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The Russian Renewal

The Red River Nation Prophecy by: dee barnes

6/2013

I’m going to tell you about this thing that I have seen, and it is like the vision I wrote about regarding Syria and Turkey. The vision has a panoramic effect and seems to record an expedition like journey that runs from one continent  to the other  through out the earth from the beginning of the era of the Church, and I would imagine, will continue until the end of the Church era. This observance is something  I simply seem to step in and out of, to observe momentarily from time to time in its progression. Like walking into the middle of a movie on a Saturday after noon, going out, and then coming back in to an on going, epic story, that progresses to other scenes, and locations, each time I visit the theater. This next vision that I am going to share is like a sequel to the Sacred Pilgrimage and Crimson Banner vision but now instead of being in Syria and Turkey, the location is in the land of Russia, with the scene opening up on a beautiful spring day at what appears to be Red Square.                                         

Enter the Song Bird of Russia

vladimir-and-olga-volodymyr-and-olha
Vladimir of Kiev 956-1015 AD.
Olga 890-969 AD.

Song of Solomon 6:9 ... But my dove, my perfect one, is unique: She is her mother’s only daughter; She is the pure child of the one who bore her. The maidens saw her and called her blessed, The queens and the concubines also, and they praised her, saying …

Song of Solomon 6:10 “… Who is this who appears like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?”

An Awakening

Many in the land of stone palaces and wide open spaces shall hear the songs of the Spirit that whirl a cross the masses, like a wet hurricane saturating the people, gathering my Remnant Nation who dwells among them. “Even to myself says”, the Lord- “Shall not all nations have their day of visitation before the great day of My Son?” “Will I not call them to myself as a hen would gather her chicks? Will not the Remnant Nation answer my call as I pass through the back roads of the cities? Shall they not gather their banners and join this Holy procession, through out the earth, that moves and walks in my Spirit?”  “Did I not say that I would gather all who would gather and return them to their land?” “Is not this land a place of the heart, in the spirit, as it is for the chosen people a city, even the city of David?” “Yes, I am passing through the high ways, by ways, and hedges as I have before, through Russia, awakenings shall spill out into the streets from where they shall come, and join the heavenly band …”

One Holy Nation under God. A holy and peculiar people, a royal priesthood that shall set forth the praises of God …

Jesus- The words I speak to you are spirit and they must be spiritually discerned.

Psalm 84:3-12 The Message (MSG)

Birds find nooks and crannies in your house, sparrows and swallows make nests there. They lay their eggs and raise their young, singing their songs in the place where we worship. God-of-the-Angel-Armies! King! God! How blessed they are to live and sing there! 

And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel; They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain! God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn—Zion! God in full view! God-of-the-Angel-Armies, listen:O God of Jacob, open your ears—I’m praying! Look at our shields, glistening in the sun our faces, shining with your gracious anointing. One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship, beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches. I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin. All sunshine and sovereign is God, generous in gifts and glory. He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions. It’s smooth sailing all the way with God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

Mobile Assembly

There is a move of God, it is wonderful, powerful, it is the Holy nation, a peculiar people gathered in a moving assembly that is passing through the earth  … and it is He, the Lord who is strong in battle, but He is not in war mode, He is in gathering mode, as He said, “I will gather all who will gather and return them to their land”. As the natural Jews are returning to Jerusalem from all nations and many places so ,also, is the Remnant Nation being gathered in an assembly of the righteous, carrying their banners, lifting them high, each tribe, among their tribe, and divided among their clans. Shall not this gathering ultimately join in His return, in a twinkling of the eye, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trumpet of God? Shall not this body full of death be clothed upon? For the everlasting life with in, shall be housed with an everlasting body, that wears not out, but carries the eternal destiny of living souls forever.

Red River Nation 

Blood RiverEach clan has a banner, each tribe, also. Above those banners are the banners of the Lord, like the one that says, “His banner over me is love.” And the banners above all others, over each one, is crimson red, and they flow like a river above the procession of the righteous.  So the lord Jehovah-Nissi  the Lord our banner  is passing by and assembling an assembly of the gathered, whose pilgrimage is in the spirit, passing through the nations of this earth. It is the only sound in the stillness of the hour, as the newly awakened betrothed falls into the ranks that have assembled, come again at the break of dawn. I hear the sound of many banners whipping in the wind, and it is all I can hear  and the front of the line is moving out, who knew a mighty army, on a mission to gather, to recover, to compel was  moving through the land? A breeze, they say has become a gale, but it is the sound of a river of banners in the wind. “Close your eyes and you will hear them, in the Spirit”, says the Lord. From the eagles eye view, the banners flow together like a river moving across the land. Though your sins be as scarlet red , I will wash them white as snow.

