The Amethyst Stone - Cleansing By Bearing Fruit

BENJAMIN.... Son of the father's right hand.... His mother named him BENONI, meaning son of my sorrow. But his father called him Benjamin, son of my right hand, SON of my blessing. He who rests in Me.

There are two SAULS in the Bible that were Benjamites. King SAUL who forgot to rest in God and began to consort with familiar spirits. And SAUL who became the APOSTLE PAUL.... Who was so self-righteous, doing the "will of God" as he saw it....But came to a place of humbling where he rested in GOD and not in his own wisdom and knowledge.

AMETHYST.... Having powers of cure from intoxication. That is, to relieve from the influence of spirits and personal iniquity {self will}.

JEHOVAH SHALOM....The LORD our PEACE....OUR RESTING PLACE....To be whole or complete is another translation of this word SHALOM....It also is used when VOWING a VOW unto the LORD (JEHOVAH-SHALOM). When we vow a vow, we expect peace, but it is only found in our abiding trust in the Father to fulfill HIS WILL in us. Deuteronomy 23:21, Psalm 16:8

There is a promise given to us of a RESTING PLACE. It is still open to us today....Those who believe in and trust in GOD and not their own wisdom or knowledge, those who realize that they are in Him and their WEAKNESS is the place of His STRENGTH, these have entered into HIS REST at the right hand of GOD.

But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. Galatians 5: 18 - 26

The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, Behold, a Man Who is a glutton and a wine drinker, a friend of tax collectors and notorious sinners.

Yet wisdom is vindicated (shown to be true and divine) by all her children [by their life, character, and deeds].

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to dine with him, and He went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table.

And behold, a woman of the town who was an especially wicked sinner, when she learned that He was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment (perfume).

And standing behind Him at His feet weeping, she began to wet His feet with [her] tears; and she wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed His feet [affectionately] and anointed them with the ointment (perfume).

Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw it, he said to himself, If this Man were a prophet, He would surely know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching Him--for she is a notorious sinner (a social outcast, devoted to sin).

And Jesus, replying, said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, Teacher, say it.

A certain lender of money [at interest] had two debtors: one owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.

When they had no means of paying, he freely forgave them both. Now which of them will love him more?

Simon answered, The one, I take it, for whom he forgave and cancelled more. And Jesus said to him, You have decided correctly.

Then turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, Do you see this woman? When I came into your house, you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

You gave Me no kiss, but she from the moment I came in has not ceased [intermittently] to kiss My feet tenderly and caressingly.

You did not anoint My head with [cheap, ordinary] oil, but she has anointed My feet with [costly, rare] perfume.

Therefore I tell you, her sins, many [as they are], are forgiven her--because she has loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little.

 And He said to her, Your sins are forgiven!

Then those who were at table with Him began to say among themselves, Who is this Who even forgives sins?

But Jesus said to the woman, Your faith has saved you; go (enter) into peace [in freedom from all the distresses that are experienced as the result of sin].

                                                                                                   Luke 7:34-50 AMPLIFIED

The most incredible thing that stands out to me about Jesus is not just His miracles, His death upon the cross or His resurrection. But the thing that strikes me the most interesting about His life is His friendship with sinners. Here is the Lord of Glory, the Holy One, the One by whom the Heavens and the Earth was framed, the very Word of God in the flesh, sitting down and eating with sinners, drinking with them. Relating to them. I can see Jesus as being the kind of person who would sit in a ditch with a person who has fallen, and there commune with them as if nothing wrong ever happened to them.

The Jews at the time of Jesus rejected Him. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” John 1:11. The Jews were a people who were beaten up by the tenants of the Law, their traditions, the service of the temple, held captive by the Romans, and from the past held captive by a great many nations. Now one stood in their midst who was “greater than the temple”. Matthew 12:6. Yet they could not accept a man who would sit down and drink and eat with sinners of every kind, with those who placed burdens on them {tax collectors} and with every kind of unclean person, such as harlots or gross sinners. This great redeemer they sought was supposed to come to them as one who was mighty and would destroy their enemies and vindicate their religious works. Instead Jesus came to them as one who was OF NO REPUTATION. This one, this Jesus brought no thundering acclaim, no great power to destroy things opposing Israel, He came simply as one who identified with the sinners of His time, and thus for any age.

