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His Word ... a prophetic perspective

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Vision
December 10, 1997

Fruits

Revelation

     I was looking over the top of a well-trimmed hedge. It was a thick full green hedge and very wide. Looking over it I saw a modest little cottage surrounded by rich, luxurious foliage, plants and trees. All very healthy and green and full grown. Then in the next scene I was in front of the little house. There were huge, very tall trees, with lots of green leaves and branches. The house was frame construction, which means it was made of wooden boards. The house was colored red. Then I saw a name imprinted in the red on the front of the house in raised gold lettering. It read “House of Conditional Fruits.”
     I was then shown four things that could prevent development of the lush, full foliage around the house. I saw:
     1—A canopy, a covering placed over it by human hands.
     2—An orange colored heavy duty electrical extension cord plugged into another one with the connection sitting in a mud puddle.
     3—Confectioners sugar being sprinkled upon the foliage.
     4—A green hose connected to another one with water leaking out of the connection.
     Then the scene changed to another landscape scene with people in it. It then changed rapidly from one scene to another with different people in it. As I wondered what it meant, I got a flashback view of the “House of Conditional Fruits” with all its lushness. I then realized the stark contrast between the new rapidly changing scenes with different people in it and the “House of Conditional Fruits.” The new scenes, which included different seasons of the year, as well as different locations and different people were lacking in healthy vegetation. I had seen brown dry branches, dry brown grass, dry leaves. Even vegetation on the edge of a lake was dry and brown. There was very little green foliage in the scenes. Only an occasional tall tree that still retained its greenness.
     The contrast became more pronounced as the scene switched back and forth from the “House of Conditional Fruits” and the transient scenes. The foliage, trees and vegetation around the “House” became thicker, greener, fuller and richer. The transient scenes dryer, less green, thinned out and desolate.
     The scene became stationary and focused on the “House of Conditional Fruits” with the glorious richness continuing to grow all around it.
Interpretation
     The central focus in the vision is the rich, lush full foliage and vegetation. The next thing is the “House of Conditional Fruits,” its construction, color and the color of the sign on it. The next thing after that are the four things which can prevent the growth of the foliage and vegetation and trees. And then the contrast with the bleak scenes that follow with a return emphasis on the “House of Conditional Fruits.”
     It's apparent from the Word of God and from the vision that God wants us to be fruitful and full and lush and healthy and fully grown. That's what we are to be.
     The frame construction of wooden boards speaks of our humanity.
     Our fruitfulness should be the first thing to attract attention, not our modest little human house. The color red symbolizes the humanity of Jesus and also that our house of flesh is covered by the blood of Jesus. The color gold in the lettering symbolizes the divinity of Jesus. The raised gold lettering imprinted in the red symbolizes the fact that Jesus was 100% human and also 100% divine. It also reveals that as blood-bought Christians we have God's stamp of divine approval upon us. And also that we should be exhibiting the “Conditional Fruits” of the Holy Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22.
     The conditions which must be met in order to yield these fruits is determined by overcoming those things that could prevent development of them:
     1—A canopy, a covering placed over it by human hands which would obstruct the sunlight. This is symbolic of the world, carnal believers and unscriptural church authorities who would keep us from the light of the Holy Spirit and Jesus, who is the light of the world and who is also the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in His wings.
     2—An orange colored heavy duty electrical extension cord plugged into another one with the connection sitting in a mud puddle.
     The orange color, here, is symbolic of the glory of God. The extension cord connection is symbolic of our spiritual connection to God, through Jesus, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. But with the connection sitting in the mud puddle, which is dirty water, i.e. the Word of God, polluted with traditional and secular human teachings (mud), the connection is grounded out and the power is dissipated through that dirty water and mud.
     3—Confectioners sugar being sprinkled upon the foliage.
     This is prideful hypocrisy in an attempt to look pure and nice and fruitful.
     4—A green hose connected to another one and with water leaking out of the connection.
     The color green is symbolic of something new. The leaking connection is symbolic of the loss to us of the “newness” of God's revelations to us through lack of reading and studying His Word. It's also symbolic of the lack of connecting to others in the body through lack of true biblical fellowship, and sharing the “newness” of each others insight and revelations that come from study of God's Word.
     The contrast between the “House of Conditional Fruits” and the transient barren scenes with an occasional tall green tree demonstrates the end result of:
      1—lack of sunlight, i.e., the light of the Holy Spirit and Jesus and His healing,
      2—believing unscriptural human teachings,