Know Your Day of Visitation

If you are not watching for Him they shall come and then be gone, and you will have missed your appointed time to join the Holy People. Now when you hear the jostle of armor, and furled banners blowing, you shall know it is not just the wind, or driving rain, though some will say it is only the weather, or it only the thunder from distant lands, you shall know it is the procession of the gathered, come to gather! Throw open the garden gate, run down now, to the little stream where hedges grow, and beggars rest. Join the righteous procession, the regiment of the ready, an envoy to the nations who travel the unbeaten paths, who camp outside the city, meeting with those who know the difference between  rain, wind, thunder and the sound, and call, of the Remnant Nation who travels in the realm of the Spirit towards that day.  To move among the nations- a supernatural host in the spirit of intercession, in the acts of the saints of God, to lay down their lives, to coddle the condemned, to awaken the sleepers, to raise the dead, to do all these things for they believe upon the power of His name. Jesus.  Proceeding wars, walking through them, mopping up after them, to save, heal, and deliver; for, God the Father sent His Son the WORD and healed them and delivered them from destruction … the Red River Nation in all their clans and tribes have one banner above them all and that banner is- Jehovah-Nissi

Shall not the Remnant Nation manifest His glory in the earth? 

What is her motto? We know her highest banner … is it not as was for Him (who is Her head) who is the fullness of the Godhead bodily? As He IS, shall she not be the same in the earth? It is written: The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion,  Giving them a garland instead of ashes,  the oil of gladness instead of mourning.

And there she goes from one destination to another, a moving assembly, through out all places in the earth, where she comes from can we know? Where she is going can we tell? As the Spirit, so the wind we can only know what is revealed, true also, for those who walk  not according to their own understanding, but according to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

1-е Коринфянам 2:12-14

Russian New Testament: Easy-to-Read Version (ERV-RU)

Но мы получили не тот дух, который принадлежит миру, а тот Дух, который исходит от Бога, чтобы мы познали всё то, что нам было безвозмездно дано Богом.

 Мы говорим об этом не словами, которым научились через человеческую мудрость, а словами, преподанными нам Духом, толкуя духовные истины с помощью духовных слов. Недуховный человек не воспринимает тех истин, которые указывает Дух Божий, и, по его мнению, это глупость; он не может их понять, потому что они оцениваются духовно.

1 Corinthians 2:12-14 King James Version (KJV)

 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.

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I Am Is Who We Are

I Am Is Who We Are.

Colossians 2:8-10

New King James Version (NKJV)
 

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

Beloved Let Us Love … Rightly Discerning the Body

In Christ we are parts to a whole.

Who we are may not always be understood. The hand with out the elbow is useless. These two parts alone have no similarity, or commonality with one another. They are worlds apart in likeness. Yet their relevance or use to the body is contingent upon both parts working together. Co-operation is required to each one’s own success. This is representative of two very different personality traits, and callings that would never give honor one to another, or minister to each others needs, with out revelation knowledge. Know no man after the flesh, but after the spirit …

Click here for more on  I AM IS WHO WE ARE

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In The News Today, Bounty. HARBINGER of Things To Come?

Tall Ship Bounty And Sandy Enigmas
Tall Ship Bounty Photo by US Coast Guard
Tall Ship Bounty Photo by US Coast Guard

The TALL SHIP BOUNTY is in the news today as an investigation wraps up that examined why she sank off of the banks of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, during hurricane Sandy. A “generator” failed that was pumping water from the vessel. Of course that was not the reason Bounty sank. It was a storm unpredictable, and a series of  decisions made before and after the failed generators. Much like America is facing today. We are running on economic GENERATORS, and paper money to keep this vessel a float. Will they prevail the storms, or will they fail in the midst of them?  Read on.

