ICS Daily Devotions
Grow to a Hundredfold
Matt 13:9,24 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!….But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
In this parable, Jesus talks about a fourth kind of seeds, which represents the kind of fruitful life that Jesus desires for all of us. The key to allowing the fruit of the Holy Spirit and faith to grow in our lives is to constantly choose to allow our hearts to be good ground to readily receive the Word of God.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God because we will begin to know who we are in Christ, what we have in Christ and what we can do in and through Christ as we listen to the teaching and preaching of the Word. The Bible is the operational manual to living a successful and abundant life on this earth. We cannot live apart from the Word and expect what is spoken in the Bible to automatically happen in our lives, because God does not act apart from His Word!
No matter what comes our way, when the heart is right, faith will grow, godly character will flow, and we will overcome evil with good. Once the Word is received into our hearts with conviction, it will produce thirty, sixty and even a hundredfold. Faith will continue to grow in line with our conviction—from no faith, to small faith and great faith.
The Lord concludes the parable by saying, “He who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” What a challenge! First, we need to have theological conviction about many things in our lives, then we will begin to allow God to change us and begin to live the Christian life from the inside out. When we begin to act on the Word based on our conviction, it will strengthen by the day, eventually reaching a hundredfold. Therefore, Jesus is essentially saying those who have ears, let them hear and begin to act on the Word and not deceive themselves!
If you belong to this category, don’t settle for less! If you are already experiencing thirtyfold, you can grow to sixty and even a hundredfold. God’s desire is for you to prosper spiritually, emotionally through good marriage and interpersonal relationships and physical wholeness!
Sermon Series: Breaking Free – What Jesus Wants Us to Know
