THE TREE!                 GP 319          10/74

         1. THIS MORNING I HAD A DREAM ABOUT A TREE, & when I asked God what it meant I got a picture of one of our kingly leaders standing talking to somebody, & the general idea of what he was saying was this: "There's too much emphasis put on what MO is saying & not enough on what the KIDS are doing!"--And then again he was speaking & I got more the impression than the words, but all of a sudden he was King SAUL & he was saying: "Too much faith is being put in the WORDS of the PROPHET, & not enough in the WORK of the PEOPLE, of US the PEOPLE!"
         2. HE WAS IDENTIFYING HIMSELF, LIKE KING SAUL DID, WITH THE PEOPLE, & THE PEOPLE, HE WAS SAYING, DESERVE MORE CREDIT! "You take too much upon YOURSELF, Moses", in other words, "when WE TOO are Prophets, & look what WE have done!" He was standing there very nice & very persuasive & very convincing: "After all, WE the PEOPLE are doing quite a bit OURSELVES!--WE deserve a little more CREDIT! All you guys talk about is MO & his WORDS & how great HE is, & you even forget I'M a king TOO & don't even give ME any credit!"
         3. "IF IT WEREN'T FOR ME THE KING, MO THE PROPHET WOULDN'T EVEN EXIST!" THAT'S EXACTLY THE WAY KINGS THINK: They always feel in the long run, "The PROPHET is more dependent on ME than I am on HIM, & I deserve a LOT more credit for making his work POSSIBLE! You people need to give ME a little more credit & glory! You PEOPLE also deserve a little more credit for YOUR WORK. You shouldn't be giving all the glory to the PROPHET!"
         4. BUT YOU SEE, HIS ONE BIG MISTAKE IS--& THIS IS ALWAYS THE MISTAKE OF KINGS--THAT HE LITERALLY FORGETS GOD IN THE PICTURE & he gets his eyes on the Prophet & the people, & to HIM the Prophet really no longer represents the Word of the LORD! He gets his eyes on the MAN instead of the MOUTH, & he no longer sees GOD in the Prophet, & so he no longer feels compelled to OBEY or SUBMIT: "This is just a MAN anyway!--Why should I obey HIM?--He's just a MAN!"--Which is true: The Prophet is nobody without the LORD.
         5. BUT IN THIS THE KING HIMSELF IS GIVING MORE GLORY TO THE MAN THAN TO GOD!--But what he really means to do is to blame it on man instead of God! He's not really trying to give the Prophet any MORE credit. He feels the Prophet deserves LESS, because he's only a MAN. But in the process of doing it, he ignores GOD & God's AUTHORITY & the fact that the Prophet is nothing but the EMISSARY of the King OF kings, the MOUTHPIECE, the MESSENGER.
         6. WHEN HE GETS IN THIS MOOD IT'S THE ENEMY OF COURSE, who makes the kings very, very clever AGAINST us just like God makes them clever FOR us. Then he tries to remind the people: "Who is this Moses anyhow?--He's only a MAN!--I can remember this & that very HUMAN about him!"
         7. HE TRIES TO REMIND THE PEOPLE OF THE PROPHET'S HUMANITY, HIS FRAILTIES. What he's trying to do is undermine the Prophet's CREDIBILITY. "He's only a MAN & therefore makes MISTAKES! Therefore, he's not really ALWAYS the Voice of God!--He admits this himself!--And this COULD be one of his MISTAKES, this thing I don't like & don't want to do. This could be ONE time when MO was WRONG."
         8. THE KING ALWAYS TRIES TO GET THE PEOPLE ON HIS SIDE BECAUSE IT'S THE PEOPLE HE WANTS & likes & before whom he wants to be honoured, & he always figures if he can get the PEOPLE, then he'll have the KINGDOM. But these kings always, whether consciously or unconsciously, when they get in that bad spirit of pride & jealousy, they become proud just like the Devil did before his fall.
