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Topic: EATING FROM THE TREE OF LIFE
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Author
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Kriston Couchey
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Joined: 09/29/2007
Location: United States
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Posts: 1507
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Posted: 02/05/2009 at 7:57am
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We have seen the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil manifest in the body of Christ. Some have clung to law and doctrine as a security while others have broken free from law and doctrine and have used thier freedom to embrace a form of lawlessness that refuses any correction or form that hints of structure.
Some may say, we need a balance to bring the body into it's proper place. But how do you balance the tree of the knowldedge of Good (law) and evil (lawlessness). The answer is you don't find a balance
What is the answer?
The answer is CHRIST. In Him there is not balance, but FULLNESS of truth. Truth is not a book, a doctrine, or a belief system, truth is a person who Himself is the LIFE and the LIGHT of all men.
I hear the Lord say:
Learn what it means to eat of MY Flesh and drink of MY Blood. This is the offense men took from Me, they no longer could eat the fruit of thier own doings as thier sustenance. Thier LIFE was not of me, but thier own teachings, doctrines and scripture understandings, they thought in these they had life, but they would not come to me to find it, for I AM the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE!
Kris
Edited by Kriston Couchey on 02/05/2009 at 7:58am
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One of the chosen foolish and weak
http://my.opera.com/Boanerges/blog/
kcouchey@gmail.com
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Kathy Bippus
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Posted: 02/05/2009 at 1:10pm
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"I hear the Lord say:
Learn what it means to eat of MY Flesh and drink of MY Blood. This is the offense men took from Me, they no longer could eat the fruit of thier own doings as thier sustenance. Thier LIFE was not of me, but thier own teachings, doctrines and scripture understandings, they thought in these they had life, but they would not come to me to find it, for I AM the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE!"
yes Lord! amen!
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In His Love
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Cindy Glinski
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Posted: 02/05/2009 at 1:40pm
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Kris and Kathy I just read this yesterday and thought it was very relevant to this post.
Enjoy!
Cindy Glinski
http://hethathasanear.com
Flesh and Blood
by haRold Smith
from Jerusalem, Israel
"Then Jesus said to them, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven - not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.' These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, 'This is a hard saying; who can understand it?' When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, 'Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.' For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, 'Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.' From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Then Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you also want to go away?'" (John 6:53-67)
We become Who He is.
Walking among the quiet solitude of these ancient stones in what is left of the Synagogue at Capernaum here in Israel (pictured above), it is hard not to reflect on Yeshua's words spoken in this very place that caused many of His disciples to "walk with Him no more." He had said words similar to these many times earlier in attempting to bring an understanding of the Kingdom to them. What was it about these words that were so different to create such a defining response in these who followed Him?
What did He mean to "eat of His flesh and drink of His blood" - what did He really mean? Are these just "spiritualized" phrasings that have no basis in the real world? Or, perhaps, were they given to us as a literal explanation of what has to occur within us so as to embrace His Life? Yeshua said if we fail to do these two things, we have NO LIFE IN US. He went further to say we have no ETERNAL LIFE in us - hum-m-m. That sure puts a kink into a lot of those religious pajamas we tend to wiggle up into. These words were spoken before the Last Supper, so maybe there is more to eating His flesh and drinking His Blood than a ritual we suppose to be communion - or a formulaic utterance we think to guarantee our right of entry into the Spirit. Maybe there was something tangible in what He was saying here that caused many of those who had been following him for some time to suddenly realize the content of their meaning, enough for them to withdraw and not to want to have anything to do with Him anymore - to not believe. Could that happen to us? "Oh, NO!," you say - but, yet, scripture says many did.
