rely on ourselves.

We have also become accustomed to our 5 senses, this reliance on only what we can perceive will limit Gods blessing and

will cause our hearts to be 'waxed gross'.

The expression 'waxed gross' came from candle making. They dip the wick in melted wax. Once it’s cooled and hardened they

dip it again. Overtime as they keep dipping it, the wax gets thicker and thicker until it becomes a candle.

This picture describes what happens in people’s hearts if they are focussing on wordly things instead of Him

Doubt

Doubt is a counter acting force to faith. Doubt either comes from a lack of knowledge, a wrong focus, a lack of confidence

in the word or a combination of all three.

EnglishRose James 1:5-8.5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without

finding fault, and it will be given to you.

EnglishRose 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of

the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person

is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

Doubt is unbelief, if we doubt the word then we aren’t agreeing with it and therefore we will not receive our full

blessings.

Faith

EnglishRose James 1:25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in

it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

Faith is given in seed form: One of the spiritual laws that God put in operation on the earth was that all things begin

with seed, produce fruit, and that fruit give out seed again.

Gen 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his

kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in

itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

If we apply this principle…Galatians 2:20 (King James) I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but

Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me,

and gave himself for me.

The meaning of this verse it that we have become dead to our flesh and its demands. We have the faith of Jesus Christ

in us (planted as a seed). Jesus healed people and walked in health then so can we! But we need to nurture the seed that

gives spiritual life to our flesh (in seed form).

EnglishRose We know that we have nurtured the seed (Jesus) in our hearts when we see the fruits of the spirit…

Galatians 5: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23Meekness,

temperance: against such there is no law.

Laws of faith

EnglishRose You can’t become righteous by doing good works… “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what

law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.” Romans 3:27

EnglishRose All things come in seed…We have already talked through that faith is in seed form and that we must

nurture the seed for it to produce fruit.

Blessing doesn’t come without seeking…Seek first the kingdom of God, and all things will be added unto you. You don’t get

what you aren’t seeking for.

Rom 10.17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

What we speak is what we get…Proverbs 18:20 A man's belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the

increase of his lips shall be filled

You body, spirit and soul respond to words, this is how you release your faith. Don’t speak unbelief and choke your seed!

The law of faith is consistent it always works, never fails. Like the law of gravity. You don’t say the law of gravity was

strong today or it must have just stopped working today.

If it’s not working that you don’t understand it and you need to read the word. God’s doesn’t violate spiritual and natural

laws. God intends them to bless us but if we don’t understand them then we cant receive our blessing.

We have fullness of the Godhead.

Amplified Col 2:9-14,9For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving

complete expression of the divine nature].

10And you are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life [in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead--Father,

Son and Holy Spirit--and reach full spiritual stature]. And He is the Head of all rule and authority [of every angelic

principality and power].

11In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but in a [spiritual] circumcision [performed by]

Christ by stripping off the body of the flesh (the whole corrupt, carnal nature with its passions and lusts).

12[Thus you were circumcised when] you were buried with Him in

[your] baptism, in which you were also raised with Him [to a new life] through [your] faith in the working of God

[as displayed] when He raised Him up from the dead.

13And you who were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (your sensuality, your sinful carnal nature),

[God] brought to life together with [Christ], having [freely] forgiven us all our transgressions,

14Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands

which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set

aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to

[His] cross.

SOZO

Sozo is a greek word defined in Strong’s as:From a primary word σῶς sōs̄ (contraction for the obsolete σάος saos, “safe”);

to save, that is, deliver or protect (literally or figuratively): heal, preserve, save (self), do well, be (make) whole.

It is used in John 3:17, this means that we inhertited all of this blessing when Jesus died on the cross.

This has 4 parts:1. Salvation – We are saved from all of our sins, past present and future2. Healing – we are healed of

all of our illnesses3. Deliverance – we were delivered 4. Prosperity and wellbeing – we were made whole so that our soul

may prosper.

Jesus has done it all, past tense, on the cross 2011 years ago so there is no point asking Him to do it again…

We are saved by grace and are well, delivered, whole people. We are not sinners trying to get saved, or sick people trying

to get well. To receive all we need is to believe.

EnglishRose I hope you receive that last point because that is the renewing of the mind that is required to

enable you to start seeing your true inheritance in Christ.