         9. THIS IS ALWAYS THE WAY THE KINGS TRY TO PERSUADE THE PEOPLE!--"This PROPHET has become a NUISANCE to us! He's created more PROBLEMS than he's SOLVING!"--And of course, kings always have plenty of instances of that which they can cite, because the Word of God IS always quick & sharp & powerful & DIVIDES ASUNDER! Jesus said, "I have come not to bring PEACE but a SWORD!"--Heb.4:12; Mat.10:34.
         10. BUT KINGS ARE SALESMEN: THEY ALWAYS SEEK TO PLEASE THE PEOPLE, because it's the PEOPLE they want! They can be very convincing & very persuasive, especially when it comes to persuading them that the PROPHET is more of a TROUBLE-MAKER than a HELPER. There are so many examples of this in the Bible & history, because Prophets are blunt & straight-forward & usually pretty tactless & undiplomatic: They just speak the Words of the Lord & let the chips fall where they may!
         11. BUT THE KINGS ARE NEARLY ALWAYS MORE INTERESTED IN PRESERVING THE TREE & ALL THE BRANCHES, THAN THE UNSEEN SAP! So when it comes to something they don't like, then they begin to argue about it. When God says, "Chop it down!--It's become unfruitful", the kings always try to step in & say, "Now wait, Lord!--Give us another chance. Let me take it & dung it & try to talk to it a little bit. After all, it gives good SHADE & PROTECTION to the PEOPLE even if it hasn't borne much FRUIT!"
         12. WHEN OFTEN IT'S THE FAULT OF THE KING HIMSELF THAT THE FRUIT HAS BEEN CHOKED--the fault of his OWN neglect & his OWN wrong priorities--putting the TREE first instead of GOD, when God has WITHDRAWN His inspiration & the LIFE of His SPIRIT or the SAP from the tree! GOD rules the SPIRIT: When the tree no longer bears FRUIT He withdraws its LIFE. The TREE is only there to bear the FRUIT & if it REFUSES or fails to bear the FRUIT it should, it loses its REASON for EXISTENCE!
         13. WHAT THE KINGS ALWAYS TEND TO FORGET & TRY TO DE-EMPHASISE IS THAT WHAT THE PEOPLE ARE DOING IS THE FRUIT OF THE WORDS OF THE PROPHET, the Word of the Lord. The people ARE the fruit of God, the fruit of His Prophet, His Spirit, His life, His inspiration, His SAP--without which he, the king, would be nothing but a dead trunk & all the branches would die!
         14. BUT KINGS ALWAYS SAY, "LOOK! BEHOLD, I'M A STRONG TRUNK & TOGETHER WE'RE MIGHTY! LOOK UPON ME! HONOUR ME! We don't really HAVE to have this hidden SAP, this unseen quantity, this unknown & unreliable & doubtful `inspiration' that flows beneath the surface! We can do WITHOUT it, because it keeps doing new & unexpected things & bursting into new blossoms & new branches & new kinds of fruit! We just can't HAVE this going on ALL the time because it creates PROBLEMS!"
         15. SO THEY CUT OFF THE FLOW OF THE SAP. DID YOU KNOW THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE TO DO TO A TREE TO KILL IT? You just cut through the CAMBIUM layer just under the BARK (ha!) completely around the tree, & you just strip off a little bit of that BARK around the tree & you just cut a little tiny groove through the CAMBIUM LAYER that carries the LIFE-giving SAP & the tree dies!
         16. AND THAT'S WHAT KINGS DON'T LIKE: THE PROPHET'S BARK, & PARTICULARLY HIS BITE! They'd not only like to get rid of the Prophet's BARK but they'd like to get rid of his BITE as well!--"That really hurts MY real authority, the fact that the PROPHET can wield the axe!" That's what kings always resent: That GOD & the PROPHET always have the FINAL AUTHORITY. They want to get out from under it.
         17. THEY FIGURE IF THEY GET RID OF THE BARK MAYBE THEY CAN CUT OFF SOME OF THAT BITTER SAP THAT REALLY BITES & stings sometimes! So they cut the groove around the trunk because the trunk says, "I have no need of thee, O thou Sap, you SAP!--I can do without you! I'm already great & strong & powerful & it is I who bear all these BRANCHES!--It is I who have borne all this FRUIT!"
