Tag Archives: Living Water

We Didn’t Choose Christ

01 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by in Devotional

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

John 15_5

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ~ John 15:5, ESV

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide…. ~ John 15:16, ESV

 

 

In the Jewish culture, students (disciples) traditionally choose their own Rabbis (teachers). However, Christ reverses that tradition. He does the choosing. This reversal of Jewish tradition is typical of God’s Economy—His sovereign Plan for mankind. For example, God’s Kingdom is revolutionary primarily because it is an upside down Kingdom in which the first becomes the last, or the last becomes the first; the leader becomes the servant, or the servant becomes the leader; and so forth.

Now although most of today’s college or university students can choose their postsecondary schools, professors and majors, believers in Christ still do not choose Him. They also do not choose their calling(s).

Because of His finished Work on the Cross, Christ gets to choose who gets to abide in Him. In other words, the Vine selects who He wants to be His Branches. The uncomfortable truth for many of today’s believers to swallow is that we are not called to work in Christ’s Vineyard, because of a feeling within us, or because others believe God wants us to be preachers, pastors, Sunday School teachers, and etcetera. 

The bottom line is that Father God ordains us so that we can work for Christ in His Vineyard. Then too, even though the Lord is our true Vine, it is the Holy Spirit who is our true Husbandman. As branches, whatever we do or say that glorifies God comes from the Vine—comes from Christ via the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. This Divine Truth is why we have to allow the Life of the Vine (Holy Spirit) to flow through us so that we can produce the Fruit of the Holy Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit prunes and cleanses our lives, via Living Water and Fire or His Practical Sanctification Process, this is the reason why He (Life of the Vine) and Christ (the Vine) expect us to bear much fruit.

As moral free agents, we can choose not to follow the purpose Father God has for us—we can refuse to respond to the Vine’s Divine Call and the Husbandman’s Divine Care—but to do so will cause us to forfeit our fruit-bearing position in the Vine—to be deprived of our service privilege. The point here is that the only way we will be able to produce the Fruit of the Holy Spirit is to answer the Vine’s Divine Call and then yield to the Husbandman’s Divine Care. Shalom. 

 

~ from my soon-to-be-published manuscript – Keeping It Real: Daily Renewing the Mind

Spiritually Fat Souls

22 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by in Devotional

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Nadine with Her Foshan University's Education College English Students; 2005

 

Living in Asia taught me valuable lessons that I thought I already knew very well. From the most economically impoverished, physically hungry and physically thirsty people I have ever known, I witnessed and received the God-kind of genuine love and fellowship that I never had witnessed or received from my financially better-off American brothers and sisters in Christ. These poverty-stricken individuals I fellowshipped with were blessed with spiritually fat souls! That’s why they freely shared their insufficient measures of food, drink and housing with me. More important, they also freely shared their precious time and their treasured spiritual riches.

My soul benefited greatly from the lessons their generous hospitality taught me. They showed me how deeply concerned they were about their own soul’s daily need to eat spiritual food and drink spiritual water. None was too concerned about eating daily portions of homegrown or money-bought provisions, which only could keep their physical bodies from wasting away.

In truth, no amount of money could buy the gift that satisfies our thirsty and hungry souls. That gift (eternal life—a close, intimate, personal relationship with God) is so important it is priceless! That’s why Isaiah prophesies that only the Messiah (Christ Jesus) can offer God’s priceless eternal life gift for free (Isa. 55:1). Centuries later, Jesus Christ fulfills this prophecy. His death on the Cross paid in full the high price of our eternal life gift.

Lastly, my Asian brothers and sisters showed me how being diligent about our spiritual life is the price we pay for our FREE daily portions of Living Bread and Living Water—the spiritual food and water we need to fatten up (prosper) our souls. We purchase these daily portions with our sincerest pursuit of forgiveness for our sins, our faithful acceptance of the finish work Jesus Christ fulfilled on the Cross, and our devoted hunger and thirst for God’s holiness and righteousness. This diligence is how we make our souls spiritually fat. It works as long as we never let spiritual sluggishness (mere religious desires) keep us from daily renewing our minds.

Is your soul wasting away? Is your soul getting fat off of Jesus Christ’s spiritual Bread and the Holy Spirit’s spiritual Water? Shalom.

 

“The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. ~ Prov. 13:4; cf. Isa. 55:1-2

 

 Keep it real…Live it out…Watch it work!

