Bear Fruit

The parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-20) has implications to us in two ways: 

The soil in its first sense represents our own heart. In spite of the clarity of the Word of God, we may have been blinded as to its message. In other words, there may be many areas in our life that we are still resisting the Word of God and as a result unable to bear fruit . For example, 

1. In the area of execising self-control in terms of what we want to look at, the places that we want to go to, the words that we like to hear, the things that our tongues crave for, the thoughts that give us illicit pleasure etc. Satan can easily take advantage of such unsurrendered life and make us unproductive.
2. In other situations, we may have inclination to the Word of God but fail to perceive the fullness of its message because we are not spending enough time with the Word and it doesn't take root. And again, we end up as unfruitful.
3. In other cases, our priorities choke our growth. Jesus mentions three things that constrain fruit-bearing: the worries of this life, the attraction of wealth, and the desire for other things (Verse 19)

Secondly, as 'sowers' sharing the Word of God according to the Great Commission (Matt 28:19-20), we may come across different soils. 

1. The first type of soil represents many today who have no interest in spiritual things and are manipulated by Satan to resist (2 Tim 2:26). 
2. The second group of people may respond to the Gospel positively initially but because of their background (eg. people from other faiths & belief systems) and lack of sound knowledge, do not last long.  
3. The third group, though they respond very positively and show pleasing progress initially fall away because of the external pressures  (Ranjit shared his personal testimony of how, being an International Student, difficult it was to just attend the Sunday Service and how his Spiritual growth suffered as a result)

In conclusion, consider the whole point of the parable. 

• It is about a life that produces fruit (Gal 5:22-23) that yields as much as thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times and then, 
• let's be discerning & sensitive to the needs of the ones we are ministering unto being 'shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves' (Matt 10:16)

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