“Do you mind if I give you my perspective?” He asked.  I couldn’t help my self, I responded, “Well of course not, it’s the only one you have”.  Literally our perspective is all we ever have.  Even when it changes it is still our NEW perspective.  We have never seen what we have not seen, and cannot know yet, what we have never learned.  With this in mind, I want to give you my perspective on the deadliest branch of this Tree I have been writing about.  (see last two posts).

We have already seen that we often focus on our knowledge of Evil as a problem.  Our common response to this awareness is to jump over to the branch called the Knowledge of Good.  The problem is, this is still the same tree, and still draws from the same root system.  On the knowledge of Good branch, one of the most deadly sets of branches is the one that grows from the branch I titled “The Knowledge of God’s good”

The reason that this is so deadly, is that from this branch WE begin to manufcture what WE believe God wants from US.  When WE do this WE can settle into a sort of smugness that WE are the ones who have it right.  Frighteningly often the reason WE believe WE have it right is that it so suits US.

Let me illustrate.

On this branch, if you are particularly bent toward intellectualism you will gravitate toward a branch on this tree that is the MIND responding to the Knowledge of God’s good. People on this branch become convinced that right doctrine and study are the pathway to Life.  Lesser intellectuals, or people with slightly differing doctrine in the non-essentials become heretics and heathen.  The Deadly thing is the strong belief that God likes you better because you have the right Doctrine.

Also growing from this branch is a smaller branch called the branch of the WILL.  Hangers on in this branch focus on the “rights” and “wrongs”, or the “do’s” and “don’ts”.  To them insiders are the ones who hold to the same set of rules and regulations and if anyone has differing boundaries, you guessed it, they are Heretics and Heathen.  The Deadly thing is the belief that God likes YOU better because you are following the right rules better than others.

A third branch off this wicked limb, is the branch of the EMOTIONS.  On this branch our measure of our Godliness is determined by experience.  I should be passionate.  I should feel things when God is around.  I emphasize chills and tears.  Because I experience God, I know that I have it right. If you don’t experience Him the way that I do you must be, well, a heretic or a heathen.  The deadly thing is the belief that God likes YOU better because your experience of God is superior to that of others. 

These branches off the limb of our knowledge of God’s good, can be simply preferences of our soul.  Our soul, is our Mind, Will and Emotions.  When we adhere strongly to OUR particular branch,we may not even realize we have selected that branch because of the leanings of OUR soul, not because of the majesty of God.  The intellectual can hide from his own heart in the dark recesses of his mind.  The will-worshipper can mask his insecurity by performance . The overly emotional one can keep others at bay, with a constant flow of strong and overwhelming feelings.

Jesus said that we should Love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength.  Responding to God from every part of our being is something He wants from us.  The problem is not that we respond out of our soul, the problem is that we initiate from the part of our soul that we are most comfortable with and avoid the parts we are uncomfortable with.

Initiating our response to God’s goodness out of OUR preferences can makes us smug and unbalanced.  The intellectual should break down and weep at the beauty of God.  The emotional one should be still and reverent.  The rule follower should pick wheat or heal someone on the Sabbath.
I have occasionally heard one of my favorite speakers, Jack Taylor, say, in response to people who criticize a particualr worship style. “It’s OK, it’s not you we are worshipping anyway…”

Loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, should never be about us camping out in our comfort zone, rather it should be about His Bigness and His Beauty stretching us OUT of our comfort zone.

Tune in to the Living Voice of the Living God.  Expect to be UNcomfortable, He loves us enough to not leave us where we are today.  Think, Feel, Dance, Live.  And do it in plain sight.

“That sounds great but how do I DO it?”  This is the most common response to conversation about the Tree of Life.  People begin to sense the stirring in the room when the conversation arises, and, like the aroma of popcorn, it makes them desirous.  Then, their next responses tell me whether or not they are “getting it.”

This is a follow up to the last post. So if you are new to Bobhamp.com, start with the previous post, “this tree will kill you”, for this to make any kind of sense to you.

Examine this process.  Life, real aliveness is flowing.  Then the follow up begins. Someone tries to organize it. Someone tries to figure out how to replicate what’s happening, and they jump to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  “Here is how we will do this now.”  Last time we sang that song, the Spirit of God moved.  Let’s sing this song every time we gather from now on.  We change the root system  the moment we begin to apply our “knowledge” to the Tree of Life.

Bill Johnson says that every denomination is the corpse of a great revival.  It is the dead or dying remains of what began as a move of God on the earth.

What about church programming?  Henry Blackaby tells the story in his workbook “Experiencing God” of the man who heard God say to him, “start a bus ministry”.  When the man began the bus ministry, his church exploded with life.

Now people began to come to him to ask him how he grew his church so large.  His answer?  “You should start a bus ministry!”  He began to consult with other churches about how to do this and eventually wrote a book on, “How to Grow your Church through Bus Ministry”

He missed it.  He connected to the Tree of Life the moment he heard the voice of God.  The bus ministry and the growth were simply the natural fruit that grows on the branches of the tree of life.  He and others began to apply their knowledge of good, when the tried to imitate the fruit.  Like trying to pick up apples off the ground and glue them on another tree, hoping that that tree to would become fruitful.

This is a bit like Victor Frnakenstein, collecting a bunch of dead parts and believing that the sum of the dead parts might actually equal life.  The Word of God is LIVING and active…Hearing His voice is how we connect to the Tree of Life.

How about a personal application?  Consider this, I sometimes think I was the most free when I first came to know the Lord.  If we are not careful we can write this off as a “Honeymoon Effect”  Everything is so new, and all my sins have been forgiven.  Of course we are free.  But we have so much cleaning up still ahead…is it just an illusion that we were so free then?

Consider this.  At this time in my life, I had not yet conceived that I could or should do anything to help God out.   Whether in my own personal growth and transformation, or with all the things He has to get done on the Earth, it simply had not entered my thoughts.  All I had done was received His Grace.

It was not until I messed up the first time, or began to realize I might have some things to do for Him, that I began to get weighted down.  I would submit to you that His burden is easy and His yoke is light, but the Knowledge of Good and Evil is HEAVY!! Especially the knowledge of Good that feels impossible.   This was more than just a honeymoon period; I had jumped trees, and it was awhile before I had reasons to try to jump back into the one that had killed me.

Sometimes the worst part of our sin is not what we have done, but what we are driven to do  trying to clean up our own mess.  Isaiah the Prophet tells us that in repentance and rest we will be saved, in quietness and trust is our strength.  We would much rather repent and then fix stuff.  Out of our knowledge of the bad that we have done we fervently apply our knowledge of good, believing that this will restore the intimacy we are missing.

God calls us to come to Him, our Dad, so that He might heal and comfort and strengthen us.  We look at Him in our shame and start gathering dead apples off the ground trying to prove to Him our worth and regain His approval.  “Look Father, I fixed it, I turned it around,”  I, I, I…We gather fruit from a dead tree, hoping that it will produce in us the sense of purity, love and intimacy that comes only from being rooted and grounded in the Roots of Life.

The trap is always this.  We look on the outside.  God looks on the inner man.  We look at the end of the branches.  We seldom look close enough to see if the fruit is growing there or simply glued on to the branches.  God looks at the Root system.  The things we do, are they for God, or from  God.

We have spent a great deal of time, resource, energy and strategy trying to stop Bad Behavior.  What if that is not the real target?  The Problem that entered the human race in the beginning resulted in Bad Behavior.  Read more…