 

 

~ from my manuscript – Keeping It Real: Daily Renewing the Mind

Breath of God (Ruwach)

24 Thursday May 2012

Posted by in Heavenly Insights

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Breath of GOD

So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. ~ Ezekiel 37:10, KJ21

 

Just like the prophet Ezekiel lived in a time of international crisis and conflict, today’s Christian believers also live in a time of international crisis and conflict. Indeed, if September 11, 2001 taught contemporary Christian believers anything, then it was that the love of many, which includes those who are in AND out of the “CHURCH,” truly is waxing cold.

The events on September 11, 2001 also have made it clear to the genuine Body of Christ members that this increasing coldness is why they must continue to share the hope they have in their Lord’s restorative and reconciliatory power with the countless unresponsive, fallen, broken, and/or empty clay vessels, full of dry bones. Additionally, September 11, 2001 has taught the genuine Body of Christ members that they can rest assured that the indwelling and infilling Holy Spirit is transforming them into spiritually redeemed, whole creatures who have faithful, impeccable character, perfect awareness, spiritual authority and dominion, and an overwhelming brilliancy that leaves no doubt that they are the light of this world (cf. Matthew 5:14-15). As such, these faithful and obedient believers know that they must share the hope they have in the transformation that is taking place in them, a transformation that is the result of the promised saturation (outpouring) of the Breath of God, which not only has poured out upon them but also has soaked into their spirits (hearts).

The point here is that, in this present Church Age (this time of international crisis and conflict), nothing but the Breath of God (or Ruwach, which figuratively means “life”) will be able to renew, restore, and empower today’s institutional “CHURCH.” Only the Breath of God (Holy Spirit) can produce true believers who not only are able to dream dreams and see visions, but also who are able to speak a Rhema Word of “life” into the Lord’s ekklesia, as well as speak a Rhema Word of “life” into the many unresponsive, fallen, broken, and/or empty clay vessels, full of dry bones. The bottom line is that the Holy Spirit’s “life” (the Breath of God) is the God kind of “life” that creates yielded, obedient, and believing individuals who become mighty soldiers that are equipped and anointed to stand firm against the swelling numbers of this world’s unloving people.

 

Breathe on us Holy Spirit. Let Your Breath of Life refill us with Your supernatural power. Awaken afresh in us our divine purpose. Revive in us, Holy Spirit, a surrendered will that is steadfast and immovable. Keep us standing on Christ Jesus, our Rock, while we are fighting on these last days and end times’ battlefields for our Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

Taken from Heavenly Insights

Resurrected From Spiritual Death To Spiritual Life

05 Saturday May 2012

Posted by in Devotional

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Spiritual Rebirth

Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice. ~ John 5:28, ESV

  

We know that God’s Holy Spirit is the Living Water—our constant flowing source of Divine Revelation (illuminator of God’s WORD), our constant flowing source of spiritual wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and spiritual gifts, and our constant flowing source of Christ Jesus’ power, authority, and anointing. In view of this knowledge, there should be no doubt that this Living Water additionally not only continually cleanses us from all manner of defilement but also initially makes us spiritually alive.

Even though, for the most part, we indirectly hear Christ Jesus’ voice speak to us (like from off the Bible’s pages that we read, and/or from out of the mouths of Bible teachers, preachers, and disciplers), Christ Jesus first had to speak to us, indirectly or directly, before we ever could be resurrected from out of our spiritual graves (the state of being spiritually dead to God). In actuality, according to God’s written and preached Word, our Father sovereignly decided that, after His Grace and the Power of His Holy Spirit worked together to influence a positive response from us to the read or preached Word, His Grace and the Power of His Holy Spirit would work together to perform a preliminary spiritual baptism in us so that we could be resurrected from spiritual death, or separation from God.

In other words, no matter when we respond favorably to either the written or the preached Word of God, the Divine Truth is that our positive response is because of God’s Grace and His Holy Spirit’s Power. That’s right! It is because of God’s Grace and the Power of His Holy Spirit that God allows His Holy Spirit to influence our receptivity of the read, preached, and/or taught WORD of God, which is the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Furthermore, it is because of this initial act of God’s Grace and Power that His Grace and His Holy Spirit’s Power next work together to breathe life into us, again, only this time it is the “new” life that is being breathed into our spiritually dead human spirits. God, in essence, is regenerating sinners’ spirits—we are being born again from Heaven.

No one can feel this new birth while it is happening, and no one can do anything to make this new birth happen. Put differently, regeneration (rebirth; being born again from above) is solely the work of God’s Grace and the Power of His Holy Spirit.

