In the last episode of this series, we looked at Kingdom Experience: Part 2. The Parable of the Sower. And we are going to continue to partake again. In this episode, we will be looking at The Kingdom Experience: The Parable of the Wheat and Tares. And the essence of this teaching is that we may live kingdom lives on the earth. That irrespective of our tribes, whether we are Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa or Gbagyi or Igala; the lives that we live should go beyond the limitations of our tribes, towns, cities; that it begins to resemble the things we read in the Bible.
I don’t think anyone of us reads the Bible and does not desire what he or she reads in the Bible. Especially when we read good things. When we read certain places in the Bible, in fact we say Amen, we say let it be unto me according to your word. So, the goal isn’t that we should just be reading the Bible, the ultimate goal is that the life we live reflects the life that God expects us to live. The Bible is known to be the manual for our lives, of our living. So, if we want to live a better life, it is better we come back to that manual. So, looking at the ‘kingdom experience part 3’, the subtitle is ‘the parable of the wheat and the tares’.
Last week we looked at ‘the parable of the sower’, and this week we are considering ‘the parable of the wheat and the tares’. So, lets open our Bibles to Matthew 13, and I will read from verse 24 to verse 43. Just immediately after the parable of the sower. The Bible says; “Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man; we can also say a woman; who sowed good seed in his field. In the last time we looked at the parable of a man who was a sower. But this time around our emphasis is not on the person being a sower, our emphasis is on the field the sower is sowing on. The things that take place on that field.
It says the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in His feed, can you see that word: ‘his field’. And maybe I can also say this just like the last time, the way this message is, it might not follow the order that we have listened to. I am sure a lot of us have read this place or listened to messages in the past, but it might not follow the order. The teaching is not the parable particularly, we are not trying to read the parable and then explain the meaning; of course, the meanings are in the Bible. But what we want to do is that we want to see life experiences, or practical living experiences from the parables. So, the Bible says; the kingdom of heaven is like a man or a woman, who sowed good seed in his field.
So, we can have two key words there. The Bible says ‘good seeds. And then the Bible says ‘his field’. Not on other people’s field. On his own field, almost like saying on his own life. Remember it is often said that people are self-centered naturally. Everybody wants the best for his or herself. So, this man just like everyone of us, that desired good things for ourselves. The Bible says He sowed good seeds on his own field. Later on, the Holy Spirit will be helping us to understand the implication of the good seed, then we can then understand the implication of his seed. But the Bible says in verse 25, “While men slept. His enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat. and went his way.”
It didn’t say while the man slept, it said while men slept. This is also something we can learn from. His enemy. Not enemy of men. The man or woman’s enemy came. While men slept the mans enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went His way. If the enemy had stayed after sowing the tares, when the owner, when the man returns back to his field, will he not find the enemy in his own field? But what happens when the enemy has gone? Then it will become business as usual.
How many of us could sleep in the night and then when we wake up, we meet a demon sitting beside us. Maybe we had a bad dream that night and then suddenly as you woke up, you see the demon saying good morning. Then you could quickly connect. The bad dream was produced by this demon. But when you turn on your bed and maybe what you see is your mirror or the things you kept there yesterday. But when there is nothing that will show you that this thing was done by an enemy.
When you know that an enemy has done it, then you know that whatever the enemy came to do can never be good. Before you slept, you sowed good seeds in your own field, your enemy cannot come for good. So, when you see your enemy, you know that your enemy came for bad and you must arise in your own defense. The Bible says when the enemy comes like a flood, meaning that the enemy will always come. It says the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against. Not in embrace, the Holy Spirit does not embrace the enemy, the Holy Spirit resist the enemy. So, when the enemy comes into your life, whether you get to know about it immediately or later, the expectation is that you raise a standard against that enemy.
You must raise a kind of defense or an offense against that enemy. Your enemy can not sit with you and then you rejoice with them. The Bible says while men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares among them and went his way. They might not have known that the enemy came if nothing happened afterwards. See what happened in verse 26. It says; “But when the grain; another word for grain is wheat. When the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. As if everything was covered up; everything was buried. Until that time. So, there was no understanding that the enemy came until there was something. The Bible says; “then”. But what happened before then?
There will be ignorance, I slept, I woke up as if nothing had happened but you continued your life as if you are just on your own. As if you are not in a battle. You just continue living your life doing the same old things expecting the same old result. But if only you had known that an enemy has come, then when you woke up, you would have started your own defense. Or you would have raised a standard against the enemy. But because you couldn’t see what the enemy has done, you also relax. We will find out if we are supposed to be relaxing or not. We will be finding out from our Bibles as the Holy Spirit opens it up.
