The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 6 – 10
The things you’ve learned in these lessons are not new. Even the Gentiles understand many of these things. Three hundred years ago the Japanese Samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo wrote: “Covetousness, anger and foolishness are things to sort out well. When bad things happen in the world, if you look at them comparatively, they are not unrelated to these three things.”
And as you well know, covetousness comes from the heart; anger comes from the spirit; and foolishness comes from the soul. So this is not earth-shaking, mind-blowing, life-changing knowledge; well, perhaps it is, but it shouldn’t be. These things have been in plain sight, dimly understood even by the world, talked about by the world’s psychiatrists… and clearly displayed on pretty much every single page of the Bible.
Isaiah 48:16 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me. The Bible is full of three-part repetitions or groupings that we’ve read over, dismissing it as poetry or just God being redundant again. But when you open your eyes – which is to say, when you read with your soul awake – you can’t not see this all over the Bible.
For example, Job says “I will not refrain my mouth [which is part of the body]; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul” (Job 7:11). Or Paul, who says “…be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).
Is it pure chance that Paul mentions three different synonyms for good there? Or was he plainly telling us that our heart had to become good (Matthew 12:35), our spirit had to learn what actions are acceptable to God (Ephesians 5:10), and our soul had to become perfect?
Or Isaiah 2:3 “[God] will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths [both soul]: for out of Zion shall go forth the law [heart], and the word [spirit] of the LORD from Jerusalem”. Is that really so different from Psalms 15:2, which says “He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart”?
Both speak of the soul’s choices, the beast’s actions, and the spirit’s ability to speak the truth. But notice that it isn’t the heart which speaks the truth; it is the spirit which speaks the truth contained in the heart (the 1-2-10 law). 1 Timothy 1:5 Now the end of the commandment is charity [agape, soul] out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience [spirit], and of faith unfeigned [heart]:
You might think there’s a problem with that last verse, since the “heart” is connected to “love”. But remember: what EXACTLY does it say? It says love OUT OF a pure heart; the heart stores the 1-2-10 law, which is the source of all love! But agape belongs to the soul, which built agape OUT OF the laws in that now-pure heart! For a different example, consider Zechariah 7:9.
God said “Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother”; it is obvious, after all these lessons, that judgment is a command for the soul; mercy is a command for the spirit; and compassion is a command for the heart. Again in Matthew 23:23, Jesus condemns the Pharisees who “…have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith”.
Yet again, Micah 6:8 tells us “to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God”. This is why Jesus said there were three categories of saints; the called, the chosen, and the faithful (Revelation 17:14). Those who are called, and HEAR the law; those who choose to obey the law, and those who faithfully keep it! (Matthew 22:14).
Or said differently, those who can rule their beast, those who can break their spirit, and those whose soul is strong enough to stay in charge of their mind! Because not everyone who hears the law obeys it; and of those who obey it, not everyone is willing to trust it!
1 Corinthians 6:11, 20 And such were some of you: but ye are washed [baptized the flesh], but ye are sanctified [spirit made holy], but ye are justified [soul’s bad judgments forgiven] in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God…. For ye [soul] are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit , which are God’s. I mean really… is it fair to call this hidden? Has God done anything in secret from the very beginning? Or has He tried to tell us the truth in ten thousand different ways since Adam first opened his eyes?
THE MIND IN SYMBOLISM
These ideas are reflected in symbolism throughout the Bible as well. For example, in the temple, the innermost holy place was only visited by Aaron, because within it was the seat of judgment, which was where the soul of Israel dwelt. Outside of that veil, in the holy place and the inner court, the priesthood, the spirit of Israel worked and offered. Outside of that court, the rest of the nation, who were beasts, brought animal sacrifices to pay for their lives.
Or think about Noah; as the father of all men. He is, obviously enough, symbolic of the creator of the human race; a type of the Father, therefore. And he created an ark; which had three levels, and was baptized in the flood (1 Peter 3:20-21), so the ark must represent the human body – the beast! And the three sons whom Noah placed in that ark must picture the three fractions, the heart (Ham, meaning “hot”, as in “passionate”), the spirit (Japheth, meaning “open”, having connotations of “entice, deceive, open minded”) and the soul (Shem, meaning “name” as in “famous, powerful”, who inherited Noah’s birthright).
