Every farmer knows that harvest is reduced by weeds which compete with the crop for sunlight, nutrition, and water. If there is no intervention, weeds can reduce yield by about 28% according to a brief internet search.

Soil is well prepared by farmers for planting: its well tilled, fertilized, and has the right amount of irrigation. When crop seed is planted, it takes awhile to germinate and when it does, the farmer finds that weeds are sprouting as well. Weeds seem to appear out of nowhere. But the reality is they come from a number of sources including seed that was already in the soil, bad seed that was inadvertently mixed with the good seed, or seed that floats in the air and lands in the field. Regardless, the farmer knows weeds will grow up with the crop.

There is another source of “weeds” Jesus speaks about which is more direct and malicious. In the very next parable, the Parable of the Weeds (or tares as it is often called), Jesus teaches that an enemy sows a weed called darnel which looks like wheat until the seed heads form. Then it looks different than wheat. By the time its noticeable, its too late. The only option is to gather the weeds at the time of the harvest and then go back and reap the harvest. This is a different situation that I’ll cover in a later post.

Initially, the crop and weeds are small, growing together with no impact to each other. But over time, without proper intervention from the farmer, the weeds grow enough to impact yield.

The Spiritual Truths of the Thorny Soil

Spiritually, what does it mean for crops to grow in thorny soil?

Crop seed is the Word of God and the seeds that fall on thorny soil are people who have heard the word. Interesting that it does not say anything about receiving it with joy. Jesus, in explaining the parable to his disciples, identifies what it is about the thorny soil that chokes out spiritual growth and prevents fruitfulness. Each of the gospels contributes part of the list:

• Worries or anxieties of this life.
• The deceitfulness of wealth.
• The desires for other things.
• The pleasures of this life.

These are certainly operative at a personal level but these can also operate at a more corporate level.

Anxiety

There is so much to worry about in the world. The days are filled with evil as the whole world turns its back on the God of heaven. As a believer, I worry about the effect of the wicked principles of the culture, doctrine of demons, being fed to my grand daughters through the media and even the schools. The wickedness represented by a rainbow flag recently called “sacred cloth”, is so great that all I can do is try to prepare them by teaching them the way of the Lord so they can, by God’s grace, learn to discern truth from error and come to their own decision to follow Christ.

We are barraged daily with many other sources of anxiety: climate change, war, nuclear war, pandemics, near earth asteroids, inflation, leftism, rightism, racism, violence, crime, injustice, lawlessness, homelessness, and on and on it goes. Forces are at work behind the scenes to separate and label people according to the color of their skin or their ideology.

Social media, driven by powerful AI engines, is used to brainwash people into ideologies of demonic origin. Groups of people who once got along with each other and could respectfully disagree are now set against one another and conditioned to mistreat each other through mob fueled hatred that never existed with such intensity and pervasiveness. If you accept ideas that go against the prevailing ideology of the culture and you find yourself persona non grata or worse.

All of this is instigated, fanned into flame, and used by the evil one to instill fear and anxiety. Why? Because when things get bad enough, people will demand “peace and safety” opening the door for a false savior to step onto the world stage and take over. This will likely be a political, charismatic leader that earns the trust of people – someone with all the answers that will promise “peace and safety”. But this will be the Trojan Horse that people welcome as a gift only to find that its actually filled with death and destruction. This will usher in a 7 year period of God’s wrath upon the earth to destroy wickedness.

Even Christians seem to miss the fact that all of this is intensely spiritual. Some of this plays directly into the parable of the tares which is an upcoming post.

People are filled with anxiety and worry regardless of their worldview or not. But believers must believe what the Lord has already said:

• Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing? Matthew 6:25
• So then, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34
• These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world. John 16:33
• You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. Matthew 24:6

Wealth, Things, and Pleasure

This is probably the most effective strategy to bring down the church in the west. Wealth is incredibly deceitful. The word “deceitful” itself used in this parable and its explanation by Jesus is a strong clue to the church. Deception is the primary strategy of the evil one, therefore, it is entirely plausible that this has been his strategy since the beginning: use wealth, pleasure, and desire for more to bring down the Christian church in the west. We were warned by Jesus in this parable.

