First Love part 3

In my dream from "First Love" part 1 I saw a garden where the trees were dead and the fruit was rotting on the ground. God desires to make His people like a fruitful vine that produces fruit that remains, and He will. He is sending His gardeners, the prophets, to prune His vineyards and lead us in His ways.

Read Matthew chapter 21:12-43. Jesus, through a curious chain of events, gives us a striking message about the kingdom. It begins with an incredible display of passion as Jesus drives the money changers out of the temple and declares, "My Father's house shall be a house of prayer." See, the people had turned relationship with God into a man made religion of rules that took advantage of people and kept them from knowing God. This made Jesus quite upset, for He knew the death that it brought to people. The religion of the day was not connected to God, and was therefor not producing fruit.

Jesus then leaves the temple and finds a fig tree. Not finding any fruit on the tree Jesus curses the tree. This story gives us a powerful metaphor of the preceding events. The religious leaders had become an unfruitful tree and Jesus was sending the message that they were in danger of being cursed and dying. It is interesting that in the same story in Mark 11 we are told it was not the season for figs. How could Jesus expect there to be fruit if it was not the season? Jesus is not looking for a people that live by the rules of this world, but by the rules of heaven. These are they who abide in Him.

The next day Jesus returned to the temple and was confronted by religious leaders about his outburst of zeal. He declared to them that if they did not produce fruit for the kingdom, it would be taken from them and given to those who did produce fruit.

The people of that day trusted in the temple and in outward displays of religion, but God was looking for their hearts. Because of it their temple was destroyed. The Father is looking again for a supernatural people who will produce fruit for His kingdom today. He is looking for those who abide in Him and let His word abide in them. Going to church every Sunday will not do, and neither will outward religious actions. God is looking for hearts yielded to Him. These will be proved by how they love one another.

Note: When Jesus accused the people of making His Father's house a "den of thieves" he was quoting Jeremiah 7:11, which is a prophecy about the destruction of the temple. The people in Jeremiah's day thought that because they had the temple God would overlook their injustices and sins. Jesus is pointing to this scripture and saying that this would happen again if the people did not repent. As in the time of Jeremiah the people in Jesus' day thought religious actions would save them. We must be careful today not to think that because we go to church and have a bible on the shelf we read once in a while that we are safe. God is looking for those who know Him and do what is just and right. How can God expect us to walk in holiness? Because as in the lesson of the fig tree, He is not looking for those who live by the rules of this wold, but who connect with a supernatural God who delivers captives and gives power to live a holy life. A church is coming that produces the fruit of the kingdom.