One day as Jesus was sitting beside the sea of Galilee, a large crowd began to surround Him. As the attentive crowd stood on the shore, Jesus got into a boat and told them the Parable of the Sower.

A man went out to his field to sow seeds. As he sowed, some of the seeds fell onto the road. Birds then swooped down and ate the exposed seeds. As the sower continued scattering seeds, some fell onto rocky ground that had no depth of soil, causing the seeds to sprout quickly. When the sun rose, the sprouts were scorched and withered away. As the sower continued to sow, some of the seeds also fell onto thorns. As soon as the seeds sprouted, the thorns stunted their growth. And lastly, he sowed seeds that fell onto healthy soil and yielded grain that was either thirty, sixty, or one hundred times more than what he had sowed.

The seed in this parable is the Word of God. The sower represents God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Each location where seeds were sown is the particular condition of a person’s heart. Understanding each location is essential to understanding the Parable of the Sower.

(The Parable of the Sower can be found in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8.)

You Have Two Hearts

If you look closely at this parable, one of the most important questions that you will ever be asked is presented within it:

What heart will you choose after you’ve been exposed to the Word of God?

Jesus Christ, whether directly or indirectly, always talked about the condition of a person’s heart. Not the physical heart inside of us that beats nearly 100,000 times per day and pumps 1 ½ gallons of blood every minute. Of course, without that heart we would die, but the same could be said for the kind of heart Jesus continuously referred to.

The second heart that every human being has lives within the mind. It’s the part of the mind that can produce either life or death spiritually. It also determines your purpose and what your life is centered around. This heart controls every decision you make including the job you work, the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the spouse you marry, the friends you have, the music you listen to, and the list goes on. Your heart fuels your lifestyle, your beliefs, what you think about, and every behavior you engage in. No wonder it also determines the degree of connection you have with God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

This heart is vital.

The heart that lives within your mind is so essential that when God created the Earth, He intended for every human being to have the same type of heart, or in other words, the same purpose. We were to walk in harmony with our Creator, bear His image forever, and remain obedient. However, when sin entered the Earth, many humans chose (and continue to choose) to deviate from that purpose after being exposed to the Word of God. This deviation from our original purpose created the four different locations Jesus explained in the Parable of the Sower. Remember that each location represents a type of heart that a person can have once the Word of God has been revealed to them. Jesus’s whole ministry revolved around getting people to choose the type of heart that would allow them to revert to their God desired purpose when He returns to the earth in the future.

Stages of Change

Before I break down what type of heart each location in the Parable of the Sower represents, a simple 4-stage model of change can be deduced from this parable in order to explain how a person reacts when they are exposed to the Word of God.

Stage One: Comprehension

A person shows a willingness to learn and the ability to understand the Word of God.

Stage Two: Examination

A person takes the Word of God and examines the current condition of their heart. They must make impartial judgements about themselves to gain a clear understanding of the patterns of thinking and behavior that they need to change.

Stage Three: Implementation

After a person examines themselves, they begin to battle their old way of living. A person begins to learn how to implement new ways of thinking and behaving that is now aligned with the Word of God. In this stage, change begins to take place.

Stage Four: Transformation

This is an ongoing stage in which a person has learned to overcome the battle with their former way of doing things, and a new way of living has become the default. The knowledge a person gained from the Word of God is used in applicable situations to maintain transformation. This stage includes failure at times, but conviction from the Holy Spirit realigns a person with the Word of God.

Parable of the Sower Locations and The Hearts They Represent

Once again, each of the 4 locations where seeds were sown in the Parable of the Sower represents a type of heart a person chooses once they have been exposed to God’s Word.

Closed Heart

This heart is from the first location where seeds fell onto the road. From the model of change mentioned earlier, this heart does not even reach comprehension. People with closed hearts reject the Word of God because they choose not to understand it. They allow the devil and his various tactics to misguide and deceive their hearts, causing them to not believe in the Word of God. Therefore, people with closed hearts fail to accept salvation.

Defenseless Heart

The second location where seeds fell onto rocky ground represents the defenseless heart. This type of heart reaches the comprehension, examination, and implementation stages. People with defenseless hearts eagerly learn the Word of God and identify the changes that they need to make to their lifestyles. They want to change, but are only temporarily motivated to do so. Doubt, fear, laziness, complacency, gratification of the flesh, or the lack of an external reward (such as money) eventually contaminate their intentions, leaving no room for the Holy Spirit to live within them. This, in turn, leaves their hearts defenseless.

When sin and wickedness come, a person with a defenseless heart enters into the implementation stage without the help of the Holy Spirit, causing them to lose every battle. Without the proper defense, this heart abandons the implementation stage and cannot achieve transformation. Often times, they remain stuck in a loop between the comprehension, examination, and implementation stages.

Worldly Heart

This heart is from the third location where seeds fell onto thorns. People with this heart only reach the comprehension and examination stages. They comprehend the Word of God and distinguish between right and wrong. When examining their ways of living, people with worldly hearts realize that they need to change but do not want to change.

In order to resolve their dissonance, they draw biased conclusions about the areas in their lives that are against the Word of God, and often justify the reasons they choose not to change. People with worldly hearts like living in the world and change is not appealing to them. They are too attached to the pleasure and comfort that sin brings them, so they choose to live in darkness.

Transformed Heart

The fourth and final location where seeds fell onto healthy soil represents the transformed heart. This heart successfully enters into each stage from the model of change mentioned above. When the Word of God teaches a person with a transformed heart something new, they understand it and examine their current way of living with humility. They enter the implementation stage equipped with the Holy Spirit. They successfully apply the Word of God to a given situation to resist temptation and other forms of wickedness. In the transformation stage, a person with a transformed heart utilizes the Holy Spirit daily in order to maintain change as they have received salvation and continue to grow through sanctification.

The Parable of the Sower conveys the importance of changing your heart after you’ve been exposed to the Word of God. Once you have learned the right way of doing something, you have to change the way your mind operates. You have to change your lifestyle, your thinking, and your behavior. Sometimes you’ll have to change a part of your personality and your character. Sometimes you’ll have to change a part of you that you’ve been attached to for a long time.

But the choice is yours. Which heart will you choose?