CAMPING AT THE BRINK OF THE PROMISE? WHY ARE WE CRUSHED, HURT? --- PRETTY GREEN LEAVES?
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
WHY ARE GOD’S PEOPLE CRUSHED? ARE WE WATCHING OTHER PEOPLE INSTEAD OF THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST?
Do you believe the doom, the gloom, the murmuring, the complaining, the fault finding, the blame game, the up and down, the quitters, the angry, the hurt people? Will your eyes, your ears, your feelings and emotions define who we are? The demonic foes tell us it can’t be done. I quit Jesus because someone hurt my feelings? Grow up?
WHAT REALLY HAPPENS WHEN DISCOURAGED PEOPLE HAVE NO BIBLICAL VISION AND THEY REFUSE TO TRUST GOD’S PLAN? OUR ENEMY SNEAKS INTO OUR HOMES AND OUR CHURCHES AND STEALS THE DIVINE VISION OF HOPE AND HEALING!
Where is your spiritual vision? It is so easy to become part of the GREAT FALLING AWAY and lose sight of heaven when we throw up our hands… this becomes hard? Near-sighted? Far-sighted? Tunnel vision? BLIND? THE WAY OF THE TRANSGRESSOR IS HARD…
Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
WHERE THERE IS VISION THERE IS DIVINE PROVISION and DIVINE DIRECTION.
The greatest lesson I could teach you would be OPEN THE EYES OF YOUR HEART AND SEE GOD’S VISION UNTIL IT BECOMES OUR VISION…
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
What happens when God gives one talent and there is no vision? He buries the talent and then BLAMES THE MASTER: I KNEW YOU WERE HARD!
Habakkuk 2:2 And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. 4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
SMALL THINKING AND SMALL VISIONS WILL ALWAYS DIVIDE FAMILYS AND CHURCHES. God’s word deals in addition and multiplication. The enemy always works in subtraction and division. Can we see the possibility that if we believe the NEGATIVE REPORTS of the spies, the news media and the negative mouths that sow FEAR and DOUBT what might happen? Be honest, are we lacking in a clear vision? Are we serving in bondage again?
IN ONE DAY? HAVE YOU EVER HEARD THE OLD SAYING: WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE TOUGH GET GOING? WELL, LET’S GET HONEST: THIS STATEMENT IS NOT TRUE. ASK JESUS?
I taught school 6 years. I have been in the ministry 44 years. I may be a slow learner but I can tell you from my perspective I have learned PEOPLE OFTEN TEND TO BE QUITTERS. Jesus had big crowds when there were free fish, free bread … People loved the FREE STUFF. Then the crowds were big watching the healings and miracles… COME LET US SEE --- THIS WAS AS GOOD AS ANY CIRCUS EVER KNOWN.
This all changes in one day… in one day the free food stops… in one day the DEMAND TO SEE SIGNS is refused. Jesus says: NO SIGNS SHALL BE GIVEN…
WHEN JESUS STARTED MAKING THE PEOPLE AWARE OF HIS DEATH AND THAT THE TEACHINGS WERE GOING TO GET HARD… IN ONE DAY THE ATTITUDES AND REACTIONS OF THE CROWD WERE GOING TO CHANGE…
John 6:60 Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
John 6:66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. 67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? 68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
HARD? CRUSHING? HURT? PRETTY GREEN LEAVES, BUT NO FRUIT. NOTHING BUT LEAVES? THERE IS MORE TO THE LESSON THAN GREEN LEAVES AND NO FRUIT… IT IS PROPHETIC…
MANY SEE THE STORY OF GREEN LEAVES? THERE ARE DIVINE PREDICTIONS HIDDEN IN THIS LESSON…JESUS IS LOOKING AT THE POSSIBILITY OF SOME FRUIT TO EAT? MORE THAN THAT? JESUS SAYS: LET US REASON THE BUDDING OF FIG TREES… ANYONE CAN IDENTIFY THE LEAVES, BUT IT IS ALSO EASY TO SEE THIS TREE WILL BEAR NO FRUIT. THE TRUTH JESUS IS TEACHING HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH FIG TREES. JESUS IS TEACHING ABOUT BEARING LIFE FRUIT. LIFE IS A JOURNEY, IT IS MUCH MORE THAN A FINAL DESTINATION…
Jesus leaves the temple in Jerusalem and heads toward Bethany. Jesus and the boys have been hanging around and Jesus is teaching some valuable lessons. Bethany is about 2 miles from the Mount of Olives. Are we searching for the truth?