Consider, for a moment, that what was being lived out in front of the disciples was a Life so radical, so dynamic, so pervasive in touching the core of who they were as to defy everything they had come to understand and believe concerning their interpretation of reality and everything religious. What so crazed the purveyors of religion of the day, watching how this Person lived, was how far removed He was from any theological stance taken by most believers in God. What was it occurring among those early believers that caused them to forsake everything, in a moment, by the thousands, to embrace this Life? It had to be more than a theological debate on the rightness or wrongness of it. The dynamic events described in the book of Acts are a far cry from what most in the "Church" experience on a personal level in their lives today. In both the Greek and the Hebrew, the definition of "salvation" means "to be made whole, to be healed." This wasn't an exercise of the mind or a repetitious rendering of some phrases. Those early believers not only understood that salvation was a radical departure from everything they had been taught, they lived in it - it was why they gave up everything to obtain it. They could visibly "see" it manifest before their eyes, in their bodies and those they touched.
What does it mean to become a "new creature"? Reading carefully what Paul was saying in Galatians 3:26-29, he wasn't saying we "become" or "replace" one or the other. What we "become" is something entirely new, melded together from two distinct entities but carrying in that new entity the same properties of each of the single entities and, therefore, unrecognizable or "new" by human standards. Because of that "melding" in Him, we become "like" Him, we take on His Nature and Characteristics.
In Ephesians 5:31-32, Paul says that he is speaking a mystery when he refers to the marriage relationship because he is actually speaking of the relationship between Christ and the church, the Body - you and I and Yeshua. So, what does scripture say about the marriage relationship? In this very passage Paul refers to the earliest writings when he quotes that "the two shall become ONE FLESH." Now, THIS is a mystery! Here you have, in the natural, two distinct, separate, individual entities and, yet, God says they are not two at all - but ONE. Not just one spirit, of which they also become, but in this world - ONE FLESH, even though what you see with your eyes seems to be otherwise. He reiterates this phenomenon in 1Corinthians 6:15-17, when he says that "he who joins himself to a harlot is ONE BODY" and that we are members of the Body of Christ - ONE FLESH. In Ephesians 5:30, when he says we are "members of His Body, of His flesh and of His bones", maybe, just maybe, that is what he means? Why do we approach scripture from one standard in one verse but assume an entirely different standard for another?
Could it be, perhaps, as Yeshua was "fathered" by a Spirit, that when we embrace His Life as our own, we also are "fathered" by that same Spirit to entertain a life as vital in the flesh as His was - and is? What does it mean to be "born anew" in light of Ephesians 5:30? Could it be that the DNA He inherited from His Father and coursed through His Blood might actually, in reality, course through our veins as well as we embrace His Life - He being the first among many brethren to experience the Spirit of the Father in the flesh? (Romans 8:29). Could it be that the cleansing His Blood affords us from the moment we are made "new creatures" is because His Blood literally begins to flow in and through us - that this mixture of "spirit" and "flesh" is not a mixture at all, but one? Could Romans 8:11 have a literal meaning - for us as well as for others? Is to forgive meant to keep our blood pure and when we forgive sin we are actually imparting the virtue of the Blood we inherit from the Father by means of the flesh into this earthly realm? As Yeshua showed us by His own Life when He said, which is easier to say, "be healed" or "your sins are forgiven?" (Matthew 9:5).
Could it be that we fail to understand the eternal ramifications of this short life we live in the flesh? It is a mystery how it could happen, something above what our human intellect can perceive, but the more I read scripture, the more I come to see that the core of who we are actually, physically changes the more we embrace Who He Is. Much on the same order as two distinct people, who remain married for 50 years, begin to take on the same physical characteristics - they begin to "look" alike. How many times have you seen that? Even though it is a mystery, this phenomenon is still evident all around us.
Why is it that nowhere in scripture is it recorded that Yeshua ever healed the disciples or delivered them from demons as He had others? Perhaps, it is because He empowered them with the same Power He had received from the Father as they embraced the Life He was living? After all, in Luke chapters 9 and 10 He sent them out the same way He had been showing them how to live. In fact, Yeshua said the same Glory He had received of the Father, He had given to us. (John 17:20-23) What Glory was He speaking of?
When Moses asked to see God's "glory" (Exodus 33:18), what ultimately passed before Him were the actual, realized Nature and Characteristics of the Lord - they were visible, they could be "seen" (Exodus 34:5-7). One Hebrew meaning of the word "glory" is literally translated "liver" and then is figuratively applied to the soul. The liver is the organ that cleanses the blood of our physical bodies. The embrace of these characteristics in our life is the virtue that cleanses and keeps the Blood pure within us - Drink My Blood.
