The Parable of the Sower: Christ makes His Home in our Heart for God’s Building

The parable of the sower illustrates how Christ makes His home in our heart for God’s building.

The Lord as the Sower came to sow Himself as the seed of life into our heart, and God strengthens us with Himself as the element while we afford the Lord the nutrients for Him to grow in us for God’s building, for Him to gain the building up of His dwelling place, His home. Amen!

This week we saw many wonderful aspects of the Lord Jesus in the book of Matthew for us to experience, enjoy, and even express in our daily living.

Christ is the One who has heavenly-ruled deeds, and we can touch the fringe of His garments by exercising our spirit when we come to the Word to be infused with His humanity.

When we touch the Lord in spirit, we will be healed in our humanity, and His humanity even becomes our humanity.

We experience Christ and enjoy Him in His word and in our daily living, and His humanity is infused into us to be expressed through us.

The Lord Jesus is our Shepherd, and we are His sheep; He shepherds us stage by stage into the full enjoyment of Himself.

First, He brings us into the enjoyment of all that He is as our rich pasture and as the waters of rest, and then He guides us on the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

As He shepherds us, we live Christ and express Him. Even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He is with us, and His presence is supplying us.

Even more, He spreads a table before our enemies for us to feast on Him and with Him, and also to destroy the enemy.

The Lord shepherds us step by step until we have the full enjoyment of the Triune God in the house of God, and we dwell here, in His house, to behold His beauty forever.

Matt. 11:28-30 presents us Christ as the One who is our rest; we can come to Him with all our toil and our burdens, and He will give us rest.

We can learn from Him and take His yoke upon us, for the Father’s will is mild, pleasant, and not hard or harsh.

The Lord Jesus in us can bear the yoke, for He is fully obedient to the Father and His will, and He will do it in us also.

Finally, in Matt. 13 we see the Lord as the Sower; He came to sow Himself as the seed of life in us, the believers in Christ, so that He may grow in us and with us for us to become the building of God, the house of God.

Day by day we need to afford the Lord the nutrients He needs so that He may grow in us and we may be built up into the house of God.

May we see the vision of Christ being the Sower who sows Himself as the seed of life into our heart to mingle Himself with us so that He may gain the church as God’s cultivated land, God’s building.

We want to be those who cooperate with God for God’s building.

Being Strengthened into our Inner Man and Affording the Lord the Nutrients for Him to Grow in us for God’s Building

Eph. 3:17 is a wonderful verse, part of Paul’s prayer for our deeper experience and enjoyment of Christ for God’s building.

The Triune God has come into us to do a building work in us with Himself as the element and also with something from us as the material.

This is illustrated by the parable of the sower in Matt. 13 and it is experienced by us in our daily experience as we allow the Lord to make His home in our heart.

According to Matt. 13:3, the Lord sows Himself as the seed of life into our heart as the soil, so that He may grow and live in us and be expressed from within us.

After sowing Himself into our heart, the Lord grows in us by making His home in us.

First, He sows Himself as the seed of life into the soil of our heart, and then He grows in us with the nutrients of the soil; the produce is a composition of elements from both the seed and the soil (v. 23).

God created in us certain nutrients that are good for the Lord to come into us and grow in us. Amazing!

We human beings have within us certain nutrients created by God as a preparation for His coming into us to grow in us.

God created us with a human spirit with the human nutrients along with the human heart as the soil for the divine seed to grow in us (1 Pet. 3:4).

If today we put a seed in the soil, the soil has to be the proper one, with the right nutrients and enrichment, so that the seed would grow and bear fruit.

There have to be no rocks or pieces of glass, and there have to be the proper nutrients afforded by the soil.

Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God has been sown into us as the seed of life, and now He grows in us.

The rate at which Christ grows in us depends on the nutrients we afford.

The more we afford the Lord the nutrients, the more He will grow in us.

The more nutrients we supply by exercising our spirit and turning our heart to the Lord, the more the Lord can grow in us and the faster will the seed grow in us to flourish in us. Amen!

