The Character of God as Agriculturalist Pt 7: All things in due season

So much of scripture involves seasonal language, and so the reference cannot be ignored.

Ecclesiastes 3

3 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

²A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

³A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

⁴A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

⁵A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

⁶A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

⁷A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

⁸A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Thanks to the musical group The Byrds, this might just be the most famous passage of scripture on earth. But what is it telling us? I believe this passage by Solomon is about patience and wisdom, I believe it is about the Fruit of the Spirit. In it, I see the development of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control. I look at this beautiful passage and see that things do not start out perfect, that we can expect tribulation. I see the refinement process. I see maturation and things moving forward. I see that things have to happen in seasons so that we can reap a harvest later. I see the balance that should come with experience.

Let’s be honest, we start out as the types of people who want to know it all now, we want to be mature now. But knowledge and maturity come with a price. Knowledge comes with time, experience and dedicated study. Maturity comes with time, experience and endurance. But neither knowledge nor maturity are complete without the revelation of God. We can have a worldly sort of knowledge, we can have a worldly substitute for maturity — but without a connection to the divine it is largely empty.

Unfortunately, the church has pushed us towards worldly excess in knowledge and worldly standards of maturity.

Knowledge for knowledge sake is an empty pursuit. To be a holy pursuit, that knowledge must be for the purpose of being conformed into His image, into the very representation of His character, into the sort of person who can fit into the community of His earthly Temple of living stones. If our final goal is not to glorify Him through our character and through His collective community, then our pursuit is worldly. It isn’t that we be known, but that He be known.

Maturity, as the world views it, is pretty much behaving yourself in a way appropriate to the given situation, as determined by the cultural norms. Generally when I hear someone say, “Oh grow up!” it is not because they want me to behave in a godly manner, but according to an ungodly manner. They want me to have no standards outside of the cultural norms of THEIR community — whether that community be the local church or Hollywood. Godly maturity is a self-sacrificial maturity. We decrease so that He can increase. We stop assuming that our desires are holy, or Spirit led, or even honest. We begin to question ourselves, as all children do when they begin to develop empathy. Only now we are adults who have come into the community of faith and the rules that governed out behavior as worldly children are no longer sufficient. We are more dangerous now, we are more willful in many ways, and we are often convinced that we are mature because we are now adults.

But God never called us to be adults. He called us to be mature children. Adults are independent, but children are by their nature dependent upon their parents. Adults forge their own way, but children are learning to be adults by watching their parents. Adults do as they wish, but children have restraints. Adults are masters of their own homes, but we are brides waiting for our Bridegroom and as such have not left our Father’s house. You see how the mature child mindset is completely at odds with the mature adult mindset?

All good things in time. We do not start out mature. It is unreasonable to expect people to come out of the world with any sort of real maturity. It is unreasonable to try to train up a dependent babe as you would a mature adult. With adults you tell them what to do and expect them to do it, but children have to be guided and allowed to figure things out so that they can truly learn, and part of that is watching to see what they are ready for and not just pushing them according to what we want them to know and how we want them to do it. One of the biggest problems we have in religious circles is not allowing for immaturity and ignorance (not in the nasty insulting sense of the word, but the recognition that we naturally do not know what we have not been taught!). I don’t expect someone new to God’s ways to do very much right, and why should I? How unfair would it be? And the temptation is there, while we are immature and unloving still, to start to impose heavy burdens upon those who are still learning to walk. And it is most unloving (and unbiblical) to want rigid conformance now.

Can you imagine taking a 9 month old who is still crawling, or not even crawling yet, and telling them to stand up and walk? And then telling them they are rebellious for their inability to do it yet? To everything there is a season. No one walks their way out of the womb.

Can you imagine taking a preschooler and telling them to do multiplication because you don’t want to take the time to teach them their numbers and addition and subtraction first? To everything there is a season. Even prodigies need to be taught the basics, or they will fail.

Can you imagine criticizing a deaf person for not being able to hear, or a blind person for not being able to see? To everything there is a season. If you want them to be able to hear or see, then get to work praying for them.

