Everyone knows in order to eliminate the weed problem we must make sure the soil is clear of weed roots. You can cut off the stem clear to the ground, but a root takes more effort than that to get rid of. That’s why it’s best to weed out weeds when they are in “seedling form”. Our heart is our own garden that we have power over. We may not have power over a lot of things in life, to fix or change. But we have sovereign power over this one thing. In so much that by our own free will we can surrender our lives to God, or we can choose not to. Whatever we choose we are still the keepers of this plot of real estate, that is a driving force of how we treat others and live our lives. A day will come when the one who loaned us this plot of real estate at the center of our being, will come for the dividends, of what we’ve done with the one thing we do have control over, in this world. Our heart, the core of our mind will and emotions. We will have to make an account. If we have never heard of the Gospel, God’s law is still written on the table of our hearts. Our conscience. No one can deny the fact that human beings bear the burden of conscience. Unless, they’ve become so reprobate, so seared, by going against it they no longer feel remorse for wrong doing.
Romans 2:12-16.
For as many as sinned without Law will also perish without Law. And as many as have sinned within Law shall be judged through Law. For it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. For when the nations, who do not have the Law, do by nature the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law unto themselves; who show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and the thoughts between one another accusing or even excusing one another, in a day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/Romans/2/type/mkjv
So this real estate (I’m going to call a garden) is still our responsibility. Once we’ve been introduced to the son of the land owner, and have been made acquainted with the terms of our agreements, titles, and covenants, we have more to be accountable for, because of what we now know. Because we have become acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ.
So out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks! From where all seeds sown into the hearts of others come. Out of our heart comes forth good or evil. This is why it is written you will KNOW them by their fruit. A thistle garden, or a vegetable garden, or a lot of mixture, the evidence is produce. That produce is what we allowed to grow and develope in our heart good or evil. What plantings we allowed that came through by the power of the tongue. We are the gate keeper of our own personal real estate. Let’s talk about bitter roots, they produce bitter fruit! Bitter fruit produce seed, those seeds plant where no plant like it has ever grown. They don’t care. Where there is a “HEART” in hearing range there is soil for that seed. That’s why, little children, be careful for what you hear. Now this is where it gets interesting. Seed can land, but depending on the “conditioning” of the soil that landing will not necessarily prosper. You see preconditioning is the same as preparing or “training” the ground to receive good seed. That it will properly grow. Otherwise you would call that ground poor soil. It’s about whether or not good seed will flourish, not about weeds. Weeds grow no matter what. All you can do is tend to the garden of your heart to make sure those weeds will not have a chance to grow by weeding them out. This is where prayer and meditation comes in, this is where intent steps up. Where due diligence has its place. We are solely responsible for the fruit we bear, and the seeds we sow in the ground of others. What we cut loose from what is in the abundance of our heart! We are either replenishing the earth or defiling it by what comes out of our mouths, life and death are in the power of the tongue and you shall eat the fruit there of!
Mathew 12:35
A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
Mathew 15:19
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. All of these are the response of what we’ve allowed to grow and multiply in the garden of our heart. Defining the core of what we’ve become. The message translation says it well:
Hebrews 12
Keep a sharp eye out for weeds of bitter discontent. A thistle or two gone to seed can ruin a whole garden in no time. Watch out for the Esau syndrome: trading away God’s lifelong gift in order to satisfy a short-term appetite. You will know how Esau later regretted that impulsive act and wanted God’s blessing—but by then it was too late…
We see from this passage when careless, thoughtless, words are cut loose into the air they carry a defilement into the garden they land in, where there was once no seed yet planted, now another wave of depositing ”new seed” ensures bitter disregard for Gods word, to defile the garden of potential for the next generation. “Where by many are defiled…” Roots of bitterness (left unchallenged) grow to reproduce themselves to thrive beyond the previous generation. The girth of its own mass leaves the ground it lives in unproductive, un forth giving, (which, ultimately, is what unforgiveness means.) If the cycle isn’t stopped it is then forever reproducing its kind. A living monument to the past from where it came. What feeds it, what energy draws it in? Think about it! What feeds a bitter root? Rehearsing past offenses, and this in turn recruits more individuals to be offended by the deeds of the past. Rehashing former grudges. No atonement no matter what the cost is ever enough for the bitter heart. No effort for an amendment, satisfies an unforgiving heart. No matter how earnest an apology, no matter what the effort to reconcile.
Proverbs 18:19 -21
… a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle. A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled. Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
”The offspring of a root of bitterness defiles many”. Not all but many. Because the household of God is (or should be) trained to over come bitter seeds that have been sowed. There is a mentality, a thought life, (as a man thinks so he is) that pre-conditions us to harbor bitterness. Cycles of failure in certain areas begin to replay in people’s lives. Generations of people have “inherited” certain failures that repeat themselves over and over again. Certain mindsets that lock them into patterns and cycles. Poverty, alcoholism, drug use, sexual sins, fatherlessness, divorce, premature death, suicide, incarcerations, criminality, rebellion, business failure, and the list goes on. Could generational failure to thrive be due to bitter root systems, from generations past? Yes! We see these generational root systems have a similar outlook on life, a certain way they view difficulty, a pattern of how problems are approached, handled, or mishandled. Most of the time it’s a refusal to consider personal responsibility, and the lack of accountability of others be for us. That result in cycles of failure and disappointment. Many whose hearts have had no conditioning for good seed, have rejected the love of God, that can come into the soil of our heart and change us. Consequently, are children then bear in their own lives the chains of the past that weigh them down, carrying on burdens not their own, because the burden bearer was rejected. No training could be given, the burden bearer is refused. Jesus said, ”Learn of me.” Coping with life well is a learned skill, that’s why the Bible says TRAIN a child in the way that he is to go and when he is old he will not depart from it. Parents are the key to raising children free and clear of bitter root systems.
