The Seed of the Gospel Is Designed for the Transformation of Our World (Mark 4:30-34)

The Parable of the Mustard Seed (Mark 4:30-32)

And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parables shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” (30-32)

You can notice a progression between these parables, from the sower to a growing seed to the small mustard seed. I spoke of the quality of the soil, of the power of life in the seed, and now of the difference between the smallness of the seed and the large size of the grown up plant.
As people welcome my teachings, my words, and as they welcome me, the Word of God, they welcome first what is like a tiny seed. Yet, in the good soil, this seed not only grows automatically, but its impact will be very large. In fact, it will touch all the areas of the life of those welcoming me as their Lord and Savior. This impact on the whole life of the person is not only for this person, but it will bless others, like the birds who can find shade and make their nests in the branches. As my word takes root in a life, it transforms this life and blesses others. The Gospel, the good news of the kingdom does not look impressive. It seems insignificant to many, yet, as it grows in a heart, it brings good fruits and blessings to many.
The fact that the mustard seed is tiny reminds you of the importance of faith, faith in the transforming power of the seed. My words are life, they bring life and healing to those who welcome them. This healing is for the bodies, for the soul and for the spirit. I came to show the way, to transform humanity.
This tiny seed, it was also me, the Word of God, and I would transform the world. I looked insignificant, yet the powerful love of God was at work in me and through me. I was despised and counted with the thieves. Yet, the Father demonstrated through my resurrection and through the church the many branches that would come, to bring this divine life and reconciliation with God to many.
Carry our words in this world, apply them in your heart and life. Become yourself a word from God, a word of life and holiness, a pure and powerful word of love. Like the seed, you will have to die to yourself in the process, in order to bring fruit. You will have to let the life in you be more important than any self-centered plan. As you do that, you will see the powerful transforming power of our love in you and through you. After having received me, the seed of love from the Father, after seeing the fruits of this love in your life, you are invited to become seed yourself. A small seed, an insignificant seed, yet a seed full of the power of love that can bring peace and joy to many.

Meaning of the parables (Mark 4:33-34)

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything. (4:33-34)

I did not want fast and shallow results, but deep and long lasting transformation. I did not want my words to be planted into a rocky soil, but in a good soil. The seed, when it is first planted, is not visible to the world, yet as it grows and appears above the ground it manifests clearly its effects to others. The small group of the twelve was like the good soil in which I planted my word. I explained everything to them, so that this transforming power of the Good News of the kingdom would take root. Then, they would bring into their lives the fruit of the Gospel and carry them to many others. 

Follow this example, speak with me often and ask me when you have questions, so that I can explain to you everything, so that the Good News takes root in your life and brings the Father’s life and love to many. As you grow as my disciple, as you learn to listen to me throughout your days, as you follow me wherever I lead you, you will bring many fruits. Through this fruitfulness the Father will be glorified. 

What Is the Kingdom of God Like? (Mark 4:26-29)

The Seed of the Kingdom

And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. (4:26-27)

Through the parables, through the examples of what the kingdom of God is like, I appealed to the faith of men, faith in God and faith in His loving power. A seed is a marvel in itself. It contains a power of life that can be released when you scatter it on the ground. 

I had already mentioned in the parable of the sower that the seed was the word, the word of God, which is also me - Jesus, the Son of God and the Word of God. In the parable of the sower the focus was on the different soils, stressing the impact on the seed that the different soils have. In this parable, I wanted to stress the power at work in the seed itself. Both elements are important. Some people make complex theories on God’s part and man’s part in the relationship between God and man. On my side, I just used parables to help people understand that two things are at work, first you need to be a good soil for the word of the kingdom, and second you have to realize that ultimately it is the power present in the word that makes something grow, this power is not in the soil itself, it comes from the seed. 

The kingdom of God comes when God is king on a domain. The greater the domain where he is king, the greater the kingdom. In me, God the Father was ruling in all I did and all I said. Therefore the kingdom of God was in me, and wherever I went I could say that the kingdom of God was near. I invited people to welcome this kingdom of the Father in their hearts, by giving them the word, by giving myself to them out of love. 

I scattered God’s love through my life, like one scatters seed on the ground. This means that I did not limit myself to those who would bring fruit, this would not have been a good example of the Father’s love. He loves all humans, making rain fall on the good and on the bad, making the sun rise on the righteous as well as on the unrighteous. Even in the small group of twelve, there was Judas. I invite you to imitate me. Don’t limit love, that the Father spreads in your heart through the Holy Spirit, to just those you believe will bear fruit. Let the Father guide you so that you share freely and broadly His love, so that you scatter the seed of the kingdom broadly. I did not heal only those who responded and became disciples, I healed all who came. 

