Never opened to the possibility…

So JESUS over in Luke 8 says, let me tell you a story.  There was a farmer who goes out to sow seed and as he sowed, his seed scattered all over in different directions, in different types of soil.

Back in the Middle East in the old days, they didn’t plant one seed per spot and cover it with dirt.  They did what was called broadcasting.  A farmer would have a pouch on his side filled with seeds and as he’d walk through the field which he had already tilled, he would toss it out, scattering it.  You see the picture.

Now obviously some of the seed falls on good soil and some of it doesn’t and HE says these four soils represent four attitudes, four kinds of people, but actually all of us have been all four of these types.  We vary from them from time to time. 

So how do I hear God speak to me?  Well first of all I must cultivate an open mind.

Let me ask you, have you ever heard GOD speak to you?  There are many of you who would say, “I can’t think of a time in my life where I actually heard GOD speak to me.”  Now I’m not talking about an audible voice, but an impression in your mind that you know is from GOD.

Now why is that?  Well, one of the possible reasons is that you’ve never been open to the possibility of it or maybe you didn’t even know it was possible that GOD wants to speak to you directly. 

When you’ve got a closed mind, obviously, GOD is not going to get through.  This is the first type of soil.  Luke 8.5 (NIV), “...some seed fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up.”

Then verse 12 says, “Those along the path are those who hear, and then the devil comes along and takes away the word from their hearts, so they cannot believe and be saved.”

On every farm, in every field, there's a footpath that the farmer would walk down and as he went he would sow the seed out onto the land that was tilled.  Now there were two characteristics of the footpath.  One, it was hardened because of the constant traffic of the people walking and two it was narrow.

Do you know anybody like that?  They’re closed minded, narrow minded, hard hearted.  They’re not even open to the possibility that GOD might speak to them so as a result, JESUS says the farmer sows seed but it just lays on the surface of the ground and the birds come along and eat it, it never even gets a chance.

Just a thought from the front porch…