Many of us don’t realize, I was made aware of this resonantly, that “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.” I have read this hundred times, but the word is spirit. “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
I have noticed this more and more when I am spending time looking at what is going on in the world, the less productive I am in the Kingdom. People are very addicted to television. Watching the news is like watching fear porn, you can never get enough. People today, like the people of Israel in Jesus’s day, are looking to Jesus to straighten out the mess that this world is in. Jesus didn’t do that. “Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “LORD, WILL YOU AT THIS TIME RESTORE THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Jesus taught His followers repentance towards My Father. Once they were empowered by the Most High, they preached the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. “Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Paul preached, “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, THAT THEY SHOULD REPENT, TURN TO GOD, AND DO WORKS BEFITTING REPENTANCE.” The works that we are to do is through the Holy Spirit, if you have received Him. The Holy Spirit knows the works that we are to do as they have been planned for you to do in 1 Corinthians 12. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. FOR WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP, CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS FOR GOOD WORKS, WHICH GOD PREPARED BEFOREHAND THAT WE SHOULD WALK IN THEM.”
Don’t let the cares of this world or the deceitfulness of riches choke the spirit that is within you. I pray that you will be fruitful in all that you do for My father giving glory to Jesus, “The author and finisher of our faith.” Be blessed, my friends.