Isn’t this what we have heard?
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith'that YOU, BEING ROOTED and grounded IN LOVE, -Ephesians 3:17
Don’t we want to be rooted in love ? How do we know that we are rooted in love ?
This testimony of Christ that we have heard who love much:
Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven'for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little." -Luke 7:47
Are not our sins many ? But have we loved Christ much that our sins which many may be forgiven? Isn’t the Lord giving us hope for us to be rooted in this love ?
For we know from farmers, before tree is rooted, a seed must be planted.
When the Lord relate to us the parable of the sower, we know He is the one who plant the seed of love which is His word of love.
We know that He plants in the ground of our hearts!
Didn’t we know farmers plow the ground before they plant seed ?
Isn’t this spoken to us in love ?
break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that He may come and rain righteousness upon you. -Hosea 10:12
How do we break the ground of our hearts? Do we need to cause our hearts to be hurt and break ? No.
As farmer break up the ground to provide depth and clear the weeds with thorns, so we must clear away our wicked ways and our unrighteous thoughts. Why ? Are we not dealing with the hearts? Why we are talking about the mind ?
This is what we have heard:
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit,
of joints and of marrow,
and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. -Hebrews 4:12
For we have heard that only through the word of God, can identify the division of soul and spirit; just like of joints and of marrow — they are closely knitted, so our souls and spirits are closely knitted ; only through the Spirit of the Word, we can discern the thoughts and intentions of the hearts.
This is what we have heard:
When Jesus perceived their thoughts (the mind or the soul), he answered them, "Why do you question in your hearts? -Luke 5:22
Therefore, it is important before planting seed or the word of love, to heed our Lord God’s voice to break up our fallow ground, in order that He may come and rain righteousness upon us as we have heard in Hosea 10:12
When we don’t break our fallow ground ！the ground would not have much soil, the seed that fell wayside could easily be taken by the birds of the air or the Devil before the seed could take root.
This is also what we have heard:
but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. -Matthew 13:25
The wheat are choked by the weed. As many farmers know, the weeds come up with thorns. That is why it is important to break up our fallow ground so that those weeds with thorns are removed and when the ground of our hearts receive the seed and the seed could take easily take root and not choked.
If we have cleared away the wayside, stones, the weeds with its thorns! How do we know that we are in good soil ? And ready to take root and bear a fruit of love ?
This is the promise that we have heard ：
until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest. -Isaiah 32:15
When we have break up our fallow ground,
the Holy Spirit will come to our hearts and rain righteousness upon us.
How do we know the Holy Spirit come to our hearts ?
This is what we have heard our Lord have said ：
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. -John 6:63
Have we considered that the words that our Lord have spoken are His Holy Spirit and Life?
How do we know that He rains righteousness upon us ? This is what we have heard:
"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, -Isaiah 55:10
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. -Isaiah 55:11
Isn’t rain or snow — water that come from heaven ? Haven’t we identify that His word is Spirit? Isn’t His Spirit is the living waters that come from heaven ( John 7:37-39 )? Doesn’t our Heavenly Father have said that “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth” — what our Heavenly Father have said : “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, ”
we can paraphrase for clarity:
For as living waters come down from heaven but water the ground of our hearts, making the word of the kingdom or the word of His love to bring forth and sprout, giving His witness the message of His love and bread for those who partakes this life in union with Christ.
Therefore, then, who are those rooted in love of Christ?
This is what we have heard:
Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. -Jeremiah 17:5
He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. -Jeremiah 17:6
"Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. -Jeremiah 17:7
He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit." -Jeremiah 17:8
So those who are rooted in the love of Christ are those who trust not in their own strength but those who trust in the strength of the Lord.
Also, those who seeks not only to be regenerated through the Holy Spirit but also to be renewed through His Holy Spirit.
They are those who renews the spirit of their minds with the things of the Spirit, that are His words.
So, have we delighted ourselves in the law of His love and meditated on His love day and night?
If we have ! We can be assured that we are on the good soil and that the seed that our Lord sows will bring a harvest of righteousness and love to our loving Father in heaven. In that way, we prove to be a disciple that are rooted and grounded in His love.