The Amethyst Stone upon the Royal Ephod represents cleansing from intoxications. These intoxicants can be from the influence of demonic spirits or personal iniquity. Either way the Stone represents to us CLEANSING. And there is one thing about Jesus, as the pattern son, who shows us how cleansing really works! Jesus now, coming on the scene in Israel some 2000 years ago - WAS THE FIRST PERSON ON EARTH TO BEAR ALL THE FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. It was the fruit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance that set Jesus apart from everyone else, but it is this same fruit that the Amethyst Stone now represents. For by bearing the fruit of the Spirit, Jesus cleansed from sinners their intoxicants and the sinner knew they were loved and forgiven! And it is now contingent upon the Overcomer to also allow this fruit of the Spirit to blossom within the tree of Life in their souls to bear THE VERY SAME FRUIT. And it is THIS FRUIT that enables one to be CLEAN. To walk CLEAN. To talk and behave CLEAN. The Amethyst Stone represents THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT BORNE IN THE LIVES OF THE OVERCOMERS AS THOSE WHO ARE CLEAN.

So Jesus, being fruitful, now goes TO SINNERS and befriends them. He never once exalted Himself as to who He was, He never proclaimed who He was, He never justified who He was. He only bore fruit. And that fruit was the very thing the tired worn out sinners of His day needed to enter rest and to know they were accepted and loved in God. Jesus never did go to the Pharisees or the Scribes {the old Levitical Priesthood} to bear fruit to them. The religious of His day, just like Christendom of today, has no need to discern the fruit of the Spirit in their lives because they think their religious works are sufficient. Jesus never once gave one of His own Spiritual Fruits to the religious of His day, for it was the religious of His day that would later impale Him upon the cross. But not just that, Jesus, by not giving the Fruit of the Spirit unto the religious was proclaiming that He DOES NOT ABIDE IN RELIGIOUS EFFORT OR CONGREGATION. Jesus, the Son of God’s right hand, does not go to that place which would become UNFRUITFUL. He goes instead to the downcast, the hurting, those rejected by the systems of man, those criminally intent and forcibly confined by personal iniquity. Jesus went to those who society cast away, and to them HE GAVE ABUNDANT AND CEASELESS AMOUNTS OF FRUIT. This one, who was the first ever in God’s creation to bear fruit, befriended Himself to sinners!

When we think of the Fruit of the Spirit, we think that the main result of that Fruit is a peaceable existence with one another in the Body of Christ. But the real reason FOR the Fruit of the Spirit is not really explained to us by the Apostle Paul UNTIL we come to realize that the Fruit of the Spirit CLEANSES US. This is the topology of the Fruit of the Spirit. We are cleansed from intoxicants that would negatively effect our personal walk and offend others. By bearing Fruit, we end up Glorifying God and bringing peace to our little corner of the World. This is what separates those who Obey God from those who do not.

False Fruit Verses True Fruit

There is a false fruit of the spirit just as there is a true Fruit of the Spirit. The false fruit also causes the True Fruit to be seen for what it is. The false fruit is abiding today in new age doctrines and philosophies which contaminate the walk of those who fall for it. Here is how you can discern if a life is bearing the True Fruit of the Spirit or false fruit.

FALSE FRUIT - A person, no matter how zealous they are for their denomination or culture - can bear a false imitation of the Fruit of the Spirit just like there is a false Jesus, a false God {the Son of Perdition that sits in the heart as God} of someone who claims to have love for the Lord. This false fruit looks identical to the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit. They are identical in every way except for two subtle differences. That is that the person who bears false fruit is:

1) Passive - that is they are open to anything in the spirit and they receive all they surmise in the spirit as being from God without using proper discernment or the Armor of the Lord to test it.

And

2) Lukewarm - that is they do not have firm commitment to walk well pleasing unto God in the power of God’s Spirit alone, but they may lean upon denominational doctrine and earthly wisdom to walk their faith. They may also mix themselves with the tenants of faith from other denominations to suit their fancy and to make their gospel more easy to promote. They create a “comfort zone” by which they do not offend their fellow man but allow their fellow man to believe what they want with no offense.

The other way one can be found bearing false fruit is by not having the Tree of Life in their soul properly tended to by the Spirit of God. Each person who comes to the Lord to ask the Lord into their lives has in them two trees. The tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. And even if they are looking to living and walking in the Tree of Life they can have a serious deficiency. There is a thing we need to learn about the Tree of Life to discern it properly. And that is that God is the husbandman - the farmer - the orchardist - who cares for and maintains the Tree of Life in the believer’s soul. God DIGS AROUND the Tree and DUNGS the Tree {Trials and testings} . But if God does not tend to it, this tree won’t grow and we won’t respond to it properly.