Matt 11:28-30
Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Let us reserve ground for the seeds of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, meekness, long suffering, and self control. God honors his word, he watches over his promises to perform them! Even the principles he has set have enough life in them for humanity to thrive on with out even acknowledging Him, just for wisdom sake! Based on following the law written in their hearts. If nothing else the law of attraction, and the law of reciprocity, flowers in what the Bible describes as reaping what we sow. Those that tolerate bitter root systems are plagued with undeveloped potential. Unrealized strides in achievement, because the profile of our object of disdain, is transposed over every opportunity that comes our way, and we often react to people according to the strongholds of wrong thinking, and preconceived notions, bound up in the rhetoric of words, spawned from the weed garden of bitterness. Whole families, people groups, and nations, can struggle with a common darkness that ruins potential, and locks them into cycles of degeneration, moral failure, and social decay. (As a man thinks so he is.) We see the root of bitterness manifest into murder, jealousy, and sexual sin, in stories of the Bible. We see how a family and the nation of Israel was effected by David’s sin with Bathsheba and the consequential murder of her husband, all rooted out of the bitter experience David had with a wife promised to him, by Saul, named Merab, 1 Samual 18, given to another; and then his bitter experience with Michal. Who ridiculed him for the one thing that was the closest most sacred thing to him, his free exuberant worship of God. These to experiences early on in his development into manhood no doubt was a challenge for David, and the Love of a woman. Finding more companionship in friendship that he found to be quote: “that above women” with Jonathan, Saul’s son. We see no more romantic escapades or excitement with David after Michal. After the disappointment with Merab and Michal, David began to collect wives, as conquests, that would only produce one son each, before another wife was collected to him. Seemingly, true love somehow escaped a man who was truly loved by so many. David’s wound of a promise not kept, and being ridiculed and rejected rather than being loved and admired, gave seed to bitterness that manifested in sexual sins, not only in David’s life, but in the life of his children. Beginning with a sexual assault, after his trouble with Bathsheba, when his son Amnon violated his half sister, Absolom’s full sister, Tamara. This rape went unpunished by David that occurred in his family, and the blight of bitterness, exploded into Absolom’s revenge, culminating into an insurrection and death of his own two sons, Amnon and Absolom. Not to mention the whole nation of Israel (lead by his son Solomon) worshiping idols because his many wives turned him from God in their idolatry. This is a story that clearly defines the damage and destruction of generational root systems.
“If only they had such a heart to fear Me and keep all My commandments always, so that it might be well with them and their children forever.“
Would that we would learn the lessons of the Bible to stop the cycles and mindsets that harbor bitter root systems, deep in the human psyche. To know that we are free whom Christ has made free, and to not entangle ourselves up again in the yolk of bonadage, is a valuable warning that requires determination. To know also that forgiveness of other’s wrongs are imperative to our salvation because we cannot harbor unforgiveness and then expect to be forgiven. To think we have a right to do so is absurd.
The parable of debtor’s prison speaks of a debtor being forgiven of his debts, by a ruler; but, then turns around and beats and jails those indebted to him. The ruler finds out, beats him, jails him, and throws away the key. It’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. A person, a people, a nation, or movement, that practices such hypocrisy has to answer to Him.
To not forgive, when attonement has been made, is passing judgment on another that pretty much says, ”I’m with out error, or fault, and my judgment is higher than God’s, who does forgive, therefore I am qualified to retain and suspend you from favor you don’t deserve.” God says no man is qualified to stand in such a position, what’s more they are inexcusable to do so.
Romans: 2:1
Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.”
We see the pattern of King David’s movement through wives, from the succession of the births of his sons. Not until Bathsheba is this pattern ended. Where he seems to have found some resolve, after correction and judgment, following the Uriah and Bathsheba ordeal. Solomon was the oldest son among brothers and sisters, from one mother.
1 Chronicles 3:1-9
These are the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron: the firstborn, Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelite; the second, Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelite, the third, Absalom, whose mother was Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur; the fourth, Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith; the fifth, Shephatiah, by Abital; the sixth, Ithream, by his wife Eglah; six were born to him in Hebron, pwhere he reigned for seven years and six months. And he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem. These were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan and Solomon, four by Bath-shua, the daughter of Ammiel; then Ibhar, Elishama, Eliphelet, Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet, nine. All these were David’s sons, besides the sons of the concubines, and Tamar was their sister.
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I found the following post on line that speaks of the psalms King David wrote after his sin with Bathsheba, and the murder of her husband. Use it as a tool to go into a deeper level of repentance and renewal. I am not associated with the ministry, nor the ministry with me. But found it useful to go further on, from this point to the next level of ridding bitter root systems. http://www.jesuswalk.com/david/david-psalms-of-repentance.htm
King James Version (KJV)
NeWine 