There are many things in life that if we don’t clearly and truly understand or are ignorant about them can impact our lives in a very negative way. For example, ignorance about the laws of your country or not fully comprehending them has caused pain and suffering for many different people throughout the ages. Ignorance about certain diseases and how to prevent them or cure them has cost the lives of thousands of helpless souls. The sad thing is, is that many people because of pride, fear, misinformation, or just plain stubbornness cause their own ignorance and pain and suffering in most cases all because they refuse to understand the important issues in life.
The Bible clearly states that one of the reasons people are destroyed spiritually, mentally and physically is because of a lack of understanding about Him and His laws. That is why it is so important that you understand God’s plan of salvation for your life. Without a revelation and an understanding of what God has done for you through Jesus Christ you will miss the greatest opportunity ever offered to you and at the same time reap an incredible amount of pain and suffering, not only in this life but in the life to come when you face God on judgment day.
Here in this small pamphlet we hope to encourage you to make sure you truly understand God’s plan of salvation so that you can receive all that God has for you and escape the judgment.
(Hosea 4: 6a )
THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST
Jesus tells a parable in the book of Matthew that describes a sower sowing seed in different kinds of soil. Jesus went on to explain that the seed being sown represents the Gospel or in other words God’s plan of salvation for mankind. The soil represents the hearts of the people who hear the Gospel. Jesus said that the determining factor of whether or not the seed of the gospel took root and eventually bore fruit in a person’s life was in understanding the gospel of the kingdom of God .
(Matthew 13:18-23)
THE WICKED ONE
Jesus mentions in this parable about the “wicked one” that steals the seed of the Gospel from the hearers when they don’t understand the Gospel. This “wicked one” is Satan or the Devil. His strategy is to blind people from ever understanding God’s plan of salvation so as to keep as many people as possible under God’s judgment because of sin. He wants you ignorant of God’s plan for your salvation. As long as you stay ignorant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you will never come to know the truth that will set you free from Satan’s grip.
(2 Corinthians 4:3-4)
Satan is the god of this age. Satan is not a god in the sense of God our Creator but is an evil supernatural being that has taken possession of earth and is now working to bring chaos and destruction to as many people as he can. He opposes God’s plan of salvation and redemption of mankind, including you.
He uses many different strategies such as twisted worldly philosophy, false religion, deception, pride, stubbornness, apathy and anything else that could ever stop a person from understanding the truth that would set them free from his dominion over them.
The only way to overcome the “wicked one” that Jesus mentions in this parable is to make a clear decision in your heart to seek to understand God’s plan of salvation and be honest with yourself when you are confronted with the truth.
WHAT KIND OF SOIL (HEART) DO YOU WANT?
Jesus mentions four different kinds of soil a person that hears the gospel will have. The good news is that we have the ability to choose which ground we want to have. You can choose to be a “good ground hearer” or you can choose to not be a “good ground hearer”. God gives you this choice and with the freedom of choice also comes the responsibility for the consequences of your choice.
FOUR DIFFERENT KINDS OF GROUND
1. The Wayside Ground
The first soil Jesus mentions is the “wayside ground”. This group of hearers of the Gospel, hear the gospel but can’t comprehend it. Before they can understand it Satan, the Devil steals it away from them. They are blinded from understanding the truth and cannot see their need for God’s plan for salvation.
They have no interest, time or desire to understand the things of God because they have been blinded to their need to seek God. Most likely Satan has used vain philosophy or false religion or pride in self to blind them from seeing their desperate need to turn to God while there is still time.
2. The Stony Ground
This group of hearers of the Gospel, hear the Gospel and understand enough to respond positively to it but don’t fully commit their lives to God. There is no real repentance from sin or in other words, they still love their sins. They don’t like the consequences of their sins and want to avoid any consequence and pain that may be involved with breaking God’s law but in their heart they still love their sin. They have not truly changed their attitude and thinking towards their sin. They don’t understand what sin is and its deadly curse.
Therefore their experience with God is shallow and limited because their Christianity is only skin deep. They have not been truly honest with God about their sins and are still making excuses for them instead of turning away from them.
Maybe they are clinging to a certain sin that they love and are refusing to leave it behind. Satan is still at work trying desperately to veil the Gospel from them and deceive them into thinking they can give a half-hearted response to God.
When persecution or tribulation come to them because of being a Christian, they are immediately offended and turn away from God because their roots of their understanding were shallow.
3. The Thorny Ground
This third group or hearers of the Gospel, not only hear the Gospel but receive it. It begins to grow in their lives but in the end the Gospel ends up being choked by the cares of this world. It is evident by the fact that they allow other things to choke the seed of the Gospel that they don’t value eternal life. On their scale of priorities in life God and salvation are not among the most important things. They may put their career, education, money, fun, entertainment or anything else way before God’s plan of salvation.
The truth is that they don’t see any value in eternal life or with the things of God. God is something they think they can use at their convenience or when they have some special kind of need or emergency
.
Somehow Satan has blinded them to the real value of eternal life. If they truly understood eternal life’s real value they would make God first priority in their life. It’s like an ignorant fool that carelessly carries an extremely valuable jewel around in his pocket, or leaving it laying around the house where anyone can steal it from him. That kind of person must be ignorant of the jewel’s value or they wouldn’t act that way. But if they truly understood it’s value they would have it locked up safe within a bank and they would handle it with care and respect.
How valuable is eternal life to you? Well Jesus said that eternal life is worth more than anything you could possess.
(Mark 8:36-37)
The truth is that those in this group are willing to sell their most precious gift they ever received, eternal life for the things of this world.
4. Good Ground
This is the group that I hope that you will choose to belong to. This group of hearers of the Gospel, hear the Gospel and understand it enough to make a full commitment to God. They fully repent of their sins and begin to obey what Jesus said to do.
They have revelation knowledge from God about the way of salvation and they put it into practice. Therefore they constantly are bearing fruit in their Christian walk. They exhibit fruits of repentance, joy, peace, forgiveness, and love. They begin to prosper in spirit, soul and body as they continue to follow Jesus. Blessing and fruitfulness is upon them. They truly have eternal life with God.
During times of persecution, testing or trials they are driven to seek God even more to help them to overcome. How can they do all of these things? It’s because they understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and see its importance in their life. They didn’t allow the Devil to continue to blind them to the truth but decided to open their eyes. So now they have become free from the bondages of Satan.
(John 8:31-32)
HOW TO HAVE A GOOD GROUND HEART
Make a commitment to understanding the Gospel. Without this commitment Satan will be successful in stealing the seed of the gospel from your heart. Make a commitment to go through all of these Bible studies and thoroughly seek to know and catch a revelation of what Jesus has done for us on the cross. God will help you. Here are some things you can do to gain a good ground heart.
1. Attend church faithfully
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