The details embedded in this story have interesting connections and coincidences that make you wonder, “Is the Sinking of the Tall Ship Bounty a harbinger of things to come?”

har·bin·ger : Noun.  A person or thing that announces or signals the approach of another. A forerunner of something. Synonyms herald – forerunner – precursor – messenger – portent.

THE TALL SHIP BOUNTY AND SANDY ENIGMAS

Ezekiel 27:25

The ships of Tarshish (seafaring vessels) were your ocean caravans. Your island warehouse was filled to the brim! “But look! Your oarsmen are rowing your ship of state into a hurricane! Your mighty vessel flounders in the heavy eastern gale. You are shipwrecked in the heart of the sea! Everything is lost — your riches and wares, your sailors and helmsmen, your ship builders, merchants, and warriors. On that day of vast ruin, everyone on board sinks into the depths of the sea. “Your cities by the sea tremble as your helmsmen cry out in terror. All the oarsmen abandon their ships; the sailors and helmsmen come to stand on the shore.

For more- WHY THE SINKING OF TALL SHIP BOUNTY IS NUMERICALLY ATTACHED TO  EZEKIEL 27:25 in its last fateful voyage.

From today’s story-                                                                                                                                                                 
“…  Around 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 27, about 300 miles east of Virginia Beach, Virginia, the captain made his move: Instead of continuing with his original plan to stay east of the storm, he ordered the crew to change course. He wanted to pilot the ship northwest of Sandy to harness its winds. Turning more westerly, the boat crossed the path of the oncoming hurricane.” [1]
[1.] Excerpt from Life and Death on the Bounty by Thom Patterson, Story from    CNN March 30, 2013 http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2013/03/us/bounty/?hpt=hp_c1
Posted on by Deana Barnes

Enter Asia, Prayer Journal

Enter Asia, Prayer Journal.

Isaiah 9:2-7 (The Message) The Message The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. For those who lived in a land of deep shadows— light! sunbursts of light! You repopulated the nation, you expanded its joy. Oh, they’re so glad in your presence! Festival joy! The joy of a great celebration, sharing rich gifts and warm greetings. The abuse of oppressors and cruelty of tyrants— all their whips and cudgels and curses— Is gone, done away with, a deliverance as surprising and sudden as Gideon’s old victory over Midian. The boots of all those invading troops, along with their shirts soaked with innocent blood, Will be piled in a heap and burned, a fire that will burn for days! For a child has been born—for us! the gift of a son—for us! He’ll take over the running of the world. His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness. His ruling authority will grow, and there’ll be no limits to the wholeness he brings. He’ll rule from the historic David throne over that promised kingdom. He’ll put that kingdom on a firm footing and keep it going With fair dealing and right living, beginning now and lasting always. The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies will do all this. More on the prayer journal entry

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The Twilight Dance of Divination

Photo by: NeWine
Photo by: NeWine

Anywhere you look in the new testament where witchcraft (a work of the flesh) is trying to embed itself in the church, or among those who are in leadership, or a move of God, you will see it dealt with  forth right. No one is left to themselves to work it out. Especially, where deception is involved. The slave girl who had a spirit of divination (python) where the Apostle Paul commands it to come out, didn’t even get the benefit of counsel before he directly took authority over that spirit that sought to defile their work in Philippi.

I think Paul understood  the backlash that would come when he dealt with something that controlled  the city, and would rather have not “rattled the cage” to get some work done; but, at some point he recognized python’s operation, unchecked, would only serve “it” in the end, for the people would then think that the spirit of the slave girl, and the spirit of the apostle, and his works, were one. Paul did what needed to be done. For a while he suffered for it, but great power was awarded the move of God in that city for what he stood up to. Climaxing into an earthquake that shook loose chains of the imprisoned, and set them free. This is the end result for having a back bone, and standing up against a spirit that masks itself as “acceptable” to move and operate among us.

