Listening generates good soil.

Jesus teaches that listening to his words (listening to him since he is The Word) generates good soil.

Matthew 13:1-9 :1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: "Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 Let anyone with ears listen!"

Matthew 13:10-17 10 Then the disciples came and asked him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" 11 He answered, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 13 The reason I speak to them in parables is that 'seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.' 14 With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says: 'You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive. 15 For this people's heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn-- and I would heal them.' 16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.

Do we ignore Jesus' teaching to listen to him?

Note:  We don't have a lot of control over our relationship with God - even though most of us want to believe we do.  But we can't control when the Holy Spirit will move in our lives or other's lives.  We can't control when the Holy Spirit will reveal the truth to us or when faith will come alive within us or others.  But Jesus indicates here that we do have control over listening.   And oddly, some how listening and faith go hand in hand.  Romans 10:17: "So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ."   And in Galatians, if we translated Paul's words literally, he actually says that we have"heard faith" when he talks about our transformation from death to life.   Listening seems to make our soil good and ready for the seeds that will be planted - listening seem to enable faith so that when the seeds are planted, the ground can support them.

There are three things that each of us need in our lives to be good listeners... to have good soil where the seeds of the Holy Spirit will grow.  We need to listen to scripture (preaching, personal Bible Study, etc), listen in prayer (the kind of prayer where we let God talk too), and  we need to listen to God reveal himself in our brothers and sisters in Christ (fellowship with other Christians who hold us accountable to Christ's words). 

Listening to the word of God and having solid soil go hand in hand.  We can't control when and how the Holy Spirit will move in our lives, but we can listen so that the soil is ready when the seeds are planted.