Yeshua said His flesh was food, not just in words, but "in deed." What happened to the last food you ate? You put it in your mouth, chewing and savoring it until it was in a manageable form to swallow. Your internal functions then digested it and it became a part of you. It fed the system that houses the blood. The same thing that happens to the food we eat also happens to the things we see, the things we hear, the things we think and the actions we take upon them - they become internalized and become a part of us. The authority He gave us is the Power of Choice (see see ("Authority"). The Power that exuded from His earthly vessel is the same Power that will be exuded through us IF (big little word) we choose to make the same choices He made about what became His Life in the Flesh - Eat My Flesh.
What choices did He make in the Flesh? Now, this is where those disciples began to understand the full extent of the meaning of the words He chose. He suffered in the flesh (Hebrews 13:12-13) His Life was a constant dying in the flesh - the flesh "profits nothing." To manifest His Power is to embrace His Life lived in the flesh - all of it. This is hard, because it means giving up EVERYTHING in this world that we might hold dear in order THAT SOMEONE ELSE might obtain His Life through us (Philippians 3:10).
If we are to be married to Christ, to be His Bride, we are to become one spirit and ONE BODY - flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. In the scripture from Malachi, it speaks of the Son arising with "healing in His wings." (Malachi 4:2). Where does that healing come from? The scripture also tells us that "by His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5, 1Peter 2:24) Where were those stripes laid? - on HIS BODY. Who is His Body? - US, first individually and, only then, collectively. Because of the stripes laid on His Body, IN THE FLESH, it resulted in an outpouring of power and healing this world has never seen since the days of creation. The scripture tells us that as we BECOME the Body of Christ, the world will see Yeshua in and through HIS BODY, collectively yet individually. As we allow ourselves to become vulnerable to receive those stripes the world would lay upon us, it causes the Power of His Presence to be loosed into this earthly realm. That Power is loosed in forgiveness.
The Life Yeshua led and entreated us to follow was not some esoteric, ethereal affair only realized after death - it was a down-to-earth, in this earth reality that, once attained, we carry with us (as He did) and our Purpose then becomes to bring that Life into this earthly realm (2Thessalonians 1:9-12, Luke 17:20-21). The Life of the Flesh is in His Blood (Leviticus 17:14, John 6:53-54) and the virtue, the glory of His Life lived by the Flesh cleanses His Blood - it keeps it pure. As we embrace and appropriate the Virtue of His Life as our own, that Blood of His that is literally coursing through our veins makes us clean. This is not a mystical experience. It can not be said enough - Romans 8:11 is a literal happening. It is why when the elders are called to pray for any "sick among you", the scripture says his "sins will be forgiven" and he will be healed as a result of that forgiveness. (James 5:14-15)
Romans 3:23 says, "…for all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God." Sin diminishes the Glory - it "taints" the blood. So, how we look at sin then begins to emerge away from this list of rules and rituals, do's and don'ts, rights and wrongs we are "supposed" to live under to an understanding that, as with light and darkness, sin cannot occupy the same space at the same time as His Glory. All things are lawful for us to do but not all things are expedient for the manifestation of the Glory of God in and through us to occur.
This is the stuff Yeshua died for - to make accessible to us the reality of literally "becoming one" with the Father, in all that infers, mentally, spiritually and physically just as He was and Is (John 17). This is not some religion or theology, this is LIFE - and it is the Life He lived out before us in flesh, just as we are in flesh. You want to see His Power evident in your life? - eat the Flesh He lived in and drink the Blood of the Father. We have yet to comprehend and understand the scope of the Power that lives within us. It is the Power of His Life that raised Him from the dead - and it is already accessible to us, in His Blood and in His Flesh - if we will just become vulnerable enough for it to be lived out in us.
Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
1Peter 4:1-2
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Zach Dixon
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Posted: 02/05/2009 at 3:10pm
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I originally posted this afew years back and then again the Prophets new year I,m tweaking it a bit for the season but it fits nicely.