Mark 11:13 And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find anything thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. 14 And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.
GET REAL, THIS LESSON IS MORE THAN LEAVES AND FRUIT ON A FIG TREE…Jesus is teaching about Israel, Jerusalem, religious leaders and about the ATTITUDES and MIND SET of God’s people. Jesus is trying to teach the people… The truth is revealed. JESUS FOUND IT NECESSARY TO RUN THOSE BUYING AND SELLING OUT OF THE TEMPLE. Religion becomes a PROFITABLE BUSINESS not a HOUSE OF PRAYER, not a place of WORSHIP and PRAISE.
This story becomes the prediction of judgment not of destroying a tree but the day is coming when God’s judgment will be against the temple and the Jewish nation. God’s people looked good on the outside, but were full of dead bones on the inside…
CAN WE UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHITE WASHED AND WASHED WHITE?
ARE WE LACKING IN THE VISION OF TRUSTING GOD’S WORD? WILL WE SPEND OUR LIFE TIME WANDERING IN THE DESERT? WITHOUT VISION WE WILL SPEND OUR TIME WHINING AND COMPLAINING… (Do you want cheese with your whine?)
Matthew 23:27 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
VISION? SMALL VISIONS LACK FAITH. SMALL TALK AND SMALL THINKING WILL DIVIDE GOD’S PEOPLE… SMALL VISIONS LIMIT GOD’S PLANS… WHERE THERE IS VISION THE PEOPLE FIND HOPE… SMALL VISION FOCUSES ON THE OBSTACLES? The Red Sea? The Jordan River? The giants? The sickness? The petty trivial pursuit? THERE WAS A SMALL RIVER THAT DIVIDED MILLIONS FROM THEIR GOD PROMISE…
WHAT ARE YOU MAGNIFYING? The obstacles or GOD’S PROMISES? What aura are you projecting? Is that aura you project releasing God’s promises? Is our vision what GOD DESIRES?
CONCLUSION: CONTAGIOUS? NO VISION CAN BE A PANDEMIC… IT IS CONTAGIOUS ---FEAR, WORRY, DEPRESSION, SELF-DOUBT LEADS TO GOD DOUBT ---
WHY DON’T WE SEE GOD’S PROMISES? HUMAN VISION FOCUSES ON THE GIANTS AND THE OBSTACLES. WE TEND TO GET WEARY, TIRED AND FRUSTRATED LIVING BENEATH OUR PRIVILEDGE… GOD’S HEALING, JOY, PEACE, HOPE AND JOY?
IN THE DESERT FEAR BREEDS FEAR! WORRY BRINGS MORE WORRY? DOUBT BREEDS DOUBT… THE DOUBT STARTS WITH DOUBTING THE GOD CALLED LEADERSHIP OF MOSES AND AARON… THEN THE NEGATIVE WORDS AND ATTITUDES THRIVE AND THE PEOPLE WITH NO VISION GROW FEAR THEY BELIEVE THE GIANTS… FEAR IS A SATANIC TOOL THAT HINDERS SPIRITUAL PROGRESS: NO VISION --- NO GO--- NO GO--- NO VISION. WE WILL LOOK BACK…
Deuteronomy 1:7 Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. 8 Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them.
IT’S MY PARTY AND I CAN CRY IF I WANT TO… CRY IF I WANT TO… I BELIEVE I WANT TO CRY…
Numbers 14:1 And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.
2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!
3 And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
4 And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
Can you see how a small vision and small thinking can hinder OUR GOD POTENTIAL? Let us cross the river… into the promise.
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
Put a 3 inch shark in a small bowl, it will stay small. Place the same little shark in a large tank it will grow to be 9 to 10 inches long. Place the little shark in a huge aquarium it will grow to be 4 to 5 feet long. Place the shark in the ocean and it will grow to be 15 to 18 feet long? Where are you living?
