A Good Tree Brings Forth Good Fruit
Ezekiel 47: 1 Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.
2 Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side.
3 And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles.
4 Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins.
5 Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.
6 And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river.
7 Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.
8 Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.
9 And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh.
10 And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.
11 But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.
12 And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.
This is not a message for your physical fleshly man. This message is for your spirit man and it contains a spiritual language.
Ø Water = the word of the Holy Spirit
Ø River = the moving of the Holy Spirit
Before any tree can bear fruit it must start with a seed. The seed must be planted in the earth where the crushing of the earth around it causes the seed to break open and a new tree is born. A good seed, planted in good soil, will grow a strong tree that will bear good fruit.
The root of the tree takes all of it’s nourishment from the ground, but the fruit will ripen apart from the root with only the light of the sun to ripen it.
Jeremiah 1: 9 Then the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me: "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.
10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant."
11 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Jeremiah, what do you see?" And I said, "I see a branch of an almond tree."
12 Then the LORD said to me, "You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word."
The almond budding reminds us of Aaron’s rod that budded in the wilderness with Moses.
Ø God was telling the people of Israel
Ø God was telling Jeremiah that He was ready to perform His word.
Ø God is telling us that we must “root out and pull down” every stronghold around us.
Ø We must “destroy and throw down” every bad root that has taken hold in us.
Ø He is telling us that we must be ready to “build and to plant” again in these newly empty fields.
After bad roots are destroyed and thrown down we must replant and rebuild otherwise Satan will replant seven times worse than before.
God will root out and pull down, destroy and throw down using spiritually both His axe and fire which represent God’s sifting of these seeds that have taken root in us.
Matthew 3:10 - And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Every tree with bad roots will be destroyed and thrown down. The ax is already at the root.
Ø The root represents our foundations or those things that we have built our lives on.
Ø We must not be built on wood, hey or stubble.
Ø We must be built on Gold (God’s glory), Silver (God’s redemptive work in our lives) and Precious Stones (spiritual truths).
When the fire comes to test each of us, will it burn up our foundations or purify it.
Galations 5: 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
These are the fruits of bad seeds.
Ø These are the fruits of our fleshly fallen nature.
Ø These are the roots that need to be destroyed before they start bearing fruit in us.
Ø God is about to put His ax to these and He is about to test these roots through fire.
Why fire? Why do we burn our field in spring?
It is to destroy all of the unwanted roots before they take over our fields.
Matthew 3: 10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Three times fire is mentioned here. The way that God will destroy bad roots in us is through the fire. Scripture says that all will be salted by fire.
When iron ore is dug from the ground it is called pig iron.
Ø It is brittle and is good for nothing, but when it is salted by fire, the pig iron becomes steel.
Ø This steel is strong and flexible, not easily broken.
Ø The difference that took place is in the molecules.
Ø Before the fire all the molecules flowed in different directions, each piece wanting to go its own way. When pressure or tension came, the pig iron just shattered.
Ø When salted with fire, each molecule no longer had its own direction, but were turned to the same direction giving the steel that was newly formed a strength.
Ø This strength made the steel strong and pliable, not easily shattered under strain or pressure.
The difference was that the fire changed the root, which is the molecule.
Now I want to show you the mystery and plan of why we need to allow God to burn away all this sin and bad seeds that have taken root in us.
Genesis 3:24 - So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Notice that the flaming sword which turned every which way was to led the way “to” the tree of life, not keep us “from” it. There has only ever been one life that has brought forth any fruit on a tree, and that is Christ. God has always desired his people to willingly walk through the fire, to burn away all of this old, fleshly, sinful nature in us so that we can again walk in His presence. His desire has always been that we come back “to” him.
Revelations 22: 1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.
4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.
5 There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.
Notice that Ezekiel 47:12 that I read at the beginning and here in Revelations it is stating the same thing. Except in Revelations the tree of life is now in the middle of the street and on both sides of the river.
Ø Knowing that Christ is the tree of life, God desires that this seed, the nature of Christ, be in all of us.
Ø This is the new seed that He desires to take root in us.
Ø It is this fruit that we are to bear.
Ø It is the fruit of this tree that will be for the healing of the nations.
Until we come into the full maturity of this Christ seed in us, until it takes root in good soil and until it grows to the fullest measure of the tree of life that God intends us to be, we will never produce good fruit.
The Fruit that we need to bear is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are the fruit that God knows will heal our nation.
We need to allow the Holy Spirit to examine our lives to see what has really taken root in us.
Some roots are inherited and passed down to us from others.
Ø Cultural / Historical – French, English, Scottish, etc.
Ø Physical – Health, eye color, man, woman, etc.
Ø Spiritual – Baptist, Wesleyan, Catholic, etc.
Some of these roots are good and will produce good fruit in us, but not all of them. Some of these bear fruits of rejection, early death, religion, fear, antichrist spirit, depression, witchcraft, anger, violence and the list goes on.
If sin still has a root and stronghold in us then we will experience these symptoms:
Ø It results in feelings of guilt and shame
Ø It causes a reaction to others (anger/hate etc)
Ø It brings fear and mistrust into our lives
Ø Like in Genesis, it makes us want to "hide" from God
Ø We tend to blame others for our shortcomings
If any of these patterns exist in us then we need to allow the Holy Spirit to examine our roots.
Like a man working in silver, heating the precious metal until all the dross comes to the surface and is removed. You can tell when all the dross and imperfections have been removed when all you can see when you look in the pot is a clear, pure, reflection in the silver.
We must allow God to turn up the heat to burn away these deadly roots and sin so that when he looks at us what He sees will be pure and valuable and a clear, pure reflection of Him.
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