Then Bible says; “Then the tares appeared.” The man sowed good seeds called wheat. Which is a grain. It is edible. But the enemy sowed something else. And the Bible says by the time the wheat started producing fruits, showing growth; the tares that the man did not sow also started appearing. You are laboring hard, you discipline yourself, you are committed to processes that will grow you; But when you are supposed to be celebrated, when people are supposed to start noticing you, that is when other things that you can call bad things about your life start showing forth also. And you will wonder, but these traits were never there before. They were never there because you never planted them.
They were never there because they were never visible. We could think they were never there; they were there but they were buried. An enemy came and buried them there. You didn’t see the result, they were not producing anything but they were not changing you, they were not making you to do things. They were not altering your behavior; they were not guiding you. They were like latent potentials. Dormant abilities, bad things but have never started showing forth. So, you don’t know. You can’t treat a disease you never you know you have.
For some of us by the time we are done with this meeting, we will go to God in prayers. Whatever that is in me that is not of you, that I am not even aware of; Lord show it to me. Let me not be blind about the things in my life. Lord reveal things within me to me. Show me behaviours, attitudes and tendencies within me that have not started showing forth. I know you did not plant them Lord, and I know they are there. This is time we start getting to realize that certain tares could be planted within us. Since we didn't do it, we don’t have to take responsibility for their presence, but we must not form ignorance of their presence. This the time we say Lord show me anything that can bring me down in the future.
Let us continue, verse 27, “So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ That’s a concern, it’s a mystery. The servants are confused. We saw you when you were doing these good things, we saw you when you discipline yourself, we saw you were having personal retreat, when you were reading your Bible, when you were faithful to your husband, when you were faithful to your wife. We the way you conduct yourself in the midst of the people; we always see you do good. How comes there are bad tendencies around you, around your marriage, ministry and business?
Verse 28; He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ I hope we will be bold like this man not to cover up things. Saying those things that you say are bad in my life are not really bad. You are not supposed to be glorifying it, you are not supposed to be covering it up. You are not supposed to deny its presence. You are supposed to acknowledge that this thing is not my making, its not Gods doing; this is not the workings of God in my life, this is not God guiding me, this is not God leading me. This is the work of an enemy. I don’t know if we can look at this matter more practically.
You could just get home and you are just fine with your wife, and before you know it, a little thing becomes a disagreement. There was a time myself and my wife several years ago, anytime we go for a particular church meeting, its either in the car or when we get back we will have issues. And the essence of the meeting is to help husband and wife not to have issues. And the essence of the meeting is to show us that we are in a perfect environment, you are listening to a charged message, you are supposed to be high in the Spirit. We will eventually argue over something on our way or when we get home. So, I will be wondering; but we just got back from church.
It is possible that you leave this place and you get home and then small matter between you and your wife, it becomes a disagreement. As if something came on you. The two of you can’t just agree. Somebody is shouting, the other is saying don’t talk to me I don’t even know why I married you. And you would be wondering; but we are just coming from disciplers convocation. When that this happens; if you are the husband, or the wife, tell yourself its not just a disagreement, an enemy is doing this.
There are times in my marriage that certain things or little matters will become something, when the matter begins spiraling, or spread abroad or becomes a big deal; its from a small matter. Something comes to like ‘this is a battle for your marriage’. For some of us when we see such matters, we just say it’s a matter between me and my wife, we will just handle it. But do you know when we say its just an accidental discharge an accidental disagreement, and it becomes something that third party will start settling matters between you and your wife. You thought you could handle it and then aunties, grandma, uncles and relatives get involved in a small matter. Before you begin to react tell yourself an enemy has done this.
I don’t know how you are receiving it but receive it like that. But if you think it’s a fight between the tongue and the teeth; its normal for me and my wife to fight, its not always normal. When you plant good seeds in your own field, is it normal for tares to show? Even though tares show, is it a normal thing? I went to google to search the meaning of tares, and there was a question they ask; are tares edible? Can people eat it? So, there is a tendency to show that it could be very dangerous to eat tares. But there they were saying that some people mix tares with wheat and they said it makes the bread to look grey in color. So, the color is already affected and then it tastes bitter.
When you accidentally mix two things together, the work of the enemy and the work of God in your own marriage, what will be produced is a bitter taste of your marriage. Your marriage will start looking grey. When we are reading or writing and they say these are grey areas. Are they good areas? It is God that is at work in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Don’t tell me it is God that is making you and your wife to fight. Don’t tell me it is God that is creating the disagreement, the disunity. You cannot trace it to God. Somebody is bitter and the person is saying I will never forgive you until I die; don’t tell me it is God. Understand that it is not God and if it is not God then it is from the enemy. When you go to the later part of that chapter, you will see the interpretation of the parable. Jesus Himself said enemy who sowed them is the devil.
