Jesus in explaining the Parable of the Sower, said about the seed that fell among the thorns:
“Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.”
Matthew 13:22 NKJV
The choking of God’s word is a characteristic of a wayward Christian, who has been deceived through the cares of this world by the devil. He is carnally minded and the word of God in his life has become unfruitful as a result of this.
God’s desire is that every one of His children be fruitful. But the carnally minded Christians loves the world more than they love God’s word. They like to carousel with the world more than fellowshipping with God’s people. The inclination of their heart is of the world. They are more in tune to be following after the advice of the world, rather than obeying God’s word.
Jesus warned us about such believers in His name when He revealed the activities that characterizes them at the end time. He said:
“But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.”
Luke 21:34-35 NKJV
Jesus was not giving the warning here to the people of the world. He was clearly warning those who are following Him. He was issuing a clear warning to every believer in His name, to be careful about the deceitfulness of the affairs of this world.
A carnally minded Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ, who is being compromised by the cares of the world. He has heard the word of God being taught and preached. He has indeed received it with his heart.
But it’s what he’s doing with God’s word, as he’s allowing the pressures of this world, to influence his choices in life, that’s causing him to become unfruitful with it.
As Jesus mentioned in the scripture text above, these ones are more concerned about the world, and the deceitfulness of riches within it, than about the word of God. The cares of the world have choked the effectiveness of God’s word in their lives.
Therefore, instead of meditating on God’s word, so as to discover what the Lord has in it for them in transforming their lives and their world, they have chosen to become more like the people of the world.
The devil uses worldly cares and the deceitfulness for the riches of the world, to choke the effectiveness of the word of God in their lives.
This has become one of the numerous tactics of the devil in crippling the faith of the Christians, who do care more about their quest for the things of this world, than about their ability to bear spiritual fruit with God’s word in their lives. Such Christians has God’s word in their lives, but their attention has been distracted away by the devil from the word itself.
God’s word has become of secondary importance to them, instead of being of primary importance. Do you know that a person can be born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, but still remain carnally minded? Just because a Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit does not mean that he can’t be carnally minded. That’s why the scripture commands us to test every spirit (1 John 4:1).
Some of them have substituted television showtimes for their times of study and meditation on God’s word. Their time for prayer and intercession has been taken away from them, by the worthless gossips of the world on their mobile phones and on social media.
And it’s sad to even say that some of them may even pretend to be searching for scriptures during Church Services on their cell phones, while in fact they are participating in these vices without any shame on their faces at all.
When they are praying, they don’t have the patience to persevere for breakthroughs. They will zoom in and zoom out of God’s presence in a jiffy, as they are praying without receiving the answer to their prayers. They rely more on what they can accomplish on their own to fix their problems, rather than putting their faith in God to help them.
Instead of meditating on the promises of God for their lives, they are meditating on the promises that the people of the world are offering them. They have fallen into the snare of the enemy. They are struggling to stand strong in the Lord with one leg in the world and the other leg in the Church.
What is the status of your personal relationship with God today? He is longing for a closer relationship with you. Are you seeking Him daily in His word? Or are you seeking His word for the approval of the pleasures of this world in your life?
The world has nothing of spiritual benefit to offer you, as a child of God. The devil is seeking to choke God’s word in your life. He is planning to steal God’s word from your heart, so as to make you like one of his own people in the world.
Those who had been choked are already showing more faith in the world’s system, to save and to deliver them. They don’t look up to God at all for help anymore.
Even when they say that they are looking up to Him, the inclination of their heart is towards the solutions of the world that will help them. They are running around daily for the help of the world. They are looking up to the help of men, rather than looking up for the help of God.
Concerning them the Prophet Jeremiah declared:
“Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in man.
And makes flesh his strength,
Whose heart departs from the Lord.
For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,
And shall not see when good comes,
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
In a salt land which is not inhabited”.
Jeremiah 17:5-6 NKJV
God’s promises are of no value to these ones. Those promises of God are just like religious cliche to them. Christianity to them has become like an opium. Instead of living the Christ-centered life freely, they are living like the people of world, while pretending to have a relationship with the living God.
Even though the light of Christ is pointing them in the right direction of life, they have chosen to ignore it. They’ve gotten God’s word choked up within them. They are indeed seeing and confessing the circumstances of the darkness which surrounds them. This is why their spiritual condition has become pathetic.