The marvel in a seed is that it has a power of life in itself, and it grows without the will or understanding of the one who scattered it on the ground. This represents the importance of faith, to realize that it is not by your own strength that a seed grows, you just need to trust this power of life to spread and expand. This is the same with the words of the Kingdom, with me. As you share our love to others, as you speak and act out of our love, you share us with others, you share seeds of our love. You simply have to trust that the one who has called you to love is faithful, and that His fruit will come to be by His power, not by yours. You are called to humility, to realize that you can be a participant in the love-story of God with humanity, as He spreads through your faith and humility seeds of His love and see them grow. 

Trust in the Father, simply scatter his seeds of love, knowing that whether you sleep or rise, night and day, the seed will sprout and grow, without you knowing what is happening. You cannot control the growth of the kingdom of God in a heart, your part is to faithfully scatter the seed, and simply trust the life present in the seed. 

The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. (4:29) 

Not only does the seed has a power of life in itself. It also appeals to the power to make life grow that is in the earth. The nature is full of examples of God’s grace. As the Bible is a book revealing you the love of the Father for humanity, the creation is also a book through which the Father can reveal to you the wonders of His love. 

The seeds of love that you plant, words of grace, words from the Father, you see how they develop and bring fruit. As you share my love to others, you see fruits coming and you can marvel at that. 

But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” (4:29)

Although the one who sows does not control the growth of the seed, he does come to reap the fruit of his sowing. If the love of the Father is shared broadly, it does not mean that all will bring fruit. What it means is that a time of harvest is coming, and that what will be harvested is the fruit of this sowing. When an ear of grain has come, it is designed itself to become seed or to give food, it has no purpose of itself. This is the cycle of love, you receive love to bring fruit and give to others. The goal is never self-centered, it is always others-centered. As you receive love, you will be invited to share its fruit with others. As you share faithfully my word with others, you expect to see fruit come out of it. You don’t control, but you expect good fruit to come out of it. That is the way of the kingdom of God, that is the wonder of creation. 

Imitate me, as you ask and always more receive the love of God in your heart, as you dwell in me and I in you, as the kingdom of God is always more manifest in you. Share our love with others, through your words and your actions, scatter the seed on the ground with faith. Trust that it will bring fruit out of our grace, and that this fruit will then be harvested to become a blessing for others. The kingdom of God will then grow and spread to many, through your faithful love. 

God's Love Is To Be Shared, It Cannot Be Hoarded (Mark 4:21-25)

What Is Hidden Will Be Made Manifest

And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” (4:21-23) 

Love desires to shine, it is its goal. Like a fire burning inside, it is called to come out. I came to bring the fire of the Holy spirit on earth, first in a few hearts, then let it spread in nations. I spoke in parables, to help limit the first group of people that would follow me. This was of key importance, so that the fire of love of the Father would not be a broad yet shallow fire, but rather a deep and intense fire that would grow and spread far away. 

When my disciples were fragile, when the twelve were struggling with my message, with the coming of the cross, I needed to take the time to explain the depths of the Gospel to them. They did not understand well, they saw only the practical elements and struggled to see the spiritual realities. The light of the Gospel had to shine fully in them, this full Gospel that touches all the parts of a human being. They had to understand that I came not only to heal, to cast out demons and to forgive sins, but also to bring - through the power of the Holy Spirit - a deeper renewal of their spirits. They would then learn to store treasures in heaven and not on earth, to fully become temples of the Holy Spirit, carrying this Holy Fire of love everywhere they go and in all they think or do. 

This process is the same for each of my disciples, they have to learn first to dwell in me and I in them, to be taught by the Spirit, to let us speak to their heart through the Bible and through the creation. As you learn to listen to me, as you become a temple of the Holy Spirit, you begin to see our love bring fruits in you and through you. Your character will begin to be more gracious, your angers will disappear as a mist lifts from the earth, your worries will be replaced by discussions with us. This pure love in you will become a powerful channel of our grace not only to you but to many others. 

