The Housetop

Seeds sown among the thorns represent the one who becomes unfruitful because the Word is choked out by the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts or desires for other things.

The entire Western Church is littered with thorns. We are so overburdened and focused on the temporal that we have lost thought of the Kingdom of God. Asleep to the Kingdom but awake to the things of the world.

Have we allowed the thorns to make us fruitless?

In the Parable of the Sower, everyone was receiving the Word, but only one bore fruit. There are all types of relationships to the Word of God, but not all will bear fruit or have eternal life with Jesus.

The seed that fell along the wayside represents those who lack anointing. Their relationship is so loose with God the devil has free reign and access to their hearts, even while the Word is being preached. Immediately the enemy takes the seed away. The wayside is near the Way, running parallel to the Way, but it is not the Way.

The seed that fell on the rocks represents hardened hearts, so full of rocks it’s not conducive to growth. Because roots reach impenetrable areas, their growth is shallow. Immediately they receive and immediately they crumble. The first time a little heat is applied - persecution, affliction, pressure – they immediately go.

We must continually check the soil of our hearts to see if its conducive to receiving seed. Rocks must be removed and fallow ground broken up.

The first steps to understanding the mysteries of the Kingdom of God is to get alone with Jesus. We need revelation. God wants to reveal Himself to us.  When we begin to pursue Jesus on our own, and really see to understand, the eyes of our understanding will opened. This is the key to the new birth. 

The ministry of the sower is to sow the Word of God. This duty requires a preparing of the soil by breaking up fallow ground. The sower must be diligent to not waste precious seed, but to plant in good soil. 

James is a fitting end to this teaching on Wisdom’s Seven Pillars.  Many principles of the paradoxes of Jesus are repeated, and there's a common thread running throughout the book that fits perfectly to this study.

The world thinks differently than the Kingdom of God. We need so much wisdom from the cross to navigate through all the trials that are hitting us because the adulterous woman is calling out to the people of God, “Come eat at my table.”

We need the wisdom of God to navigate through the trials of the earth. We don't want to succumb to the temptation to blend the world’s wisdom with the wisdom of God. 

So many are unstable in their Christianity because they want to try to have a foot in both the world and God.

Everyone is striving to be number one.  Many want to be first - first in rank, influence, honor, and succession of anything or person.  People crave this position and prosperity.  But Jesus said the first will be last and the last first.  We need to sell out and learn more about this paradoxical teaching of Jesus.

The flesh desires greatness. But Jesus says unless we humble ourselves, be converted by God’s Word, and become like a little child, we cannot see the kingdom of God.

We must come through the new birth, being born again by the Word of God, and continue in this dependency.

Do you have the testimony of going back to childhood?  Learning how to walk, talk, think, act, and conduct yourself like Jesus. The greatest people in the kingdom of God are childlike, living in full dependency on God, where God is all in all.

The third pillar of wisdom is:  To be great, be a waiter, a minister.  To be first, become a slave. 

The will of God is that every person who names the name of Christ will enter the fellowship of His suffering. It is a test in the Christian walk and the point so many turn away or build an alternative theology because there is no doctrine of suffering in the Christian community any longer. 

Our soul says it doesn’t want to live like Jesus in this matter.  "I don’t want to serve.   I want to be first.  I want to be best.  I want a crown without any cross. I want heaven with no testing."

But the temple of God is built on a threshing floor, and that threshing floor is where He is building us. Judgment starts at the house of God as we are tested, tried, and afflicted to purify us. There will never be an untested person to enter the streets of glory.  If God lets you through the gates, He can trust that you won't be the next rebel. 

We are infatuated with our own self-promotion. Wanting to be first in everything. It is pride and makes us the enemy of God. The only way to break the pride is to humble ourselves.  Some of us need to dismantle our own pyramid, step down, serve, and repent of a controlling spirit.

Christ didn’t seek to be elevated.  He humbled Himself.  He did not try to make Himself known.  He made Himself of no reputation and became a servant. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

As a disciple of Christ, you are called to forsake everything in this world and follow Christ without compromise.  The more you say to God, in a humble and contrite spirit, “God, I’m a pilgrim passing through, and I don’t belong here,” the Lord will draw near, and His life will attach to your life.  You will find eternal life in that separation from this world. 

The cross of Jesus Christ is a severing tool that will separate you from this world and anything that is sold out to it.  When you take up the cross, you take up a sword that will sever you from very close relationships.  You must forsake all to be His disciple. 

If you don’t hate your life in this world, you cannot keep it to eternal life.