Fire On Your Head

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.” (Psalm 1:1-4)

A tree–and pretty much all plants and vegetation in general–need several things in order to grow and produce their corresponding fruit: proper soil, water, and sunlight. If you water it too much and/or only give it water, then it will get waterlogged and die. If you don’t give it any, and it only gets heat and sunlight, also, it will die.  But the soil also needs to be in correct condition.  For example of this, the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 ) details the different outcomes of having the seed fall on different types of ground.  In Psalm 1 we’re given a few contrasts between the righteous and the wicked which I’d like to focus on.   The man who delights in the law of the Lord is contrasted with the man who doesn’t, but walks in the counsel of the wicked and sits in the seat of the scornful.  Here we’re told not that the man who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night is not like a seed, but how he’s like a tree planted by streams of living water.  The man of wickedness, like a leaf that withers.

It stands to reason that if the righteous man is the one who grows, and prospers, it would be necessary to know how the he does so.  Therefore we need to be delighting in the law of the Lord if we’re to prosper and be blessed in all areas of righteousness–through both the rhema revelation and the logos written Word, studying it, getting into it deep and sinking our roots deep into it.   Only from having these conditions in place in our own lives, will we be able to extract the image from the seed, the Word of God.  The man who does this, yields fruit in season, and in all that he does he prospers.  It’s also necessary to realize is that one must to do this regularly, as indicated in the words ‘day and night’.  As the saying goes, an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but not if you only eat one apple and nothing else in the course of a day!

First, a little bit about my approach to reading/studying/interpreting the Bible:  since all Scripture is God-inspired,  then the meaning of one passage is tied into the one before it and breeds the meaning of the one following.   All the parables, teachings and stories are like the strokes of a much larger painting.  All of it ties together.  Therefore, passages like Psalm 1 don’t require a lot of scholarly study to understand, and if we just read the whole thing in context we can understand the individual verses contained therein.  As good as it is to memorize individual Scripture verses, I think it’s even better to meditate on entire chapters of Scripture and entire stories or parables than just individual verses.  Doing so helps avoid accidentally (or intentionally) lifting sentences out of context.

So let’s have at it:  if a blessed man walks not in the counsel of the wicked, and all the things detailed in the first two verses, then that means the unrighteous man does the opposite.  If a righteous man is like a tree firmly planted, then a wicked person is not (I know, deep revelation, but bear with me).  And if an unrighteous person is not getting his counsel from the law of the Lord then by necessity he’s getting his counsel somewhere else –as James 3:13-18 explains, from below.  And by ‘below’, I don’t mean the ground, but the pit of hell.

We read in passages like Luke 6:43-44 that no good tree bears bad fruit, and vice versa.  There’s only two options, good or bad, fruitful or unfruitful, righteous or wicked, good fruit or bad fruit.  That which is below or that which is from above.  A wicked person who is not firmly planted near the streams of living water is not going to yield fruit as though he were firmly planted in good soil.  Verse 45 goes on to say that the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.   Therefore, it’s no wonder the very next thing Jesus proceeds to teach here in Luke 6 is about building your house on a rock so that it withstands the storm.  The idea of building and construction is linked to sowing, reaping, growing and harvesting in this context.  The fact Luke writes them one immediately following the other in his Gospel allows us to assume they are a part of the same flow of thought Jesus was teaching here.

“Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 6:47-49)

For years I read that passage of Scripture as though it were talking about the believer and the unbeliever, the righteous versus the unrighteous.  However, both individuals heard, but only one did what he heard, the other didn’t, and the storms and cares of this life knocked the structure down.

So why am I saying all that, and how exactly do we extract the content of the incorruptible seed of Christ in us?  Those passages then being a loose framework for us to work with provide some steps for obtaining revelation knowledge and extracting the image from the seed :

1) Put into practice what you learn from the Word of Christ

This is of the utmost importance in growing in Him and extracting revelation knowledge from the seed.  In receiving the implanted word, James 1:21-25 talks of making sure to be doers of the Word of Christ, which would be building your house on the rock, versus being a listener only–building on sandy foundations.  One person extracts the image from inside the seed BY obeying what Christ teaches and the other didn’t and the ruin of his house was great.

“But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” (James 1:25)

2) Submit to fiery trials in your life

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4)

Under circumstances like heat, and fiery trials in life, we’re capable of having squeezed out of us just what’s really inside our hearts. It is these moments that reveal our true character. Sometimes the greatest opportunity for our faith to grow, is from under pressure, and remember, your faith has no perishing point (1 Peter 1:7).  The light of the sun is vital and a crucial component to the growth of any vegetation–the same way muscle doesn’t grow except under resistance.  But your true, tried, and tested genuine faith will survive the heat, and you will be refined and made purer, and steadfastness is produced in your life the way fruit grows from the tree planted by that stream of living water.

