People will say, “You talk as if God speaks to you all the time, but that has not been my experience. I never hear God speaking to me!” Our understanding of God and how He works should never be based on our experience. How arrogant of us to assume that our experience is the measure of how God functions in our world. Rather, we always take our experience to the Word of God and then bring our experience into conformity with what God reveals. Luke 8:5-15 explains how the condition of your heart can determine your response to God’s word. Jesus described a sower who was casting seeds upon the earth. These seeds represented God’s word coming to people’s lives. According to Jesus there were four ways people responded to this word. Jesus said the way you respond to the word of God reveals the condition of your heart, and will determine what God will do in your life. 

The first heart response: seed that fell by the wayside. Here is a path well traveled. As soon as the word comes, “the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved” (v. 12). The soil of their heart is so hardened that a word from God cannot penetrate it. What is the condition of your heart? Are you allowing the world constantly to pass over your heart through the television and movies you watch, the music you listen to, the books you read, and the thoughts you have? When you allow your heart to become hardened and desensitized by the things of the world, God’s word does not penetrate your heart in order to change your life. 

The second heart response: seed falling on rocky, shallow ground. At first there is a joyful response but then, because the soil is shallow and there is no root, the person “falls away.” We can attend a church service and even be an active participant, yet never let the word of God penetrate our lives. The word enters our minds but not our hearts. “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). This is one reason we must meditate on God’s Word. 

The third heart response: seed which fell on thorny ground. These people hear the word from God but the cares, riches, and pleasures of life are so important to them that God’s word is choked out. I cannot tell you how many times I have had people come to me weeping after a service. They sensed God calling them to Christian ministry or missions, but they first wanted to get married. Then their children came and their first house mortgage. Before they knew it, years had passed. Rather than responding to the word from God, they found themselves caught in the middle of the rat race of daily life. Years later they realized that their precious word from God had been choked out and had never borne fruit as God had purposed. Jesus indicated that the first three heart conditions produced no fruit. It was not that their busyness and preoccupation or careless handling of God’s word caused them to produce only a little fruit. In Jesus’ eyes there was no fruit worthy of mention. 

The fourth heart response: seed that fell on good ground and produced a great harvest! I have desired in my life always to have a heart so open and unobstructed that any word coming to me from God can multiply in me as God desires. That is why I regularly take inventory of the soil of my life. I often ask, Have any obstacles or sins entered my life? Am I letting the world trample my heart so that it is insensitive to a word from God? Am I trying to juggle a word from God along with all my worldly cares and concerns? Am I quick not only to hear a word, but joyfully to take action and obey? What type of soil is your heart providing to receive a word from God? Circle the number of the statement that best describes your heart. 

1.  Trampled, hardened soil (a heart hardened by too much traffic) 

2.  Rocky, shallow soil (entering the mind but not the heart) 

3.  Thorny soil full of weeds (a life too cluttered with worldliness to sustain a word from God) 

4.  Fertile, receptive soil (a heart open to hear and obey) If you have not received a fresh word from God lately, return to the last word you were given, and see what you did in response. 

God may be refusing to give you a new word until you properly respond to the last word He gave. What is the last thing you know God clearly said to you? ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ 

What have you done with that word? ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ 

Based on how you responded to God’s last word to you, are you ready for a new word from God? Yes No Why or why not? ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ 

What did God say to you during your study this week? ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ 

What will you do as a result? ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ 

A QUESTION COMMONLY ASKED 

How can I know that God is speaking to lead me instead of Satan trying to mislead me? Remember that Satan is not the “evil equivalent” of God. Satan is only a creature who was created by God and who is entirely under subjection to God (see Rom. 16:20; Rev. 20:7). Satan is not omnipresent; He can only be in one place at one time (see Job 1:6-7). Satan does have other spiritual forces that do wage war against us (read Eph. 6:12). However, those who belong to Jesus hear His voice and follow Him (read John 10:27). When a false shepherd comes, the sheep will not follow because they do not recognize his voice. We should strive to know God’s voice so intimately that we immediately recognize other voices as not being from God. We can protect ourselves further by understanding that God will never lead us in a way that contradicts His Word. God is consistent in the way He leads. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27).