The purpose of our love is to spread in this world. The Holy Spirit does not come in a life only for this life. The Holy Spirit brings a fire that wants to break out, like a river that cannot be contained. Either people have to renounce our love and remain self-centered, or they will invite our holy love to burn in them and to transform those around them. In this process, don’t separate the transformation of your character from the gifts of the Holy Spirit that will flow through you. Both are needed, and one without the other is very fragile. Divine healing is rooted in our love, and is a manifestation of our love. In the same way, the Holy Spirit helps to soften and sanctify your character so that you become a holy vessel of his holy power of love, a love that wants to spread out to others. The miraculous is normal, it is the way through which we bring the perfection of heaven on earth. I taught my disciples to pray that the Father’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. It is really simple yet people don’t think often about what it means. It implies that diseases will be removed, that evil spirits are cast away, that love mends relationships and communities, that the earth becomes tamed and more fruitful than ever. 

As this life of the kingdom grows secretly in you, it is preparing to burst out and to bring many fruits. This process starts in the hidden of the heart and brings many fruits. I described this simple process in many parables. 

And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” (4:24-25) 

In parallel to this teaching that the work of the Father - that started in the secret of hearts - had to be revealed, I had to warn my disciples about what happens when you welcome the love of the Father but don’t let it flow out of you. For the selfish, the gifts of God will dry up, they are not designed to remain hidden but to be disclosed and shared. As you learn to share what you receive from us, the life of the kingdom begins to grow in you and through you. Your love grows through practice. The intimacy of our love wants to replicate itself. 

If you refuse to forgive your brother, we will refuse to forgive you. If you learn with us to love your brother, we will pour more of our love in you. The wonder of the Father’s love is that the more you share it around you the more it grows in you. The more you pray for people to be healed, out of love, the more we will give you this healing love. 

This is the second side of the growth in love. First, you learn to grow in relationship with us, in the love of God for you, in the love for God. This growth in intimacy is a gift of the Holy Spirit, that allows you to speak with us and to hear us, to see love grow in your heart. As I taught my disciples when I was on earth: ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. Second, as you become grounded in the love of God, you are invited to spread this love to your neighbor. 

For those who don’t grow in the love of the neighbor, who refuse to let our love flow out of them to bless others, even what had been given will be taken away, the joyful presence of the Holy Spirit in them will dry up. You cannot love God without learning to love your neighbor, this is impossible. The process starts with the love of God poured in your life through the powerful grace of the Holy Spirit, and this process continues as you carry our love to many. Don’t stop halfway or all you have received will be lost. 

Let the Holy Spirit, with the rivers of love that He brings in your life by the grace of the Father, flow through you to many. Enter into the flow of the Father’s love, as I showed how to live in this flow during my life on earth. Learn from me, learn with me. Let the love of God rule in you and through you. 

Are there stones or thorns in your heart? (Mark 4:16-20)

Parable of the Sower explained, part II

And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. (4:16-17)

Some people live at the surface of themselves. They are used to easy pleasures, whether physical - like food, or spiritual - like times when they sense my presence. This is the consumer mindset, when you want the good in this world but are not ready to let the Holy Spirit plumb the depths of your heart. People are like houses, with many rooms. They are ready to welcome me in some rooms, but as soon as the Spirit will want to open some rooms and bring light and purity, many persons will recoil and reject the Holy Spirit. 

If people welcome me in only some parts of their life, and are not willing to let me and the Holy Spirit purify and visit all the rooms of their life, the Gospel will not take solid roots, and spiritual joys will be short lived. When persecution will come, because of me and my message, they will quickly fall away. The Gospel is a seed that is designed to bring fruit in all your life, all the areas, all the relationships, all the moments of your life. It is not a plant to put in a pot, it is a seed to let grow in your heart and spread in all your life. In doing so, the joy of the Gospel will not remain superficial and short lived, but transform you deeply. When people let my word and the Holy Spirit only penetrate the surface of their lives, they will have the choice between hypocrisy and backsliding. This is not what I want, I came to bring life, a life abundant and joyful, to bring peace and deep happiness that only the constant communion with the Father can give. Pray that the Holy Spirit removes from your life and the life of those on your path all the stones that hinder to roots of the gospels. 

And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. (4:18-19) 

If stones don’t move, thorns do grow. This is the greatest challenge to the gospel in the hearts of people. I explained to my disciples that they cannot serve both God and money. Money is a huge idol in your world, in all the countries, and deceives both the poor and the rich, although in different ways.

