15 "Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheeps clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves. 16 You will recognise them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered from thorns or figs from thistles, are they? 17 In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will recognise them by their fruit. Matthew 7:15-20 (NET)
Honour your father and your mother just as the Lord your God has commanded you to do, so that your days may be extended and that it may go well with you in the land that he is about to give you. Deuteronomy 5:16 (NET)
1 "Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2 For by the standard you judge you will be judged, and the measure you use will be the measure you receive. Matthew 7:1-2 (NET)
7 Do not be deceived. God will not be made a fool. For a person will reap what he sows, 8 because the person who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit. Galatians 6:7-8
I never used to understand Matthew 7:1-2, it made no sense to me at all. But then one day, I found myself in Toowoomba. In the home of some lovely people.
I was nearly ready to get married, and somehow it was suggested that I go see these people!!
It certainly was pre-marital counselling - with a difference! Instead of focusing on the normal pre-marital stuff, it mostly focused on me, and my issues!
It was explained to me that part of judging someone includes making a vow or some form of statement - let me give you an example:
A man and his wife are having yet another argument. They've, again, put this one off until after their son is asleep, well, they think he is asleep! They go at each other in a vicious verbal attack... Meanwhile, the son judges his dad and says "I will never allow a woman to yell at me like my dad does"! He also judges his mum saying, "I will never allow a woman to speak and act like mum is!"
What he doesn't realise, is he has firstly dishonoured his parents by judging them, secondly, he has made some bitter-root judgments! And the strange thing about bitter-root judgments, is that they cause pain and anguish. They lead to resentment and bitterness. But all this can be fixed with some prayer and forgiveness!
To break the "power" of these judgments, one needs to start off with repentance! If you ask, the Holy Spirit will help you know what to pray about, when and how!
The way you know your bitter-roots, is by checking out your fruits... You're looking for repeated patterns... An obvious one is a woman who has had 3 broken marriages, her current marriage is on the rocks and she's looking at divorce! You can quite easily say there is a pattern there! So, you have your fruit, now look back through the past, as painful as it may be... If you start off by asking the Holy Spirit to pinpoint all the areas that need to be dealt with, then He will bring them to your attention. There is obviously some form of judgment from the woman about her father.
I'm going to go a bit personal... I had some judgements towards my father... And I had judgments towards both of my step fathers...
I judged my father as never being there for me when I needed him... I judged step father 1 as bring, vicious, nasty, drunk and drug addicted! While these judgements where the truth, as a child, it was not my right, or place to make these judgments! What resulted from this particular set of judgments, was, that as an adult, my first serious relationship, was - you guessed it - with a man who had anger issues, was an alcoholic, addicted to drugs, was very vicious with his words, and occasionally with his fists, he also had gambling issues thrown in to the mix! You reap what you sew! I judged step father number to as having his own set of issues... All of which had cause many, many problems...
All this stuff I'm talking about here, I've done it! (And I've got heaps more to go, cause Im not perfect!) Its not easy, and I'd suggest only going there if you truly want to deal with the crap in your life and have a closer relationship with God! To deal with this stuff is well worth the effort!
It entails forgiving people who hurt you, forgiving yourself and occasionally (as I had to do) forgiving God! It also includes a little bit of repentance... Repentance from making judgments, blaming whoever, blaming God, and holding onto unforgivness, bitterness, resentment...
You can continually deal with the symptoms of your issues, or you can take time and deal with the roots of them!
While the second option is harder, its the best way to go!
For more info on this style of ministry, do a search for Elijah House Ministries!
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