Subsequently, the teamwork of God’s Grace and His Holy Spirit’s Power also involves giving us our measure of faith, as well as influencing our spiritual hearing (understanding), our spiritual receiving, and our spiritual trusting in our Lord’s voice, which is calling us, either directly or indirectly, unto repentance, salvation, discipleship, and sanctification. Now even though there has been much written about whether or not believers actually could hear Father God or Christ Jesus’ audible voice, the Divine Truth is that very soon, Christ Jesus will speak and His direct audible voice will be heard clearly by every one of His deceased disciples.

When He speaks to His deceased disciples with His direct audible voice, His voice will be calling them from their graves. He will be resurrecting all of the centuries of the dead in Christ saints from their physical graves (from the places on this Earth where their physical bodies were buried, no matter if they were buried in the ground, at sea, placed in mausoleums, or put in urns).  As it was with Lazarus who arose from his grave when Christ Jesus cried out to him with a LOUD voice, “…Lazarus, come forth…” (John 11:43), the dead in Christ will arise from their physical graves, wherever those graves might be, as soon as these dead in Christ hear their Bridegroom’s shout (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:16)!

However, there still will be another resurrection. The centuries of people who have rejected Christ Jesus’ call to repentance and salvation also will be “called” out of their graves to be judged and then thrown into the Lake of Fire (cf. Revelation 20:11-15). Their fate is why every believer should use most of the time he or she has left on this Earth to pant after the Living Water (to draw closer to Christ Jesus), to pay attention to His voice, to answer  “yes, Lord,” and to do God’s Perfect Will. In other words, we never can turn a deaf ear to God’s Divine Truth or His Perfect Will, because if we do, then the next time we hear Christ Jesus’ voice might be when He says to depart from Him, because He doesn’t know us (cf. Matthew 7:21-23)!  

Pouring Out Ourselves for Others

02 Friday Sep 2011

Posted by in Faith and Wisdom

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? ~ Isaiah 58:6, KJ21

and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as the noonday. ~ Isaiah 58:10, KJ21                                       

He that believeth on me…out of his [innermost being] shall flow rivers of living water. ~ John 7:38, KJ21 (bracketed words are this blogger’s emphasis)

 

Many of today’s believers fast to lose weight; or they fast to be seen of men and women, to have others check out how spiritual they look while wearing their “sackcloth and ashes”; or they fast simply because it is the “new spiritual” trend. In truth, their kind of fasting only creates religious hypocrites—people who fast just to receive God’s blessings, or just to appear righteous. Put differently, their fasting, ironically, is all about gain—gaining more money and material possessions that satisfy their personal wants; gaining more financial support or partnerships for “their” church or ministry; gaining more acceptance and attention, by becoming a celebrity of sorts; gaining more anointings; gaining more wisdom, understanding, and knowledge; gaining more power (political, economic, social, emotional, physical, and so on); gaining more spiritual gifts; et cetera.

Because our reasons for fasting are not God’s reasons for why we should fast, and because our desires usually aren’t God’s desires, consequently, we definitely need a deeper-experience fast, like the kind of fast God says we are to carry out, for the sake of others. Basically, the fast God has chosen for us is designed to keep us fasting until we develop a profound hatred for the unfair treatment of the poor and needy—until we are convicted (to be made aware of our responsibility) to defend the  right of the oppressed to be emancipated, and to provide whatever basics of life the poor and needy lack; that is, we are to fast until we are influenced by the Holy Spirit to give out of our abundance to the poor and needy so that they might become whole!

Strangely enough, God’s fast does not require that we go without food and drink for any extended period of time. On the contrary, God’s fast allows us to enjoy both temporal and spiritual food and drink, which means God will provide everything we need to sustain us while we are giving away our own spiritual, emotional, physical, and financial provisions. God Himself says that He will “…satisfy [our] soul in drought, and make fat [our] bones; and [we] shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not” (Isaiah 58:11, KJ21). In other words, unlike our kind of fast, which often is about gaining the fullness of God’s blessings JUST for ourselves, God’s fast is all about us pouring out of ourselves everything we have gained—letting everything we have received from God flow out of us, for others’ sake.