3) Create the right conditions in your life for the growth

Like I’ve already mentioned, certain conditions need to be right for the seed to sprout and germinate properly.  We see this exact same concept exemplified in the parable of the sower where the same seed is scattered in each instance, but the conditions are different, and the seed that sprouted up immediately is the one that withers and dies under the heat–the pressure and trials of life.  The soil of our hearts has to be right, or else the seed doesn’t go deep and develop any roots.  You can’t have too much sunlight, and yet can’t have too little.  You can’t have too much water, yet you can’t have too little.

Likewise, if you have too shallow of soil, the roots can’t grow deep.  Several years ago for my birthday when I was living as a missionary in Holland, some dear Dutch sisters gave me a vetplante.  I’m by no means an expert on plants and flowers, but it had very thick leaves and had an interesting ‘rubber’ like texture.  They gave it to me in a small pot, and told me it could go weeks without being watered, so that way I wouldn’t have to worry about watering it every day or having it die if I left for a few days.  Not only that, but if I put it in a larger bowl or pot, the plant would grow even larger.  Such is the case with our lives–we can only dig our roots as deep as how much room we have to grow in, and without deep roots, we’ll not have much fruit to blossom where we’re planted.

I could write a whole post on just what is needed to break up the fallow ground of one’s heart, but I think this article here that I stumbled across does an excellent job.

4) Don’t fragment the seed

The seed itself also has to be left in tact.  Nobody who knows a thing or two about farming would take a seed and split it into pieces smaller than it already is, and then sow each piece and expect a bigger harvest.  Nor would they expect partial incomplete harvest, because none would be obtained.  Why?  The image in the seed would have been destroyed by splitting and dividing it.  You can’t sow just the part of the seed responsible for leaves, and then just the part of the seed responsible for fruit, and just the part of the seed that will be responsible for wood, and expect to grow any of those components independent of the other. They are all a part of the same package.  Likewise it is with the heavenly seed, the Word of God.  We can’t add to it or take away from it.  We can’t split up any of its aspects and over-emphasize one component over the other. It all works and accomplishes something together.  We sow it as it is. The Holy Spirit will work with the written text of the Bible He authored.

5) Confess and Speak the Word

To repeat, Luke 6:45 states that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.   There’s a correlation between what someone believes & thinks in their heart, and what they choose to speak out.  Simply put, confession is a statement of your beliefs.

Ephesians 5: 18b- 20 states:

“Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”

So what are you saying with your mouth?  I recommend this previous article for further Bible study on speaking and meditating on the Word of God.  If you’re storing the Word of God in your heart, you’re off to a good start in terms of stuff that you’ll be able to pull out of it and confess with your mouth based on both memory and from the Holy Spirit having something in you to draw upon.

6) Pray in tongues & Allow the Holy Spirit to work Through You

Jesus said Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ’Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ (John 7:38)  He was talking about the Holy Spirit, who ‘waters’ this seed–Word of God in us, and supplies the power to bring it to fruition.  All that you need to live holy and grow in Christ is contained in that seed.  Again, the Holy Spirit will work with the written text of the Bible He authored.

In conclusion, this list is by no means exhaustive, nor are spiritual disciplines in the Word walk limited to just these things listed, but I thought those things would help you out with unpacking the content of the faith seed.

If you’ve stumbled across this article and have never visited this site before and would like to go deeper into some of the material covered in this post further–besides the many hyperlinks throughout this article–the following are some previous posts that go into more detail:

What are You Feeding Your Tree?,  Treasures of the Heart, How’s Your Connection?, The Spirit of Truth

And please forgive me if my posts lately have had more links than a Polish sausage factory.  I just feel that these issues of personal discipline are of significant importance and I want to draw attention to other places where I covered this stuff so my individual articles aren’t too long.

Well it’s Friday night before the first day of this year’s summer school and this will probably be the final blog entry I’m able to pen—err, type before a little hiatus while I’ve got limited internet access. I’m writing this at the Firehouse after a lengthy time of praying and making full use of my iPod before arriving here. In fact God’s spoken to me or made spiritual concepts come alive to me lately through my MacBook and iPod.

I’ve been using my Apple MacBook for a few months now, and I’m still getting used to the differences between Apple and Microsoft. No, I’m not just going on about my MacBook, I AM making a point and heading to a spiritual application with this! There’s vast differences, and as a Dutch computer engineer at the HRO told me recently, the “architecture” of an Apple computer is totally different than that on Microsoft. When you’ve had many laptops like me (I think the count was 4 in 6 years), and all of them have had Windows operating system on them, and then buying a MacBook and using Apple’s OS Tiger system, you find is like entering a whole other world and re-learning how to use a laptop computer. You have to forget some things you’re used to, and frankly, learn how to use a better computer. How many Appler users can I get an amen from on that one?

How many believers are like this analogy?