We need to deal with all the rocks in our heart, all the hidden sins and pleasures, and we need to have the proper soil so that the Lord may grow in us and bear fruit in us.

Day by day we need to condition our soul, making it good and fertile, a rich soil that welcomes the seed of Christ for Him to grow.

May our heart with our spirit be in a proper condition so that the Lord may grow in us by mingling Himself with us day by day.

May we take care of the soil of our heart so that the Lord as the seed of life may grow in us and flourish within us (Matt. 5:3, 8).

On our side, we need to afford the Lord the nutrients for Him to grow in us.

On His side, we need to pray that the Lord would strengthen us with power through His Spirit into the inner man so that Christ may make His home in our heart (Eph. 3:16).

We need to ask the Lord to strengthen us into our inner man so that we may cooperate with the Lord growing in us.

The more He grows in us, the more the Lord makes His home in our hearts.

His growing in us is for God’s building, for He grows in us by building Himself into our inner being.

May our heart and spirit afford the Lord the proper nutrients for Him to grow in us, and may we open to the Lord to strengthen us into our inner man so that He may make His home in our heart through faith.

Thank the Lord that He has created us in a special way so that He can come into us as the seed of life to grow in us and make His home in our heart so that we may grow in Him and He may gain His building in us and with us!

Thank You, Lord, for creating us with the proper nutrients for You to come into us and sow Yourself as the seed of life into us to grow in us for God’s building! Amen, Lord, we open to You today. We want to deal with our heart and our spirit so that we may afford You the nutrients for You to grow in us unto maturity. Grow in us, Lord. Live in us today. Be expressed from within us. Strengthen us into our inner man with power through Your Spirit so that You may make Your home in our heart. We want to cooperate with You for You to grow in us and make Your home in our heart. Grow in us for God’s building. Grow in us and with us for God to have a mutual dwelling place, the Body of Christ! May we be those who daily exercise our spirit and turn our heart to You to cooperate with You for You to grow in us for God’s building. May the seed of life in us grow and flourish as we afford it the nutrients it needs today!

Exercise our Spirit and Deal with our Heart for the Lord to Carry out His Building Work in us

Many times in the church life we may look at others and see how they grow so much in the Lord, and we may wonder why doesn’t the Lord grow so much in us while others seem to be advancing in the Lord so much.

The secret is our cooperation with the Lord.

The seed of life is the same in quality, but it is up to us how much we cooperate for this seed of life to grow in us so that the Lord may gain His building.

If we remain in our soul and live in our natural man, there will not be any nutrients for the growth of the divine seed.

However, if we are strengthened into our inner man and if we pay attention to our spirit and exercise our spirit, the nutrients will be supplied and Christ will make His home in our hearts (Eph. 3:16-17; Rom. 8:6; 1 Tim. 4:7; Jude 19).

If we do not exercise our spirit throughout the day to contact the Lord by calling on His name, He has no way to grow in us.

But if we call on the Lord’s name from deep within and pray over His word, we afford the proper nutrients to the seed of life for its growth in us.

There is a process of growth in us. If we are going to have the Lord as the seed of life grows within us to be our full enjoyment, we have to open to the Lord absolutely and cooperate with Him to deal thoroughly with our heart (Matt. 13:3-9, 18-23).

Our spirit may be exercised, but what about our heart?

We may have many anxieties of this age, we may have a love for riches and seek after money, and we may have a lot of worldly traffic in our heart.

Though our spirit is exercised, the seed of life cannot grow unless we deal with our heart.

On His side, God is ready and available to strengthen us with Himself as the Spirit as power into our inner man; on our side, we need to afford Him the nutrients by exercising our spirit and dealing with our heart.

God in Christ carries out His intrinsic building – the building of His home – in our entire being.

He does this by sowing Himself as the seed of life into our spirit and then growing in our hearts with the nutrients that we offer Him.