Therefore, we are not to fast so that we selfishly can use what we receive from God for our own current wants, or even our own present needs. Neither are we to fast so that we can hoard, for our own future benefit, what we have received. Instead, we fast so that we can overspend ourselves (pour out of ourselves) to such an extent that our helping others in need empties us, makes us become poor for their sake, just like our Lord “for [our] sakes…became poor, that [we] through His poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9, KJ21). For these reasons, God’s fast is one in which we abstain from unjustly and cruelly oppressing and distressing the poor and needy, abstain from physically, sexually, mentally or emotionally abusing anyone, and participate in setting free everyone who already is oppressed, distressed, and abused.

To be obedient to this kind of fast, we first must understand and believe that, with God, it is never about what we gain from Him, but rather it is about what He pours through us that matters. For this reason, God’s kind of fast requires the spiritual discipline of self-sacrifice!

We begin God’s fast by first purposing in our hearts to treat people fairly and humanely, and then by proceeding to tackle, vigorously, every kind of inequality (especially the inequalities that we ourselves might have caused). We fulfill this fast once we FREELY and willingly are giving to the poor and needy from out of our own abundance, such as: feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting the imprisoned,  housing the homeless, and so forth. These acts of kindness and love are the temporal and the eternal manifestations of the Living Water God has put inside us. This Living Water is God’s Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, spiritual gifts, supernatural power, kingdom authority, and God’s Grace, Mercy, Comfort, Righteousness, Holiness, et cetera.

In return for letting what God has put in us pour out of us for the good of others, especially those in need, God will bless the recipients of our deeper-experience fast, as well as bless us by answering our prayers. Here, it is important to note that we must understand that God’s answer to our prayers about our needs or wants is not always a repayment in kind for our obedience to and our deliberate following of His fast. To be sure, His answer to our prayers often will not be Him giving us back EXACTLY what we have poured out of ourselves for others. That is to say, our good measure that comes back pressed down, shaken together, overflowing, and poured into our laps (cf. Luke 6:38) very well could be the Light of His Face shining in our dark hours, or the dews of heaven refreshing our souls, or the rivers that never run dry; specifically, He just might bless us with a superabundance of that Living Water into which He first immersed us.

Indeed, we must realize that God only promises that we will be paid back for being a blessing to others. God never says that we will get back the same thing that we gave. Moreover, even though we are told that our measure (our motive and standard of giving . . . whether gladly or grudgingly; liberally or miserly) will be the same measure God will use when He repays us for our obedience, based on God’s economy, what we can count on, especially if we are of a giving spirit, is that He will give us His “amazing goodness.”

Put differently, God’s repayment to us for that which we gave to those who were in need more often than not is a larger amount than the amount we gave to others; therefore, God’s recompense will be of great advantage to us—either in worldly riches or heavenly treasures, or both. This truth is why our spiritual life cannot be measured by the world’s idea of success, because that which God has put inside of us (holiness, righteousness, peace, wholeness, et cetera) cannot be measured by the world’s standards. For this reason, God’s idea of success is defined by how gladly and liberally we allow Him to pour out of us what He has poured into us.

Therefore, let us fast to break every unjust CHAIN of oppression that shamefully binds the less fortunate people all over this world, realizing, first and foremost, that God’s purpose is to make us just like His beloved Son. God’s purpose is to make us people who, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, will overspend ourselves (empty ourselves of everything God has poured into us), by caring for the needs and interests of others—by putting others’ needs first. Since God and Jesus the Christ never hesitated to put our needs first, then we too must stop being people who are more concerned about promoting the New Age ideas of self-satisfaction, self-gratification, self-help, self-love, and self-interest, and become believers who are more concerned about living an altruistic lifestyle. Let us become children of God who promote the biblical ideas of self-discipline and self-sacrifice, which will be demonstrated by our pouring out of our lives for others, everything God has poured into us!

The Parables of The Growing Seed and The Mustard Seed

25 Monday Oct 2010

Posted by in Bible Study

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

… So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. …Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it. ~ Mark 4:26-32, KJV

Most teaching parables are similar to illustrated sermons about the Gospel, and the Gospel is that which announces Father God’s GOOD NEWS about His only begotten Son, Jesus the Christ, who is gathering believers in Him (in His Body), and these believers will spend eternity with Father God. However, even though Kingdom parables also teach about this same GOOD NEWS, Kingdom parables’ narratives conceal the Gospel’s Divine Truths. In other words, for the purpose of drawing out GENUINE seekers who desire to know God’s secrets/mysteries that are hidden in the Gospel, seekers of the Gospel’s Divine Truths must first solve the Kingdom parables’ riddles before they can understand the mysterious ways of God.

