What are weeds? Weeds mean that other seeds have been planted there along with your good seed.

You know the amazing thing is you can take perfectly good looking soil that looks awesome and fertile. You can just water it without planting any seeds, and before you know it plants begin to grow.

You say, "Wow, I never even planted anything and I'm getting a harvest."

Yes, you're getting a harvest of weeds. Weeds grow without us trying.

Worldly Influences

Well you have been trying to sow the right seed as we'll see in the next section. But what happens is there will already be a lot of other seeds that have been sowed there.

A lot of those seeds are coming at you from wherever you go. This is because the world is trying to influence you. And whether you are reading books, watching movies, or listening to anything the world has to offer, wherever you go you are exposed to influences that plant seeds in your soil.

As soon as you come to try and believe God and to water that soil, what happens? The weeds begin to grow immediately.

Programming from the Past

Here is one of the strongest weeds that is so difficult to get rid of. It is past programming. These are things that you were taught during your life, whether it was by your parents, society or by teachers.

You were exposed to doctrines, teachings or ideas that said,

"It is wrong to do this."

Or, "This is the right thing to do."

Now as you come before the Lord to try and exercise faith, the doubts begin to come up. You begin to think,

"Is it really right for me to do this?"

Well you looked at God's Word and saw your rights from the Scriptures didn't you? That is the good seed that you are going to plant. But now suddenly the weeds come up and they say,

"Yes the Scripture does say that, but for you it's wrong. It would be wrong for you to desire that."

"It's wrong for you to want that. It is selfish and sinful; it's un-Christian."

Or, "It is not the right thing to do."

Archetypes

A lot of the time that programming that you have had didn't come from the Lord. You didn't necessarily get it from hearing the ministry of the Word.

Yes your parents may have taught you that and they likely weren't even Christians. And mixed in with that is the concept of archetypes.

What is an archetype? It is what a whole group of people believe.

As I have travelled to different nations and been involved with people from different countries, I have been amazed to see that most nations have a national archetype. There are things that they believe are the right way to live and the right or wrong way to do things.

It affects every area of your life. It is archetypal programming that makes you think in a certain way.

Then you want to come to the Lord and receive from Him. But your mind and thinking is cluttered with the wrong rights.

On the one side you have God's Word, and on the other side you have the seeds growing. And before you know it there comes confusion and the weeds begin to choke the Word.

Poverty Mentality or Riches

Some of this is a poverty mentality. You may even have got that from church. Perhaps you think,

"We shouldn't be thinking of money because money is evil. You know the Scripture says that money is the root of all evil. So this means you shouldn't be asking God for things."

It sounds very spiritual doesn't it? But it is poverty thinking. The Roman Catholic monks take a vow of poverty.

Then we have the opposite side which in English is 'keeping up with the Jones's. You might say,

"You know if I am going to take my place in society, I can't have everybody else driving a decent car and I'm driving an old obsolete thing. I need to get a new car."

Or, "I can't live in a house that is just average, when everybody down the block has gorgeous mansions. They all have swimming pools. I also need to have a swimming pool. Some of them also have tennis courts so I need to have a tennis court as well.

You say, "The women are all wearing beautiful jewelry, but all I have is a little brass ring. I just can't have that! I need to maintain a standard."

That is keeping up with the Jones's. It is a weed and it is going to choke the real seed that you are trying to plant.

So let's prepare the soil. Let's break up the hard ground, pull out the stones and get rid of the weeds.

This is going to be a continual process. You need to dig up any obvious weeds that are in the ground. Don't just pull them up, but dig out the roots as well and throw them away.

Fertilizing the Soil

Now that the soil has been softened we need to fertilize it. What do you fertilize soil with?

I know that today they have the modern thing where you buy a bag of fertilizer that has been produced in a factory. It has all the right chemicals in it, but that is not nature.

How does nature fertilize soil?

God has created it to happen naturally. A plant springs up, grows and reaches maturity. It dies and falls back into the soil again and begins to rot.

You can actually create compost by taking plant matter and left overs, like peels from vegetables and all sorts of stuff. You can add organic matter, throw it in a big hole in the ground, churn it up and leave it in the heat and it will start to rot.

Dead, decaying, rotten plants and growth is the best fertilizer that you can use in your soil to grow your new plants.

Where are we going to get our compost?

How about all your past successes that have now reached their maturity? Let's just put them aside and plough them. Let's let them die.

How about your past failures? Perhaps you say,

"The plant grew up just a little bit and then it died."

Well don't throw it away; put it into the compost heap. Every time you failed you accumulated a whole barrel full of possible compost, so don't throw it away.

You say, "Well I've failed before. Let's just put it aside and forget it. Let's pretend that it never happened."

No, that is some of the best fertilizer that you can use to put into your ground.

Perhaps you say,

"You know I used to have a vision but it died."

Death is in fact the best fertilizer, did you know that?

You say, "I have been through so many deaths."

"Isn't that wonderful; you have so much awesome compost to put in your soil. The more death you have the better."

You say, "Nobody ever told me that before."

Of course they didn't, because this is new revelation. You need to prepare you soil and break it up.

Develop your core desire. Remember the raging passion (the apple core). Know your rights by getting into the Word and filling yourself with the Word.

Then break up the ground. Prepare it and get rid of the stones and weeds, and fertilize your soil with the death of the past.

Now you are ready to move onto the next important step.

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