         18. BUT THE MINUTE THAT LIFE-GIVING FLOW IS CUT OFF, THE ENTIRE TREE BEGINS TO DIE & IT'LL BE DEAD WITHIN A FEW DAYS! "The SAP"--It's funny that WORD should be the way KINGS look at PROPHETS--"Poor SAP!"
         19. BUT IT'S A PRETTY STUPID TREE & TRUNK THAT DECIDES TO KILL ITSELF BY CUTTING OFF THE FLOW BECAUSE IT WANTS TO BE INDEPENDENT! No tree in its right mind ever cuts off its own life!--Yet it seems nearly every king eventually comes to that point: "Behold, WE indeed are the PEOPLE!--Here we are! We've arrived! We've ALREADY GROWN & BORNE FRUIT, & behold we have ARRIVED & no longer NEED the Sap! Let's get rid of it!" In other words, the king says:
         20. "IT IS ENOUGH!--WE'VE HAD ENOUGH! STOP THE FLOW! IT'S ENOUGH! NOW let's put the emphasis on what we have GOT. We don't need any MORE Sap or fruit. We just need to try to PRESERVE & take CARE of what we've GOT. If this SAP keeps up at THIS rate we don't know WHAT kind of a tree we're going to grow into! We don't know WHERE we're going!"
         21. BUT GOD KNOWS, BECAUSE HE MADE THE TREE--NOT THE TRUNK!--THE TRUNK DIDN'T MAKE THE TREE. But it gets to thinking that it DID, & it really gets to thinking that it really is obviously the most important part of the tree. "Why, look at me!--I bear all the FRUIT! Without ME the tree would be NOTHING! You need ME a lot more than this SAP!"
         22. SO THE TREE SOMEHOW OR ANOTHER PERSUADES THE UNDER-CHOPPERS TO COME CUT THE GROOVE AROUND HIS BASE SO HE'LL NO LONGER HAVE TO BE BOTHERED WITH THE SAP!--Certainly no farmer or forester in his right mind would do it--but the tree can probably always find some ignorant wood-chopper that doesn't know any better than to come & do it for him! Nearly all kings seem to do it sooner or later, saying, "That's ENOUGH of this SAP!"
         23. THE KINGS THEMSELVES ARE THE ONES THAT ARE IGNORANT, NOT REALISING THAT THE SAP IS THEIR OWN LIFE! By cutting off the SAP & killing His PROPHETS they destroy their OWN LIFE.--And their whole kingdom falls, like the tree! They cut off the life-giving flow, the Sap's Words that give life & health & beauty & nourishment & cause the branches to bear fruit. So that when the king finally persuades some stupid idiot to cut off that flow, he literally KILLS HIMSELF, the TREE, the BRANCHES, the FRUIT, the PEOPLE, the KINGDOM & ALL, & then they've lost their excuse for EXISTENCE!
         24. BECAUSE WITHOUT THE SAP THERE IS NO LIFE, WITHOUT THE FLOW OF THE SPIRIT THERE IS NO LIFE. But the king always looks on the OUTWARD appearance & forgets what is at the HEART, & he forgets that thin little growing layer just beneath the surface which gives the whole tree life & causes it to grow year by year, layer by layer.
         25. JESUS SAID, "I AM THE VINE," OR THE STUMP: "YE ARE THE BRANCHES." (SEE JN.15)--And the KING & his HIGH ONES are only the TRUNK & LOFTIEST, showiest & most exalted BRANCHES which can easily be brought low if they begin to think they're the Stump Himself!
         26. IT'S LIKE THE KING IS THE LOFTY TRUNK WHO BEGINS TO THINK HE'S THE FOUNDATION STUMP & that he can dominate & uphold the whole tree by himself! But he himself is borne by the REAL STUMP, the Foundation of the tree, Christ Jesus, & if the king becomes too top heavy or unfruitful or rotten, he'll be lopped off by God the Farmer Himself or blown off by the winds of enemies & adversities so that NEW YOUNGER STRONGER BRANCHES with MORE of the LIFE-GIVING SAP can take his place!