No matter how mysterious it sounds to you, when the Bible says it is God that is at work in you; And you are billions in the world, both to will and to do. If God s able to work in the midst of billions to go good things and you are confused that the devil can’t work in the midst of billions to do evil? He can, he is not like you, he is not limited in the flesh. He is spirit. One angel came over a particular land where the children of Israel were, he killed hundreds of thousands of people in an instant.
Don’t find it confusing that the devil can create confusion in hundred thousand marriages at the same time. He can do it. Don’t think it is God, don’t say we just trying to understand each other. Every divorce that is announced, it started from we are just trying to understand each other. We are trying to solve a spiritual problem in the flesh. An enemy is trying to divide you and your wife and you are trying to say this is what I will do; if she greets me this morning, I won’t answer but I will answer in the evening. The evening may be too late. Many evenings have been too late. When you sense an enemy around your life, don’t think it was planted that day. An idea that is not good that starts manifesting on the 15th of May, it was planted much before may. You start a wrong business, you start a wrong relationship, you join something, you leave something. Those things don’t come instantly, they were sowed in the past and they manifest overtime. When you notice a strange manifestation in your life, before it is executed completely, you can tell yourself an enemy has done this.
I was talking a friend of mine and he gave me a history, a story. A family member who is old and not yet married and the person is like marriage has not been coming easy, a woman who drinks amongst other things and people have preached, people have said they want to marry and the person is saying no I am not marrying. But different people will be begging. But family members will say our daughter is not yet ready, daughter that is not young, men are coming she’s chasing them away. She drinks and does anything that is bad. And then she suddenly says she doesn’t want to marry people in our generation, she wants to marry an old man. Before family members begin to see it as normal, an enemy has done this.
What I told the brother is that this is a demonic attack. The person is possessed. More than what you think the person can do, the person do even more. Before you think that person is just funny, you must know that the enemy is at work. Somebody is targeting the future; somebody does not want the future to be alright. The person is making the circumstance get worse. The person that is being tormented cannot make the right decision. People will think he or she is the one not making the right decision, but an enemy is there. If you cannot put an enemy that you can remember, just put the devil. Because every other person that is an enemy is the staff of the devil. The devil does not have to be the one who is interested in your life, any one that is paid, sponsored and sustained by the devil; once they are attacking your life, loitering around your life; the devil is there. And the goal is to frustrate the plan of God upon your life, they don’t want it to materialize.
Let us continue; “The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” At a point the wheat and the tares may look alike, perhaps it is at the harvest they start showing who they really are.
The Bible says even angels of darkness will disguise themselves as angels of light. So, you don’t see them even when you see them you can’t identify them. So, when you want to uproot them, you uproot the good people. So, lest you create a situation where you uproot what should not be uprooted, the Bible says he should leave them till the end. But what will you do with your own life? Are you going to leave the tares till the end. Do you want the tares to produce tears in your eyes at the end? Jesus said every tree that My Father has not planted, shall be uprooted. That’s the prayer we will pray this night and in our houses. These are times you will hold yourself, in different parts of your body and declare in the name of Jesus. Anything that God has not planted in me, get uprooted in the name of Jesus.
We cannot condone those things. Remember you were not the one that planted those things, you can’t get emotional about them. You cannot suddenly hope the best for them. You can’t suddenly hope bad seeds will become good fruits in the future. You can’t wish them good. It is an enemy that did it. You can’t be sympathetic towards them. So, what do you do? You cast them out. When Apostle Paul was telling us to put to death our members that are on the earth. There is another lace he said put off the old man. You can’t love something and put it off, you have to tell yourself, this thing is not good on me, you have to put it off.
For instance, a while ago I was putting on a coat, but I felt it was making me hot and other matters. So, I put it off. Whatever you put off you have put off. Anything that is on you, be it character or behaviors, and you tell yourself; this is me, that is who I am. Before you conclude that is you, ask yourself; is it God that planted that seed that is you, or it is the enemy that has done it. Because, what is happening in your life is that both the good and the bad are growing together. And when you are not careful; anytime people ask you, show us who you are, you give them both the good and the bad. Have we not wondered personally, it may not be now, some years past when we were growing up, that we had tendencies or capacity to do both good and bad at the same time or at different times.
Many people had to grow up; and in those moments, sometimes you could do good, the same you and at other times you could do bad. The bad that you do is not God that produced it in you, it is the off shoot of the tares that the enemy sowed in your life. Let’s say you are in a taxi going to town, and the driver is playing a music, and the music is very bad, will you jump out of the vehicle? There is a tendency that you will not jump out. You sit down there. Sometimes you put ear piece, sometimes when you are fortunate you have ear piece. Sometimes you don’t even have. But you sit down and pray let me get to town safely and you hear all the bad music.
