“But what was sown on good, rich soil represents the one who hears and fully embraces the message of the kingdom. Their lives bear good fruit—some yield a harvest of thirty, sixty, even one hundred times as much as was sown.”
Matthew 13:23 TPT
What an exciting parable of increase! A mathematical miracle taking place, it’s easy to see this applied to things like fruit trees and vegetable crops. Plant one seed, nurture the tree over a couple of seasons, harvest abundant fruit for years to come.
Of course, Jesus wasn’t referring to food in this parable but to people; to plant the seed of the gospel into people and see a harvest of Jesus followers as a result. This is what we long to see happen across the nations! People who will take the Word and sow it faithfully, abundantly, and see harvests of people come to faith in Jesus. It’s what we desire to see as we plant seeds, tend to them—discipling friends into the Kingdom.
Some of our friends have become the ones who have good, rich soil and have heard and fully embraced the message of the kingdom. Their lives are bearing good fruit as they are faithful to what God has called them to do. We meet with them over Zoom, and they told us the following story:
One of their friends who came to faith last year, even before they did, has been wanting to get baptized. Ever since our friends were baptized this last spring, his desire has been to take the next step in faith and be baptized himself. However, he is part of a church group that requires a year and a half of classes before baptism can happen.
He is partway through the classes but didn’t want to wait anymore. It was time to take the plunge! After encouragement from our friends, he approached his leadership and explained his desire to be baptized—the wait he has already endured. He told the story of how we had baptized our friends in our house using a blow-up pool and that our friends didn’t have to wait long after they came to faith. We recognized that their faith was genuine and their desire great, we baptized them right away. He asked why he needed to wait, expressing his longing to be baptized…
The leadership changed their stance and decided it was time to baptize all those who were ready; they bought a pool and filled it, calling all who desired to come to the waters of baptism. Including this bold young man, 30 people were baptized!
Jesus’ words jumping off the page, this parable of increase has now become more than a story we read, it’s a testimony of Truth manifesting through the seeds we have planted. We praise the Lord for faithful hearers and obedience to the Word that has been sown.
Jesus, we ask for more, that this would be just the beginning and we would soon see the 60 and 100 yield as well!