Personal wealth leads to a deception that feeds arrogance, a pride that has no need for God. We here in the west listen to the culture: build wealth, diversify your portfolio, buy physical gold to protect your assets. Get into the best schools to get the most lucrative jobs. Success is characterized by leadership and achievement. We buy more stuff and seek more pleasure, investing our time and resources in ourselves. Position, power, control, personality, talent, wealth = success. And then we get to the end of our lives and find out how much we have lost.

If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Matthew 16:24-26

For the church, its not any different. Its the same thing on a much bigger scale that feeds back into the same dynamic at a personal level which then is amplified at the more corporate level. A feedback loop – a spiral of wealth and selfishness that amplifies until it destroys the mission of the church.

It seems we have gained the whole world here in the west. But the price has been very high. We have not lived for the sake of the Name of Jesus and the gospel. We have only fooled ourselves into thinking we have by equating the gospel with our big churches filled with people. What is the priority of preaching the gospel for your church? Is there training for how to share it effectively with people? Does the church make it the top priority to take the gospel to the streets? Does it even know what the gospel is? Do you?

This has been a brilliant satanic strategy; remarkably effective. Look at the state of the western church today. From a spiritual standpoint, its nothing short of pathetic. If the military objective of the enemy is to destroy the church, this strategy is absolutely spot on, because it plays to the natural sinfulness of people. Why conduct a frontal assault on the church when deception is much more effective and useful as a tool?

The church has very little wisdom and spiritual discernment – these gifts of the Spirit are not exactly in demand. We are not aware of the plans of the enemy as the Apostle Paul once was (2 Cor 2:10-11) because we are unconcerned and undiscerning.

Is bigger, more lavish facility really an indicator of God’s blessing? Is God’s blessing really showing up in the data analysis and statistics? Churches in the west today are driven by metrics. Church growing in numbers is interpreted as good, church dwindling in numbers and less revenue is interpreted as not good. Pastors in the west are not sought out for their calling by the the Spirit to equip the saints for service. They are sought out based on personality, seminary degrees, leadership skills, and success. Successful churches are based on looks, talent, leadership summits, 90db big sound, soaring guitar solos, sanctuary sofas, coffee shops, and multiple campuses.

And, it all seems to work. The churches that implement these high tech, modern, professional seminary sanctioned methods bring in the people who are attracted by comfort and entertainment models. Jesus had a strong message for a church characterized by wealth and success:

Because you say, “I am rich and have acquired great wealth, and need nothing,” but do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

Revelation 3:17

Jesus didn’t have any of these things. Neither did the Apostles of Christ or the early church. They had nothing except the fire of the Holy Spirt that brought miracles of healing and deliverance that amassed the crowds to hear and believe the gospel by the thousands. They crushed the evil one under their feet when they adhered to the Word of God and lived a Spirit filled faith that put total reliance on God.

They did not equate their success with material things but stood their ground on faith even to the point of their death by the hands of the wicked. They had no magnificent facilities, million dollar homes, or seminary degrees. But they were effective for the mission.

People in the west have multiple bibles in their homes. We have heard the Word of God. But we don’t understand it. We are the seed that has fallen on thorny soil and it is this soil we should be most concerned about because the church lives in this soil. The enemy has been patiently using the wealth and prosperity around us as powerful tools of deception. We have become off-mission, undiscerning, and ineffective: wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

We have to recognize our riches, our things, our pleasures are a hindrance to us. Jesus once challenged a rich man to sell all he had, give the money to the poor, and come follow Him. The man could not bring himself to do that because he had much riches and things. Jesus said this as the man walked away:

Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

Matthew 19:23-24

But that’s not the end of the conversation. Here is what Peter said:

Then Peter said in reply, “See, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?”

Matthew 19:27

The disciples, those who would become the Apostles of the Lord Jesus, left it all behind – even their families. They chose to follow Jesus. Here is what the Lord said in response to Peter:

Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

Matthew 19:28-30

Do you want to be first in this life? Then you will be last in the Kingdom of God. We in the west have made our choice to be first in this world in which we live. We think that all the money and facility and other things we have glorify God. Meanwhile there are God’s people in other parts of the world persecuted for the sake of the Name, having nothing but the rubble of their facilities at their feet, finally realizing that the facility that once stood there meant nothing. They are left with their faith, the Word of God, and each other.

What a parable for our day and our time. But there is one more soil to cover in the next post.