When they are sick, they do in reality believe more in what the doctor’s report says about their health, rather than God’s report of healing and good health. They often see themselves in financial woes, instead of taking hold by faith unto the prosperity of the Lord, that’s already theirs in Christ Jesus.
As the Prophet Jeremiah said in the above scripture text, they “shall not see when good (things) comes” across their pathway in life.
The worldly desire within them paints their picture of gloom and doom. Jesus warned us about what the devil is doing to them when He said:
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
John 10:10 NKJV
The devil is choking the word of God in these lives. His ultimate goal is to steal God’s word from their hearts. After which he will begin the process of gradually taking their ability to even pray away from them, before his destruction sets in to take them away completely from the surface of the earth.
These are spiritually blind Christians. And as a result of the carnal mind in them their testimony of Jesus has been weakened.
They have stopped bearing spiritual fruit. The enemy is choking the word of God in their lives. The Apostle Paul once addressed these types of Christians at Galatia, when he wrote to them by telling them:
“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?”
Galatians 3:1-4 NKJV
The devil has devised a means to specifically target their faith, by stealing, killing and destroying the effectiveness of God’s word in their lives.
Are you being dragged away from holding on to God’s promises right now? The enemy of your faith is at work. Guard your heart against him. Be watching out for him and his tricks every day!
Keep an eye on your daily activities. Keep an eye on what the devil is doing to distract you away from the promises of God. Resist him and refuse to give in to the pressures from the world around you!
Pray for those who are weak in faith.
Those who are strong in faith needs to be praying and interceding for these weak believers in Christ Jesus. It’s important to be praying for them in the spirit always, so as to neutralize and annihilate every tactic of the devil against the fruitfulness of God’s Word in their lives (Romans 15:1).
Our ability as believers in Christ Jesus to love them, by praying and interceding for them will deliver them from the corruption of this world. God is looking for those who can stand in the gap for them continually in prayer and intercession.
This was what Epaphras did for the Colossian Christians, as they were being tempted by the corruption in their world to abandon the lifestyle of faith. Paul said about him:
“Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him witness that he has a great zeal for you, and those who are in Laodicea, and those in Hierapolis.”
Colossians 4:12-13 NKJV
This is what we are called to be doing for those who are weak in faith – praying for them always. The devil must never be allowed to bring them down into the destruction of hell with him. He is seriously looking for some company in hell with him. But your ability to pray and love these ones will cover their spiritual weaknesses.
God’s love working in your life will always prompt you to be praying for them. It will cause you to start seeing Jesus being glorified in their lives, even when they themselves are seeing nothing changing.
Apostle Paul advised us again:
“For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.”
Galatians 5:13 NLT
You are free to be praying for them. But please stop pulling them down in your confessions to others. It’s dangerous to be using the same mouth that you’re using in prayer for them, to be pulling them down before others. If you don’t have anything good to say about them, just pray for them. Don’t ever allow the devil to have a free time in their lives.
Real freedom in Christ Jesus is exhibited through our total and complete obedience to His command to be praying and loving them. You are absolutely free to build them up with your prayer and love. God’s love will always work through you, to cover their spiritual nakedness, because God’s love compels you to be praying for them.
Jesus said:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:34-35 NKJV
Loving them is not an option. It’s a commandment of Jesus to us all as His followers. And when we are obeying Jesus’ commandment, we will have peace with God (Romans 5:1-2).
This is what real freedom in a sinful world is like – loving people with the love of God. Jesus will guard your heart into His peace and freedom, as you obey Him by loving and praying for the weak believers around you.
The scriptures say:
“And above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.”
I Peter 4:8 NKJV
We need to be very careful as stronger Christians not to allow the devil to trick us, into overlooking the weaknesses of these believers in Christ Jesus. It’s the responsibility of the matured believers in Christ, to be lifting them up and strengthening them with our prayers and the word of God.
That’s how your love works in covering them up. They may make numerous mistakes, just like any ignorant believer in Christ Jesus will often do. But it’s important to keep standing by them, and never let the devil have them.
Be careful not to be expecting so much from them, as they are still struggling to stand in Christ Jesus. They do need all the support that they can get from you. They are looking up to your godly example in Christian living.
