The Word That Was Received but Choked

# Living in the Spirit

## The Word That Was Received but Choked

**Kingdom Principle:** The Word can be genuinely received and planted in the heart, yet become unfruitful when competing cares, thoughts, and concerns are allowed to choke it.

---

Have you noticed something very important in the parable of the sower in Luke 8?

Jesus shows us that there is a difference between the Word being stolen and the Word being choked.

In one situation, the devil takes the Word away before it can produce its intended result. But in another situation, the Word has actually entered the heart. The person has received the seed, but other things eventually grow alongside it and choke the Word.

This distinction is important because sometimes Satan could not steal the Word from us in the first place.

We got a hold of the Word. We received the seed. We deliberately stored it in our hearts. We planted it there. We believed it. We began to meditate upon it.

But then another strategy begins.

The enemy starts introducing other things into our thought life. The things we are lacking become very clear to us. The pressures of life become very engaging. The quarrels we had become vivid in our minds. The arguments, disappointments, offences, and things people have done to us occupy our thoughts.

Before long, these things can become more real and more engaging to our minds than the Word we deliberately planted in our hearts.

The Word has not necessarily been stolen. It has been choked.

Jesus describes these competing influences as the cares of this life, riches, and pleasures, which enter in and choke the Word so that it becomes unfruitful.

This gives us something practical to examine in our own lives.

What occupies your thoughts most consistently? What becomes the subject of your meditation when you are under pressure? When circumstances contradict what God has said, what receives your attention—the circumstances or the Word?

---

## The Battle for Attention

One of the great battles of spiritual life is the battle for attention.

We may hear the Word on Sunday, read it during our devotion, write it in our notebook, and sincerely believe it. But what happens afterward?

If our minds continually return to fear, lack, offence, anxiety, disappointment, and the pressures of life, those things can begin to dominate our inner world.

The Word may still be in us, but it is no longer receiving the attention necessary for fruitfulness.

This is why Proverbs tells us to keep God's Word in the midst of our hearts, because out of the heart flow the issues of life.

The heart must be guarded. Not because God's Word is weak, but because competing influences can affect what we continually give ourselves to.

The solution is not to deny that pressures exist. The solution is to refuse to allow those pressures to become the governing reality of our hearts.

When fear speaks, return to the Word. When offence occupies your mind, return to the Word. When lack becomes the dominant thought, return to the Word. When people disappoint you, return to the Word. When circumstances seem contrary to God's promise, return to the Word.

We must learn to give the Word a place in our hearts where it can remain, grow, and produce.

---

## A Question of Fruitfulness

Whenever we think about fruitfulness or unfruitfulness, perhaps we should ask ourselves:

- Have I given the Word enough attention to produce? - Have I kept it in my heart? - Have I meditated upon it? - Have I allowed it to shape my thinking? - Have I continued to engage it after the excitement of initially receiving it has passed?

The seed does not become fruitful simply because it was once received. It must remain in the ground. And the believer must learn to remain with the Word.

This is part of what it means to live in the Spirit. We are not merely people who hear the Word; we are people who allow the Word to dwell richly within us.

---

## Practical Application

Today, identify one Word of God that you have received but may have allowed competing thoughts to overshadow.

Write it down. Read it slowly. Think about what it means. Speak it. Let it correct your thinking.

When the contrary thought comes, return to the Word rather than continually rehearsing the problem.

The goal is not to pretend that the problem does not exist. The goal is to ensure that the problem does not occupy the place that belongs to God's Word.

Do not allow the cares of life to choke the seed you have already received.

## Reflection

- What Word has God placed in my heart that I need to give greater attention to? - What thoughts or cares are competing with that Word?

**Hassan Thomas Nenger** Author, *My Divine Identity as the Righteousness of God* Living in the Spirit Series