The Four Soils

In both Luke 8 and Matt 13, Jesus tells “The Parable of the Sower.” In the passage, Jesus describes someone planting seeds into four types of soil; the hard path, rocky, thorny, and good soil. Other than the hard path, every soil was capable of producing a plant of some sort. Although they had potential, it was not fully realized due to internal or external variables. Those variables robbed the soil of nutrients, water, and sunlight. Making whatever might grow vulnerable and doomed to die.  
 
Every soil Jesus described represents a potential condition of our heart. In the context of this parable, our heart is the inner part of every human that hears, understands, receives truth, makes decisions, and judgments, etc. Our Father desires to make us good soil so that we can experience His healing, goodness, and love while living “life to the full.” However, when He plants seeds in our lives we don’t always have a heart that is ready to receive and grow what is being planted. Over the next four weeks, we will be discussing each soil or condition of the heart Jesus describes.

Our “Stories Around the Fire” will feature stories from Judah Hartenstein about when his heart was each soil and how it affected his life. Judah has been a staff member of The New Frontier since it’s inception. He graduated this year with a Bachelors in Criminal Justice and is commissioned into the National Guard as a second lieutenant. His job will be military intelligence. Most importantly, he has a brittany spaniel named Glacier.

We encourage you to process alongside us. A deeper awareness of where we are helps us see the need to care for our hearts so that we can receive the provision of our heavenly Dad in transforming daily us into good soil. Before next week, take some time to answer the questions below and familiarize yourself with “The Parable of the Sower.”

Calibration:

- Read the following Scripture passages:

Luke 8:4-8
“And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
   
Matt. 13:3-9
“A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  He who has ears, let him hear.”

- After reading the parable, what type of soil or condition is your heart in currently?
- What kind of fruit are you currently baring in your life? Do you believe you are living life to the full with where your heart is currently at?
- When you aren’t good soil what type of soil do you feel yourself reverting to?
- What do you think it is costing you to not have a heart of  “good soil?”

If you have prayer requests or want help processing feel free to email us at chris@thenewfrontierministries.org