When we first get saved, we aren’t changed overnight. We go from darkness to light, positionally, yes. But thought and behavior patterns that have been years in the making and long-established, aren’t just changed the instant we pray a sinner’s prayer and dedicate our lives to Jesus. We grow. Things are gradual—the seed is planted and with proper care, watering, nurturing, and cutting out of your life the old destructive habits, you gradually grow strong and sink your spiritual roots deep into God.

Have you ever noticed that?

I’ve known people who’ve been so radically affected by previous pre-conversion lifestyle choices, that years after they’ve gotten saved, they’re still affected by the thoughts, and making decisions through the eyeglasses or filters of their past. How many Mac users out there have tried figuring out how to do something on your Mac the same way you used to on your old Windows machine? The way files are stored is totally different. The way things are organized takes some getting used to. In Christ, you are a NEW creation, the old has passed and all things have become new (2 Cor 5:17). Get used to it.

If you’ve been radically saved from a lifestyle of all manner of rank sin, and gotten saved, it took some “getting used to” and a HECK of a lot of mind renewing (Romans 12:1-2). But I’m sure if someone’s first computer was a Mac, and it was all they knew and were experienced with, and then someone put a Windows computer in front of them, they’d have a hard time understanding how come things work (or don’t work) the way they do.

“Why do I get error messages all the time?”

“Why does this thing keep crashing.”

“How come this thing works so slow?”

“What are spyware and viruses?”

Can you imagine, in a spiritual sense, if you were an angel or some kind of human being who had lived in heaven for about a thousand years, and then came to earth and operated in the realm of human flesh?

“What’s a sickness or a disease?”

“Why do I suddenly after about 15 hours need to close my eyes and lay down—sleep? What’s that?”

And while I’m at it, we’re told to pray for God’s will to be done on earth AS it is in heaven (Matthew 6:9-14). What does that look like exactly?

I recently got an iPod, and you plug the thing into your computer—in my case, a Macbook, just in case that part was lost on you so far—and you download files onto it, primarily people use it for music, and download songs in a program called iTunes. The transfer takes place directly from the computer, and onto the iPod device. If you decide to delete something from your iTunes, then the next time you synchronize your iPod with your iTunes, it will erase the song from your iPod as well. If you add new things to a play list, then as you synchronize your iPod, it will add those files to itself as well.

How many of you are continuously synchronizing yourself with the heavenly realm?

I was walking around a corner on the Nieuwe Binneweg recently (a major busy street in Rotterdam the Firehouse is near) and listening to my new iPod when it hit me like a ton of bricks—curiosity as to how much ministry goes on in the name of the Father, but is not in any way originated or birthed in Him.

All of us reading this can appreciate this thought—how many of us can honestly say we’ve NEVER ever–since the day we got saved–messed up and done something thinking it was God’s will but had no basis in Him whatsoever until we found out after the fact or through trial and error? How many people are building their own ministries, in the name of God in name only, but not with His Spirit? We’ve all done it—gone about our own business for a while, asking God to bless something we thought was a good idea or that we figured there’s no way He would not be against, and then simply spent 5 minutes asking Him to put His blessing on it after we’ve already gone about our own plans—but never finding out if it was His will in the first place. How much “ministry” going on in the Church today is a big waste of time? I am sad to say, probably lots from what I’ve seen and experienced. Much damage has been done in countless lives and ministries from such an attitude as I described.

Are you in sync with Jesus?

If one goes a long time with their iPod, and doesn’t syncronize it with their computer, it takes longer to accomplish when you finally do it. But when you are doing it daily, or often and perpetually, then it just takes a moment. When you pray, is it once in a while, and only talking AT God and bringing your requests to Him? Or do you ever sit and listen, and let Him download of His Spirit into yours?

Just pray a lot in the Spirit and read your Bible lots, and you’ll experience something from other “Christians” for yourself—when you are constantly synchronizing yourself with the heavenly source, then people who aren’t doing so for themselves start thinking you’re weird. The ones who only do a little bit of it once a week—attend a sermon or two here and there, but otherwise have no functional relational experience with the Father, Son or Spirit for themselves start thinking YOU are the one out of sync, because you start differentiating yourself from the status quo. You slowly, but surely, will no longer fit into the system or the consensus. You know who I’m talking about: pew warmers will start telling you to chill out, and tell you to just join the majority who do no such synchronizing, and go with the flow.

If you leave your iPod unplugged from your source for two long, all the while making constant changes or deletions to your music library, eventually the two are out of whack with each other. When we are out of whack with the Father, HE is not the one who changes, capiche? Get yourself plugged in.

“We’re all fine the way we are.” The majority say to you.

“God only speaks to prophets—who are you to think you hear from God?”

People who voluntarily stay out of proper sync with the Father usually find it insulting if you tell them what you are accessing. When they miss out on the awesome realities they could encounter for themselves if only they wanted to, they will slander and willfully misunderstand you because you contradict their old out-dated downloads.

I don’t know exactly how that ties into Macbooks or iPods, but they made a reality clear to me this week.

I hope you all are blessed and I’ll see some of you at the summer school.