Taking authority over the  spirit of divination (python) will restore the power and effectiveness of the Gospel over the regions it has control over, but brace yourself for the craziness that will unearth when exposed … See Acts 16. Speaking of turning a city upside down … Yet, worth the ride to see the mighty hand of God work mightily among us, in our  fellowships, ministries, cities, and even in nations, that have been under such control. When python seeks to infiltrate  a work (moving in like the snake that it is) there is nothing more that  can be done  but to face it head on. Python is not for the faint of heart. In fact, as you can see in Paul’s experience the accusations began to fly. Yet, greater is he (Christ) that is in us then he that is in this world! For it is written that  no weapon formed against us shall prosper, every tongue that rises up in judgement shall be condemned or proven wrong. This is your inheritance IN Christ, so come what may, in the end, all will be well  and our hands free of blood guilt for dutifully warning. God will restore His power where defeat, and powerlessness, has taken hold.

The Silent Killer

Python is a serpent, like any snake it is a silent killer that suddenly appears, and when it does we need to be instant in season and out, ready to take authority over its power. The ultimate assignment of Python is to squeeze, swallow and destroy. The most disturbing victim of python are new moves of the Spirit of God and new converts. Like all snakes serpents eat eggs, new beginnings are destroyed, when a spirit of python is at large, underdeveloped Christians, and callings are swallowed up, by the demon spirit python. The carnage of premature deaths are left in python’s wake, while the nest of new beginnings are plundered. The Church should be an un-penetrable nest where destinies develop. Another manifestation of Python is the squeezing out of spiritual life and  suffocation of spiritual gifting; a rendering of powerlessness, and paralyses of ministry, and good works. Despair, disparagement, hopelessness, and spiritual darkness, envelope as python swallows its prey into increasing darkness; eventually, methodically,  digesting the call, and purposes of God in his victims life. The Good news is that God often brings a rash of wake up calls to shake us awake, for He is always at work on our behalf desiring that no man should perish. A stern word is a blessing, a severe warning the same. What ever it takes. He is the author and finisher of our faith, if we are on the wrong path he will work on our behalf,  it is not always a sunny day when God works, but it is always a bright and shining one.

When we as Christians (who are the temple of the Holy Ghost) open the ports of our eyes, ears, and sensual courses, to unholy,  displays of darkness, drawing upon those things to entertain us, we invite  demons  to influence, and defile, the sacred altar of our heart. This is us releasing our free will over to spiritual darkness that begins to access what ever reach of authority one has to defile others. If that authority has access to the pulpit,  to teach, preach, and lead worship- Python then begins to signal Leviathan the King of all the Sons of Pride to divide from the congregation the deliverers as the twisting spirit then promotes all that is vile and wicked. While the true move of the spirit is suffocated, and what was begun by God is taken over by a spirit of divination, drawing attention to itself, as it perpetuates its supernatural powers, with the stamp of christian approval; seemingly,  saying all the right things, just as the damsel did in Paul’s time.  The position and influence one has  that is defiled by a spirit of divination opens the door to seduce and oppress those under them. To the depth we have walked in spiritual awareness, warfare, and gifting, so to that degree shall this defilement  occupy and displace the anointing with a counter kind. In this condition what ever place or platform we have been given becomes devalued by the powers of a lesser being. To gain back taken ground, the spirit of python must be exposed and there is no other recourse but to face it at all cost. Can poison and good waters pour as one? No they cannot, they should not, but in the human vessel they can for a season, until the finger of God brings judgment to those  vessels for mixing the holy with the unholy, and causing defilement in the midst of the people.

Revelation 2:20-23

The Message (MSG)

 “But why do you let that Jezebel who calls herself a prophet mislead my dear servants into Cross-denying, self-indulging religion? I gave her a chance to change her ways, but she has no intention of giving up a career in the god-business. I’m about to lay her low, along with her partners, as they play their sex-and-religion games. The bastard offspring of their idol-whoring I’ll kill. Then every church will know that appearances don’t impress me. I x-ray every motive and make sure you get what’s coming to you.

 Entwined In Two Spiritual Streams.

We often think that witchcraft approaches us in black hats and green haze.Not so, would that it did, so many now would not be deceived! But, what the Church is dealing with now days is starting to look the ugly that it is. In contrast, the spirit of divination is deceptively presented by those who have willfully, or stupidly, defiled themselves with the occult, and have spoon fed it to  the masses from Church pulpits and platforms. Eventually, what you will see at our alters (and all ready do even now) is not of God, but a form of palatable divination for one purpose, and that is to spread it undetected. Paul, in the 16th chapter of Acts became grieved in his spirit. Though the slave girl was proclaiming the truth, and publicly acknowledging God as the most high, yet she made her master money by soothsaying. Her life was intertwined in two spiritual streams.

