Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables?
~ Ezekiel 20:49 ~
The language of the Spirit is proverbs and parables, which are stories metaphorically speaking. In parables and proverbs is how the Spirit brings the word of truth unto the world, God so loved the world. To learn more about Spirit language, we have taken inserts from John, Matthew, Psalms, and Mark.
Jesus speaks and teaches in parables
John chapter 16: verses 25 – 29
25. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.
26. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:
27. For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.
28. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.
29. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb.
Note (1): The first words that the disciples heard Jesus speak were “follow me”; but heard proverbs and parables taught to them. The proverb here in John chapter 16, is found in verse 21; “A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world”. Now look at verse 25; These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.
Note (2): John declares that God so loved the world in 3:16, but note where the world (eternity) is; it’s in our heart. Ecclesiastics (3:11) He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
Matthew chapter 13: verses 33 – 35
33 Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
34. All these things spake Jesus unto the multitudes in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them:
35. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
Verse 35 of Matthew listed above, is a direct quote from Psalms 78. When the Lords’ mouth is being referenced, then a parable is being spoken (revealed).
Psalms 78 Maschil of Aspah: verses 1 – 4:
1. Maschil of Asaph. Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
3. Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4. We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
Psalms give reference to a parable as to “uttering dark sayings of old”.
And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded ‘all things’ to his disciples.
~ Mark 4:33,34 ~
In the parable comes the word of truth to us. Here in Mark, Jesus expounded (interpreted) the parable (“all things”) to the disciples, but not to the multitude.
Note (3): “All things” is a phrase, a short sentence. “All things” mean all the works and words of God revealed by the Christ of the prophets and apostles. John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you ‘all things’, and bring ‘all things’ to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Through the parables, the Lord is revealing the condition and state of mind of the heart. The word of the Lord is hidden within the parable story. Although the parable is not understood, there is still a true word from heaven within it.
The Lord speaks to us through parables because there is misperception working in the thought realm. The desire of God is to bring the heart out of a dark place of wrong perceptions and thoughts that bring the mental torment.
God’s desire is to bring the heart to a place of peace and understanding. This word in the parable is referred to as the doctrine of Christ, as we see here in the gospel of Mark.
Parables are Jesus Doctrine
Mark 4: verses 1 – 3
1. And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.
2. And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,
3. Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow.
Note (4): Spirit speaks in symbolic language to the world. The images and symbols never change in meaning (what it represents, its metaphor). The sower is the Son of man; the seed is the word of God, so the pattern of whom the sower is and what the seed is, never a change when Spirit speaks.
“The seed is the word of God” is the same as ‘Now the parable is’.
Matthew 13:37 He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man.
Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
~ Luke 8:11 ~