With the kind of memory I have, even though I leave the place, the music will be playing. Its like a loop, it keeps repeating till night and even the following day. A music I have never listened to in a whole year, by the time I enter that taxi, it will play. That’s for music; what about gist? What about news? What about ideas, what about advice? When they are advising you, my friend this is what I think you should do. You are listening, the person is the one sowing the seed. You will just be praying to God, hope my friend, hope my brother or sister is not possessed at the time. Jesus was talking with His disciples, and He said I have been with you for a while I am going to die and on the third day I will be raised up.
And Peter took Him aside, and the Bible says and he began to rebuke Him and told Him you will never die. Was that not an advice? Must Jesus said He needs to die and Peter said you will never die. If we take it casual and we say brother Peter don’t talk like that; He will be relating with Peter. But the Bible says but Jesus turned and rebuked him; He said get behind me Satan. Btu it was Peter that spoke. But Jesus knew it was an enemy’s doing. Sometimes, enemy will not come like enemy. If you see an enemy like an enemy, you will run away. But whatever you hear, whatever you see, before you accept it and say amen, let it be unto me according to what you are hearing; ask yourself, is this the work of God or the work of an enemy? Is my enemy involved in this or it is God that is involved in this?
Jesus who wanted to die by all means rebuked him; he said you are an offense to me. He was not talking to Peter; he was talking to Satan. Things of God, you don’t want to do it, you are an offense to me. If you don’t want to agree with the will of God for my life, the enemy will also not agree with the will of God for my life. Your enemy will not want what God wants for you to happen. When you see anything, beginning from when you wake up too late, don’t think you slept too much because your bed got better. Don’t get carried away its not a good thing. An enemy has done this. Except the Holy Spirit said I am the one that made you sleep. If you don’t sleep like this, you can be sick. So, I made you sleep like this so that you can wake up stronger. Except you hear that word, just know that the enemy could be doing this.
A young lady shared a story with me several years ago before I got married. She was an adult ready to marry. In fact, when I got married, she was disappointed that I didn’t marry her. She woke up and realized that she had bed wetted. The whole bed was soaked. For her to tell me, you know she is telling a man. A man could propose to her she could be shy. But she knew she was telling me an experience that was spiritual. She doesn’t understand what is going on. It doesn’t happen every time but it happens.
So, I just hope she prayed about it. Because, certain things are not just biological. I ate too much; I drank too much so I bed wetted. You must ask yourself; what has happened? Is this the work of God or an enemy? Because if don’t inquire, later on, your life will start following a pattern. And then you will not know the whole thing started from the bedwetting experience. So, let us not take anything casually. You we are looking at the bedwetting experience; The parable of the wheat and the tares. There are things in our lives that God is working out. There are relationships in our lives that God is connecting us to. But there are things that it is the devil that is strategically doing it. And you may not even know why? But if you can be patient, you will see the future. But it is not good to be patient like that and se the future because, the tares and produce tears in our eyes. So that we will not cry in the future, let us today be sensitive to whatever is happening in our lives. Let us ask God questions; this thing that is happening in my life, what is producing it? Is this the work of God or the work of the enemy?
Pastor Adeboye was struggling with an experience, and he shared it. I was in redemption camp that day I was not hearing it on a message. He said he was about to die; it was a feeling. And he told himself so the time has actually come? Like God, I thank you because the time has come. He said because he had been in that pain for a long time. Like accepting it, this is from God. Until God told him I am not the one at work here, I am not calling you home, this is not me. And the moment he realized that; a this is somebody that has been battling, a man of God, general overseer, battling with sickness for days. But the moment God told him I am not the one; that was the moment he stood up. He said I did not know I am fighting an enemy, I thought God was the one taking me out. God said I am not taking you out. He prayed and rebuked the devil.
Sometimes we expect God to rebuke the devil for us, and the power to rebuke the devil has been given to us. If the ant is climbing the hand of your son and your son is matured, you will be looking at the ant and say can’t you see that the ant is on your hand? It is because the son is not aware. When the son sees the ant and say if daddy really loves me, he should come and clear the ant. Does it work like that? So, when God called the attention of pastor E.A. Adeboye to what is happening in his life, he knew he needed to do something about it. When God calls your attention to things happening around your life, arise speak over the situation, stop the work of the devil around your life. When the enemy shall come like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard. It is your responsibility to work with the Holy Spirit in the raising up of that standard.
