John 15:1-3

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.

“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

“You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.

If I desire to be the revelation of an abundantly fruitful branch in the hands of Yah, the first thing I must embrace is being pruned.

To be pruned is to be cleansed.

The Hebrew understanding of "clean" is expressed extremely well in the Scripture ​Psalm 51:7:

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

If we take the three words purge, hyssop and clean and look at their words pictures this is what we see: fence the snakes strength, by taking a decision (to obey), revealing redemption with the strength to cut off (prune) and add to the floor plan (abundant fruit).

There is also another interesting element to the letters of the word clean in Hebrew: Tet, Hey and Reysh. In Hebrew the word mountain is Hey, Reysh which gives us another word picture for clean: surrounds the mountain.

Where do we see this picture in Scripture?

At Mount Sinai when the people of Israel surrounded the mountain and heard the words of God, the Torah was given!!!

Exodus 24:12 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law (torah) and commandments (mitzvah) which I have written, that you may teach them.”

The word torah literally means instruction. Here the word pictures are earth shattering!!! They are: what comes from the man nailed to the cross and what helps point out the target of life.

Mitzvah (commandment) literally means code of wisdom and the word picture is womb of motivation to obey is strong.

When a branch in the natural is pruned it is forced to draw more upon the resources of the vine which results in more abundant fruitfulness.

Likewise, spiritual pruning causes us to draw more deeply on the life of the man nailed to the cross (the True Vine) in order for us to fulfill the target of life, which is to be an abundantly fruitful branch in the right hand of revelation of the nail revealed.

Psalm 150:6
Let everything that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

The word picture for breath is: what comes from the Life of the Name.

This is extremely interesting when you set it beside the following verse:

Genesis 2:7
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

The word praise in Psalm 150 has three letters in Hebrew: Hey, Lamed, Lamed.

Hey has the picture akin to a first time Dad bursting out of the delivery room with his hands in the air shouting "Its a boy! Its a boy". In that act he is revealing to the wider population that he is now the father of a brand new son.

Lamed has the picture akin to the shepherds rod or staff or a king's scepter. There are many aspects to this picture, but on this occasion I want to draw your attention to the rod of Aaron.

Numbers 17:8 Now it came to pass on the next day that Moses went into the tabernacle of witness, and behold, the rod of Aaron, of the house of Levi, had sprouted and put forth buds, had produced blossoms and yielded ripe almonds.

I believe there is also a connection here between Elohim's words in Genesis 1:28 and Aaron's' rod.

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

The rod or scepter were also symbols of authority in Hebrew culture and we see this element operating in the words "subdue" and dominion" in the above Scripture.

You are a rod in the hand of Elohim (the powerful Judge or the powerful door to life).

​In Hebrew culture the role of a judge was primarily to protect the people, whereas in our culture we think of judges in terms of dealing out punishment.

There is another interesting connection between the word picture for breath and the name LORD. 

 In Hebrew the name LORD has four letters: Yod Hey Vav Hey. If you repeat this word over and over in Hebrew you will find that it parallels the natural act of breathing!!! 

Don't take my word for it, you can try it.  

The word picture behind LORD is: the right hand power of revelation is the nail revealed.

​With all of this in mind Psalm 150:6 can read as:

Let everything that has, what comes from the Life of the Name, be a revelation of an abundantly fruitful branch (staff) in the right hand of revelation of the nail revealed.

Does this sound to you like John 15 summed up in one verse?

I invite you to meditate on this amazing verse!!! ​
  

Psalm 145:1
[[David's Psalm of praise.]] I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.

The word picture here is: covenant revealed by the tongue.

One way to view the psalms of David is as guideposts along his journey towards becoming a man after God's own heart, or to put it another way, a man of the covenant.

Each guidepost revealed to David and to God exactly where he was in his journey.

​So, I encourage you to verbalise your praise so you can listen and discover where you are on your journey to becoming a woman or a man after God's own heart and a man or a woman of covenant.

Exodus 2:23
Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.

The picture behind the word groaned is: separated from the strength of life.