The poor will often be full of anxiety, not learning to trust in me and rely on me, letting the cares of the world fill their hearts. This is a major challenge. I came for the poor and struggling, yet they have to learn to come with faith in me, and I will lead them in all the domains. I will lead them on how to find the food the Father has prepared for them, how to walk by faith and grow in love. They are dear to our heart, yet they have to trust in us and not in man. They should not put their trust in those who promise riches, using even spiritual reasons to take the little money they have. They have to learn to pray and speak with me, to ask, to seek, to knock. They have to discover that I am able to provide, that the Father guides them not only for survival but for growing in faith and love. Let this poverty be also a poverty in spirit, where they rely on the Father more than on human authorities that can often trap them. 

The rich are often full of concerns about what they have, about how to have even more, how to use money to get a perfect security, a perfect assurance of protection for their health, for their investments, for their belongings. The deceitfulness of riches is rooted in the fact that these riches are short-lived, and they don’t bring real peace and happiness. Don’t gather treasures on earth where the thief, the moth and the rust will destroy these very treasures, despite your best efforts to avoid it. Learn to gather treasures in heaven, treasures of love with God, of harmonious relationships. Use money as a tool for good relationships, instead of using relationships for getting more money. Riches are deceitful because they promise much but give little. What they give is not what people seek. Through money and riches, people seek love and joy, yet they get greed and tensions between them and others. 

The desires for other things also choke my word of love, the good news. It represents the many desires that can grow in a human heart. Desire is good, as long as it is not a distraction from the main purpose of all humans: to love God and to love your neighbor. You can use this purpose of love to discern if a desire is rooted in us, in love, or if a desire is selfish and just a thorn in your heart. 

When the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches or the desire for other things take root in a human heart, the gospel will be choked and will not bring fruits. Some people will even have the shameful pride to pretend that I am not faithful, that the promises they read in the Bible are not true, while they have never let these promises take deep root in their lives, letting their many desires choke the words of life that they received. Don’t let thorns grow in your heart. Learn to love the Father, learn to live a life filled with the Holy Spirit. Simply ask us and trust in us, walk faithfully with us. If you recognize a thorn or a stone in your heart, ask us to remove it, and we will lead you in this journey of love, so that you can taste and rejoice of the joyful holiness that the Father wants for you. 

But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” (4:20)

When your heart welcomes simply my word, when you welcome me simply, I can then guide you and bring in your life all the fruit that we want. This fruit has many forms. It is love, peace, joy, patience. It is also all the works of love that the Father wants to spread through you, like healings, casting out demons, words of encouragement and exhortations for you or others, and all the ways the Spirit wants to make of you a blessing for others. As you become a good soil for the word, you become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Through you God’s love will flow and give joys that the world cannot give. You will receive and communicate a peace that the world cannot give. The world is seeking happiness through things, yet this true happiness comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit, the love of God, the seed of His Word, and from bringing fruits of love. When you welcome us in all your life, letting us remove stones or thorns when necessary, you also welcome the peace and joy that comes from us, and let the Holy Spirit renew you as a child of God full of light. Let our holy love take deep root in your life and transform you. Let joy and peace rule in you. Become the blessing you are called to be to many. 

Is Your Heart a Good Soil For God's Living Word? (Mark 4:13-15)

Jesus Explains the Parable of the Sower, part I.

And he said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. (4:13-14)

For my disciples to understand, they had to come to God in prayer and to listen to him. I already had taught them the basics on how to speak with the Father, what is called the 'Our Father' prayer. Yet, many take this prayer as an end in itself, and not as a start for listening and dialoguing with the Father. They are not magical words, but a path to enter into communication with the Father. In this communion, the Father would have been able to explain to them the meaning of the parable, since He is the one who asked me to teach this parable. Since they did not understand, I took time to explain this important parable to them.

The first key element is that the sower sows the word. A word is like the first step in a dialogue, initiating an encounter and inviting a response. Many people think that I can speak only through biblical texts, as if I were dead or as if it was the only things I want to tell to people. I have so much more to say, to lead each child of the Father in a deeper communion with us. How can people learn to love us with all their heart, soul and strength, with only a written text? They need to meet us in prayer, to sense that the Holy Spirit really dwells in them and that they can speak to us and listen to us. The Bible is indeed of extreme importance, as a foundation for the relationship with us. Yet, to think that it is sufficient for a real love to grow is really naive. That is why I promised that I would send the Holy Spirit, to lead you to discover how much the Father loves you, and that you can be in communion with us and continue to learn from us. I did give all the foundations for teaching people to come to the Father in the Gospels. Yet, these foundations have to come alive and lead you on the path of love. Through the presence of the Holy Spirit in you, you become able to hear us clearly and to see us work through you the works of the Father, for His glory. 