Can you imagine getting angry at a seed for not producing a hundred-fold harvest the day after it was planted? To everything there is a season.

I look at these examples, and what I see is not a failure in the babe of the Kingdom, but in those who do not recognize the seasons. If we do not understand the seasons, then we do not understand the community life as recorded in scripture. The seasons were given to us, by God, in order to teach us about the patient nature of His character, that He not only understands the concept that things take time, but that it was part of His design. Yes, He expects growth, but He expects it to happen “in season.” We need to do the same. It’s part of His compassion and mercy, and when we do not display that patient compassion and loving-kindness and gentle mercy, then we are sowing chaos, faithlessness and our lack of self-control into the lives of others. If we cannot tolerate immaturity in season, then our fruit is not where it needs to be and we are the ones who need to be taught, not the ones who should be teaching.

The Character of God as Agriculturalist Pt 6: Focusing on Fruit First and Foremost

Fruit, from a purely scientific standpoint, exists for one purpose and that is the transportation of seed from one place to another. Fruit is supposed to be mobile. A bird will carry away a berry laden with seeds, eat it and deposit the seeds far from the original plant. Humans and animals do the same, we take the fruit, and eat it and the seed goes elsewhere. How interesting is it that it was YHVH’s plan that all seed which is eaten is deposited in the earth WITH fertilizer!? Now that is brilliant planning. Blessed be His Name. Yes, fruit nourishes us, but its actual job is to make more fruit by making more trees or bushes.

But what is our fruit? Is it the things we try to do?

Look at the tree. Does it put any effort into making fruit? Certainly not, the fruit is what happens naturally in season, in response to the external stimuli of heat and moisture. We are much the same, we are creatures whose fruit will manifest in due time in response to our internal and external conditions. Fruit is not something we can force, fruit happens — or more often than not, is revealed. Works, on the other hand, can be forced and faked. Works are what we do, fruit is about who we really are — and most importantly, it determines the type of seeds we ourselves plant in others, for better or worse. Are we figs or thistles? Both of them are full of seeds, chock full of them!

What species of fruit we are does not change, but the quality of the fruit can. Our fruit starts out naturally inferior — Leviticus 19:23 even clearly tells us that for three years you shouldn’t even eat the fruit off of a new tree! It’s uncircumcised! Can I just say how wonderful it is to serve an Elohim who expects and makes allowances for the fact that our fruit will not be immediately good upon entering the Kingdom, that He allows us time to grow? That is the Father’s heart!

So why is the fruit of the Spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22)? Because when we are grafted into the tree of Israel, that is the lifeblood that tree should be pumping into us, the very character of Messiah! It should be changing us, it should be changing our fruit. Our obedience or disobedience to the commandments will play a big part in how quickly our fruit changes, as will our willingness to be humble and loving and yes, gentle. We will do mercy, justice, and kindness in the lives of others.

Are we bearing the fruit of Messiah or of the evil one? His fruit will not manifest itself in mercy, justice or kindness. Messiah’s fruit tempers our flesh, while the fruit of the evil one encourages our flesh. The seed Messiah plants produces good fruit and that 100 fold harvest, while the seed of the enemy sows tares that chokes off the full potential of the harvest.

Fruit is who we are and what we propagate, works are what we do. Works can be fake — but fruit is revealed as soon as it falls into the ground and produces something. Whatever it produces will show you exactly what it was in the first place. Fruit can be transported and propagated through works, and fruit can be displayed through works, but flesh-driven works can also obscure our true fruit. Works committed under great pressure are often the true physical manifestation of our fruit. You see how deceptive works can be, and yet also full of truth? This is why the Kingdom is not only about works, but also about fruit. A works focused Kingdom can be an illusion, hence the focus in the Gospels on fruit in partnership with works! What we do is important, and if we claim that we are loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good faithful and self-controlled but never show it in our actions — then we do not truly have that fruit yet. We are still yielding evil or mixed fruit. Striving for the classic good works (church work, for instance), if it distracts us from producing good fruit (which requires submission to and discipline from our Father in Heaven), is a very deceptive trap. It seems like the right thing to do, but it is really just for naught if it springs up from a sense of guilt or obligation instead of pouring forth from the abundance of love in our hearts.Better to do nothing now, and spend time growing and maturing towards developing godly fruit, so that we can produce a hundred-fold harvest later, instead of settling for a 30-fold harvest.

