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"Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house. *** Pro 24:27
There is a work that must be done in our land, before we can begin our Spiritual house. All offensive, hindering thorns, thistles and stumbling stones must be removed, along with all roots of bitterness. This is where we must begin if we are to build an house of the Lord that will last for eternity. We cannot begin to build our Spiritual house, until we have prepared the work without, and made it fit in the field. Only then can we begin to build our house.
How can we begin to prepare the work without and make it fit in the field? To prepare the work without we need lumber, and the lumber we need must be very carefully selected. We must choose lumber from trees of righteousness that will endure forever. We, therefore, must assure the quality of these trees of righteousness. The only way that we can be absolutely sure that we have chosen God's select trees is to allow Him to plant them in our land.
But before we begin to plant these selected, quality trees of righteousness, we must remove all hindering, obstructing, choking roots. For if we do not, new growth will spring up from these roots and choke out the trees of righteousness, the plantings of the Lord.
What are these hindering roots which must be removed?
Compare The Two Trees The Cedar & The Willow
"A great eagle with great wings, longwinged, full of feathers, which had divers colours, came into Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the Cedar.
He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it it into a land of traffick; he set it in a city of merchants.
He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field: he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree.
And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs." *** Ezekiel 17:3-6
There is a great planting of "pride" dwelling in our land. This planting was taken from the highest branch of the Cedar and brought to our land and planted in our fields. This planting has grown and prospered and taken over our cities.
"Whom has thou reproached and blasphemed? And against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? Even against the Holy One of Israel.
By the servants hast thou reproached the Lord, and hast said, By the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the height of his border and the forest of his Carmel, [his fruit orchard plantations].
Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it; and of ancient times, that I have formed it? Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps.
Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded: they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up." *** Isaiah 37:23-24; 26-27
The plantings of "Pride" have been planted in well-cared for plantations across our land, springing up to great fortified, fenced cities: plantings of greed, lust, deceit, and mixed seeds of half-truths.
Have you not heard how we must lay these plantings to waste, piling them in ruinous heaps? We must destroy them, bringing them to small stature until they are utterly dismayed and confounded, until they become grass in the field to be removed and burned.
But there is also a "planting" of the Lord. Why, it has been so abased, we hardly notice it; the "lowly willow" tree. Look again at its characteristics. It's seems to bend in true repen-tance, weeping great sobs of tears. Look at its station; it thrives best near the rivers of the water of God's Word. Notice it's roots; they grow to any length to receive the water of God's life-giving Word. Take a closer look at its wrinkled bark; the suffering it has endured.
"For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor come-liness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that should desire him." *** Isaiah 53:1
"I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." *** Isaiah 27:3 & 6
See I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to pull down, to build, and to plant." *** Jeremiah 1:10
Be encouraged in the Lord, ye "plantings", ye fruits of righteousness.
Spring forth in all your inner beauty for all to see!
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