Does the fruit tree have to do anything in order to bear fruit? I mean, does it, in itself, have any power to produce fruit? Can it produce fruit faster than its appointed season? Can it produce whatever kind of fruit it wants to produce? Why then, do we try to do anything apart from the Spirit of God? Is it not the fruit of the Spirit we are meant to bear? Then why do we strive to do good works apart from Him? The Spirit is the one who does the work, we just have to go along for the journey. We just have to surrender to the truth of who we are, who we abide in, and then we will bear much fruit!
For further reading: John 15:1-17, James 3:12, Matthew 7:15-20, Luke 6:43-45, Matthew 12:33-37, Mark 8:24, Galatians 5:22,23
You are God’s delight! He loves you. You are the reason He has done all that He has done through Christ. It was and is for you, to know the depth of His desire for you. This is truly GOOD NEWS!
Since the LORD delights in us, he has brought us into this land and given it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Num 14:8The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who saves; he rejoices over you with gladness; he quiets you by his love; he exults over you with loud singing.
Zephaniah 3:17
He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me.
Psalm 18:19
I know that You are pleased with me, for my enemy does not triumph over me.
Psalm 41:11
We love because he first loved us. I John 4:19
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 4:14-20
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Real questions to ponder: If the book of Revelation is concerning the revealing of Jesus Christ (Rev. 1:1), then why do we try to make it about the anti-christ? If it says there is a blessing for those who keep the words of the prophecy (Rev. 22:7), then why do we read about tribulation in its pages and become fearful of the future? Maybe we’ve been reading it wrong. Maybe we’ve been listening to teachers who have been reading it wrong. To see into the spiritual, we must use spiritual eyes.
I don’t know about you, but I am determined to see my Saviour’s love and goodness in every page of the Bible and get to know who He is and who I am in Him without any darkness or negativity; one could call it a second naivete.
My prayer for about a year now has been to see the way my Father sees. I promise He hears those prayers. He wants to show us who He is and who we are and who our family and friends are. He gives sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, He makes the lame to walk and heals the leper. He is alive, and He is waiting for us to seek Him.
“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
The Bible is about Jesus from cover to cover. It is about Our Father’s love for all humanity, and His desire to come and dwell among us, live in us–be in a relationship with us. Everything in the Old Testament points to Him, and everything in the New is meant to unveil our spiritual eyes to see Him and accept His gift of eternal life and the robe of righteousness He offers. It is all grace from beginning to end.
In sacrifice and offering, you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
Psalm 40:6-7
“And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.“
John 5:37-40
That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.” And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight.
Luke 24:13-31
If we read the Book and find anything in it other than Jesus and His love for humanity, then we are not reading with the eyes of the Spirit. Ask God to open your eyes to see the beauty of His Word and show you Who He is.
I want you to consider something. God came and spoke to the people of Israel from the mountain, and they were terrified of Him. They basically told God to stop talking to them. So what did He have to do? He had to speak to them through Moses. He had to give them the Law. The Law pointed to Him, but it wasn’t the plan to have a list of instructions for them (or us) to follow. The plan was that they have a relationship with Him, and that He would lead us as a Shepherd leads His flock.
He came in the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ and finally showed us Who He is and how much we mean to Him. He said, “I am the Good Shepherd. My sheep know my voice and they follow Me. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep. No one takes my life from Me, but I lay it down willingly. And if I have the authority to lay it down, I have the authority to take it up again.” (John 10:11-18)
Do you see? It is not about what we do, it is about what He has done. He died and is alive, and we have been given life through Him and with Him, that we might be led by his Spirit to verdant pastures and still waters. (Sounds like Paradise, doesn’t it?) If we have the Good Shepherd to lead us, why would we fence ourselves in with a set of laws and instructions that was only meant to reveal Him to us when He came?
The Law given through Moses was a sheepfold. (Gal 3:24)
There is no need for a sheepfold when the Good Shepherd is in our midst. (Romans 10:4)
The sheepfold helped to keep us relatively safe, but we were still susceptible to thieves and wolves. We needed a Shepherd to come and watch over us, and to save us and lead us to a new life outside the sheepfold into the wide expanse of FREEDOM!” (Romans 8:2-3, 2 Cor. 3:17)
I pray you can receive this in the Spirit of Whom it has been given. I want to share the beauty that God is sharing with me. I have been in religious circles all my life. I have been in the Protestant world, the Jewish/Messianic world, and even dipped my toes in Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox streams. Some of the doctrines and traditions are so beautiful within these circles. Yet, they are not HIM! And He is MORE BEAUTIFUL, MORE LOVELY than all of them combined!
By the Grace of God, He kept taking everything away from me that I was using as a replacement for His presence and His voice, and only when I felt boxed in, did I finally surrender and say, “Okay, then, what is it I am supposed to be doing?”
“There is nothing that you can do that I haven’t already done. Follow Me. Be with Me. Sit here at my feet and learn from Me; I am humble of heart; Take my yoke, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light, and you will find rest for your soul.” See how great is the Father’s love is?
And so I pray, “I will not move unless You move. I will follow You.”
A Bell and a Pomegranate 