The Holy One calls to me this morning. I am thankful to be reminded that as a
Christian we never arrive at a place of perfection in and of ourselves. The pressure would be too great because
failure in our flesh is inevitable. I
am thankful that I know the Lord and understand His rebukes as “loving training
for reigning” at some future time.
When pride rears its ugly head, I can count on Him to let
all the air out and bring me back to reality.
Today is one of those days. Rebuke may be a hard word for some but it
conveys a sharp reprimand, or charge or admonishment and as a current day
disciple of Christ, He has all authority as Master and Lord to rebuke,
admonish, charge or reprimand me as He surveys my reaction to life challenges.
His words today bring conviction, “The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them”.
The back drop of this conversation has been a personal study
on the account of the fig tree that withered in Matt 21:18-22 NKJV:
“Now the morning as
He returned to the city, He was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, He
came to it and found nothing on it but leaves and said to it "Let no fruit
grow on you ever again” Immediately the fig tree withered. . And when the disciples saw it they marveled,
saying, "How did the fig tree wither away so soon?"
So Jesus answered and said to them, "Assuredly, I say
to you that if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was
done to that fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be
cast into the sea' , it will be done".
And whatever you ask in prayer believing you will receive."
At the first pass
through, this is such a powerful promise for answered prayer. The question we all have is how can we have
such confidence in our prayers? When we
read about the life of Christ, we learn He spend long hours in prayer. I believe He was always asking the Father how
to handle whatever crossed his path in any given day. That is quite different than we pray most of
the time.
He said that He only did what He saw the Father do and He
only said what He heard the Father say.
I believe that their unity of purpose and method was the power behind
the miraculous acts The Son of God executed while on earth.
With the Word telling us that the weapons of our warfare are
not carnal but Divine, I see that this situation with the withered fig tree may
be an example of that Divine weapon and is one of a spoken word. Words can be and do bring blessing and also can
be and do bring curses. This should open our eyes to the fact that Jesus called
this fruitless fig to wither and then used it as a lesson on the power we
possess.
My thoughts go running to all the evil around us. Much can be gleaned from this account and
lesson. There are many things in life
that this fruitless fig tree symbolically represents. I think about the evil we are up
against. I think about all the
"fruitless fig trees" there are.
Systems and organizations and people who look like it/they should offer
nourishment or provide an expectation that betray the trust or fail to provide
for the expectation they represent. We are facing off with dangerous deceptions
as well as those things providing false hope.
I believe that part of what grieves the heart of God is when
His people see these "fruitless figs" and allow them to continue to flourish. Jesus stopped his journey and cursed this
tree that looked like it should provide an answer to a hunger. He found it was nothing but good looking
leaves when its function was to provide fruit to satisfy that hunger.
I begin making a mental list of all the fruitless figs I
should and can call to wither. But His
rebuke stops me from saddling up my warrior horse and riding into the field of
battle today. More and deeper thoughts
must be undertaken and shared with my Heavenly Counselor before I take up this
Divine weapon in the battle.
I take note that what stands in the way called
"doubt" is also a word that means desert, withdraw, waver, hesitate
and oppose. It is an imperative that we move and operate
under the ruling authority of the Holy Spirit when we undertake to “curse” what
we interpret/discern to be a “fruitless fig tree”.
All our thoughts and actions as a Christian must be those of
a servant of the Most High God. We must
never undertake a calling or action that contradicts the eternal purpose of our
Lord and Savior.
The Holy One has taken me to His Word and the Lord’s rebuke
of the disciples when they asked if they should bring down fire upon those who
rejected Him in Luke 9:55. “But He
turned and rebuked them and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you
are of. To discern we must have the
counsel of the Holy One within. Our only way of discerning the real difference between good and evil is to surrender our thoughts and feelings to the Holy Spirit who will lead us into all truth.
We are never to undertake the use of so powerful a weapon without the directive of the Lord. He alone has the knowledge of how and when it is to be applied in the proper way. And yes, I have seen some fruitless fig trees wither.
No comments:
Post a Comment