How God’s Word Seeds Grow In Our Hearts

David W Palmer

In Mark chapter four, Jesus not only gives and explains the parable of the sower; he also gives two other parables that help us understand how God’s word seeds should grow in our hearts. This is the first of them:

(Mark 4:26–29 DKJV) And he said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like, it is as if a man throws seed onto the soil; {27} And he sleeps, and rises night and day, and the seeds germinate and grow up, he doesn’t know how. {28} For the soil produces fruit automatically— first the blade, then the ear, after that the full grain in the ear. {29} But when the fruit is ready, immediately he sends in the sickle (harvester), because the harvest is ready.”

Here, Jesus shows us some very interesting aspects of how God’s kingdom seeds work in our hearts:

First, he reiterates that the seeds need to be sown before they have any hope of producing a harvest. We know that the soil is our hearts, so we have to get the word into our hearts before any fruit can come from it.

Therefore, we need to ask, “How do we get God’s word into our hearts?” Approach it in humility and loving agreement with its author that it is true and right; accept it with the desire to: believe it, do it, give witness to it, and give him all the glory for it.

After the public meeting, or the initial hearing of the word, come back to sit at Jesus’s feet and ask him to explain it.

Read it, listen to it, learn it, study it, confess it, and meditate prayerfully upon it—until you “see” it.

Then, obey and do it.

Next, Jesus says that the seeds sprout and grow without the farmer “knowing” how it happens (Mark 4:27). This is where the process becomes very interesting and a little challenging. Our heart and our intellect are not the same thing. Jesus said that the seeds grow in the heart without any help from us “knowing” how it happens; that is, without any assistance from our human intellect:

(Mark 4:27 NKJV) “… the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.”

You see, you don’t have to know how seeds grow to get a crop of results from them. Farmers don’t know, and probably don’t care about all the intricacies of the miracle of germination. All they need to know is the conditions in which seeds grow—the right season to plant, how to keep the weeds out, how much fertilizer, water, and sunlight they need; and finally, when to harvest. To the farmer, knowing all the “ins” and “outs” of how it happens is irrelevant, as long as he knows what to do to get a crop.

Similarly, growing God’s kingdom seeds in our hearts is not an intellectual process. To our highly trained minds, this can be a little frustrating. We love to know how things work; our intellect loves to be “in the know” so it can be in control.

However, even from the beginning in the Garden of Eden, God warned us against partaking of the fruit of “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2:9, 16–17 KJV). That tree, with its intellectual processes, does not lead to life; it leads to death. God designed his word to sow and grow in our hearts, like he designed seeds to grow in soil; he did not design his kingdom seeds to grow in our intellects.

The farmer in Jesus’s parable was not at all worried about his crop. He knew that if he planted the seeds in the right soil, in the right season, and if all the circumstances were right; he could sleep restfully at night and rise expectantly—without “knowing” how the process worked. Yet, he did know that he had done what was necessary to reap a crop—so he waited patiently for it, knowing for sure that it was coming.

Whether it is the laws of nature, the laws of physics, or the laws that govern the spiritual realm; laws in that sense work the same way every time with predictable outcomes. Similar laws—ones that work repeatedly the same way with predictable outcomes—also govern seed growing. For example, we all know about the law of gravity. We may not know what causes the force that attracts objects of mass, yet we know that if we jump off the roof we will hit the ground every time. That’s why the farmer who sows according to the known law of seedtime and harvest can rest easy: his responsibility is to plow, sow, fertilize, weed, and reap; and then, after the growing/maturing period, the harvest will come. He knows it will work the same way this year as last year. He doesn’t know how; but he stakes his future health, wealth, and security on the fact that it will.

That’s the way we should approach God’s word. It is living and powerful, and we need to sow it into our hearts. God has set spiritual laws in place—outside of our knowing—that control its predictable outcome. For example, we might not know how a promise for healing—sown and nurtured in our hearts—can produce physical healing; but as long as it does, that’s all we need to know to reap a healthy future.

We just need to know what to do for the seed and soil to produce. We simply maintain the necessary conditions for it to come to harvest; and the hidden, unknown processes that make it grow will be underway just as God designed them; predictable laws control it.