We cannot serve two masters, bitter and sweet water should  not come out of one vessel.  Gazing into evil by being a follower of a television program, a series of movies, or books that glorifies the occult, and sexual immorality, and then turn around and  participate in worship or prayer  services in Church is  “mixing” the occult with worship. It is a Baal Christianity!  Baal – Hebrew meaning: One who swallows. Notice that when Jesus warned the 7 churches in revelation to repent he mentioned, Baalam, (he who swallows the people)  and  the teachings of the Nicolaitions (destroy or conquers the people) and the sexually immoral and promiscuous Jezebel (one who exalts Baal who is he who swallows). All these spirits work in our churches today, all of them tied into python, who is under Leviathan (the sea serpent) the twister among the masses- the king of all the sons of pride. Isaiah 27:1  the twisting spirit. Job 41:1-34  What do serpents do? They BITE, SQUEEZE, SWALLOW, and there by DESTROY their PREY. Jesus hates what these deceivers do to His Church and will destroy them, he will  put out into utter darkness those who are their followers, and practitioners, and they will have their part in the lake of fire. Revelation 21:8

Revelation 22:15  Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

John 9:4 What to do? Whosoever, calls upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved!! Call upon him while he may be found. We must work in the day while it is daylight, for the night comes where no man can work.

 Eventually, we will have to go to bed in the condition we are in as night falls around us, and we have allowed our candle  to be replaced by a false light, dimming as darkness grows. Those who can work in the night are the ones who have the light in them.

Luke 11:34-35 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness. In another place We will be known by our fruits, not every one that says Lord, Lord, enters into the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father. Beloved, believe not every spirit …

NO greater love is this that a man lays his life down for his friends. At the point that we are willing to lose the love of our friends, and for that matter our family, to speak the truth to them in love, though the truth is not loved, and they choose to abandon us, it is in the hope that God’s word does not return void … but will continue to work on them that they will choose the way of life, and in it find their path steady, and may even pray for us, or help one day, when we fall down … isn’t it better to lose a friend for a moment, because we told them the truth, in order that we might gain a brother or sister for eternity?

Galatians 5:19-21 (NKJV) Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery,fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 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.

Hating Even the Garment SPOTTED by the flesh.

The scripture is very clear on what kind of activity warrants what kind of action, there are behaviors we ignore and let others work out their wrinkles and there are behaviors we approach with correction, somehow the church has  let discipline go, and any correction is a shock to the system. People are so use to feel good everything, they can’t handle it. A mature leadership will know when more teaching is required, or when patience  is needed, or when a shout of warning will save a life, or a yank on the shirt collar keeps them from a snake pit. Understanding that these are  forms of mercy. Don not most of us respond appropriately, naturally, when warning some one of danger? How is it that a bit of truth now days is treated like it was an ax let loose on a doll house? I think we need to check how we feel when we hear the truth in warning, and measure it, not on how it was given, but  how we have a problem receiving “hard sayings”. Asking ourselves why our reactions are the way they are. Perhaps what we differentiate between a tug and a beating (of the flames off our back) is dependent upon how much darkness we have allowed to envelop in our lives. Head lights in the drive way are not as harsh to the eyes, when standing in the sun. It takes more adjustment for our eyes, while standing in utter darkness. Often times it is not the message that is abrupt, but the condition it finds us in when we hear it, that’s affronted.

Acts 13:10  sorcery trying to undermine the work of the Holy Spirit.

Jude 1: 23  I love you enough, I will risk being burned.

Jude 1:4    grace of God turned into a license for immorality.

Revelation 22:14-15 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs,[unclean] those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Acts 16:16

 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.

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For the Sake of Fruitfulness

Recently, I was in prayer and the Lord gave me a picture. I saw a tree, it was in great shape, a nice full tree with viable limbs and thick with foliage. As I was observing this tree all of a sudden a branch grew out from one of the limbs, and as it grew I began to notice that it was a dead branch. Now how can a dead branch grow? Well, in the natural realm it can’t but in the spirit realm (and this is the vantage point from where we  are looking ) a dead tree growing, is symbolic to a work that has no life in it, this is a work that leads to death.  Or “acts” that lead to death. It can be a sin, sinfulness, or the sin nature. When we belong to God he is ever working with our conscience to purge dead works out of our lives. He does that through his Holy Spirit that convicts of sin. When the conscience becomes seared, our response to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit ebbs away.