 For some reason as I contemplated this word my mind kept thinking of a person who is on their deathbed. The strength of life is slowly deserting them. They are unconscious, unable to communicate yet what emanates from them is not words but deep groans.

Because this communication is nonverbal you cannot be sure who or what the groans are directed towards. 

​Yet, in the case of the children of Israel we know that God heard these groans and He responded by ultimately delivering them from their life crushing bondage.

If the burdens of life are weighing you down and all you feel capable of is groaning, go right ahead, God is listening and He will respond.

Psalm 18:6
In my distress I called upon the LORD,
And cried out to my God;
He heard my voice from His temple,
And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.

The word picture for cried is: "taking that which is devouring you on the inside and joining it to an outward expression".

I attempted to write this blog back on 25 April 2019, but I just could not quite get my head around it, let alone express it in words.

Over recent weeks I have found myself living this word, as things with my work situation have unravelled there has been this growing cry building up inside of me. I spent two days with the constant desire to just burst into tears.

When that which was devouring me inside was joined to an outward expression what came out was simply deep sobbing and as I sobbed I knew this was prayer!!!

Job 33:26
He shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness.

The word picture for "pray" as we find it in Job 33:26 is: to see the person of the cross.

It is fascinating to find this word in the book of Job which in itself is the account of a man (Job) becoming a person of the cross (death).

Everything Job has dies or is destroyed at the hand of the enemy (satan).

Yet, at the end of it all this is Jobs summary of his experience of what it is to "pray":

Job 42:3-6 

You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.

Listen, please, and let me speak;
You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’

“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,
But now my eye sees You.

Therefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes.”

Could it be that the foundation of what it means to "pray" involves a death to all our preconceived understanding of who God is and how He should act.

Perhaps when we willingly become a person of the cross in prayer we then see more clearly the person of Yeshua on the Cross.

Galatians 2:20

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

You will recall that the Hebrew word picture meaning for grace is:

"to fence or protect life".

Also, the Hebrew word picture meaning for trust is:
"inside the fence".

Hence, I was blown away when I discovered these wonderful expressions used in The Passion Translation: 
​You are the wrap-around God giving grace to me.
You empower me for victory with your wrap-around presence.
​Beautiful!!
Would you not agree? 
​

Numbers 20:11
Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.

Our favourite version of "inferior good" is to take something the Lord said to us at a different time and use it to override what He said, or what He is saying in the present moment.

Clearly, the word of the Lord to Moses was "speak to the rock". However, Moses remembered the last time they had needed water he had struck the rock, in response to the Lord's instruction and water had gushed out.

This version of "inferior good" became the ultimate roadblock to Moses entering the Promised Land.

so, as we continue to journey through the Year 5779, this is my prayer for you:

Philippians 1:9 
........ that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment (between good & inferior good), that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Emphasis added)

Genesis 16:3
And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.

What was the "good" that God wanted for Sarai and Abraham?

That Sarai would give birth to Isaac in her old age.

But as the years went by an "inferior good" came into play.

This inferior good was the widely accepted cultural norm of the day. If a wife could not conceive she would give her maidservant to her husband as a surrogate.

The result was the birth of Ishmael whose descendants have warred against the descendants of Isaac even to this day.

What has "inferior good", in the guise of cultural norms, birthed that is now at war with the purposes of God for your life.

Genesis 3:3
“but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.' ”

Where did Eve get the idea that "nor shall you touch it" was what God had said?

Clearly Adam must have conveyed this to her.

So, what if the picture above actually carries in it an element of truth, in that, the serpent is "touching" the tree, with no ill effects.

"Nor shall you touch it" is a glowing example of inferior good.

If Eve did not "touch" the tree then she could never eat of the tree; if she did not eat of the tree then death could not steal her away from Adam. Bottom line, Adam did not want to be left alone again so his insurance policy was to add on "nor shall you touch it" to what God had actually said.

In essence, inferior good is adding my carnal wisdom to what God has actually said; all the while believing it is a good thing that I have done.

As we progress through this Year 5779 we will do well to review our definition of what is "good" whilst looking through the lens of Revelation 22:18:

For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book;