The next aspect of kingdom harvest that Jesus unpacked for us in this parable is that the soil—your heart—produces fruit “of itself”; the mind doesn’t. And that this happens in a non-instant process:

(Mark 4:28 EMTV) “For the earth produces fruit of itself: first a shoot, then a head of grain, then full wheat in the head of grain.”

When the seed first begins this time-dependent progression, it is underground, hidden from sight. Similarly, the word sown in us begins its journey to fruitfulness in a “subconscious” place in our hearts—out of sight, beyond the reach of our feelings and our intellects. Like the farmer, we need faith to believe that the seed is growing—because our intellects cannot process it, and our emotions cannot feel it. After all, it is not happening in their realm at all— “he doesn’t know how” (Mark 4:27).

In the course of time, what grows from the seed begins to surface. Then, at least half the growth process becomes visible—that which is above the surface. Subterranean growth of the root system continues out of sight, but we see its results above. Perhaps this half of the process is now discernible to the intellect and emotions.

The farmer waits patiently for harvest because he has had experience cropping; he has seen this process before (or was trained by someone who has):

(Mark 4:28–29 MSG) “The earth does it all without his help: first a green stem of grass, then a bud, then the ripened grain. When the grain is fully formed, he reaps—harvest time!”

If we are to succeed in cooperating with God’s way to bring his grace and blessing to us, then we need to understand the unfolding process of kingdom seed growth. Receiving the seed in our hearts is not a harvest. When the first green stem appears, this is not the time to pull it up either. Even when the buds or ripening grain appear, it is still not the right moment to take action. No, we need to wait patiently for exactly the right instant to act. (After all, Jesus said in Luke 8:15 that the good and noble heart produces fruit with “patience” or “endurance”:)

(Mark 4:29 MKJV) “But when the fruit has been brought out, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

This shows what to do: wait until “the fruit has been brought out.” This implies that something happens to show that the harvest is ripe—some evidence becomes apparent. Then it is time to put in the sickle: “because the harvest has come.”

Jesus is showing us in this parable that working with God’s kingdom seeds is a process. First prepare the soil; next sow the word into our hearts. Then we don’t try to intellectualize or rush it, but wait. Our heart produces the fruit from the seed. We wait, and then wait some more. Even when we think it must be ready, we wait, until—in harvest season—we see clear evidence that it is ripe. Then we reap, and reap bountifully. (That is, if the soil is of the right quality.)

Today, I encourage you to focus on constantly sowing God’s word seeds into the [prepared] soil of your heart. Focus also on removing any rocks—hard, rebellious, and stubborn places in your heart. Keep out the weeds, and nurture your word crop until it is ripe to harvest.

During the whole undertaking, perhaps the most challenging part is waiting until the grain is fully ripe before expecting a harvest. The last part of the process requires patience, as it may seem ready before it is; we simply have to go through all the steps: “first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens ...” (Mark 4:28–29 NKJV).

Perhaps, the most important thing to remember is that this is not—I repeat that it is not—an intellectual process. For us who are trained in the Western world and its strongly intellectual education system, this is a strange concept. We may be completely unfamiliar with non-intellectual processes. So this is a steep learning curve for us. Meditate in God’s word, listen to preachers who feed your spirit and who reach your heart, and confess God’s word repeatedly. This will certainly sow and nurture the crop of God’s kingdom seed in the soil of your heart. Then, it’s simply a matter of perseverance and diligent vigilance. As the old saying goes: “It may not happen overnight; but it will happen.”

Suddenly—without your intellect being satisfied that it knew what was going on—the harvest will be ready; anointed and authoritative words will explode from your heart with a roar like the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. The gift of faith will rise up from your heart, and everything in God’s created order will snap to attention and fall into line. They may be totally unwilling to submit, but the sheer force of the harvested word, along with the backup of legions of angels and the omnipotence of God’s Holy Spirit will enforce God’s will over the recalcitrant enemy and all of his rebellious minions.

Remember, you don’t have to know “how” this works, just know that it will. You can stake your future and security on it. But it will need a good and noble heart to plant the seeds in, water, light, and lots of patient endurance:

(Luke 8:15 NKJV) “But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.”