Or consider the Garden of Eden one last time; Adam and Eve were soul and spirit, and the heart (Satan) got them kicked out of the Garden (the body, the beast) so they died in that day because the garden/body gave up the ghost/spirit! And in a repeating pattern, Adam and Eve had three children; an evil one, the heart (Cain), killed the soul (Abel), literally; just as it does metaphorically to all of us by getting it to sin, and subjugating it.
Then God created a spirit to rule it instead (Seth). But that ultimately didn’t work, because a spirit can’t rule a heart because it doesn’t make judgments, it just makes statutes – so God had to kill them all and start over after the flood. This time, God clearly made the soul (Shem) and spirit (Japheth) ruler over the heart (Ham and descendants) (Genesis 9:25). Still later, the pattern repeats again when Abraham, a type of the Father, bore a son Isaac, a type of Jesus (Hebrews 11:17-19, John 3:16).
Thus Abraham was the father of the faithful, in a sense the soul of Israel. Isaac, a type of Christ, was in a sense the spirit of Israel, and that makes Jacob the heart of Israel. This is particularly interesting because of what Esau said in Genesis 27:36. The heart is a supplanter! It tries to rule things it has no business ruling, and its greed is insatiable.
But Jacob “supplanter” the deceitful, lying heart of Israel (compare Jeremiah 17:9), was converted and became Israel “he who prevailed against God” (Genesis 32:28). Just as our heart is the only fraction which must die to live! All of us who are born beasts must rule our heart, and convert what we are into what we should be. Just like the beast on the altar is converted by the fire into spirit, so we must change our supplanting heart into a copy of the spirit of God.
In yet another overlaying pattern, like Adam and Noah, Isaac had three sons. “Wait, what? He only had two!” (Genesis 25:26), I hear you saying. Ah, but what about ISRAEL? For when Israel was born, Jacob died – that’s why he needed a new name! Thus, Esau was the spirit, and Jacob was the heart, and Israel was the soul – the person who had overcome the heart like a prince! (Ecclesiastes 4:13-14). This is by no means all, or even most, of the related symbols in the Bible; Samuel-David-Saul, Moses-Joshua-Aaron, and many other groupings show the same pattern.
Another, larger example is the pattern of God, Jesus, and the world. God is clearly the judge of all, the soul of the universe (Hebrews 12:23), and Jesus is His counsellor, the holy spirit (Isaiah 9:6), an advocate for us (1 John 2:1). And the carnal world is, of course, beasts (Ecclesiastes 3:19). As I said… is it really fair to call this “hidden” knowledge? Figuring all this out is nothing to be proud of; rather, I’m embarrassed I hadn’t seen it sooner!
AFTER THE FIRST AND SECOND ADMITION
God has not hidden this knowledge, we have! When Jesus condemned the Pharisees for omitting judgment, mercy, and faith, we have been willing to believe that Jesus chose those particular words for some ineffable reason of His own, when in fact these were a very specific criticism of the greatest failures of their soul, their spirit, and their heart!
These things are left in the dark when you assume Paul stuttered when he commanded Timothy “reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:2). Because if you think about it, you realize he was commanding him to reprove the beast for its sins, rebuke the spirit for failing to record the truth, and exhort the soul to do better as a judge!
This is why the process of conflict resolution in Matthew 18 has three steps. The first, a man goes to his brother alone with his problem (Matthew 18:15, Proverbs 25:9-10). This way they can talk beast to beast. If you question that characterization, watch two men argue sometime (Proverbs 13:10). If that doesn’t work, then you should take one or two more with you, so that a group of spirits can show the sinner his error, and rewrite the sinner’s own spirit! (Matthew 18:16).
And finally, if that doesn’t work, the man must be brought before the church, of which Jesus is the head (Matthew 18:17-20). Thus, the problem is brought before Jesus, the judge of the church, so that the sinning person is in effect judged by the soul of the church! If two beasts can work out the problem, Jesus’ soul need not get involved; if a small group of spirits can work it out, the soul need not get involved.
