© 25 Colin Melbourne
And His Disciples Heard It
Q: I’ve read your message How to Believe Like God Does, and now understand the difference between natural faith and divine faith, but I’m curious why Jesus expected to find fruit on the Fig tree, since it was not the season?
A: I’m impressed, this question shows you’re digging into God’s word as we ought.
The Holy Bible (KJV in English) is Almighty God speaking to us.
As we attend to His words, they nourish our spirits, and when we put them into practise, we grow in faith, and develop the character of our Creator.
What About Those Weird Miracles?
In 1989 I heard John Philips of Lincoln AoG say, in an Easter Convention at Northallerton, Yorkshire, “When Christ uses His divine power for an apparently frivolous miracle you can be sure it has more to say than meets the eye.”
John had in mind; turning water into wine, fishing a coin from the mouth of a fish, verbally cursing a fruitless tree!
There’s no such thing as seeking without finding when we hunger wholeheartedly to know God’s mind.
And so it is with these “peculiar miracles”. [As an aside, ask Father what Elisha’s floating axe-head is about in 2 Kings 6.]
Please Answer My Question!
And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.
Mark 11:12-14 KJV
The accursed Fig tree is symbolic of religion and superstition in general, and the corruption of God’s word into the cult of Judaism, in the immediate context.
Father patiently delivered His words to the Hebrews through Moses and the Prophets, but instead of believing them rightly, the Jews used them to construct yet another idolatrous religion.
God’s living words produce fruit when sown into believing hearts, fruit that God expects Christians to have available in season and out of season: Peace, joy, love, mercy, happiness, perfect health, and righteousness.
These are our continuous inheritance in Christ: There’s no off-season in Christ Jesus!
God Hates Religion
Judaism, like all religions, produces no divine fruit: Only spiritual death.
Everyone who follows religion is cursed, and can never develop the fruit Father is hungry to see in His children.
Religion is withered from the roots because it grows from the heart of sinful man, encouraged by Satan.
Divine truth originates in God alone, and cannot be found in fallen man. Jn. 14:6 KJV;
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
The Messiah wanted to satisfy His hunger, but every religion is always out of season and fruitless, bearing nothing but boring inedible leaves: Fig leaves stitched together by men and women attempting to cover their naked shame before our Holy Creator. A reference to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:7 KJV;
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
And His Disciples Heard It
God was making these points and more by the Fig tree miracle.
He was showing the Jews the utter futility of Judaism.
To Gentiles the cursed Fig tree represents every human-concocted idea.
Double-check with Father in prayer now, and make sure you’re hearing Him.
© 25 Colin Melbourne
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