Dry Seeds Are for the Birds

November 19th, 2025

By: David Hoskins

Matthew 13:3-4 (NIV)

3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.

The seeds in the parable represent the revelation of the kingdom.  How disappointing for our sowing to be wasted.  We must be wise in our sowing so that we see a true harvest.  

As leaders, we need to pay attention to how the seeds we are sowing are connecting with the ground we are sowing into.  

I am concerned with ministries that host big-name conferences every other month who are only in the business of planting seeds and watering none of them.  It is true that some plant and others water.  Those two dynamics in the body often come from different graces and sometimes even different places, but is it possible to plant too many dry lifeless seeds without ever seeing the life within them reach viability?  I think so…

And for what reason?  Is it an offering we need?  Or do we think that revelation is what is lacking?  I think not…

1 Corinthians 3:6-8 (NIV)

6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.

It’s true we can cast off restraint for lack of revelation but in many places I do not see a lack of revelation.  We are often drowning in revelation being puffed up in knowledge while producing very little fruit of the kingdom in or through our lives.  

I think part of our problem is that we need the ones who plant to know who is watering and more importantly, both need to have the same purpose.   It is for harvest that the sower and the waterer are working toward.  “One Purpose”

Otherwise, we are simply laboring in lifeless fields.  It could be why the tares have so much place,  but that is for another day.  

I believe sowers often start with the best of intentions but intentions can be short-sighted.  

Short-sighted sowers can leave those who are in pursuit of the tangible fruit with their hope deferred.  

Sowing the same seeds over and over into the same field can be futile if we are not careful.  And then we wonder why our ministries and cities look the same.  

I am not against conferences or gatherings.  What I am saying is, let’s consider releasing things in season and to those who can labor with the word.  Relationship is often what is lacking as we invite guests to raise our children.  There must be a better path.  

It is as if we have first-class quarterbacks releasing awesome passes to the masses but few are catching the balls and running with them.  We need leaders who know what it looks like to catch the ball and run with us until we gain a score.  And we need leaders who know who they are throwing the ball to as well.  We need leaders who know they are on our team and that we are on theirs.  

Some things to consider:

1. Please know the ground you are sowing into 

2. Please make sure the seeds you sow get watered 

3. Evangelists need teachers and pastors to water that seed

4. Prophets need pastors, teachers, and apostles to water that seed

5. Apostles need to build more than a fan club

6. Prophets need to tether themselves to apostles and vice versa.  

7. Leaders within regions need to forge ways to work in symphony with one another.  

The Five-Fold ministry was designed by Christ to work together within territory. My concern is that we are engaging ministry in such a fragmented way that fruitfulness is escaping us.

Let’s think beyond the offering, making a name for ourselves, or just staying busy with ministry.   Let’s move toward unlocking the kingdom and developing the living stones to be fitly joined together into this spiritual house.  Let’s think fruit and harvest as well for without it we are just playing church.  These are cyclical realities that require stewardship rather than a one-event pony show.  Even if it’s an excellent pony show.  

The body does not need the latest and greatest sermon or revelation unless there are also those willing to get in the trenches to make sure the seeds are watered well and producing kingdom.

It is for this reason that I commit a considerable portion of my time to getting in the trenches and helping people and ministries to water the seeds that will produce a harvest and revival.  We must get in the trenches and work with the development of new wineskins in our regions which can preserve and distribute the new wine.  We need a perpetual flow and not just a touch. Can I get an amen?

Matthew 9:17 (NIV)

17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

I have noticed a phenomenon in the conference circuits of our day.   I am speaking of the many theorists being given pulpit time because they have written a book.  It is my conviction that we need more practitioners than theorists to get this job done.   You understand I’m not saying everyone who writes a book is a theorist, but I have noticed that people who write books are typically considered experts on their subject whether they are or not.  The truth is that many of them have never built anything but we esteem them as if they have.  We are to know those who labor among us.  

1 Thessalonians 5:12 (KJV)

12 And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;

Is it possible that we have strangers in the pulpit?  I think so.  

There indeed are some who plant and often others who water, but any farmer can tell you one without the other is very short-sighted and possibly more harmful than good.  

Let’s work smarter.  God brings an increase as we do our part.   We all want to see harvest but discipling the nations must be our end game.  

Conference speakers need to collaborate with the places they minister to.  I don’t see the apostles and prophets of old functioning as guest ministers in the regions that they served.  There was much more to it than doing a gig.  

The gospel of the kingdom is a very encompassing gospel.  It takes all of the Five-Fold working together within territory to see it functioning as it should.  

Luke 10:2 (NIV)

2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

There should be more than dry seeds for our labor if we desire the leavening effect of the kingdom to arise in our cities.

Do not let the birds steal the seeds of the kingdom.  They are precious and are designed to grow and produce a harvest.  

God is creating a city on a hill.  We can do better.  

Luke 13:18-19 (NASB)

18 So He was saying, “What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? 19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden; and it grew and became a tree, and THE BIRDS OF THE AIR NESTED IN ITS BRANCHES.”

The good thing is that it is Jesus who provides seed for the sower.  Hopefully, we will not run out of seed before the sowers gain a full understanding of what the seed is truly for.  

Is it to build a ministry?

Is it to make a name?

Is it about me at all?

Or is it for a kingdom harvest the likes of which this world has never seen?

1 Corinthians 3:7 (NIV)

7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 

We are laborers in his vineyard, and we need to know what it means to work together to produce His harvest.  The zeal of the Lord is on our side.  We can do this…

What is happening is not evil or even bad it’s just dumb.  We can do better.  We must strive to come into relational maturity unto a perfect man.  It is our future.  

Ephesians 4:13 (NASB)

13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.