May 30, 2010 028At that point in our life, if we continue in sin, we are perpetuating acts that lead to death. Though the tree may be other wise healthy there is a branch that is “flourishing in sin” according to the picture the Lord gave me. He showed me the destructive power of it when I watched this dead branch grow and begin to diminish the beauty of the limb of the tree it came from. As I watched the tree change seasons, I could see that for a season the branch and the limb were  fine, but in time the foliage became less and less, and all other branches associated with the limb began to appear more and more barren. I began to realize that  the branch was weighty and cumbersome, and when the winds picked up it became a liability to the entire limb of the tree. Yet, before it could cause the limb to break away from the tree, swiftly, and suddenly, the branch was cut off, to my astonishment.

Dead works are works of the flesh. The branch represented acts of sin, the limb of the tree is that which belongs to the tree. The tree is a planting of the lord in his orchard.  When the limb was delivered of the dead branch it began to be covered by a thrust of new life and growth, eventually bearing fruit, even more fruit than all the other limbs.

This picture has so many levels of application It is hard to know where to begin. But one simplified truth is this, God is our husbandman. Our keeper. What belongs to him is managed by him. He knows when to act on our behalf, just when the limb itself appeared to be dying,  He knew exactly when to come in and remove the dead branch on the limb,  letting it come to a full realization of its fruitlessness, while still preserving that which has life left in it, though its potential growth is being retarded, for a season.

Sometimes dead works (that cover everything that is not born of the spirit) must develop into their full term to display the malignancy that they are. When sin is finished it brings forth death. This very object lesson was given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis when they found themselves to be naked and their sin discovered, God had to “cover” them with the skins of animals by making garments for them, Adam and Eve knew from where the skins of animals came from, and what it cost those animals to make for Adam and Eve their garments. This was their first experience with- when sin is finished it brings forth death.

Genesis 3:21-22  The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” [In a fallen state]. 

Interestingly enough, this eternal story begins and ends with a tree. From Genesis to Revelation, the tree is a story board of our lives. In Christ we are oaks of righteousness the planting of the Lord. It is God’s will that no man should parish but it is his good pleasure to give us the kingdom. Luke 12:32.

The scripture tells us that the wicked was blotted out of the book of life. Indicating that they were in it from the beginning. That the Lord’s intent is that all be saved, so then we will have to be judged out of the book of life, to no longer be in it.

We can go to the fig tree and learn the lesson of fruitlessness. In the scriptures the Lord gives us the parable of  the fig tree that  gave  no fruit in its season to bear fruit, and even when it was given another chance to bear fruit, even three years, it didn’t, eventually it was cut down. Blotted out you can say, because according to the parable it cumbered the ground. In that parable the orchard worker intercedes for the tree and gives it another season to prove itself. This is Christ ever interceding for us. But a season came and went and there was no fruit. Sometimes all that can be done is done and there is no more left to do. Separation to preserve that which is living  entails. Luke 13:6.  

We can apply the parable of the severed branch as a principle of every aspect of life. We can look at our own dead works that take from us productivity, and the health and well being of our families. We can look at those things that take away from the productivity of a business, or the promotion of Godly relationships, or the health of a fellowship. We can repent of dead works,  turning away from sin, which for many of us boils down to  living with out having  faith. For without faith we cannot please God, and sin means “to miss the mark”.

So whether it is the works of the flesh as written in Galatians 5:19-21  The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality,impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions  and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Or, whether we are just missing the mark, our conscience bears witness and if we listen to the Holy Spirit who convicts us of “missing the mark” we can live a productive life. In every aspect of it.