Are you going to show it to them? Or are you going to give up on them? Remember that Jesus is counting on you. He has never given up on you. He trusts you to do the right thing on behalf of those who are weak around you.
The devil is at work right now around the world, choking God’s word in the life of many Christians. But your prayer and intercession for the weak believers in the spirit and by the Spirit; especially for those who don’t even know, who they are in Christ Jesus, positions you as a partner together with the angels in this spiritual warfare.
Eternity will thank you and reward you for the sacrifice that you are making, on behalf of the weak Christians.
This was what Paul did for the Galatians also. He told them:
“My little children, for whom I am again suffering birth pangs until Christ is completely and permanently formed (molded) within you,”
Galatians 4:19 AMPC
Paul’s childbirth pangs were in prayer and intercession for them, until they were able to stand strong on their own. This is what Jesus expects of every one of us.
Remember to keep standing before the face of God on their behalf, while they are slacking behind to live by faith in God. Remember to love them just as Christ loves you.
Let God’s word prune you as you pray.
Jesus described the fruitful seed in the Parable of the Sower by saying:
“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.”
Matthew 13:23 NKJV
We can see the believers in Christ who are being pruned by the Lord God in these words of Jesus, bearing spiritual fruit while they’re praying for the weak. They are the ones who had made up their minds to be meditating on God’s word day and night (Joshua 1:8).
The Lord God is pruning them so that they can become much more fruitful, even as they’re praying for others.
Such Christians are in a better position to do much more than before in God’s Kingdom. They are in tune with His Spirit and had demonstrated tremendous strength and faithfulness in the past for the Kingdom of God.
They do know that it’s only by paying attention to the word of God, instead of the world around them that, they are going to become more fruitful as they’re praying.
And that’s exactly what they are doing. They are spiritually fruitful because, they are walking in obedience to every commandment of Jesus Christ to them.
It is the ability of the believers in Christ Jesus to bear spiritual fruit that positions them for the end time harvest. These believers are being transformed and prepared by the Lord for greater responsibilities.
Are you being pruned or not? It’s important to re-evaluate your spiritual life today. Are you growing in spiritual wisdom and power every day?
It’s very dangerous for you to be spiritually static in this world of evil. Those who have rejected the pruning of the Lord God are initially spiritually static, before becoming spiritually dry.
Eventually they will get themselves uprooted for rejecting the pruning of the Lord God. It’s a dangerous thing to reject the pruning of the Lord God in your life (John 15:2-3).
Remember what Jesus said that:
.. “Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.”
Matthew 15:13 NKJV
If you’re not allowing the word of God to prune you, you’re risking the danger of becoming carnally minded. This will cause the fruit of the Spirit in your life to become polluted.
And God will reject every polluted fruit. He will uproot the plant that is not bearing spiritual fruit to His glory.
The polluted fruit comes out of the seed, which had received the tares from the enemy. The devil had sneaked in around that seed to plant tares around it (see Matthew 13:24-30).
Tares are weeds that pretty much looks like wheat plants. It’s very easy to mistake them for wheat, especially if you’re not very good at identifying them.
The enemy goes about planting spiritual tares with the aim of ensnaring Christians. He goes about planting his tares around the lives of the fruitful Christians. This is how he is deceiving many wonderful Christians today. Watch out for the tares around your Christian life!
But at the harvest time the Lord will command the angels to uproot them. The tares will be separated from the real harvest of the Lord.
Every tree that the Lord has not planted in your life, in your home or in the lives of your loved ones shall be uprooted in Jesus Name!
But guard your heart. Protect your fruitfulness for the harvest of the Lord. Don’t allow the enemy to plant tares around your harvest. He will use everything from the evil world to ensnare you. That’s his tactic.
Be vigilant. Be watchful. Be fervent in prayer for the carnal believers in Christ Jesus. There are greater things in store for you. Let the word of God continue to prune you.
If the Lord tells you to do anything, be quick to obey Him. Just do it!
Your Heavenly Father has His eyes on you. Stay focused on Him alone. Refuse to be distracted by the world and the devil.
You will rescue multitudes from the hands of the devil. You will become stronger than ever before as you’re standing in the gap for others with prayer and intercession.
