Let The Word Work (post Camp Meeting Teaching) by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

After the Word Comes, Persecution Follows

After a season of spiritual encounter, scripture prepares us for what follows. In Matthew 3, Jesus is baptized and a voice from heaven declares, "This is my beloved Son." In Matthew 4, the very next chapter, he is led into the wilderness to be tested. That sequence is not an accident.

Mark 4:17 says that when tribulation or persecution arises, it arises "for the word's sake." That phrase is specific: the persecution is triggered by the word that just came. The moment God speaks something over a person's life — over their business, their ministry, their character — opposition will arise for that word's sake.

If you are not spiritually intelligent enough to recognize that this is the devil's response to what was just spoken, you will throw the word away and conclude that the meeting was not for you.

The power in the encounter is not in the occasion. The power is in the seed — the word of God itself. The preacher is only the sower. But what makes the word efficacious is the soil. And the soil is what we control.

The Four Soils — Mark 4

Mark 4:3–20

1. The Wayside

   The word is sown. Satan comes immediately and takes it away. The word never had a chance to settle because it was received as a suggestion, not a possession. It was put to the side, not in front. And Satan moves immediately — not eventually.

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2. The Stony Ground

   The word is received with gladness. There is excitement, engagement, declaration. But there is no root, because the word of God is not meeting the word of God already present in the heart. A stony heart is a heart where the word is not already at home. What was heard at the conference is not confirming anything God was doing before arrival — it is all new, all surface, all enthusiasm. When tribulation arises for the word's sake, it withers. This is what happens when people only hear the word of God in conferences. There is no underground root system.

   • If you cut hair that has roots, it grows back. You cut it, but what was already inside the head eventually surfaces again.
   • A stony heart has no roots. There is nothing underneath for the word to connect to.

3. The Thorny Ground

   The cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things enter in and choke the word. Thorns are not the enemy — they are a defense mechanism that becomes internal. They represent anything a person has made more authoritative in their life than the word of God.

   
   

   The cares of the world can choke the word of God. A person can be so overwhelmed by what they don't have that faith for what God has promised is suffocated.

4. The Good Ground

   Those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit — some thirtyfold, sixtyfold, a hundredfold. "Bear" does not mean produce. To bear is to carry. The branches do not produce the fruit; the vine does. The branches carry what the vine grows. Good ground hears, accepts, and mediates — and the meditation is what causes the carrying.

   The thirtyfold, sixtyfold, hundredfold is not a fixed divine proportion. It is proportional to how much a person practices what they heard.

Who Gets the Mystery

Mark 4:10–11 — When Jesus was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parable. He said, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom, but to those who are outside, all things come in parables."

Notice who was present. Not just the twelve. "Those around him with the twelve" — meaning the people who, after the crowd dispersed, chose to stay back and ask. They were not asking for a miracle. They were asking for understanding. They wanted to know why.

The people to whom mysteries are revealed are not the ones Jesus selected. They are the ones who selected Jesus.

Understanding is not about the "what" or the "how." Understanding is about the why. When the woman with the issue of blood was pressing through the crowd, she was not simply doing something — she was reasoning something. Her logic was: if this man is powerful as they say, and power transfers by touch, then touching him is reaching the power. The why contained the faith. That is what understanding is.

Hearing That Produces Fruit

Joshua 1:8 — This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night. Meditation is not sitting in silence. It is keeping the word on the lips — preaching it to yourself. The word does not depart from the mouth. You speak it to yourself. You preach it to yourself. And in doing so, you carry it.

The way to know that a season of teaching has truly produced something is not in the feeling during the message. It is in what happens when the word is revisited — whether instructions come.

2 Timothy 3:16 — All scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly furnished.

When God speaks, the first gift is doctrine — teaching. He will not just announce a destination; he will instruct the path. If someone is trusting God for business growth, the word that comes will not just be a declaration. It will come with instruction: learn this, develop that, change this practice, engage here. That instruction is proof of having heard.

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The Nature of Miracles — Partnership Required

Every miracle in Jesus' ministry came with an instruction — an action required before the miracle manifested. Without the action, the miracle did not happen. The instruction was not just accompaniment — it was the activation.

• Water to wine — John 2:1–11: "Fill the water pots with water."
• Feeding the five thousand — John 6:1–14: "Make the people sit down in groups of fifty."
• Healing of Naaman's leprosy — 2 Kings 5:1–14: "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times."
• Healing of the man born blind — John 9:1–7: "Go and wash in the pool of Siloam."
• The catch of fish — Luke 5:1–11, John 21:6: "Launch out into the deep" / "Cast the net on the right side."
• Raising of Lazarus: "Take away the stone." Then: "Loose him and let him go."
• The withered hand — Mark 3:1–5: "Stretch out your hand."
• The lame man at the pool — John 5: "Rise, take up your bed and walk."
• The ten lepers: "Go and show yourselves to the priest."

You have not heard from God if you have not received instruction. You have received an impression, not a word. Every word from heaven comes with commandment. Every encounter with Jesus demanded a choice.

If all that came from a teaching season was information — what was said — and not instruction — what to do — the word has not yet been received.

How the Word Becomes Fruitful

Revelation 2:1–7 shows the pattern. Jesus writes to the church of Ephesus:

• He affirms what they have done well.
• He corrects what needs to change: "You have left your first love."
• He gives instruction: "Remember from where you have fallen. Repent. Do the first works."
• He ends with: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says."

That phrase — "he who has an ear, let him hear" — is the same phrase Jesus used in Mark 4:9 after the parable of the sower. The connection is intentional. What makes a heart good ground is not capacity or intelligence. It is responsiveness to instruction.

• We heard about who Jesus is — the instruction is to go into the scriptures and find him there, in the typologies and promises of the Old Testament. Every discovery adds root. The word grows from thirtyfold to sixtyfold to hundredfold as that practice deepens.
• We heard about repentance — the instruction is to examine what is unresolved in the heart. Where there is unforgiveness, the action is reconciliation. Where there is compromise, the action is correction. That word now bears fruit in life, not just in memory.

The thirtyfold, sixtyfold, hundredfold is not God's arbitrary will. It corresponds to how much of what was heard is being practiced.