TRUE FRUIT - A person who bears True Fruit of the Spirit does not do it with fanfare or to be seen of men. The fruit that is borne out of their lives comes from the growth of God in them. The Lord is keenly discerned, given place and the Lord enlarges Himself in that person’s spirit so much so that the True Fruit of the Spirit is manifested within and without that person’s life. The person who bears True Fruit of the Spirit may never be seen by any other person, may never fit in with man’s programs or schemes or kingdom building efforts, but the person who has learned to walk with God one on one will bear Fruit to the Glory of God. The Holy Spirit will not be grieved in the life of this kind of person because they will have learned to give God place as befits those who bear the Name and Nature of God. The Lord is properly discerned in their lives and there is no question as to the voice of the Lord in them for they know when He speaks and when His Spirit moves within them. A person who is thus overtaken by the Lord also does not demand that God’s Spirit moves in them on a continual basis but are willing to have patience while the Lord works out in them His purpose for their lives.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is seen for what it is in their soul, the tree that came as a result of their fall with Adam. But these know that the Angel of the Lord keeps the way of the Tree of Life in their soul also, that they have forgiveness and free course to turn by repentance from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and turn in faith to the Tree of Life in their soul. This is the tree that God, through trials and testings, digs around and dungs that this tree might grow strong and mighty in the faith of the one who thus turns to it. It is this tree that represents in the life of the child of the Lord the New Creation, the gift of the Holy Spirit that would bear forth the Fruit of the Spirit unto everlasting life.

The True Fruit of the Spirit that grows in the faith of an Overcomer is there to also give unto God the Glory that is due His name. This Fruit, when grown and developed on the branches of this tree will in time minister pure worship and truth to God who seeks such to worship Him. But it is during the growth of this Fruit and the sensitivity that the Overcomer has to the Spirit of God in them that prevents them from doing anything that would quench the Spirit of the Lord from accomplishing His purposes in their lives.

So when an Overcomer bears the Fruit of the Spirit, they will be sure not to contaminate or quench the display of that fruit, subjecting it to bruising and the maladies of the atmosphere, by their own fleshly works or any religious efforts. They will however question at times whether or not the Fruit of the Spirit has free flow in them because of the action of God’s Spirit in their lives as He digs around their tree and dungs it. God must work up the soil of our souls to cause the dung to work, to cause the tree to be nitrified and to grow. The work of God in digging around the tree and dunging it can be mistaken for unfruitfulness and for waywardness as the Overcomer may think that they are impure or unclean before God because their soul is tossed with much temptation. The act of God digging about the Tree of Life in the Overcomers soul will cause the earthiness of their existence to manifest itself, their true person as relates to the fallen world they were born in to be prominent. But it is God, preparing them for the inception of the nutrients they need to bear fruit. What are those nutrients? God takes the hurts, deceptions, personal failings, faulty character, negative personality, lack of self esteem, lack of self integrity, baseness, foolishness, failed relationships, all those things that negate us as persons of worth and value AND HE DUNGS OUR TREE OF LIFE WITH THOSE VERY THINGS. God causes them to become DUNG around the base of The Tree of Life in our souls so that the Fruit of the Spirit can GROW on this tree and be productive in THE NEW CREATION. For the Tree of Life denotes THE NEW CREATION. It amazes me how God can take our past and use it to bring us into a spiritual walk to His own Glory. We learn by past failings how to OBEY God in present truth and in the demand upon us to walk with Him one day at a time, taking each day and causing each day to be productive and fruitful for His Glory.

Not only so, but we learn to be ever so sensitive to the Spirit of the Lord, to the gentle Fruit of the Spirit in us that we be ever so careful to not quench or offend the Lord who is in us as a gentle Dove, one bearing fruit on an ever so delicate Tree. We learn to not allow our fleshly tendencies to become combatant with the motions of God in our souls when God begins to come forth by the Holy Spirit as “Fruit”. This kind of gentleness we seek from the Lord causes us to be ever so careful as to what we entertain in Spirit or in doctrine. We learn to be sure that anything we allow in or out of our lives will not offend the Lord in any way who now comes as a wind of gentleness in our lives. The Overcomer is sure to order their personal steps aright so that God is not offended by them or their choices in life.

In exchange for this gentle walk the Overcomer chooses, God is sure to not bring the Overcomer to a place where they will be “trapped” by personal iniquity of contaminates that once cause toxins to be in their souls. In other words, God keeps them PURE. Pure in testimony and in reactions to the environment around them. That is how the Apostle Paul - as well as others - were able to come to the end of their lives and proclaim that they had a conscience clear of offense towards all men. Not that men were not offended by Paul’s testimony, but that Paul knew he did nothing to cause the offense!

This then brings forth fruit out of the separate lives of Overcomers into a unity of Spirit that bears THE SAME FRUIT FOR ALL. Now we see true fruit, fruit that abides and remains..........

To be continued.................

Kenneth B Visscher