It is the mercy of God that prunes from us the branches  and twigs of dead works we have allowed to flourish. Shall we gain the whole world and lose our own  soul? The author and finisher of our faith is not going to allow that to happen if we have put our trust in him. Sometimes, when we have moved away from God’s counsel in our lives,  radical separations shake us to the root, businesses are lost, relationships, jobs, a marriage, even our health that wake us up from the bigger picture of where we are heading, and the ultimate loss we are facing, if we do not  surrender ourselves to the author and finisher of our faith. When those kind of disruptive, and painful losses occur, a death as the result of “missing the mark” in our lives take place, because of  living according to the carnal nature, is naturally taking its tole.  The more dedicated we are to the sin nature, the more  that nature takes up good ground of potential,  and draws away from it the strength of those things that are in Christ”, we will have to see loss to understand- when sin is finished it brings forth death. The good news is as much as their has been loss in our life, there is potential for restoration, if we turn to God and continue to put our trust in him.

1 Corinthians 5:4 So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present,  hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.                           

As trees from the root to the fruit- our works are examined, as trees in his orchard, we are pruned that we may bear more fruit.  Wild fruit trees grow out as high, and wide as they can, but an orchard tree grown for its product is trimmed and pruned to bear full limbs of accessible fruit.  In contrast the wild tree has smaller, more sporadic fruit growth, often inaccessible in high limbs, and diseased.

The mercy of God is dealing with individuals, people groups, and nations. What is yielded to him is pruned, whoever is yielded to Him WILL be pruned. Dead trees, on His farm are subject to removal in this old world. But if there is any life left in it, the faithful pruner will war for its life. What is left of it may not look pretty but in due season life will do what life does. It Lives!  When every thing that hinders is moved out of the way. We have to “give” ourselves to the work of the pruner. This is our will and desires. When we have gone through the ravages of sin, been given over to it, have suffered loss, we still have one thing more valuable then anything we could ever have, we have our souls, we have our repentant heart, crying out for mercy. God is the author and finisher of our faith, and his desire is that we bear fruit and are fruit will remain.

1 Thessalonians 2:7-8 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.

The same principle works for lawlessness as well, (acts of the flesh gone viral) when the dead work is cut off from, it can no longer draw from the living. The nature of everything that grows which is dead, cancer, addictions, lust, greed, gluttony  will come to its natural end, when it has destroyed the host upon which it feeds, it will die.  So also, is it when a wayward heart is left to itself, when sin is finished it brings forth death. This is Satan’s desire for all mankind in his jealous rage against God’s creation.  This the nature of sin, and the end for the “man of perdition” when all that intercedes for him is taken out of the way.  In the same way, nations erupt in lawlessness, when that which is holding it back is taken out of the way. The prayers and intercession of the saints is what is keeping this world from going into complete anarchy.

In the end the hope is that men and women will call upon the name of the Lord. For God gave His only begotten son that who soever believes upon him will not perish but have everlasting life. Nevertheless, He has said, “My spirit will not always strive with man.”  And in a another place, we are urged to  call upon Him while he may be found, and whosoever calls upon Him, must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  It is impossible to please God with out faith.

Revelation 3:5 He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.

Hebrews 9:14  How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

When we come to God in true repentance and trust in the work of  the shed  blood of Christ,  we take on His righteousness, with our conscience cleansed of sin that we may, with boldness, enter the throne room of grace, where by we obtain mercy in times of need, that we might serve Him.  The hope is that we never leave the Fathers house, that we never squander our inheritance and loose it in the pig pens of this world, in the deceitfulness of sin, as did the prodigal son. The son who remained in the Fathers house inherited all that was the Father’s, the prodigal found out in his utter lostness  there is no place like home,  knowing that to be a servant, a door keeper, in the house of our God is far better than to be lost.

The prodigal came home with nothing. But at least he came home.  This is the bones of how it works when one is given over to the destruction of the flesh, it is merely letting their carnal desires take  them when they choose that over the provision of eternal life, for temporal pleasure that leads to death. This  proves a  appoint, that  in the kind of existence they’re  preferring,  there is no satisfaction.  As the prodigal son left the Father, so it is with God, it is not His nature to leave us, it is our sinful nature leaving Him. Yet, in every son there is the memory of the good Father sealed up his  heart, with a natural knowing, that  He will never turn away His own child when they come back to Him, and God  will do all that is in His power, through the work of the Holy Spirit to bring the prodigal  home to Him. He who is the author and finisher of our faith. Nevertheless, the scripture admonishes us to come to Him while He may be found. Not to be foolish with our time in this world, but to live in such away that we are a fruitful vine.

by: dee barnes
by: dee barnes