THE TREE - SHUR WILDERNESS
He is the “tree planted by God’s design, deeply rooted by the rivers water.” A tree thrown into the water made the water sweet. What a clear picture this is of “the tree” upon which Jesus was crucified and how it can make the bitter things of our lives sweet. Jesus is our sweetener!
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Psalm 1:3
So Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord opened his eyes to see a tree. When Moses threw the branch of the tree into water, the water became good to drink.
"And he [Moses] cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet..." (Ex. 15:25).
The tree into the water made the water become sweet! Has the Lord shown you His tree, the one that makes your bitter waters sweet?
Jesus is truly that flourishing tree spoken of in Psalm 1.
It’s not always easy to find but we must search and make every effort and ask for help from the Lord to make this discovery.
I started by praying to The Lord to show me my Tree? God is so faithful to show us, if we really want to find it. I was given a dream that kindled “the fire” to keep going! I kept pursuing God, sitting in his presence day after day to make Him first in my life.
When God does come to show you, I pray you are quick to cut it down, and cast it into the waters. You will have to discover this Tree for yourself because for every Marah there is an individual Tree. Yet they are all of one likeness.
It is the Tree of His Cross; but for you and for me there is a very individual application of that Cross. Your Cross is tailor-made for our needs, and so I cannot tell you what may be involved, except that it will involve a humbling of yourself before God. It may involve a confession of some hurt that you are nursing, or it may require you to ask the forgiveness of another or even yourself.
For each of us can be harmed, so there is a Marah in our nature that must be sweetened. And you may discover that the bitterness of your heart is not because of what another has done to you, but because you are not able to forgive yourself.
My true deliverance came when I went to the alter and Jesus met me there and I was able to step over the Threshold to have a personal encounter with Him. If you need a personal encounter, ask God to provide it!
Once you find the grace to forgive, you are going to discover that suddenly the waters are sweetened... because you have changed. All your walls of Jericho have come down. Forgiveness may not be released easily, but if you seek the Lord earnestly, you will discover your Tree.
You may have to start praying for the one that has misused you, misunderstood you, spoken evil against you. As you continue at this, the Lord may show you that the bitterness you have known is the result of drinking waters our of the cistern of your own heart... and that the more you drank of it, the more bitter you became. And all the while you have been blaming your neighbor, or blaming God. "God, why are you doing this to me?" Why is God doing this to you? Perhaps it may be His way of revealing to you the bitterness of your heart, that you might discover the Tree. The sufferings of Christ actually becomes a fragrant sweetness to tender our hearts.
We must know: the cross has the power to turn sweet what once brought bitterness to our lives. The sweetness of His cross is stronger than the bitterness of abuse, pain, rejection, misunderstanding, or grief. The cross has yielded the most powerful sweetness known on earth. By virtue of His sufferings, Jesus is now dispensing power to take away our pain, turn our sorrow to joy, and make our bitter experience sweet. There is honey for us and healing for our pain. Throughout our “dark night of the soul,” we must hold to our hearts the cross of Christ like “a sachet of myrrh” (Song of Songs 1:13).
The Lord is so faithful when we pray and ask for help. He came and provide a dream when I could not distinguish His Voice from the enemy. He exposed my tree one wintery night that shook me to my core! I woke up in a cold sweat, frightened. This is known throughout history as my dark night of the soul and my testing period.
MY DREAM
I was standing on a high ridged mountain peak with snow capped mountains all around me. Some movement below catches my eye and I see 4 horses with riders slowly making their way up the mountain trail towards me. As the first horse approaches, the riders all have hooded horsemen on their backs as they pass me by I can see their faces are hidden. I noticed the first horse was white, the second one was red and the third horse was black. Each rider wore a dark hooded cloak, but when the final pale rider approaches, he turns his head to look at me and within his hood, I will never forget… his skull had no skin and his eyes were empty sockets. I was paralyzed in fear and just as he approached me, I woke up!
When we cry out like Moses did, we will see the crucified Christ as our Healer, but you will have to cut it down, and throw it into the waters. This dream would be the beginning of my tree discovery!