But if the hearts are prideful and contentious, and if the spirits are unbroken, they won’t be able to work it out and the soul will have to get involved by judging the sinner and dealing out whatever punishment is just. Titus 3:10 A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject; This is why there are three warnings given. If a man won’t hear another beast, that’s pride but not necessarily unforgivable. Likewise, if he won’t hear the other spirits, it’s arrogance but he might still be saveable.
But if a man rejects the judgment and commands of his soul, he’s in open rebellion and there is nothing the soul can do but to deliver them “…unto Satan [leader among beasts], that they may learn not to blaspheme” (1 Timothy 1:20). If he won’t listen to the soul, there is simply no reason for him to stay, because there is nothing the soul can do to help him if he won’t listen.
HEART, SPIRIT, SOUL, AND STRENGTH
We’ve mentioned this several times in these lessons, but it is time to fully understand it because now, for the first time, you truly understand what these fractions of the mind are. It was impossible to really grasp this until you knew that. In Mark 12:29-30, Jesus said that the greatest commandment was “Love God” in four different ways – with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. As you learned in the earliest lessons, this corresponds to the first four of the ten commandments.
Each of the gospels records a slightly different version and the order of these lists changes. But then, Paul didn’t quote the last six commandments in order in Romans 13:8-10 either, nor did Jesus quote them in order in Matthew 19:18-19. So we don’t need them to correspond in order to the commandments. If order was important, it would be consistent – and besides, in Mark 12:33 the scribe, repeating Jesus’ own words back at Him in the same story, replaced Jesus’ inspired word “mind” with his own also inspired word “understanding”.
In other versions, the word “mind” is substituted for “understanding” (Matthew 22:37-38, Luke 10:27). So clearly, the “understanding” is a synonym for “mind”, and since understanding is a matter of the spirit, that means we can replace both words with “spirit” in this list (see also Romans 8:6, 27). By merging all these versions and orders, we get Heart, Soul, Mind/Understanding/Spirit, and Strength.
The word “strength”, must represent the whole person, the combination of all three, which is clearly strong! (Ecclesiastes 4:12). In other words, the beast! So to connect these to individual commandments, we compare God’s commands to these various fractions throughout the Bible; where do idols go? Ezekiel 14:3. Since idols are set up “in your heart”, it is your heart which must be told “make no graven image”! Thus #2 is about the heart, for hearts are covetous… which Colossians 3:5 says is idolatry.
Next, we know that the soul is the judge, and must choose whether to follow your heart – the idolatrous image – or your spirit, or neither. How do you show whom you serve? Romans 6:16. So if your soul obeys your heart, it serves your heart. Your heart has then become the god of your soul – and thus, your soul has another god before the true God (Philippians 3:19).
Instead of doing what David said in Psalms 42:2, their soul is turned aside by their deceived heart just as the idolaters in Isaiah 44:20 did. Our strongest temptation is to obey our heart instead of God, to obey the idols which are set up in our hearts instead of worshiping God in spirit, thus it is our SOUL that must be told “thou shalt have no other gods before me”! Therefore #1 corresponds to the soul, which is what you’d expect – the leader of the body is addressed first!
It was therefore the spirit which was told “thou shalt not take the name of God in vain”. This is perhaps the most poorly understood commandment, but basically it means “thou shalt not say ‘God said’, when God didn’t speak”. As you know, when the commands of God are reinterpreted, it is the spirit which is guilty. It is the one to blame for mishearing and misreporting the law; it is therefore the spirit which must not “take God’s name in vain”, by pretending its own statutes or the customs of its tribe are the binding, eternal laws of God!
So you see, this is more than simply a reference to the four commandments, it is a command to obey God with all three fractions of your mind individually and collectively. Because it is on the Sabbath that all three must rest from their labors! (Jeremiah 6:16, 2 Corinthians 2:13, Exodus 20:10 – cattle = beasts)
It is on the Sabbath that they must collectively yield their strength to God, and rest – and yet here, too, each has their own specific Sabbath; the weekly Sabbath for the beast, when spirits and souls still work (John 5:17); the yearly Sabbath for the spirit, when the anger of the spirit is broken and it is forced to forgive sins (Exodus 21:2, Deuteronomy 15:1), but when beasts and souls still work (Leviticus 25:6-7).
