The Tree of Life...

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God has a goal for His saints. It is that they become trees of life—life-giving spirits, as Paul says. Most of mankind is spiritually dead. Among mankind there are people who have received the atonement through the blood of the cross and have been touched with eternal life. Their goal now is to press forward each day, obeying Christ implicitly so they may receive more of God’s Life.

(6/17/2007) The Lord Jesus Christ is the Tree of Life. He was the Tree of Life in the middle of the Garden of Eden. Whoever eats of His fruit, to think in terms of an allegory, will receive eternal life, the Life of God, the Holy Spirit. Now the Tree of Life is in Paradise.

It is God’s will that from the roots of Christ grow up more trees of life, more available fruit for people who need eternal life. This is why the Scripture says, "The Spirit and the Bride say ‘come.’" The Spirit says come because the Life of God is in Him. The Bride says come because God’s Throne has been established in her and she has become the source of God’s life.

Today the challenge directed at us who have been saved and received a portion of God’s Spirit is to press forward into the Spirit of God until we become trees of life from which needy people can receive the Life of Christ. The forty-seventh chapter of the Book of Ezekiel describes a person who goes from waters to the ankles, the knees, the hips, and finally waters to swim in. Then he stands by the River of Life so that eternal life might flow to the dead sea of mankind.

We have to lay hold on eternal life, as Paul charged Timothy. Each day provides an opportunity to choose to obey Christ and thus be given to eat of the Tree of Life. So each day we make progress toward the time when we can be a tree of life. In fact, we can be a tree of life for someone today, if we will follow Christ closely.

You may notice, in the twenty-second chapter of the Book of Revelation, the Tree of Life standing on each side of the River of Life. Since one tree cannot be on two sides of the River, we conclude we are speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ and those trees growing out from Him. The trees growing out from Christ are those who are living by His body and blood today. His body and blood are eternal life.

Now, here is an interesting thought. These trees of life are "bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding their fruit every month.

I have given some thought and prayer to each of these crops, and the following is what I have come up with . See if you agree with some of these.

The first and most important fruit of eternal life is to love God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind. To not love God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind is spiritual death.

A second important fruit of life is to love our neighbour as ourselves. To not have this attitude is to live in the death of hatred, animosity, revenge, unforgiveness, bitterness, meanness, malice, and so forth.

A third fruit from the Tree of Life is joy. When we are full of the Spirit of God we have joy. To not live in the Spirit is to be miserable, seeking joy through immorality, drugs, alcohol, or some other source.

A fourth fruit from the Tree may be courage. Without courage it is impossible to please God. We are living in the midst of the conflict of the ages, the conflict between good and evil. The fearful end up in the Lake of Fire. Christ will give us His courage if we ask.

A fifth fruit is faith. By faith I am not speaking of subscription to a Statement of Faith, an adherence to theological statements, but rather of our assessment of God’s Character. Is God really faithful? Will He actually bring us to joy? Can He be counted on in our time of trouble and peril? To not believe in God’s goodness and faithfulness is spiritual death.

A sixth fruit is holiness, spiritual cleanliness. We of the Pentecostal persuasion used to place an emphasis on holy living. This thought seems to have been abandoned, and the believers have no guidelines in many instance. Thus the young people drink beer, smoke cigarettes, go to movies that include four-letter words, sexual innuendos, and worse. God will never accept this! It is death!

A seventh fruit of life is truth. Our world today is one huge lie. The emphasis is on money, sexual intercourse, covetousness, violence, and independence of thought and action. That which God abominates is exalted. That which God honours is despised. The nations, particularly the wealthy nations of the West, are living in spiritual death.

An eighth fruit self-control. Laws that used to control human behaviour are being removed by the various governments so people can live undisciplined lives. Lack of self-control is a fast track to physical destruction and spiritual death.

A ninth fruit is humility. God loves a meek, quiet spirit The opposite of humility is pride and arrogance. Pride is of the nature of Satan. It is not in keeping with the image of God, who want us to walk humbly with Him. It is spiritual death.

A tenth fruit may be that of contentment. God is pleased when we learn to be content in the situations in which we are placed. We always should pray for what we desire. However, the ultimate prayer is, "Your will be done." Having prayed this we are to practice contentment in our present circumstances. To not be content is to live in spiritual death.

An eleventh fruit is the love of mercy. God is merciful. God is never slack in His exercise of righteous judgment, but He tempers His actions with mercy according to His awareness of every contributing circumstance. Today the idea of God’s mercy is misplaced. It is translated as a weak kind of fleshly love that does not support His Word and neglects of exercise judgment when stern judgment is warranted. This misunderstanding of God’s merciful Nature is leading numerous believers to destruction. True mercy is of God’s image, and the believer who is harsh in his judgment of others is in spiritual death, and will himself experience judgment without mercy.

A twelfth fruit is obedience to God. Disobedience to God is spiritual death. God has given Jesus Christ to be our lawful King. Whoever does obey Christ the Lord will never be given citizenship in the new world of righteousness. He or she is doomed to spiritual darkness and death.

You may find other virtues that you feel are more to the essence of eternal life. The idea is, if we will obey God every day until we are in "waters to swim in," we will be able to provide people who come to us with one or more of these forms of spiritual life. We can instruct people in the ways of life, and we also can lay hands on them and ask the Lord to fill them with love for God, or for their neighbour, or for joy, or for faith, or any of the other forms of eternal life.

We can minister to people today with whatever life we have, and keep looking forward to the day when we can stand with the Spirit and say, "Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life."

You can hear the morning sermon at morning. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

You can hear the evening sermon at evening. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

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