As we love the Lord and keep His word in love, He will come to us and make an abode with us (John 14:23), that is, He is making His home in our hearts (Eph. 3:17).

He is carrying a building work in us, in our entire being, by building Himself into us and building us into Himself.

This building work depends not just on God but also on the nutrients we supply as we are strengthened into our inner man.

We need to be strengthened with the same power that raised Christ from the dead, seated Him at the right hand of God in the heavenlies, subjected all things under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the Chuch (Eph. 1:19-22).

Such power is needed for us to be strengthened into our inner man so that we may cooperate with the Lord for His building work.

On our side, we need to daily exercise our spirit and deal with our heart; on His side, the Lord strengthens us into our inner man to make His home in our heart.

May we pay attention to our spirit. May we exercise our spirit. May we deal with our heart day by day so that we may have no hidden sins or worldly pleasures.

May we deal with our heart thoroughly before the Lord so that any anxieties of this age would be removed, and there would be no worldly traffic in our heart.

May we give the Lord our best cooperation for His move on the earth so that we may grow in life, Christ may grow in us, and He may carry out His building work in us.

Lord Jesus, we want You as the seed of life grow within us to be our full enjoyment for God’s building. We open to You absolutely today. We want to cooperate with You so that You can grow in us today. Oh Lord, we turn our heart to You. We want to deal with any problems in our heart. Shine on us, Lord, and expose any hidden sins, worldly pleasures, anxieties of the age, and worldly traffic in our heart. We want the soil of our heart to be good for You to grow in us unto maturity. Amen, Lord, grow in us for God’s building. Strengthen us into our inner man so that You may make Your home deep down in our heart. Amen, Lord, we want to afford You the nutrients for the growth of the seed of life in our heart. Make Your home in our heart. Carry out Your intrinsic building work in us. Build Your home in us. Amen, Lord, may You grow in us and may we cooperate with You so that You may gain Your building – the mutual dwelling place of God and man!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1&2 Samuel (pp. 197-198) by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2024 July Semiannual Training), week 2, Christ as the One with the Heavenly-ruled Deeds, Our Shepherd, Our Rest, and the Sower.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Growth of the Divine Seed of the Kingdom in the Human Heart for God’s Building (2), via, UniStudents.
  – 4 Simple Ways to Grow in Christ, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The prayer and the subjective experience of Christ that we must have for God’s building, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Letter from Timothy Haynes, via, The Church in Houston.
  – Growing by exercising our spirit, a portion from, The Experience and Growth in Life, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – Choosing to Exercise our Spirit, via, Living to Him.
  – Growth of the Divine Seed of the Kingdom in the Human Heart for God’s Building (2) -Truth Series #40, video via, UniStudents youtube channel.
  – What is Your Heart According to the Bible and How Can You Exercise It? More via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Experiencing Christ by exercising our spirit, a portion from, The Ground of the Church and the Meetings of the Church, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
  – What Is the Heart according to the Bible? More via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Lord, Make Your Home in our Hearts, via, New Jerusalem blog.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The seed is planted, wheat is grown / And meal is the sum / Of all the growth upon God’s farm, / Where Christians grow as one; / But all the growth in life is for / The building of the church, / That God and man may have a home / And both may end their search. / The farm is for the building, / for God and man a home, / Where both may dwell among / His people gathered into one. (Hymns #1242 stanza 4 and chorus)
  – “Amen, Jesus,” is our prayer / To the purging work, whate’er; / Now Thy church must desperate be / More the growth in life to see. / O Lord, make Thy home our heart, / Our true inner man Thou art; / God and man are mingled thus— / Christ, the church, all glorious! (Hymns #1239 stanzas 5-6)
  – Jesus Christ will get His kingdom / Just by growth—the normal way. / Not an instant transformation; / Growth goes on from day to day. / This life-seed is all-inclusive— / Everything we’ll ever need; / Yes, our God’s eternal purpose / Is within this precious seed. (Hymns #1299 stanza 5)