Devotions

In Matthew 13, Jesus shares the well-known parable of the sower. The seed is the unchanging Word of God from heaven. The culture and values of this world are constantly changing from culture to culture and generation to generation, but the Word of God is eternal. The seed sometimes falls by the wayside in stony places or thorns, and it never produces a harvest.

The seed that produces a harvest is the seed that goes into fertile soil. There, the Word goes deep, the roots go deep, and the fruit multiplies.

Of course, the sower and the seed are critical. However, the Word can be proclaimed in truth; but if the soil is not able to receive the Word, there will never be thirty-, sixty- and hundred-fold harvests. After the parable of the sower and the parable of the weeds, Jesus bluntly told his disciples, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age….The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace…. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:37-39,41-43, ESV).

Individuals can show up every week to church; they can hear biblical messages delivered by men of God, but if the soil of the heart is not soft, tender and able to receive the Word, there will never be the fruit of a changed life.

What creates good soil in a heart is a culture of repentance. Sadly, that element is often lacking in the Western church and many other places in the days we live. As believers, it is vital that we cultivate an atmosphere of humility, sincere desire for God’s Word and an awe of his presence so that the soil will be soft. The Old Testament prophets cry out “Break up the fallow ground” (see Hosea 10:12; Jeremiah 4:3). It is in proper soil that God can produce supernatural results. A culture of repentance will create soil that can receive the Word and produce eternal fruit.

^{John Bailey is the Vice President of World Challenge Inc. and the Founding Pastor of The Springs Church in Jacksonville, Florida. John has been serving the Lord in pastoral ministry for 35 years, ministering the gospel in over 50 nations, particularly as a pastor and evangelist in Cork, Ireland.}

The seventh chapter of Micah contains one of the most powerful messages on the new covenant ever preached. In this incredible sermon, Micah is speaking to the people of Israel, yet he is also speaking to the church of Jesus Christ in these last days. He begins his sermon with a heartbroken cry, one that is still being heard from spiritually starved believers around the world today: “Woe is me! . . . There is no cluster to eat” (Micah 7:1, NKJV).

Micah is describing the effect of a famine in Israel, a famine of food and of God’s Word. His message echoes the words of an earlier prophecy by Amos where the Lord says, “Behold, the days are coming . . . that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall . . . run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it” (Amos 8:11–12).

It was harvest time in Israel, and the vineyards should have been bursting with fruit, but there were no clusters hanging from the vines. Micah watched as people went into the vineyards looking for fruit to pick and finding none. In his prophetic eye, Micah saw multitudes in the last days running from place to place, seeking to hear a true word from God. He envisioned believers scurrying from church to church, from revival to revival, from nation to nation, all seeking to satisfy a hunger and thirst for something to nourish their souls. The cry is still heard, “Woe is me. There is no cluster!”

There is also a great famine in our world today. In spite of huge numbers of people running about looking for spiritual food, those who truly desire God’s Word comprise only a small number (see Micah 7:14, 18). This is certainly as true today as it was in ancient Israel. Few Christians today truly hunger to hear the pure word of the Lord. Instead, the majority fatten themselves on Sodom’s apples, feeding on the straw of perverted gospels. We must awaken to a true desire for the Word! We must share the holy truth of scripture with those who are desperate and hungry.

I believe God has to accomplish a work in us before we can lay claim to any covenant promise. What is this precedent work upon which all others depend? Jeremiah tells us. “I will put my fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from me” (Jeremiah 32:40, NKJV). God’s foundational work of the covenant is to put his fear into our hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit.

Jeremiah is speaking here of the provisions of God’s new covenant, not the old one. God tells us very clearly how this first work of the covenant will be performed. “I will put my fear in their hearts.” He is letting us know we cannot work up a holy fear by the laying on of hands or the strivings of our flesh. No, the only way this holy work can be accomplished in us is if God’s Spirit performs it.

God is telling us through this passage, “I am going to do marvelous things in you. I will send my very own Spirit to abide in you and give you a new heart.” He will empower you to mortify all fleshly deeds, and he will guide you into total freedom from the power of sin. Finally, he will cause you to will and do his good pleasure.

However, there is one work the Spirit must perform in you before any of these others. He is going to put in you the true fear of God concerning sin, a deep reverence for him and for his Word. He will implant in you a profound awe of his holiness so that you will not depart from his commands. Otherwise, your sin will always lead you away from him.

Very simply, the Holy Spirit changes the way we look at our sin. He knows that as long as we continue to take it lightly, we will never be set free. How does the Holy Ghost do this? By using the convicting Word of God, the piercing arrows of holy truth.

Ezekiel 37 is all about God’s desire for us to lay hold of the promises of his new covenant, learning how to truly live by entering into the blessing of the covenant.

We have all heard the story of the “dry bones” told by the prophet Ezekiel. It is important to note that these old bones lying lifeless on the ground were under the covenant. You see, the Lord had told them, “O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!” (Ezekiel 37:4, NKJV). God made this covenant promise: “I will put my Spirit in you, and you shall live” (Ezekiel 37:14).

Even though these dead bones had the new covenant promise preached to them, they were not yet able to enjoy its blessings. Many believers today know of God’s new covenant, yet they can hardly believe it because it sounds too good to be true. They say, “I know God has given us the Holy Spirit to live within us, and I know the Spirit takes it upon himself to cause us to obey Christ. I want that blessing badly, but how can I obtain it for my life?”

Here is what we must do first. Ezekiel writes that God told him to prophesy, “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live’” (Ezekiel 37:9). Scripture says that Ezekiel prophesied as God had commanded, “…and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army” (Ezekiel 37:10).

What a sight! There suddenly stood before Ezekiel a great army, alive and breathing! The Holy Spirit had filled all those dead bodies with life, and now they were prepared to do battle. In an instant, they had entered into the full enjoyment and blessings of the new covenant. “’Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,’ says the Lord’” (Ezekiel 37:17). God’s Spirit had taken his rightful place in them, and he was bringing about all the promised changes.

In forming the new covenant, God obligated himself by an oath to supply the enabling power and strength to fulfill every condition and demand of the covenant. When God says by oath, “I will do it,” faith in us responds, “Let it be so.”

Let me show you a wonderful truth from the new covenant. It suggests that the Lord can never get close enough to his people, and that he can never bring them as close as he desires. Therefore, he unites and fashions us to himself with this binding contract. The new covenant is all about our Lord’s commitment to keep his children from falling, and to console, comfort and assure us that the power and dominion of sin can and will be broken by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

This truth is the only hope for those believers who have lost heart in their struggle against a besetting sin. Only by having the new covenant unveiled to us can we learn the secret to having total victory over sin.

Death is the only way out of the old covenant and into the new. Flesh faith has to die. No more striving to believe. If I am to have faith—true faith, the faith of Christ—he must give it to me. We have been given a measure of faith, yet if it is true that I can do nothing of myself, then this includes having divine faith. That is why scripture calls it “the faith of Christ.”

Are you sin-sick? Are you truly yearning to live a holy life, free from the habituating lusts of the flesh? Get ready to die. Get ready to embrace the cross. The old covenant will bring you to your wits’ end, to nothingness. When you have given up all hope of overcoming sin by your own human power and will, then you are ready to enter the glorious realm of life and freedom through the new covenant.

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2, NKJV).