And finally the millennial Sabbath for the soul, when the soul no longer has to labor to rule the heart and the spirit for it will have broken them during the past 6,000 year week! A time when Jesus will be there as our head, taking the burden of absolute responsibility off of us and giving our souls rest! (Matthew 11:29, Hebrews 4:8). Our souls will rest, even as our hearts and spirits, by then made perfect, are helping Him rule all nations!
THE HOLY TRINITY
I said long ago that the trinity is false. And it is, for God is not three persons in one, not in the sense the world believes. And yet, you’re now ready to see that God is, in fact, three persons in one… in the same sense that all of us are, for we were made in His precise image, inside and out. God’s trinity is not unknowable as the world believes. God simply has a heart (Genesis 6:6), a spirit (Genesis 6:3), and a soul (Jeremiah 5:29). His heart contains a perfect copy of the law; His spirit contains a perfect copy of the statutes; and His soul is a perfect copy of the judgments.
No, that’s wrong. It’s actually the exact opposite: the law is a perfect copy of the lusts of His heart. The statutes are a perfect copy of conclusions of His spirit. And the judgments are a perfect copy of His soul’s opinions – the lust of His eyes! His beast is the source of all life (Colossians 3:2-4), the river that flows from the Garden (John 4:14). His spirit is the tree of life (Proverbs 15:4). His soul is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the right of the priesthood to make judgments about right and wrong (Jeremiah 1:9-12).
All of these patterns and so many more are built around the true trinity, which is simply the way the mind of God is structured, just as the mind of Jesus is structured, just as your mind is structured. That is why when you delete the words that were inserted to prove the false trinity, the so-called Trinity scripture actually says… 1 John 5:6-8 This is he who came by water and by blood, Jesus Christ; not by water only but by water and by blood.
And the Spirit is the witness, because the Spirit is true. There are three witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the blood: and all three are in agreement. These three witnesses repeat the same old pattern; the blood was poured out of His body, and represents life of the body (Genesis 9:4); the water represents the spirit (John 7:38-39); and the Spirit, ironically, here represents the soul – which, remember, is MADE of spirit! (Genesis 2:7).
Because Jesus was the “holy Spirit” mentioned in most of the NT, but that spirit was Him, it was His soul in spirit form which, after He was dead, could witness of Himself (John 5:31)… as could His own spirit, and His own heart! And these three agree, and speak as one! As should yours! And at each layer of the plan, this pattern is replicated again, so just as God the Father has a spirit within Him (Matthew 10:20), the counsellor and librarian of His own mind, so outside of His body Jesus performs the same external role in the Kingdom of God; for Jesus is also a spirit of the Father (Luke 23:46), and He is to God as our own spirit is to our own soul.
And while God has a soul, God is the soul of the universe; likewise Jesus has His own soul and He is also the soul of the church. In the same way that a man has his own soul, but is also the soul of his wife, even though she has her own soul. And just as every man and woman have their own spirit, in the human family she is designed to perform the role of spirit to her husband’s soul, the voice of reason to balance his judgments and remind him of his duties, and to remind him to be merciful to his beasts – their children.
At every layer and on every level the pattern repeats, and each time adding new information and merging seamlessly to show us “what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge” (Ephesians 3:17-19). So to say that God is composed of three fractions, like all of us, is absolutely correct. To believe that God and Jesus are part of a trinity is also correct, provided you replace “God the Holy Spirit” with the holy spirits of all of the firstborn sons of God, who will collectively form the HEART of the government of souls!
But to believe that this trinity is unknowable is insane when every family is a living witness to the trinity government of the soul, spirit, and heart! And to worship God’s heart is as irrational as worshiping God’s fingernails; for God is not His heart; God is a soul, made of spirit which it rules over, with a heart that loves the law in all of its forms and aspects.