For those individuals who are not GENUINE seekers of the Gospel’s Divine Truths, Kingdom parables are viewed as merely unexciting anemic stories. As a result, the insincere (pretend) seekers will not dig any deeper or try any harder to uncover God’s Divine Truths. They instead will treat His Kingdom parables as jokes, or as impenetrable riddles, or as incongruities (absurdities), or as mere short stories, and so forth.

For example, on the surface, the Growing Seed mini-parable (Mark 4:26-29) seems to be a very succinct short story about a man who  properly prepares the soil into which he plants a seed. He tills the soil, plants the seed in the soil, then possibly applies nutrients to the soil, and possibly waters the soil, but after that he forgets about the seed. Then too, this very concise short story clearly points out this seed sower’s lack of influence over the growth process of his seed, which is why this man’s day-by-day routines don’t educate him about how his sown seed develops into a green leaf that rapidly changes into a full-grown plant, which then produces much grain. Furthermore, this short story seems to be about a man who, though ignorant about how grain grows, as well as a bit unconcerned about the seed’s needs, is still very aware when the grain is ripe. In fact, it is apparent that he anticipates reaping a harvest!

Therefore, the only understanding (truth) to gain from this mini-parable seems to be that the best part of this man’s initial labor is yet to come, now that the plant is ripe. The truth is that once his grain crop is harvested, this man will have plenty food to eat and/or he will make money from the sales of his grain!

A closer analysis, however, will reveal that the Kingdom of God is HERE NOW within every born again, redeemed, justified, being sanctified believer, and this Kingdom of God appears, expands, and reproduces itself by way of the intrinsic POWER that not only is within the planted seed but also within the One who cultivates the seed. For this reason, the mysterious growth of the mini-parable’s seed represents the secret ways in which God plants and increases the Kingdom of God in believers’ “hearts.”

In several Scriptures, both Jesus the Christ and the Apostle Paul make it clear that the Kingdom of God is NOT the realm of God but rather the reign or rule of God in believers’ lives. The Apostle Paul writes:

…the kingdom of God is not a matter of [getting the] food and drink [one likes], but instead it is righteousness (that state which makes a person acceptable to God) and [heart] peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. ~ Romans 14:17, AMP

Based on the apostle’s above Kingdom of God definition, this Kingdom IS anywhere and everywhere in this world where the fruit of the Kingdom of God is ruling in the “hearts” of mankind. That fruit is God’s righteousness (goodness), love, justice, peace, and joy. It should be understood here that “heart” means the center or seat of everything that is moral and spiritual—the seat of humans’ affections, desires, conscience, determination, intellect, emotions, thoughts, perceptions, understanding, reasoning powers, imagination, grief, happiness, joy, and faith.

Furthermore, since the reign or rule of God is in believers’ lives, then in Romans 14:17, the Apostle Paul also is making this salient point, which is that the Kingdom of God that is now in born again humans first was placed in God’s Holy Spirit. For this reason, spiritual or inner growth is not the result of human effort! This Divine Truth also means that the harvest mentioned in Mark 4:29, which results from this independent spiritual growth (inner growth not caused by humans), is both a gift given directly to God and a miracle. Indeed, this harvest is a type of New Testament “firstfruits,” and  “firstfruits” in the New Testament is used as a metaphor for something given in advance of something anticipated to come that will be of a greater benefit or will bring a larger “harvest.”

Like the Growing Seed mini-parable’s man, who cannot explain the mystery behind the rapid growth and development of the seed he plants, likewise, NO ONE can explain precisely how God through Jesus the Christ gets the seed planted in receptive humans’ “hearts” to produce Kingdom of God fruit, specifically, the fruit of righteousness (goodness), love, justice, peace, and joy. This fruit mainly grows within believers, mysteriously and very swiftly, but it also manifests itself right in front of believers and unbelievers’ eyes, when the children of God do the many great works that please God. Even so, just as the plant in the Growing Seed mini-parable is capable of “…bringeth forth fruit of herself…” by reproducing itself through the seed, the seed in this mini-parable also is symbolic of one of the means by which spiritual growth can be advanced.

The answer to the Kingdom of God’s growing mystery, then, is the POWER of the planted seed and the POWER of the indwelling and infilling Holy Spirit. Indeed, the Holy Spirit is the One who is inside believers applying the spiritual nutrients and pouring the Living Water in their “hearts” (the soil), the place where the seed (the Living Word of God . . . Jesus the Christ) already has been planted. Working in tandem, the Power of the seed (Living Word) and the Power of the Holy Spirit (Living Water) cause Body of Christ believers to live a lifestyle that reflects their child of God or Kingdom of God identity.