I came to sow the word of God in hearts. I was and I am the Word. When people welcome me, they welcome my message and my way of perfect communion with the Father. That is why I stressed so much the importance of faith, this confident trust in the Father, as you learn to ask Him and listen to Him. Also, since the Father and I are one, when I speak with you I manifest the presence of the Father. The one who enters in relationship with me is also in relationship with the Father, we are united in all we do. This is the same with the Holy Spirit. 

The parable of the sower is a key for the life of the kingdom. People have to welcome me - the Word of God, to welcome my words and to be guided toward a living and continual communion with God. This is the real life of the Spirit, the eternal life. The texts of the Gospels lead to God, not simply to principles to apply - even if they are good principles. As long as this does not lead you to develop a real love for the Father, to receive His abounding love and to live through this love, the Word has not yet brought its fruit. 

And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. (4:15)

In this world, there are not only positive spiritual forces. You have Satan and all the evil spirits. They have already lost their places of honor by rebelling against the Father. They have lost the battle. Yet, they could convince humans not to trust the Father, from Adam and Eve to today. The Father allowed that to happen, knowing that it was a necessary element for humans to learn to love the Father fully. Without choice there is no real love. The Father wanted real love, and therefore allowed this to happen. 

Don't focus on Satan or on demons, because they will try to destroy your trust in the perfect Father. 

When a person hears a word from us, either through a verse in the Bible, through a dream, a vision or an audible direction from us, Satan tries to remove this word. He often uses distraction, that is a method of choice for him, specially in your busy world with all these electronic tools that pull you easily away from relationships with your neighbor and from God. They can be good or bad tools, discern well and use them wisely. Satan also uses fear or all the negative emotions to draw our words out of the hearts of people. 

Each person has a choice, has a will to use. You each have a responsibility concerning what you let grow in you. Each human is like a field where different plants can grow, some good and some bad. To bring good fruit they first have to keep the good seeds, the words we sow in them. If they don't value and pay attention to these words from us, Satan will come and snatch them away from their hearts, like a bird picking a seed from a path. 

When your heart is hardened, bitter, it is like a path where it is hard for new seed to take root. This happens when you think you know better than the others. This hardness of heart comes from pride, when you think that you have understood what life is and that you have no need to learn to love. This is the opposite of a persons poor in spirit, who is teachable and seeks our help and our presence each and every day. Can you live without food for a long time? In the same way, you cannot live spiritually without living words from us. I am the Living Word, I am the way to eternal life. It is this living communion with me, speaking and listening to me and to the Father, that will allow you to learn to love and to be full of joy in this world. 

What is the purpose of Jesus' Parables? (Mark 4:1-12)

Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-9)

Again, he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them:

“Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” 

And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

In this parable as in many others, I wanted to awaken people to faith. Speaking of fruitfulness, with simple and practical examples, encouraged people to come to believe, to realize that what is possible in one domain - like seeds growing and bringing many fruits - was possible in others. The power of life in plants is amazing, and people needed to be renewed in their trust in the Father, in the living faith in the Father. For this, they needed to listen to me, to listen to God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing through my words. My words were like seeds that I was planting in the hearts open to God, in people who wanted to hear God speak to them. Living faith is not only about what God said in the past, it is also and foremost about hearing God speak today so that people can learn to follow God and love Him every day of their lives. 

What is the purpose of parables? (Mark 4:10-12)

And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that “they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.”

These words were first given to Isaiah, and they are important. The Father has always been speaking to men, not only to few like Abraham. The problem is rather that people have not been listening to the Father, have not believed in the Father. The purpose of these words was not to close the gates of heaven, but to make people aware that when they don’t see God, when they don’t hear him speak to them, it is because they have closed themselves to us; this is not because we don’t speak. I repeated these words because in them you learn that the kingdom of God is revealed to those who are willing to listen and follow, to those who desire to see and do God’s will. 