ELECTRONS
What you’ve learned in these lessons is rather like the discovery of the electron. In and of itself, it’s rather a useless curiosity. None of us use the knowledge of electrons on a daily basis, no one can see them, it’s something we sort of accept on faith. And yet, the interactions of electrons explains every chemical interaction from salt to glue. Without electrons, you can’t understand electricity; or magnetism; you can’t design chemical compounds, new plastics, or medicines.
Literally everything about our modern world is based on the knowledge of the fractions of the atom. And as it happens, there are three main fractions of the atom! For God designed the universe so that no matter where we look, we see the truth shining back at us! Whether it’s looking outward at the solar system’s Sun (soul), Planets (spirit), and Moons (beast); or into a microscope at the fabric of matter itself, with the Proton (soul), Neutron (spirit), and Electron (heart).
All of these things testify that God built this (Job 12:7-10), and all of it was made according to the same pattern. Like electrons, the things you’ve learned in the past three series cannot be felt or seen. You cannot touch a soul, or feel a spirit. And yet every behavior, every quirk, every like and dislike of every living thing can be explained using the understanding of the various I’s and their interactions.
Yet if pinned down, I cannot conclusively prove anything that’s been said to someone who is determined not to believe the theory. There is no one verse that says “we have a mind broken up into three parts”. No one verse that says your soul must rule your spirit and your heart. The Bible just assumes you know that, and says things like “your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless” (1 Thessalonians 5:23), expecting you to know what that means because you’ve been listening! …If, of course, you have an ear to hear; which is to say, if you have a spirit broken enough to listen.
And I freely admit that some of what I’ve said in these lessons most certainly is wrong. It needs more research, and practice, and field testing. It needs more scriptures and a better understanding of the plan than I have right now. Just as the early understanding of electrons needed fleshed out, and revised to reflect the results of experiments… but those experiments couldn’t be imagined until after the theory was developed.
Likewise, there is much work to be done on this understanding. Many things will need to be revised, and everything can be expressed far better than I’ve done it here. But this is enough for now. Because what won’t change is that we are made in God’s image, and that we all have a soul, heart, spirit, and beast which must, individually and collectively, learn to love God.
THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER
And the best example of the three fractions in the Bible is in the well known, but thoroughly misunderstood, parable of the sower, told in Matthew 13:3-23, Mark 4:4-20, and Luke 8:5-15. Now before reading the next sections, I want you to read them for yourself and I want you to figure out the symbolism here! The purpose of this course is not to give you the answers which are, as you know, simply facts.
You don’t really need knowledge, you don’t even need understanding; you need the wisdom to find knowledge and understanding for yourself. And the purpose of this course is to teach you how to do just that. I’ve given you enough answers in this series that you should be able to take this parable apart for yourself. So read all three versions, look at these symbols, break them down one at a time, and see what Jesus is really saying here. When you’ve done that, and think you’ve figured it out, write it down! Then come back and see if you’re right. Go!
*****
So in Luke 8:5, you see that the sower sowed seed. First, what are these seeds? Luke 8:11 tells us it is “the word of God”, but that’s not the whole answer – Jesus’ answers rarely were. Because Luke 8:12 goes on to say “Those [seeds] by the way side are they that hear”. So how can the seed be “the word of God” and also those that hear that same word? Jesus plainly says the seed pictures the word of God and also those who hear it! That’s a rather sloppy metaphor.
Yet it makes sense because what does the seed represent? 1 Corinthians 15:36. And how must those bodies be made alive? 1 Corinthians 15:37-38. And how does that happen? 1 Peter 1:23. So the people are the seed and the word is the seed because the spiritual seed (the word) placed inside the bodies of physical people makes them a spiritual people because words are spirit! So Jesus tosses out His spirit to people, and when it falls on their spirits they become the seeds of first resurrection saints!
And if these seeds fall by the wayside, what does that mean? Remember, take the symbols one at a time! What is the “way”? Matthew 7:13-14. So the way leads to life; and like all roads, there are forks, and the right path must be chosen again and again; and due to the fact that few use this path, it’s overgrown with weeds and hard to find! Jesus said He was the way because He always chose the right path; therefore, those on the way to life are following in His footsteps (1 Peter 2:21).