The bottom line is this: Father God is the all-important factor in this mini-parable. He is the One who makes the Kingdom of God’s spiritual growth happen, because it is His Power that is in His seed and in His Holy Spirit! For sure, it even takes the work of God’s Holy Spirit for people to have ears to hear  (understand) what thus saith the Lord!

Let there be no doubt about it. Though God uses mankind to sow the Gospel seed in this mini-parable, it is God, through His Son, His Word, and His Spirit, who causes the spiritual growth! Believers, however, are sowing the seed (spreading the Gospel), when they hand out tracts in the streets, when they have a one-on-one Gospel sharing session with an unbeliever, when they witness to lost souls about their own faith in God and in Jesus the Christ, when they publish their Christian articles online, or post relevant comments about their faith on various websites, or stream their sermons over the Internet, and so forth.

Furthermore, it is evident that Jesus the Christ will return soon for His Bride . . . His CHURCH . . . His Body of Believers . . . the gathering up of those in Him (the Rapture or Harvest of every believer in Jesus the Christ who ever lived on Earth so that each one of them can spend the seven-year Tribulation AND eternity with God). That’s why the duty of everyone who has the Kingdom of God growing within him or her is to spread/advance the Kingdom of God throughout the present world. This duty is accomplished primarily by evangelizing lost souls (leading others to Jesus the Christ) and discipling the saved souls (encouraging and edifying others in the Lord so they will remain sold out for their Lord, while they spiritually mature—ripen).

While the Growing Seed mini-parable is about God being the Power being ALL of the spiritual growth in the Kingdom of God, the Mustard Seed mini-parable is about the extent to which the Kingdom of God has been designed by God to grow. Thus, in the second mini-parable (Mark 4:30-32), the Lord paints a different picture. Here, He uses the imagery of the mustard seed. The Lord declares how in a very small and virtually invisible way the mustard seed is, generally speaking, the very tiniest of seeds planted in gardens, yet it grows into one of the largest trees on Earth (cf. Matthew 13:31-32).

The Lord then compares the growth of the tiny mustard seed to the Kingdom of God’s growth. Similarly, just as the sown extremely small mustard seed ends up becoming one of the biggest bushes (or biggest trees) in any garden—becomes a huge bush or a colossal tree with large but rigid branches that often serve as a shelter for EVERY kind of bird—the Kingdom of God also grows from essentially a small dot into a mammoth-sized realm.

Now, to the people who are NOT looking to find any deeper meanings in this Kingdom parable, this second narrative only seems to be just another familiar story about those big outcomes that result from small beginnings. However, Mark’s second mini-parable is not just about big outcomes from small beginnings. This mustard seed’s insignificant, humble beginnings that result in something gigantic not only is comparable to the growth of the Messiah’s Kingdom during Jesus the Christ’s millennial reign, but also comparable to the growth of His Body of Believers—to their outward and inward growth.

Outwardly speaking, Jesus the Christ’s initial handful of believers, 12 disciples, grows to an enormous number in the few months that followed the Lord’s death. For example, the 120 disciples on the Day of Pentecost increase to 3,000 on that same day (cf. Acts 2:41-42). Moreover, each one of the believing followers of Jesus the Christ has an unbelievable amount of influence—some even had a supernatural and natural influence. Thus, the Mustard Seed mini-parable in Mark 4:30-32 not only describes the rapid growth of worldwide Christianity as an outward sign recognized by the vast number of “physical” churches (the institutional church), but also the Mustard Seed mini-parable describes the inner spiritual growth that happens in the life of each Body of Christ member who has God’s Kingdom in him or her.

In the natural, the literal mustard seed grows independently, on its own, and depending on where it is planted and how it is cultivated it can reach ten, sometimes fifteen feet in height. However, even though a child of God’s spiritual growth also is independent, aside from the supernaturally manifested miracles, signs, and wonders that many believers are able to perform (an outward sign of inward growth), human beings really cannot correctly measure the spiritual growth that is happening in every true believer. The reason why this spiritual growth cannot be measured correctly is because this kind of growth happens inwardly via the Word of God and the Holy Spirit’s mighty workings.

