Here is where it began this morning…
“Holy Spirit, I need more of You in my life, for I have grown tired and weary…”
As I was sitting here, trying to keep every part of myself focused on the Lord, trying not to let my mind drift, trying not to fall asleep, sitting here with Him, trusting that He is speaking to me…
I heard this,
“Turn to Matthew 13”
And so I dug in.
I’ve spent some time in Matthew 13, all the parables… but I thought, perhaps the Holy Spirit will show me something new this morning, perhaps He wants to reveal a deeper truth that I haven’t been able to grasp before.
(Side Note: I love how the language of the parables reminds me of the way He also speaks in dreams. That “simple on the surface and deeper than deep, layer upon layer” kind of language — how it has this way that creates such a hunger in me to dig deeper.)
As I read over these familiar words, the text highlighted, starred, underlined, hearts in all of the margins of my bible around these passages (I think the “hearts” in the margins are all the moments where the Word really sinks into my heart. ❤️)
But I asked the Lord to help me to grasp something fresh and new from His Word this morning.
…and I am realizing more and more, the responsibility that comes with understanding (seeing, perceiving, digesting, grasping) the truth…
How these parables show us the truth, truth that also “conceals a deeper upon deeper truth” –and it’s like that next layer of truth won’t fully sink in until we are able to properly handle that truth, receive that truth, digest that truth — until that truth will be able to do in us, what He wants it to do in our hearts –to grow and produce fruit. That is when He will give us eyes to see and ears to hear, more into the truth that we already have. Jesus is the truth.
So I began to ask the Lord,
“Holy Spirit, You are the Spirit of Truth, help me to receive the depth of Your truth, and be able to bear great fruit – that I can not only understand and know the truth, but live from this truth!”
But what happens when we realize more of a depth into a truth, and yet we do not bear fruit from that understanding? If we know, and yet we do not “do” what we know is true, what the Spirit of Truth has taught us, and revealed to us?
“But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.” – James 1:22
“Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ but not do what I say?” – Luke 6:46
“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” – James 4:17
If we will not bear fruit from knowing the truth, might it be better for us to not fully grasp that particular layer of truth until… we can? Until the ground of our hearts will be prepared and ready to receive that truth?
What if I was able to see deeper into a truth, and yet my heart was not in a place to be able to receive it, and the soil of my heart rejects that seed of truth? That seed would wither and die.
But I’m thankful that He knows our hearts, that He’s preparing our hearts, and He has a plan to give us opportunities that we can step into…. so that our capacity to receive the truth, and to take heed to the truth – to see, to hear, to digest, take it to a heart that can and will produce fruit from it, that we may be able to “live” from the understanding of the truth.
Oh God, I need Your help! I need the ground of my heart to be always stirred up and prepared so that I can receive the deeper understanding of Your truths and produce fruit –I don’t want to only have understanding, with the weight of responsibility, and then not do what I should do with it.
Lord, help me to keep my heart in the place, so that it can be prepared to receive Your truth. I pray that you’ll give me the eyes to see into, and the ears to hear deeper into Your truth, with my heart prepared and stirred up, that great fruit may come of it, that “living” from that truth may come of it. That I will be responsible, that I will grow and be able to do what You’d have me to do with what You reveal to me, Lord. I want to be found faithful.
-Heather ?