God will not do this for you; but He will show you how to do it. I spent 3 years sitting in the presence of the Lord but loved every minute of it! God never disappointed my hungry thirst for more of His heart! He had such Grace for my misunderstanding and misconceptions of His Word. My belief system need to come down like a house of cards and he showed me that as well in another dream. His truth sets every crooked thing straight, every brokenness mended.
You may not know how to forgive, but you can start by recognizing your lack of grace, and asking God for help. As you continue to pray for the one(s) who "hurt" you, the more you will come to recognize the unforgiving nature that you have, so that eventually you will think less of yourself and more highly of your brother.
This could lead to the place where you almost forget the hurts that you have received from your brother, and you begin to reflect upon the incurable state of your own heart. You may soon begin to indulge in self-accusation and personal guilt. At least, the problem has been narrowed down to the confines of your own heart: "I am the problem." But let the Tree continue to do its work in the bitter waters of your Marah until you can exult in the Tree upon which our Lord and Savior died for our cleansing.
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 Jn. 1:9).
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree" (Gal. 3:13).
He became a Curse, that you might no longer curse your brother, or even curse yourself!
Marah is Our Place Of Health
There at Marah, He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He proved them, and said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I WILL PUT NONE OF THESE DISEASES UPON THEE, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I AM THE LORD THAT HEALETH THEE" (Ex. 15:25-26).
It was at the bitter waters of Marah that God came forth with the covenant of healing, of health, and of life. How can we expect health and life to flow in the midst of God's people, as long as we continue to drink from bitter waters?
We are to continually ask God to purge our hearts and minds completely from every trace of the old carnal nature, until Christ and Christ alone flows forth in life-giving streams of water.
Let me assure you, beloved, when believers across the world earnestly seek God for their Tree, we will see the crucifixion and death to the old carnal life.
We will see the streams of bitterness that flow from hearts being replaced with streams of forgiveness, of mercy, of kindness, of gentleness, and of LOVE! This is the harvest we are praying forward; a stream of physical and spiritual healing in the House of God! Every believer being delivered from the diseases of this old world. Hallelujah!
Elim is Our Place Of Strength
The bareness of the desert landscape is our mirror to our human strivings and self-dependence, but God meets us there! He comes to provide the vision and the means to reverse the curse Adam and Eve brought upon themselves in the garden.
Our wilderness is a test sent from God to reveal how much we trust Him in our discomfort.
"And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters" (Ex. 15:27).
During my discovery The Lord came to help. "Elim" comes from a word signifying "strength." After the bitter experiences of Marah, the faithful Father leads His people to Elim, a place of strength, a place of refreshing waters, a place of victory and blessing.
My Elim Vision
I am sitting under a tree by a river that flows from Eden. In the distance, I see Saints in knee deep water, bent over with their pants rolled up on their calf picking up river stones. As each one picks up a stone, they inspect its beauty with a smile to place it into a bag thats loosely hung over their shoulder.
And he will be like a tree firmly planted [and fed] by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season; Its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers [and comes to maturity]. Psalm 1:2-4
I know this river and remember that the garden and Eden are separated because of the fall of Adam and Eve. As I am taking these notes of reflection, I feel the loving presence of the Lord within my heart and a warmth grows from within my belly and flows to my heart. Jesus is here, among us in the river. He had promised to come with us, to lead us, guide and protect us – and here He was, in the form of this glorious, shimmering flowing river. Every concern is immediately put to rest and every burden was represented as a stone in the river. Jesus’ love washed by the flow of his waters and begins to fill my heart. I want to camp here indefinitely; but my journey is far from complete.
Let’s continue on our way farther, and farther to the south. Canaan is over there on our left; but somehow the Lord says, "Continue to go southward..." And as we travel on, we just know that we are getting farther and farther away from the Land of Promise.
Why does the Lord deliberately lead us the long-way-around where every encampment we are subjected to more and more devastation?
It is the untamed wilderness areas of our lives that God cares about and and is concerned with …. These areas must be dealt with in order to comprehend and understand the work that He must yet perform in our lives to bring forth the Beauty of the Lord Jesus.
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