With the Father, we want to bring everyone to repentance and to a living communion with us. This is our desire. Now, we are clearly aware that many hearts, even religious people, are closed to us. They are willing to read a text and to decide for themselves how to apply it in their lives - or how to tell others what they should do. Yet, they are not ready for us to speak to them, to believe that the Father is a living God, a burning fire, a present fire. Learn to encounter God in your present, to expect God to speak to you and to show you His way. That is what I experienced during my life on earth, during all my years of ministry. The Father spoke to me and showed me what to do every day, his word for me never grew old, it was always fresh, it was my daily bread. Love needs to be fed regularly, like a fire regularly needs wood to keep burning. 

Let your desire to hear God speak grow in you. Expect God to speak to you, ask Him and He will surprise you. He desires much more than you to speak with you, to show you His love. I have the desire to speak with each and every of my disciples, every day of their lives. Paul understood this very well, when he encouraged people to pray without ceasing, to speak and listen to us continually. This is part of the fire of love that we want to kindle and see burning in every life. Hope, expect, believe in us, believe in our love and our desire to communicate with you. This is of key importance. Everyone who has ears to hear, let them hear. 

The Father and I, we are not deaf, or dumb, or blind, or mute. We see, we hear and we speak. Through living faith you will learn, by our grace, to hear me and you will be led by me every day of your life. Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. Ask the Holy Spirit to come in you and to open your ears and eyes to our love. 

I am your good shepherd. My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me. 

What is my identity? Is the world directing me, or is it God? (Mark 3:31-35)

Who are my mother and my brothers? 

And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” (3:31-35)

In this world, you will always have a tension between the visible and the invisible world. In this visible world, your biological family is where the strongest relationships are. Yet, in the spiritual world, in the kingdom of the Father you are invited to be a child of God and that is more important than any other relationship in this world. 

I had to make this clear with my dear human mother and my adoptive father, Mary and Joseph. When I was twelve, I stayed at the house of the Father in Jerusalem, yet they did not understand. I did not want to harm them, yet I could not pretend that they were the only parents I had, my heavenly Father was more important than them (see Luke 2:41-52). This was of huge importance for me, and this is the same for you. I could not have developed any ministry without first recognizing that the heavenly Father is more important than my human family. Human parents are very important, they mold and shape you. It is very important for you to respect them because they are in many ways representing God the Father, the creator, as you grow up. Yet, as you mature, you are invited to realize that God’s fatherhood is more important than your human parents. You should respect them and take care of them, but not let them rule your life. The identity you have in their eyes is imperfect, and you need to find in the eyes of the heavenly Father your perfect and heavenly identity as a child of God.

My response to my mother and brothers looked harsh, but it was necessary. People needed to know that being a child of God implies that when human authorities challenge God, you have to choose God. Peter said rightly that it is better to obey God than to obey man (see Acts 5:29). You learn to know God through human authorities, through the church. Yet, for God, the purpose of these human families and even of the Church, is to birth children of God who learn to listen to Him more than any other and to learn from Him to love their neighbor. Obedience, doing the will of the Father, is first and foremost a response of love to his gracious care. He is the most wonderful Father that the world will ever see. He takes care of his children in a way that amazes me. The devil tries to tarnish God’s fatherhood in order to catch people in his nets of bitterness, yet to do so he has only the tool of deception and to encourage disobedience, not listening to the voice of the Father.

This distinction between the physical bonds to human families and communities and the spiritual bond to the heavenly Father is extremely important. It is the Father who will lead you in perfect joy and peace, the world cannot do that. As you learn to listen to my voice and to the voice of the Father, your identity as a child of God becomes stronger, and you are more able to bring the fruits of love that flow from this identity. By spending time in prayer every day, to listen to us, by welcoming always more fully the Holy Spirit in you during your days, our love enables you to not only walk in peace and holiness, but also to perform the works of the Father, healing people in their bodies, souls and spirits. You then discover the authority that the Father gives to his children over this creation, authority to forgive sins in His name, to cast out demons, to heal bodies and hearts.

I showed the way, I listened to the Father and did His will all my life, thus releasing his mighty love through all I said and all I did. Do you want to follow my path, do you really want to be my disciple? Then learn with me, learn from me, how to welcome fully the loving will of the Father, to be a shining temple of the Holy Spirit. The Bible will give you key elements for entering into this living relationship with us. Learn to speak and listen to me, and to follow me as your shepherd. Even if you go through the valley of the shadow of death, you will not fear any evil, because I will guide you and protect you. The Father and I are one. As you follow me you follow the Father. You will then be fully part of the family of the Father, I will be your older brother, and our perfect love with transform you and bless all those you meet.