Furthermore, unlike the seed that can grow, expand, and reproduce itself, the Kingdom of God cannot make itself grow, expand, and/or reproduce itself. It takes other agents to grow, expand, and/or reproduce the Kingdom of God, and those other agents, once again, are the seed (Living Word) and the Holy Spirit (Living Water). Nevertheless, what is true about the mustard seed’s small beginnings leading to gigantic ends also is not only true about the growth of Christianity but also true about each individual believer’s initial start and final finish, spiritually speaking.

Concerning the phenomenal growth of the institutional church, the early Way grew from small numbers into an exceedingly great Body of Christian believers, despite the fact that most believers weren’t demonstrating any immediate “major” visible (outward) changes. Now, even though many of the early Way observers could not visibly see another believer’s NEW NATURE, which makes it difficult to measure how much someone has grown from his or her very small beginnings, this fact didn’t stop many of these observers from concluding that so-and-so wasn’t “spiritual” enough. This misjudging is still true today. Many contemporary believers in Jesus the Christ who are observing someone they consider to be the least likely to change, are looking for immediate “major” visible (outward) changes. When this person doesn’t show any “major” outward changes, his or her observers will consider this person’s New Man conversion to be doubtful.

The irony here is that nothing delights Jesus more than to take people who seem most unlikely to be able to represent Him and then transform them into people who are so saturated by His influence that they become powerful witnesses of His transformable power. Thus, it is a very big deal when people finally astound their critics with a great outward show of their spiritual development. Until then, though, many family members in the Household of faith might not accept as a child of God those believers whose New Man conversion is considered doubtful.

Be that as it may, once the institutional church  reached the size that it is today,  there have been many believers in their local churches who often have thought that the Kingdom of God, which is represented as the mustard seed’s full-grown tree, certainly must be a wonderful blessing to all who find shelter (safety and harmony) in its “branches.” However, nothing could be further from the truth.

The Divine Truth is that the mustard plant has the tendency to intrude and mix with other plants, which is why the mustard seed should not be planted in a garden. Rather, it should be planted in a large field where it can be carefully tended to, individually.

Here’s the spiritual reason why the mustard seed should be sown in a large field. The mustard seed generally produces a plant or bush, but because the mustard plant has mixed with other plants it ends up growing beyond its originally designed sized. Therefore, now that it has become a tree with large rigid branches, it really is not a place where safety and harmony can be found, for the reference to birds (cf. Mark 4:32) signifies demons. That’s right! The mustard tree (institutional church)  is an unnatural home for demons, because “the fowls of the air” imagery that is used in v. 32 is a metaphor for Satan and his imps, who, although attracted to the seed and the shade, really perch on the mustard tree’s “branches” (church pews) because they are there to devour the seed (Word of God) [cf. The Parable of the Sower, specifically  Matthew 13:19] !

This Divine Truth about the mustard plant changing into something it never was meant to be, which is a tree, is supported by prophetic eschatology. God declares that at end of the age, when there will be a great harvest, before the Messiah’s millennial reign can begin there first will be the separating of the wheat from the tares, of the sheep from the goats, and of Israel’s friends from her enemies (cf. Joel 3:11-14; Matthew 13:24-30 and 36-42; Matthew 25:31-46; and Revelation 14:15-16 and 14:17-20).

This mustard tree, thus, represents a revival of all that was evil about Nebuchadnezzar’s tree (cf. Daniel 4:19-27). The mustard tree also symbolizes today’s institutional church that has grown beyond its originally designed limits. Furthermore, by adopting the ancient Babylonians’ false systems and those systems’ false doctrines, the institutional church has opened its doors to demonic spirits, who are sitting on pews right beside true believers.

The mustard seed’s modern day spiritual implication is as follows: Although the Gospel message has endured the test of time, too much of the unadulterated Word of God has been compromised. Secular humanism, the revival of ancient Babylonian spiritism (the belief that the dead communicate with the living; also spiritism refers to astrology, self-help, New Age, and other alternative belief systems that emphasize the spiritual aspect of life), world religions’ false doctrines, and so forth, have been mixed with the Word of God. As a result of the institutional church becoming too secular because it has grown too large (beyond its intended size), churches today also have become the breeding grounds for the “false church” . . . the apostate church!

For these reasons, it is difficult NOW for many saved and unsaved people to tell the difference between a genuine believer (a genuine sheep, or genuine wheat) and a fake believer, a pretender (a goat, or a tare). Therefore, it is easy to see why Jesus the Christ doesn’t let church “laborers” separate the wheat from the tares before the end of the age (cf. Matthew 13:28-30)!