      3—our “religiosity” of prideful hypocrisy, and
      4—lack of studying God's Word and lack of fellowshipping with His people.
     The lake with dry, barren vegetation at its edge (which should have been green because of its proximity to water) symbolizes the many pockets of humanity within Christianity who have stagnated and have failed to overcome these things and develop and grow.
     The occasional tall green tree represents the older, more mature saint of God in traditional churches who has weathered these conditions and whose spiritual priorities are still in order in spite of their poor spiritual environment.
     The continuing enrichment of the “House of Conditional Fruits” and continuing barrenness of the transient scenes demonstrates the progressiveness in the end times in either one or the other of these directions.
     The term “Conditional Fruits” emphasizes that the fruits of the Holy Spirit are conditional upon our growth in Christ, and our connection to Christ and to each other. And the absence of pride and hypocrisy in our lives.
     It's interesting to note that in this vision God calls the fruits “Conditional” and also that these fruits relate to the growth of green (full of life) individual things as a result of overcoming the conditions just mentioned. And not “fruit” as we would think of it. The Holy Spirit is saying here that He desires observable, personal fruit in our lives.
Application
     1—Don't let anyone in the world or in the church obstruct the sunlight—the light of the Holy Spirit and Jesus, the light of the world and the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in His wings.
     2—Do whatever is necessary to maintain your spiritual connection to God, through Jesus, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Learn to recognize when the Word of God is being polluted with traditional and secular human teachings which can ground out your connection and dissipate your spiritual power.
     3—Resist the temptation to attempt to look pure and nice and fruitful. It may be as sweet as confectioners sugar, but like all sugar it has no substance and no nutritional value and in excess can create bad health problems in your spiritual life. And learn to recognize this same prideful hypocrisy in others.
     4—Keep enjoying the “newness” of God's revelations to you by reading and studying His Word. And connect to others in the body by true biblical fellowship, and sharing the “newness” of each others insight and revelations that come from study of God's Word.
     Make a conscious effort to develop the fruits of the Spirit in your life.
     In Galatians 5:22, the fruits of the Spirit are listed in progressive order. They go from love to temperance. However to fully realize the progression we have to reverse them and start with temperance and progress to love.
     Researching the meaning of the Greek words used in the text in Vines Expository Dictionary, we find that:
     Temperance is self-restraint, or self-control, moderation.
     Without self-control, you cannot even start the progression.
     Meekness is a calm composed evenness of soul and spirit which comes from dependency on God. The exercises of it are first and chiefly toward God, with no fighting, struggling and contending with God. It's associated with self-control and results in absence of pride, self-assertion and self-interest because of lack of pre-occupation with self.
     If you don't learn to depend upon God for everything in your life and lose your pride, assertiveness and self-interest because you're locked in on self-interests you won't be able to continue the progression.
     Faith is firm persuasion, a conviction based upon hearing.
     “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). “Hearing by hearing” is a Hebraic expression, which basically means to hear and to understand. That will require not only listening to the Word, but studying on your part.
     Goodness means good in character and beneficial in its effect. It includes the sterner qualities of doing good to others — a kindly activity towards others.
     That means you've got to start acting out in your life the self-control, the God dependency and the Word of God that you've studied.
     Gentleness means kindness, usefulness, goodness of heart, pleasant, gracious. It describes the kindlier aspects of goodness — a kindly disposition towards others.
     This requires even more effort on your part.
     Longsuffering is the opposite of anger. It is self restraint in the face of provocation without hasty retaliation or prompt punishment — patience with regard to antagonistic persons or circumstances.
     This is particularly difficult in close relationships. We are much more prone to get angry with a loved one, a family member, or someone we're close to than with a casual acquaintance or a stranger.
     Peace describes harmonious relationships, with friendliness, freedom from molestation, order and the sense of rest and contentment consequent thereto. It corresponds to the Hebrew word “shalom” which primarily signifies wholeness, or completeness.
     You're getting real close to love when you and those around you begin to enjoy this kind of peace.
     Joy means delight, gladness, joyfulness.
     That just naturally follows peace, doesn't it?
     Love is a conscious choice to love, subjectively caused by your own willful choice, regardless of the worthiness of the object of your love.
     That's “agape”—the God kind of love. That's the way God loves you. And to get to that point, you'll first have to start with self-control and continue through and complete the progression.
     And you will have observable, personal fruit in your life.

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