Getting to the roots

GETTING TO THE ROOTS!
A few years back when I was in the school of the Holy Spirit and He was training me for the things I am now doing, working with those who are hurting, He taught me a very important lesson. I awoke one morning to His presence and in a vision of the spirit, He took me to places unknown but allowed me to "see" people in many modes of conduct. They appeared to be hidden in a kind of mist but were clearly visible to me. As I watched them in different situations and circumstances as they reacted to what was going on around them, the Holy Spirit would take each one and tell me "look harder now, do you see the roots in them that is causing the behavior". Each time He would allow me to see behind the actions to another time in that person's life when different 'roots' were planted by some incident or traumatic experience. I sat totally mesmerised and engulfed in this vision "class of instruction" of the Holy Spirit. I learned so much in just those few minutes from Him that would have taken years in formal training for counseling. Believe me, the school of the Holy Spirit has a way of branding lessons into your heart, never to be forgotten.Now, getting to the roots of this message!

All behavior is "rooted " in our belief system. It is very important to know what we believe and if it is truth according to God's WORD. The things we believe about ourself will be confirmed thru our actions! If we hold false beliefs and lies about ourself or others, even if we are born again believers in Jesus Christ, we will behave just as we believe! Our actions will not testify of who we are as Christians but of the old man who belonged to Satan. We see so many Christians today who struggle with behaviors that are unbecoming to Jesus Christ in them. They do not understand the root system from which they are reacting or producing 'fruit' in their lives. Bad roots produce rotten fruits! Jesus gave us an example of this bad 'roots' thing when He cursed the fig tree! If you read the story in the WORD, you see that Jesus saw the fig tree from a distance and it appeared to have good fruit on it's branches. He desired to pick some for He was hungry. However, upon closer inspection of the fig tree it was not as it appeared. It bore no fruit! It only appeared to be bearing fruit from a distance. It's branches had produced only leaves! Jesus cursed the tree at it's roots and the next day the disciples discovered that it had died! The tree was not bearing anything! At the spoken 'words' of Jesus, it shriveled up and could not produce anymore false looking fruit!
It died at its roots! There is a powerful lesson in this story for all of us. Our behaviors as Christians sometimes produce what looks like good fruit from a distance. However, upon closer inspection, we may discover the fruit to not be fruit at all but nice looking leaves we have produced to look like we should....not as we really are! Our real fruit comes forth for the kingdom of God when we allow Jesus (the Word) to destroy the bad 'roots' of our thought life and our mind is renewed with the truth of Gods WORD. When we allow the pruning of our thoughts that produces wrong reactions and behaviors, we will begin to see real changes in us. Jesus is working from the inside to make changes on the outside! It's the WORD working in us, coming alive, to change our thoughts and in doing so, also changing our actions! The WORD has the power to kill all bad roots in us so that, those old roots no longer produce rotten fruit.

Behind every action or behavior in us is a ROOT of a belief! Bad roots produce bad fruit! Wrong thoughts produce wrong actions! God's WORD planted in us in faith produces actions pleasing to the Lord. We can NOT produce good fruit apart from our thoughts. Jesus said "it is the thought life which pollutes us." Old 'roots' must be pruned, pulled out and new ones allowed to grow in us if we are ever going to produce the fruit of the Spirit. All else is a forced effort on our part that comes from the flesh and is only temporary change. These are the leaves that look like fruit until we inspect them closer. As a result we have no stability in our actions. We act according to our thinking and if our thinking is wrong, so will our actions be wrong! We can curse the old 'roots' that only produce fruit that looks good and we can begin to produce lasting fruit which has come from deep roots in Jesus Christ and the WORD! The Two are ONE! Jesus is the vine and we must be connected to the vine to produce any food fruit. Remember, the beliefs you are "rooted" in will produce your actions! Check your thought system! Get to the "roots" that produces your bad fruits!