Furthermore, those sheep and wheat who are separated at the end of the age are Tribulation Period’s survivors who have not accepted the Mark of the Beast. They are the Left Behinders who are converted by the Book of Revelation’s 144,000 Jewish evangelists, two Jewish witnesses, and the angel who is flying through the air preaching the Gospel.

Concerning the growth of the Lord’s Kingdom, when it starts, the numbers of Tribulation believers will be small compared to the huge number of believers that will be around at the end of the Lord’s millennial reign. The bottom line is this: The Lord’s Kingdom will increase swiftly, which means that the quick growth of the mustard seed not only represents spiritual growth but also represents the fast increase in population. For sure, the Messiah’s physical Kingdom will grow by leaps and bounds, naturally and spiritually.

Finally, in the Scriptures cited at the beginning of this article, it is clear to GENUINE seekers that in the mini-parable of the Growing Seed (vv. 26-29), which ONLY appears in The Gospel According to Saint Mark, that Jesus the Christ is speaking about the Kingdom of God’s growth within every born again and redeemed child of God, which is the Kingdom of God that is presently here on Earth. It also is clear to GENUINE seekers that in the mini-parable of the Mustard Seed (vv. 30-32), Jesus the Christ not only is speaking about the Kingdom of God that is presently here on Earth but also He is speaking about the Kingdom of God’s growth that happens during the Lord’s millennial reign—the Kingdom that is yet to come!

In both mini-parables, the Kingdom of God begins small but then rapidly gets bigger. The deeper message of these mini-parables, however, is that regardless of their background, believers in Jesus the Christ can become great spiritual men and women in His CHURCH and great spiritual men and women in His Kingdom, but only if they let God’s Word and Holy Spirit do His work in them!

Living Water That Satisfies Our Souls And Spirits

27 Sunday Jun 2010

Posted by in Devotional

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

One of the Feast of Tabernacles’ two outstanding ceremonies that happen on the last day of the Feast is the High Priest-led procession, at the end of which pitchers of water from the pool of Siloam are poured out at the foot of the Temple altar located in the court of the priests. The priests are pouring water out of pitchers onto the altar in symbolic remembrance of the times when God gave the wilderness Israelites water from a rock.

Thus, when Jesus the Christ, who is at the Feast of Tabernacles, stands up and proclaims that He is that Rock that was in a dry and thirsty land, He fulfills the priests’ ceremony.  There is no more need for them to repeat the procession or the pouring out of the water onto the altar, because the promised constant Living Water now flows from out of Jesus the Christ’s belly. That is to say, Jesus  the Christ is using this water metaphor to describe God’s Holy Spirit.

At the Cross, after Jesus the Christ was pierced in His side, both blood and water flowed out of Him. Thus, at His death He not only released His cleansing blood that washes away the sins of the entire world, but also He released God’s living water (the power of the Holy Spirit), which now flows from Heaven out of Jesus the Christ’s belly. Therefore, the Lord, and not humans, is the source of Living Water! Now, through Jesus the Christ, the promised Holy Spirit (Living Water) flows without end through the bodies, spirits, and souls of believers.

The Holy Spirit isn’t in believers just to dwell in them, but He also is there to perform in them the acts of insufflation (the blowing of His power-giving breath into Christians until He fills them up)  and immersion (the plunging of believers) into His Living Water (submerging them into His comforts, blessings, and spiritual gifts, which satisfy their present and eternal issues of life).

Since the issues of life flow from out of our hearts (heart = the seat of our intellect, conscience, affections, and morality), the Holy Spirit’s more-than-enough Living Water flows constantly and plenteously within our hearts so that whenever we have a need He is there to satisfy it, no matter if what we need is inward comfort (a spiritual blessing: inner  peace, rest,  or godly wisdom, understanding, and so forth), or outward comfort (a natural blessing: physical food, water, housing, clothing, etcetera, or physical deliverance, or bodily rest from our weariness).  Lastly, once the Holy Spirit fills us, He also is able to flow holiness and righteousness through us so that we can become “living” witnesses!

Have you been baptized in the Holy Spirit?  Are rivers of Living Water flowing from out of Jesus the Christ’s belly and into you? If not, seek the Rock who can end the drought in your dry and thirsty spirit and soul!  AMEN.

“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38; cf. Isaiah 12:3 and Isaiah 44:3; Ezekiel 47:1-5, 8-10; Zechariah 13:1 and Zechariah 14:8; John 4:10, 14; John 19:34; 1 Corinthians 10:4).