What You Should Do After You Hear The Word Of God

​Mark 4:14 - 20 - "The sower sows the word. These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."  NASU
 

• Realize Hearing The Word Isn't Enough 

Jesus begins teaching His audience a parable about the Sower and the Seed at the beginning of this fourth chapter of Mark. The verses I am using for this Pump Up are Jesus' explanation of His parable.
 
Jesus says, "…when they hear…" something is going to happen and then He tells them "immediately Satan, God's adversary, is going to come and take away the word which had been sown in them.
 
You and I must realize we have an adversary and when the Word of God is sown in our hearts the wrestling match begins. Our adversary is going to try and wrestle the Word of God away from us.
 
The devil knows the Word of God can help us be more like Jesus, avoid sin and by obeying the Word we will be led into Eternal Life.
 

• Afflictions and Persecution Lies 

If the devil can't steal the Word away from us he will try another method.
 
It is the method of afflictions and persecutions. When you are going through your afflictions and persecutions I can tell you this much there will be thoughts that flood your mind saying, "So this is how an all-loving God treats one of His own."
 
The devil does everything within his power to get us to doubt God loves us. His tactics have not changed. When you read about his lies to Eve in the Garden and his lies to us today there isn't any difference.
 
He fraudulently besmirches God's character.
 
Like a wrestler who gets his face shoved into the mat because of a poor single-leg shot, so must we shove the devil's face in the ground when he tries to take us down with a lie about our God not loving or caring for us.
 

• Worries, Riches, and Desires 

If the devil can't steal the Word of God away from you and afflictions and persecutions don't get you to exit the straight and narrow path that leads to Eternal Life then he has another more sinister method.
 
He tries to steal your peace by getting you not to trust God and worry about everything. Jesus explicitly told us not to worry and the devil says, "Don't listen to Him, you need to worry."

The Word of God is not heeded when you are worrying. In fact, according to Jesus, it is being "choked" because you are worrying.
 
You might not be a worrier, but do you love having money, riches and wealth?  Do you never have enough and are your desires always to have more stuff?
 
We need to be very careful. The devil will see to it you receive riches if it means you lose your way on the road to Eternal Life. He doesn't care how rich you are here if it means you spend your eternity with him in hell.
 

• Good Soil  

What we should do after we hear the Word of God is allow the Word to work in us. We are to become fruitful.

We need to allow the Word of God to produce fruit in us. We are to grow spiritually. Every day we should read the Word and see if there is one new thing we can learn or one way we can improve our walk with the Lord.
 
There is a day coming when God will either say, "Enter in… or depart from me…" The choice is ours. It is my prayer all of us who are reading this Pump Up will hear His Words - Enter In My faithful servant.
 
Think About This:
 
The one who expects to go to heaven must take time to study the route that will get him/her there.

Stay Pumped,

Gary A. Serago 

Minister of God's Word