Torah shows us the works we are commanded to do in order to show love to one another in truth. But the Spirit is the One who makes it possible for us to feel love towards one another. Worshiping God in Spirit and Truth is a response to both sides of the equation — be love, don’t just do love and don’t just feel love, don’t neglect one for the other, but embrace both. Be love. There is your good fruit, when you can be love.

The Character of God as Agriculturalist Pt 5: Why would anyone graft a wild branch on a cultivated tree?

In January, I published a note called The Trauma of Being Grafted In, For the Tree and the Branches and I have seen it reposted on different blogs so I figure I ought to post it here as well, but then I changed it and added to it.

I always preface a discussion of grafting with this, because I think it is important to establish who we are — no longer Gentiles but Israelites.

Ephesians 2:11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

When we look at who we were and who we are called to be — we cannot overlook the realities of the grafting process. Paul used it as a picture of what happens for a reason.

Romans 11:17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

19 Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.

20 Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:

21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.

24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

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Now, I have heard people say that we are grafted into the vine, Yeshua (Jesus), but Paul says that we are grafted into the olive tree of Israel, spoken of by the prophet Jeremiah.

Jer 11:16 The Lord called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.

Grafting takes a branch of an uncultivated (wild) tree that has some favorable qualities, cuts it off from the tree it is currently a part of, strips it of its leaves, and then cuts the host tree in order to incorporate the mutilated branch. It isn’t a pleasant thing. The grafted branch has to change, and the host has to support and nourish.

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But here are some important facts about grafting — the host never changes. The cultivated tree stays exactly the same, other than being cut to accept the graft. It is the graft that changes, but the graft will never, ever make the newcomer exactly like the natural branches. The fruit won’t ever look or taste exactly the same as the fruit the host tree originally produced, but it will change. Wild fruit is generally not as abundant as cultivated, or as large. Grafting changes that — and within a few years, the grafted branch will produce fruit that is far superior in quantity to what it once produced when attached to the natural wild stock.

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Grafting is not a fast process, it takes time — in nature and in the Spirit. Grafting occurs for the express purpose of changing the branch, giving it a strong root and disease resistance — BUT no one would ever graft a wild branch onto a cultivated tree unless they wanted fruit that looked and tasted slightly different than that of the original tree!

When we, who are not natural branches (meaning that we come from stock that is hostile to cultivation, or in other words, hostile to God), are grafted into the root of Israel, our fruit and flavor will never be identical to the natural branches that are already there (those who are by birth descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob). We are still going to produce olives, the same species of fruit, and far more of it than before, but we aren’t supposed to taste or look exactly the same. When someone sees our fruit they should be able to say, “Aha! Look at that grafted branch, glory to YHVH! The fruit is indeed good and abundant!”

The grafted branch has nothing to apologize about for looking and tasting different — it is the job and duty of the branch to accept nourishment from the host and to change, all the while accepting that it will never, ever be exactly like natural branches of the host tree. What the grafted branch shows us, is that YHVH purposefully ordained that the olive tree of Israel would be a veritable smorgasbord of tastes and textures and appearances. He wanted it that way. What He doesn’t want is for the olive branches to produce apples or oranges, but the fruit He has ordained.