         27. "BEWARE, O BRANCH, LEST THOU THINK TOO HIGHLY OF THYSELF! It is I that have borne THEE & NOT thou ME! For in the day that thou exaltest THYSELF instead of ME, thou shalt be brought low, & in the day that thou yieldest NOT to My life-giving flow of My Spirit, thou shalt DIE & be DESTROYED!
         28. "BEWARE, THOU EXALTED BRANCHES, LEST THOU TAKE TOO MUCH UPON THYSELVES & too great a load without MY life, lest thou fall from thy place & be no more & ANOTHER REPLACE THEE which shall be MORE YIELDED to My SPIRIT & bear Me more FRUIT for My Kingdom!"
         29. YOU KNOW, THE TOP-MOST BRANCH USUALLY STICKS STRAIGHT UP & IS THE HIGHEST OF ALL & IN THE MIDDLE OF EVERYTHING & it is like a continuation of the trunk itself, but it is really not the STUMP, but it is still only one of the branches, like a PART of the TRUNK but not the STUMP!--THAT has got to be the LORD!
         30. THE TRUNK & THOSE HIGHEST BRANCHES ONLY GET TO THINKING THEY'RE THE STUMP sometimes because they're so LOFTY & so near the TOP & CENTRE & sometimes IN the VERY centre! But they're still ALL only standing on TOP of the Stump, & if they don't BEHAVE, they'll FALL, especially if they think they can get along WITHOUT the LOWER parts, the Foundation Base, the STUMP, the HIDDEN ROOTS, or the SAP ITSELF, with its flow of life-giving Spirit, or its UNDER branches which are OLDER but STILL BEAR FRUIT!
         31. BUT JESUS SAYS, "I AM THE VINE, YE ARE THE BRANCHES: He that ABIDETH in ME, & I in HIM, the same bringeth forth MUCH FRUIT, for without ME ye can do NOTHING! If a man abide NOT in Me, he is CAST FORTH as a BRANCH, & is WITHERED; & men gather them, & cast them into the FIRE, & they are BURNED!"--Jn.15:5,6.
         32. GOD CAN CREATE A WHOLE NEW TREE, A WHOLE NEW WORLD FROM A BRAND NEW BEGINNING IF YOU BECOME OLD & UNFRUITFUL & UNYIELDED TO HIS SAP so that you grow no more & bear fruit no more but are dead & dying! If so, He'll lay the axe to the root of the old dead tree, for it encumbereth the ground, & He'll remove it & make room for a NEW YOUNG tree till it be healthy & sturdy & grow green & blossom to bear NEW YOUNG fruit for His Kingdom--as you once were!
         33. WHICH ARE YOU--A PART OF THE OLD OR A PART OF THE NEW? Have you grown OLD & DYING, or are you still YOUNG & GROWING? Or are you DISEASED & ROTTEN & WEAK & UNDEPENDABLE & UNFRUITFUL so that you have to be PRUNED OFF to make room for OTHERS?--Or are you still NEW & FRESH & GREEN & GROWING & BLOSSOMING & BEARING FRUIT that's USEFUL!
         34. THOUGH YOUR OUTWARD MAN, LIKE THE BARK OF THE TREE, PERISHETH, IS YOUR INWARD MAN STILL GREEN & GROWING, like the living cambium layer, & renewed every day (2Cor.4:16) with the life-giving flow of the Sap of His Spirit with the nourishment of His Words? A lot is up to YOU & how you GROW by how much NOURISHMENT you receive!
         35. DON'T BE A FOOL & CUT YOURSELF OFF & THINK YOU CAN DO WITHOUT THE REST OF US, or you may become just a fallen dead leaf or branch or rotten fruit on the forest floor, & your history merely food for future generations! Keep YOUNG & GREEN & BUDDING & BLOSSOMING & BEARING FRUIT for His Kingdom that will FEED the WORLD from the life-giving flow of His SPIRIT of LOVE, JOY & PEACE & HAPPINESS NOW & LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER FOREVER!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family