As you’ve seen many times now, the job of choosing which way to walk belongs to the soul. And if your soul makes the wrong choice, Jesus gets you back on track (Psalms 23:3). But if, when Jesus tries to put you back on the straight-and-narrow way, you just can’t quite find it, what does He do? 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12. So if your soul just doesn’t love the truth, God will send you a strong delusion.
How would He do that? 2 Chronicles 18:21-22. So He does it through an angel! Which are symbolized as… birds! Revelation 18:2. We’ll come back to this. First, the next section of the parable in Luke 8:6; do the same thing, break it down symbol by symbol. “A rock”. What does that mean in the Bible? One meaning is Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4), but that doesn’t fit the sense here, because though they were on the rock, these seeds didn’t survive the flood (Matthew 7:24).
So then this particular rock isn’t Christ. Are there other rocks? Deuteronomy 32:31. In that context, it’s an evil spirit, a false god. This, too, doesn’t quite fit the sense of this parable, although it does connect. But by far the most common symbol of a rock in the Bible is Ezekiel 11:19. And what exactly does that mean? Zechariah 7:12, Isaiah 48:4.
When Jesus’ spirit (the spiritual seed) falls on a stony heart (the human seed), the plant grows up for awhile… but then it withers away “because it lacked moisture”. So what does water mean? John 7:38-39. So this heart was stony, and the seed couldn’t get water from God’s spirit because the heart was so unfaithful! (Numbers 20:2-12).
But now compare the version in Matthew 13:6; this adds a detail, that the seed withered because the sun scorched it! What does that mean? James 1:11-12. So the heat of the sun is temptation. Which is exactly what happened in Numbers – they were tempted with thirst, and rather than rule their heart and trust God, they rebelled and died in the wilderness!
When God tested Job, he survived because the word had taken root in his heart! Not perfectly, or he wouldn’t have reacted the way he did; but well enough that his plant was able to survive the heat of God’s fiery trial! Next, we have Luke 8:7; once again, what do these symbols mean? Matthew 7:16. So thorns are clearly plants that don’t bring forth good fruit. And the symbol clearly is that this potential child of God is surrounded by unfruitful workers of darkness.
But think about this in the simplest possible sense, an actual wheat plant surrounded by thorny weeds. What exactly is happening to it? It is being “choked”, according to the Bible; it is being smothered, starved of sunlight, water, and nutrients! Jesus interpreted this symbol as a person who is overcome by “the cares of this world”. There are two ways to understand that; both are true, as usual. The obvious one is that they are overcome by the things the world cares about – this is the sort of explanation any Protestant preacher can give.
But another way of understanding this phrase is that they are overcome by the world’s care for them! When you go to church, their primary purpose is to make sure you only receive the truth through them. Thus, they steal the water meant for you, and dole it out drop by drop! Likewise, the church takes it upon itself to protect you from the judgment of God; they shade you from God’s gaze! The mother wants to hide you in her skirts from the glare of your father’s righteous fury, prevent him from giving you the spanking you desperately need (Hebrews 12:5-11).
Churches do their best to prevent the “fiery trials” that happen when the light of truth shines on you; when God punishes you, they tell you not to worry, God is simply teaching you patience. When God smites you, rather than helping you understand why, so you can change, they tell you just to be yourself, and wait for it to pass (Lamentations 2:14). But being yourself is what caused the problem!
WHAT THAT MEANS
But the biggest problem, greater even than starvation of light and water, is that this sad plant is overwhelmed by the thorns around it. Mark 4:7 adds “…and it yielded no fruit”, just like the thorns surrounding it. Think about that; it became like them! Compare that to Psalms 142:1-4. His spirit was overwhelmed by the thorns! Plato wrote “When a man cannot measure, and a great many others who cannot measure declare that he is four cubits high (6 feet), can he help believing what they say?”; when you’re surrounded by people who believe a certain thing, no matter how ridiculous or evil it is, you’re likely to be overwhelmed by their opinions! Psalms 77:3.