Recently I have seen three people I know who had a black eye. A black eye is a bruise.
As I looked at their eyes, I heard the Holy Spirit whisper " He was bruised for our iniquities." (Isaiah 53:5)
A bruise is blood under the skin.
All of a sudden I saw the eyes of people looking at Life through the bruise or THROUGH THE BLOOD. They were looking at Life through the EYES OF CALVARY. (Ephesians 1:18)
Get low, stoop down, humble yourself under the TREE OF LIFE .
Worship at His feet , there you will find His presence!
In this place, His BLOOD AND WATER AND SPIRIT will pour over you.(1John 5:8)
Christmas and the New Year will be like never before.
It's from glory to glory, FRESH BREAD AND WINE everyday in this place. (Mathew 26:26-28)
The Trumpet of the Lord is blowing , and many will be caught up into the heavenlies, some into paradise. (Rev 4:1) (Prov 1:20-21)
The ones who can hear the Trumpet will be able to draw near and recieve the blueprints of heaven. (Job 38:33)
Our Father hears the cries of His Children, He is pouring out the Spirit of GREAT GRACE upon Us to be able to receive His council, to understand the NEW COVENANT), it is the favour of God ! (Jerimiah 33:3) (Luke 2:52)
OUR GOD IS OPENING THE FOUNTAINS OF THE DEEP, EXSPANSION, EXSPANSION IN THE MANSION OF THE LORD! (Genesis 7:11) (Revelation 21:6) (Isaiah 41:17-18) ( Proverbs 13:14) (Deuteronomy 33:28 29)
New rooms (plains, realms, dimensions) will be opened up in the Lords House to those who dare to BELIEVE, To those who know how to enter in. (Mathew 7:13-14)
I see a present , it is wrapped in paper and has a scarlet cord wrapped around it.Many people are anxious and in a hurry to see whats in the box.( Philippians 4:6-7)
THE SPIRIT SAYS" THE SCARLETT CORD THAT IS THE GIFT."
Rahab was told to " bind the line of SCARLET CORD in her window ." (Joshua 2:18)
"LEARN TO DRINK THE BLOOD AND EAT THE FLESH OF CHRIST , WHERE I SEE THE BLOOD, DEATH SHALL PASSOVER AND LIFE WILL COME!
Joshua's men were let down through Rahabs window, the place where the Line of Scarlet Cord was told to be placed .
You see beloved Rahabs window is a window into the realm of the Spirit, it is a window into heaven, into the very heart of God. It speaks of the Blood of the Lamb. When you know How to drink His blood and eat His flesh, the window into Heaven is wide open. God will be like Joshua's men and be LET DOWN through the window. You will have a whole new understanding of "EMANUEL GOD WITH US!"
Notice Rahab 's WHOLE HOUSE AND ALL THAT SHE HAD WAS SPARED . (Joshua 6:25) (Exodus 12:3)
STAND IN THE GAP BELOVED FOR YOUR LOVED ONES, THE PRICE HAS BEEN PAID!
AMAZING GRACE......................
Father we thank you for sending Your Son Jesus . Precious Lamb of God thank your for that precious blood that has been shed for all Our families. Now we ask, manifest Your Awesome Name, Your All Powerful Word in their lives and in Ours . Holy Spirit we love you so much, with out you we can do nothing, Holy Spirit help Us to see the New Covenant friend, we believe, In Jesus name....amen and amen .
new covenANT ( proverbs 6:6)
Joy to the world CHRIST HAS COME, and will COME AGAIN.
He is faithful and oh so worthy of all our Praise........Zach
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Kathy Bippus
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Posted: 02/05/2009 at 11:14pm
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awesome Cindy ~selah~!
amen Zach...from glory to glory fresh Bread and Wine.
isn't it beautiful that He says, "do this is remembrance of Me." one way of saying it is.. 'do this as an expression of our friendship'...to Him be glory!
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Lyn McSweeney
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Posted: 02/06/2009 at 1:33pm
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AMEN TO THE POSTS HERE!!!!!
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Love and Blessings!
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