And so what does that tell us about the character of God? Let’s go back to the Exodus out of Egypt. Now I was never taught this in Sunday School, but even the movie the Ten Commandments got this one right — not only did the sons of Israel (Jacob) come out of Egypt, but so did a “mixed multitude.” (Ex 12:38) This ‘ereb rab (and for the record ‘ereb is where the word “arab” came from, meaning a mixture) was not only Egyptians but a mixture of a great many people. It is my belief that in Egypt at that time, being THE world power because of Joseph, there were slaves and citizens from every people group on the earth. I believe that the sons of Japheth were there, alongside the sons of Shem and Ham. I believe that people of every tribe, tongue and nation were around the base of Mt Sinai, hearing the words of YHVH in the thunder and fire and smoke. I believe that those of every tribe, tongue and nation went through the red sea and were baptised into Messiah and drank water from the rock that was Messiah

I Cor 10:10 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;

2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat;

4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

Do you see here what Paul is saying to the Church of Corinth? Now, some assemblies were significantly Jewish communities like we find in Galatia, but in Corinth, those people were a mess, former pagan Gentiles who were having a hard time giving up their paganism and immorality. Now usually when Jews speak of “our Fathers” they are referring to the patriarchs, but here it is instead worded “all our fathers.” This was a recognition of two important truths — the first being that Paul was speaking to the “lost sheep of Israel,” those descendants of the 10 northern tribes who went into exile and became assimilated, for the most part losing their identity after having been cut off from the covenant when they rejected it through centuries of pagan idolatry in the Land. But the second truth is that Paul is also addressing those whose physical forefathers were not even at Sinai, who did not go through the Sea, and who were not under the cloud. He was calling on the precedent set by God Himself in the acceptance of the ‘ereb rab into the people of Israel at the formal founding of the Nation as it was given the covenant. As the mixed multitude were grafted fully into Israel at Sinai, becoming as the native born through faith in YHVH, becoming sons and not foreigners through faith as evidenced by obedience to the covenant, so were these wild olive branches at Corinth and in all the assemblies of the saints, grafted into Israel. Now back to Paul’s words in Ephesus — no longer strangers, no longer without hope or without God or without the Covenants, no longer foreigners — but fellow citizens of Israel. There is no longer any difference. It is important to note that at the end of their 40 years in the desert, there is no mention of any mixed multitude because it no longer existed. They were Israel.

Our children, Matthew and Andrew, were grafted into our family — they were not natural branches. Adopted children don’t look like their parents, but they are family just the same as any natural born child. There aren’t separate rules, or different expectations, and they aren’t treated differently. What is wrong or right for the natural child is also wrong or right for the adopted child. And the adopted child is probably going to look different than the others — on the outside — but their fruit will be the same. Depending on how old they were when they were adopted, they may sound different, depending on what country they came from, they may look similar or very different, but in the end you will have a family unit. That is grafting. And that is why, in Messiah there is no Jew nor Greek, Male nor Female, Slave nor Free. Yes, those external differences are still there — but Israel is Israel is Israel — one Nation under God — one family under YHVH. Even if the kids are too busy disowning each other to admit it.

Grafting is a beautiful thing. It’s a painful, time-consuming, ugly way to make a bunch of branches produce a lot of good fruit. But the result is beautiful. The result is detailed in Rev 7

9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

The Character of God as Agriculturalist Pt 4: Don’t eat that fruit yet!

What do Leviticus 19:23-25, Galatians 1:17-18, and Daniel 1:3-5, 18-20 have in common?
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Lev 19 ²³And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: THREE YEARS shall it be as uncircumcised unto you: it shall not be eaten of. ²⁴But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the Lord withal. ²⁵And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase thereof: I am the Lord your God.

Galatians 1 ¹⁷Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. ¹⁸Then after THREE YEARS I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.

Daniel 1 ³And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes; ⁴Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. ⁵And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them THREE YEARS, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.

Daniel 1¹⁸Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. ¹⁹And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king. ²⁰And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.

Father had been showing me about the little fruit tree for over 2 years now, but I didn’t see the scriptural connections in my mind until last April as I started reading Daniel again, and one morning as I was painting the basement and praying, Paul’s journey to Arabia came to mind.

