Paths, rocky ground and thorn bushes do not provide a good environment for cereal crops to grow and be harvested; according to Jesus (Matthew 13:18-23). Good soil is good because it has been ploughed, aerated, watered; and its nutrients have not been washed out by floods or blown away in dust storms. The soil has had work done on it to make it ready to receive the seed and allow germination without competition from aggressive weeds.
 
Jesus said that the seed (God's Word) has life in itself - in the same way that Jesus has Life in Himself (John 5:26). The seed will produce a crop when it has the opportunity to grow unhindered. The good soil represents the heart of people who are ready to hear and respond to the Lord. They are not 'good soil' because they are good or virtuous in themselves, but because they have allowed the Lord to work on them. They have been prepared to receive the message.
 
The crop is far in excess of the initial deposit. The gospel has a multiplier function with the ability to reach millions through people whom God has prepared and saved to tell others. We are not just saved to ensure our own eternal life but also to enable others to enter that same life. Each new believer should be a new sower; it is part of the work that God has given to the church (Ephesians 2:10).
 
God is at work, not only through encouraging the sowers to sow the seed, but He is also working on the soil to make it receptive. Much of His ploughing we do not see, and the person God is preparing may not understand the painful churning of outer circumstances and inner restlessness - until the seed germinates and harvest starts to be seen. Even believers experience the farmer's authority in pruning back what has been growing well, in order to produce a larger harvest (John 15:1-4). So give thanks for His work in your life and do not despise the way God has chosen to work in you (Hebrews 12:11), and through you to others.