The message of the trees is the story of a life of obedient trust or not. Apart from God we can do nothing in Him is all wisdom, knowledge,understanding, peace, joy ...Life!
“…but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
Genesis 2:17
Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
Proverbs 3:5,6
“In the day of my trouble I will call upon You, for You will answer me.”
Psalm 86:7
“Elisha…went in, shut the door on the two of them, and prayed to the Lord.“
2 Kings 4:32-33
Elisha means “My God is salvation” and in 1 Kings 19:19, we see Elisha “burning his bridges” on his former earthly life as a farmer and in connection with his natural inheritance as the natural-born son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah.*
*Abel-meholah (meadow of dancing) was the place where Elisha was working, diligently plowing in the field of his father.
“Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.” -Psalm 30:11
Shaphat of Abel-meholah holds the distinction of being one who has not bowed the knee to the idol worship of baal nor kissed its image. The very name, Shaphat, means “Judge, He is decided.” Isaiah 33:22 tells us that “… the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king: He will save us.”
God is the ultimate Judge in our lives as He alone decides whether we will have eternal life (Heaven) or eternal death (Hell). All of us will be judged by God for our sin. The only difference between the righteous and the wicked is that the righteous have accepted salvation in the form of Jesus Christ, the one sent by God the Father to save us from sin and death.
When the prophet Elijah covered Elisha with his mantle, he received the adoption as spiritual son in discipleship to the God’s prophet Elijah. Later, in 2 Kings 2:9, we see where he rends off his own cloaks and puts on the inherited double portion of the firstborn spiritual son of Elijah when the Lord takes up the prophet into glory. Likewise, we tear our hearts (not our garments) and put on the Lord Jesus Christ as sons and daughters of the Living God.
In Elisha, we see portrayed the example of a willing heart that lays aside everything else that could come between and hinder our walk with God the Father and potentially lead us astray.
If you want to really follow the leading and guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, you must be willing to part wholly with everything which could potentially rise up to dispute your allegiance (your total devotion) with God. Turn your eyes from looking at any created thing or being, for apart from the Eternal Life, theirs ceases.
Real and everlasting life is the gift of the Creator alone.
Stay away from idols! I am the one who answers your prayers and cares for you. I am like a tree that is always green; all your fruit comes from Me
You will never find the breakthrough power you need until you are willing to come to the Almighty Father in prayer and like a child,
humbly say, “Abba Father, I need help! I can’t do it alone!”
There is a Father in heaven that has a purpose and plan for your life that is beyond your wildest dreams and imaginations! He loves so much that He paid the price for our sin to revive our hearts in love and bring us back (restore) us into communion with Him in the precious offering of His Son Jesus’ life poured out on the cross. His was no ordinary life for He laid it down in perfect submission to the perfect will of his Father in heaven and took it up again for he is the Resurrection and the Life and no man comes to the Father except through him.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11
If you want to really live, you start by coming to Jesus and learning to really love his way. How did he do this? The life he lived was by the power of the Holy Spirit in communion with his heavenly Father. Whatever the Father said, Jesus did. Apart from Him, he did nothing of his own. And the Father blessed his works.
“What does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
Micah 6:8
When Jesus returned to the heavenly Father, he did not leave us abandoned but he sent His Holy Spirit to lead and guide us into all Truth. Jesus is The Way, The Truth and The Life and the Holy Spirit reveals more and more of Jesus who is the Living Word of God the Father. For the Father sent His Word and healed and delivered us from destruction at the cross.
The Father supplies all your need according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. He is your Source. He is your Answer. He is your Real Life.
If you are a parent and your child asks for a glass of milk, you wouldn’t give him an alcoholic beverage? How much more will your heavenly Father give you the Holy Spirit to fill you with all you need to learn from Him?
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. But I will protect the orphans who remain among you. Your widows, too, can depend on me for help.” Psalm 68:5 – Jeremiah 49:11
This word picture of an evergreen tree portrayed in Hosea 14:8 symbolizes its beauty in God’s majesty, its tenacious clinging to the source of life, and its continual verdure –in season and out of season. The unbroken ceaseless Real, Everlasting Life that only comes through the perpetual supply of sap — this is the continual abundant life lived in Christ Jesus through the unbroken supply of the grace of God.
“…From me is thy fruit found“… from Him we receive grace and strength to enable us to be fruitful and in the he who bears fruit, the Father prunes that he may multiply more abundantly.
“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!” For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
Deuteronomy 30:19 – Deuteronomy 30:16
copyright James Rizzi
“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5
I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful. (Jeremiah 31:4)
“If we take God for our Father, and join the church of the first-born, we shall want nothing that is good for us.”
(Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 31:41)
“Choose you this day, who you will serve!…as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD! They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.”
Joshua 24:15 – Job 21:11