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Here’s the deal, and this runs absolutely counter to the practices of the modern church — new believers need YEARS to mature and grow before their fruit is going to be fit for others to benefit from and should not immediately be pressed into service wherever there is a need. In Leviticus we see the pattern beginning — the tree must be left alone, to grow, for three years — in fact, any fruit it yields is considered to be uncircumcised, not fit for human consumption! By the fourth year, the fruit is for God, presented to Him, if you will, set apart, and only in the fifth year can a man eat of it. But before that time, the ground must be prepared so that it is suitable for growth, the roots must be covered and well protected, there must be adequate nutrients, fertilizer must be applied, the bad branches must be pruned and the unruly ones tamed, suckers must be sheared away from the roots, and it must be well watered.

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Now, if I am right that this is also a picture of the believer, we will see this pattern again in scripture. So let’s look at Daniel — four young men were chosen and trained up for three years in the Babylonian language and culture — so that they could stand in the presence of the King of Babylon in the 4th year, and when the time came the King was very much impressed by their wisdom and knowledge — later in the narrative we see that the King placed them in authority over his people (Dan 2:48-9)

Let’s look also at Paul, from his testimony in his letter to the Galatians. After Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, he took a three year sabbatical in Arabia (where many believe he went to Mt Sinai). Despite being one of the most learned men on earth as far as knowledge of the scriptures, he went back to the drawing board — instead of being immediately pressed into service (although he did briefly attempt it in Damascus, as reported in Acts 9, but it would appear that after the attempt on his life he left for Arabia before heading to Jerusalem). Despite his knowledge, he was incredibly bogged down with the oral laws and traditions and teachings. He needed time, as any new believer, to detox and get back to what the scriptures actually said. All of us who have emerged from the world can relate to this! And in addition, whenever we come into a radical alteration in our beliefs, as when many of us realized that the Torah is still for followers of the Messiah, so we can walk as He walked, we need that time to unlearn and relearn.

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There is some debate as to whether or not the ministry of Messiah was three years of one year — but if it was three years then is also fits the pattern of how long a person must be discipled before being entrusted with the responsibilities of caring for people — certainly the most precious treasures YHVH possesses.

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The reason for my writing is this — the religious system shortchanged us and misrepresented the character of God, which is to care for the young as a Father, and by extension, we as older brothers and sisters must be willing to nurture the newcomers instead of using them as resources. The mature ARE the resources, not the immature. But the religious mindset has scared the beejeebies out of us and guilted the joy out of us if we don’t hit the ground running. Oddly enough, greasy grace doesn’t extend to how we treat those who have an obvious anointing on their lives. If we see that you are an evangelist — better get out there and win souls, boy! Doesn’t matter if you are still messed up — lets get them in the pews because if they die tomorrow and go to hell it will be all your fault! If we see that you are a teacher — we’ll just send you out to teach our children before you even know the basics, here’s a curriculum — even though you don’t know enough to question it or verify the contents! Pastor? Gotta get you to divinity school! Prophet? Please go away and never come back — unless you have something nice to say don’t say anything at all! Apostle? We’ll send you to Africa to plant our denominational flags so you can make them twice the sons of hell that we are.

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NO! This should not be! YHVH spoke very clearly to me about this once:

IT TAKES TIME TO LEARN!

It takes — time. And that requires patience. A believer is a precious investment, and we should treat our new brothers and sisters better than we do. We should encourage them to take some years to be still and quiet, so that when they open their mouths they don’t have to regret it in a year when they figure out that their understanding wasn’t where it needed to be. Maybe they thought they were knowledgable, and haven’t yet come to the humbling realization of how little they know. Like a baby tree, they should be propped up, and fed and watered, and pruned and protected from the elements — not forced to try to bear good fruit before their time. It is a cruel thing we do, and we do it because we have inherited lies, religious expectations instead of the compassion that comes through the Spirit. Perhaps if we had been given the opportunity to simply learn and grow and change with no other expectations foisted upon us, we wouldn’t be hazing the newcomers. But it’s time to recognize that the new lambs, and the old lambs who have come into Torah, are not yet equipped to minister and we need to stop pushing them to do it.

