30 Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”
33 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand
34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.
What I observe is God speaks to all of us. Also, I see it takes an investment to understand what God is saying. I see Jesus inviting me into closer fellowship away from the crowd. I hear Jesus saying, ‘Come aside with Me, I have more to explain.’ It is a relational invitation, alone time when I will come to know Jesus better, understand more of what God is doing.
The invitation is to come. The revelation is, God wants to reveal. The challenge is to be a disciple who will make time to get alone with Jesus. During this Lent season, I hear God challenging me to get alone with Jesus five days each week. What is God asking you to do?
Art Barrett, Pastor
New Life Christian Fellowship – Concord
I immediately heard “Get alone with Papa.” Then “So I can explain…” Not “alone time” doing a devotion, or alone worshiping, or even alone praying in the sense of ‘making my requests known’ or even talking TO Him, but LISTENING to Him…so He can explain. What I hear is “Be still and know…” Be quiet before the LORD…listen.
This week as I practice my daily offices I’ll begin to extend the initial and final periods of silence before the LORD so I can listen.
To quote my friend Sean Blomquist, “Hearing HIs voice changes everything.” You do get deeper understanding if you take the time to come aside and listen. The trick is the obedience to follow through until it’s a regular habit. I’m fixing to keep at it.
I hear jesuz saying if you believe in me and have faith you will undeastand my words as a new christian i am just starting to realize the power of faith and prayer
I love this life the Lord has givin me today i will share my faith with someone i meet
Way to be Ray!
I totally agree with Art’s comments. God wants me to bring myself–all of myself–closer to Him. He wants me to shed the distractions and aggravations of everyday life and get closer. I thought this week would be difficult at work and it has proven to be much more so than I thought. Satan is hard at work, trying to draw me away from my Father, having created a wall in my workplace through my supervisor. That will come to a head in the ensuing weeks as I have decided to take the step of filing a formal complaint against him due to his verbally abusive behavior yesterday (has been ongoing for some time, but yesterday was exceptionally severe). This is very stressful for me, but I know my Father has my back, my front, and is all around. Don’t know where this will end up–likely to get worse before it gets better–but I am surprisingly at peace with it. I guess that’s what happens when you surrender to God.
I hear God saying when you don’t understand my kingdom and how it works, both in my word and in my world you can come to me and I will explain it. What I need to do is ABIDE. My friend Dave Foster has a great song about Abiding. If we wait and listen that mustard seed will begin to emerge and the kingdom will appear. I am going to continue to allow Jesus to explain things to me rather than thinking I already know.
Listen to the song “Abide In Me” at
http://www.ilent.org/2010/02/abide-in-me/
I hear God saying “Dig Deeper. I have more for you” As I spend more time and ask God to reveal himself he does. So many times I brush over things God gives me. I hear him saying, “sit with me, and I will reveal myself to you”
What a privilege to hear His invitation to draw near and listen to our Lord and Savior. There is no joy greater than our response. Thank you Pastor Art for faithfully emphasizing the invitation.
A follow up to my prior comments, the boss did apologize to me this morning for his abusive comments of yesterday. My temptation now is to just drop the whole thing. But I view that as a prompt from Satan, not God. I am going to go through with my complaint, with the suggestion that the boss seek help with his anger issues–with accountability. Hopefully that will help him break through his own wall, for the benefit of his subordinates and others in his life (family and friends). This is truly a problem I believe permeates his whole life. I sense the possibility of a breakthrough for him, despite Satan’s diabolical plans, but it will not happen by just him saying he’s sorry. Sooner or later he will revert. Hopefully this will be the beginning of some real change. Like the mustard seed, big things have small beginnings.
Marty,
I will pray that God will guide you as you journey through this wall, always granting you protection from the evil one along the way, and in the end, the Kingdom will be pushed forward and victorious in your workplace.
As someone who is recently single for the 2nd time in 6 months I hear God’s voice saying many things; many of the sane things y’all hear: “Hey let’s spend some alone time (true alone time; just me and you) together.” “Come hang out with me more and dig deeper.”. There were/are some distractions in my life and God wants me to shed those so I can be wholly surrendered to him. This is exactly what I journaled about Tuesday night as I was just hanging out listening to some worship songs abiding in His presence. As if it wasn’t obvious before its even more obvious now with today’s passage that this is where God wants me.
Thank you for sharing your heart.
I hear God saying, “Plant seeds! Plant seeds!! Plant seeds!!!” I see this very tiny mustard seed that God planted in me and has faithfully watered over the years, and I know from experience that when I spend time alone with my Father, He does explain things as I am able to hear them. God wants to break through in my life and in the lives of those I come into contact with. He wants our seeds to grow into vast trees where others can find shelter, rest and shade in Him.
Today – I will again set my phone alarm to remind me to stop and get away with God. Today I will look for opportunities to plant and water seeds.
Hi Sharon 🙂 So cool…I like how you listed both, ’cause I got to do both this morning–plant a seed and get quiet before God. I shared the practice of daily office during my 1st period devotions to a class of freshmen(planted that seed), and then we observed 2 min. of silence together–it was very cool!
“But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.” Art’s challenge of “5 days a week alone with Jesus” is a perfect reaction to this passage – how else will He be able to “explain everything”. I’m going to be alone with Jesus from 5:00 to 6:00 today.
seeing and feeling lately like the Church is losing ground in influence for Christ, I am encouraged to stay faithful in my measly efforts to make spiritual conversations and friendships. God’s love is penetrative and WILL breakthrough!