Whether it’s to burn books in Berlin with the Nazis, to eat white men on the shores of Africa, or to worship God on Sunday, your conscience is designed to be influenced by those who surround you! So if you fall among Sun-worshipers, you’re likely to end up like them! But this points to the great secret of this parable; if the word of God falls among thorns and you are overwhelmed by them, it’s because you have an impressionable spirit! One easily influenced by other spirits even if they are wrong!
But if it falls on stony ground and finds no root in your heart, it’s because you have a stubborn beast! One which refuses the bit, and will not be corrected! But if it falls by the wayside it’s because you couldn’t make the hard judgments to stay on the path of life! And that happens because you have a weak soul! One which refuses to man up and take the authority God designed it to bear!
This parable is doing exactly what you’d think Jesus would be doing; telling us ALL the ways a child of God can miss the mark! Telling us what to watch out for, and what part of our mind is to blame for each kind of failure! With this understanding, you can see that Psalms 143:3-10 is simply a prayer to avoid these particular traps; to avoid being overwhelmed by other thorny workers of darkness, to avoid losing your way, to avoid a desolate heart that can’t water the seed!
Jesus no doubt read this Psalm, and His understanding of it likely inspired this parable. Because we know that He hungered and thirsted after righteousness – after the approval and validation that comes only from God! He wasn’t interested in the validation of the thorns, or the approval of the birds. All He cared about was learning, obeying, and teaching the world about the beauty of the Golden Rule, and how it applied to all the fractions of our mind.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Having learned this, now go back and read the parable again to see how much sense it makes; see how the “stony ground” received the word? With joy! (Luke 8:13). Just like a beast, excited about things one moment, hating them the next! Those who receive the word among thorns receive it, and go forth but are driven to and fro by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14). Notice that – WIND of doctrine, because doctrines come from the SPIRITS of those around you! And are stored in your OWN spirit!
Those who fall by the wayside are those who hear but because they don’t love truth enough, the devil is sent to take away the word out of their hearts “lest they should believe and be saved”. Why wouldn’t God want them to be saved? Why wouldn’t He want them to believe? 1 Corinthians 5:5. These seeds by the wayside aren’t people who don’t know God at all, like the Hindu!
For then they wouldn’t be BY the road, but far off in the distance! These are people who are almost right but just… not… quite… willing to make the last few choices to stay on the right path! So God drives them far away from the truth, to make it clear that they don’t belong in His Kingdom! These are people who have the right doctrines, the right beliefs, but just won’t rule their beasts, break their spirits, and make the hard judgments with their souls! This is, in short, describing all of the very best churches in the world, doctrinally!
This describes the Sabbath-keepers, the people who keep the laws of unclean meats and have no idols, the people who tithe and fast… those who, like the Pharisees who did all those same things, have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof! (2 Timothy 3:5). And what is the power of God? John 1:12, 1 Corinthians 6:14. The power of God is not healing the sick, not calling fire down from heaven, not the power to rebuke spirits! (Luke 10:20). The power of God is what CHANGES your nature into His own nature (2 Corinthians 3:18, 13:4).
And without doing the things in this series, it is absolutely impossible to do that, because your beast won’t obey God without a fight! Your spirit thinks it knows more than He does! And your soul is a frightened little child trying to hold the reins of a galloping beast! The power of God is what CHANGES that, which is something no church group today teaches! They truly have the form of godliness, but they are not being changed into His image and His likeness, so they cannot have the power of God which leads to salvation!
That’s why Jesus concludes by showing us a fourth category; those who are the good ground, where the word of God falls and TAKES ROOT in the heart (Ephesians 3:17, Colossians 2:7). Those who out of a good HEART, having HEARD the word (in their spirit) bring forth fruit with PATIENCE. And what is hidden behind the symbol of patience? Luke 21:19. Those who bring forth 30, 60, or 100 fold are those who have conquered their HEART, broken their SPIRIT, and taught their SOUL to judge righteous judgment! These are those who pay attention to the weightier matters of the law, JUDGMENT, MERCY, and FAITH; those who do JUSTLY, love MERCY, and walk HUMBLY with their God! As Jesus concluded this same parable… “If any man have ears to hear, let him hear”.