In order to understand this blog, one must realize what Yeshua meant when he said that you will know a tree by its fruit.
Christ said, “you do not gather figs from thistle or grapes from thorn bushes.”
In this example, Christ was showing the stark difference from one who walks with God and produces spiritual fruit from those who are religious, which is represented by thorns and thistles.
Thorn and thistle bushes cannot produce the spiritual fruit of God.
Christians who are bound up in the religion of Christianity are not producing fruit, because the thorns that they are allowing in their lives are choking the word and making it unfruitful.
It is happening exactly like Christ said it would in the Parable of the Sower.
This is one of the reasons that Christians are enduring so much adversity today. They are caught up in the cares of the world of religion and it is choking them from producing the fruit of peace in their lives.
The lack of peace should be getting their attention and alerting them that they are on the wrong path, but no.
They gladly suffer in their adversity thinking that it is God perfecting them for his greater purpose, because Paul said so.
It was Paul who boasted in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 about his exhaustive list of sufferings that he endured for spreading his gospel of Jesus.
Interestingly, some of his sufferings are not even in line with the teachings of Christ.
Paul said he was starved and naked.
Christ taught his disciples that they did not need to worry about food or clothing because their Father knew that they had need of these things and would supply them.
Paul boasting about these sufferings, makes Christ out to be a liar.
Did it ever occur to Paul that these sufferings, along with not one, but three ship wrecks might be God trying to get his attention to let him know that he was on the WRONG path?
Interestingly, Yeshua never endured a shipwreck as he did God’s work.
In contrast, Yeshua simply calmed the waves.
However, Paul endured three. Then, blatantly boasted about it, and encouraged all those who binge on his writings in the Bible to follow the same chaotic path, suffering to be supposedly perfected by God.
Now, I’m not saying that there will not be difficulties in life, but those who walk with God as Christ taught us to do, should always have the fruits of peace in their lives, the knowing that they are in the center of God’s will.
They are the ones who know how to enter into the spiritual sanctuary that I wrote about in the post, entitled Worship.
Walking with God was never intended to be a life of trial after trial, as Paul taught.
God’s people are suffering, not because God is trying them in the fire, rather, they are suffering because they are on the wrong path that Paul created.
They think that God is just perfecting them all the while they have no peace. Worst of all, they have no idea that their suffering is because they are out of God’s will.
They are just doing as Paul taught them as he boasted about all his sufferings for the sake of Jesus. It is nonsense.
What does Yeshua have to say about it?
This passage is from Matthew 11:28-30, taken from the complete Jewish Bible.
Yeshua said, “come to me all of you who are struggling and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Christ is saying to learn from him, and in doing so, an individual will find refuge.
In this passage, Yeshua is comparing his teachings to the religious teachings that put great burdens on people.
Yeshua is saying that his teachings are lightweight and will lead his followers into rest.
Isaiah wrote about this in chapter 27 in the Hebrew Bible.
In this passage, God contrasts the spiritual from the religious.
In that day, they will sing to it: Vineyard of delight. I the Lord keep watch over it, I water it every moment; That no harm may befall it. I watch it night and day. There is no anger in Me.
If one offers Me thorns or thistles, I will march to battle against him, and set all of them on fire.
But if he holds fast to my refuge, He makes me his friend; He makes Me his friend.
The reason Christians are not experiencing the peace and refuge of God like Christ taught and Isaiah wrote about is not because they are being perfected by God like Paul taught, but because they are entwined with the thorns and thistles of religion.
It is the religion that God will battle against and set on fire. The people who embrace it are simply caught in the crossfire and get burned.
God is turning up the heat to let them know that they are on the wrong path, but they are not getting the message, because they cling to Paul’s teachings.
They think that the more they suffer, the more righteous they will be. It is not so.
A great example of righteousness was when God showed Abraham the stars and told him that they represented his future multitude of descendants. Abraham heard God, and he believed Him.
God accounted that as righteousness to Abraham. God didn’t put Abraham through sadistic suffering in order to make him righteous, Abraham simply conversed with God and believed what God told him.
But, how can you truly hear the voice of God if you are deafened by religion?
You can’t.
You are caught up in an organization where many people tangled in the thorns of religion are claiming to hear from God, and they are leading you astray.
This is a word for the Christian Church. I am here to say that a storm is coming and ONLY the ones whose houses are truly built upon the teachings of Christ will stand.
Yeshua taught his disciples that he who hears my words and does them is like a wise man who built his house upon a solid foundation. When the storms came, the house stood firm against the fierceness of those storms.
It is not by senseless suffering that you will become righteous, but rather, the righteous are those whose houses are built upon the solid rock of obeying the teachings of Christ.
It is in those houses that one can find the fruits of peace and the refuge of God.