The Holy Spirit does not equip us immediately — there is work that must be done, or the roots will not go deep enough and that beautiful young believer will topple over by being forced to carry too much of a load. We need to make sure this doesn’t happen. And if we push someone too hard and too fast and they fall away, well shame on us. I know it was done to us, but it’s just plain hazing. Let’s try to be better spiritual parents than we were given when we came to the faith. After all, what are we saying about the character of our King when we treat saplings like mature trees? Shalom!

The Character of God as Agriculturalist Pt 3: Feeding the Sheep

John 21:15 So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep

I love what Yeshua said here, “Feed my sheep.” Notice what He did not say because it is just as important.

“Rule over My sheep.”

“Discourage My sheep.”

“Devour My sheep.”

“Use My sheep to build an empire.”

“Make sure My sheep aren’t asking any questions.”

or my personal favorite —

“Force-feed my sheep.”

Sometimes I wonder if He is thinking, “What part of feeding My sheep is so difficult to understand?”

The first recorded martyr was Stephen, a man full of the Spirit, and his job was….. making sure the Greek widows were taken care of. Stephen was feeding Messiah’s sheep. Now, right after Yeshua’s exchange with Peter, He plainly tells him that he will be martyred. He says, feed my sheep, and you will die for me. In Acts 6, Stephen was given the job of feeding the sheep, and then he died for the testimony of Yeshua.

What does this tell us? Because I don’t feel this was an accident, not at all, I think it is deliberate.

I believe there is a death to self that must occur in order for a person to see that the sheep are fed. I believe that those who truly embrace the job of feeding the sheep die, perhaps not at the hands of the enemy, but they do die. Who would be content to feed others year after year, never getting wealthy for it, in fact getting a lot of grief in the process? Who would not weary when the widows were never depleted, year after year. Who would be more content to feed instead of being fed? Who desires to serve instead of be served? Who desires to seek out those who need fed, instead of seeking out a reputation as someone who feeds? There is no earthly glory to be had in simply feeding people. It is not glamorous, it’s often times not pretty. Dealing with hungry sheep is laborious, and often thankless. Leading them to green pastures, and then allowing them to eat — hardly something worth bragging about.

Feeding the sheep is what Yeshua commanded Peter to do, right before He told Peter that he would one day be martyred. But what did the disciples do as soon as they found some needy people? They gave the job to others, and then one of them died the prophesied death of the feeder of hungry sheep. Of course, Stephen was meeting the needs of the Greek widows in the physical, but there is also the spiritual principle to be considered. Getting people what they need, and not simply what we want them to have, requires humility and restraint.

God’s sheep must be led towards good things, but so often I see them being directed towards the bad — in order to steer them away from it. As I was praying last night, I had to laugh at the picture that came to my mind. I saw a man feeding something poisonous to a sheep and telling them never to eat it again. And so often that is what we do, instead of feeding His sheep the good stuff and making sure they develop a healthy taste for it, we wave the bad in their faces, we sometimes even let them get a tantalizing taste for it. Oh, don’t listen to that. Stay away from that teaching. That is junk food! Perhaps. spiritually speaking, we would be better off not mentioning it unless absolutely necessary! You never know when someone might enjoy the scent of poison, and develop a hankering for it — simply because we mentioned it. Because we know our children run from everything we tell them to avoid right? Right? No, mine don’t either.

When shepherds find a poison weed in the field, they uproot it and burn it — they don’t call all the sheep over, let them get a good whiff of it and expect them not to go looking for another. It’s just such an awesome responsibility, as I said in my last blog, finding that living food and living water, and allowing the sheep to eat their fill at their own pace, and not forcing it down their throats.

Lead the sheep to a good field, and the sheep will eat. The food doesn’t need to be pre-processed, painstakingly inspected, placed into their mouths, and we don’t need to work their jaws for them and tell them to swallow and digest. Sheep know how to eat. Shepherds need to know when to leave them alone and let them do it.