Faithfully Sustained, Even In The Thorns
Previously, on this series of Appraisal, we went over the following words that were shared:
the Lord wants you to know:
i shall take away the thorn which pierces your heart. i will put a crown on you. i will honor you as a king. i will lift you up. i will tear down the walls which hinder you from the ministry i have given you.
and here’s what we had to say about it:
I’ve been focusing and living according to what my hand isn’t holding, and according to what my head tells me I don’t have. But, praise God – praise God, indeed! For it is in these times that I’m reminded – Through the Father’s grace, through Christ’s finished work, and by the Holy Spirit, we may not hold anything, but we have a scepter; we may be anxious about the thoughts in our head, of condemnation and of lack, but we have been crowned just the same.
We will ALWAYS represent the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, we will ALWAYS bear, appreciate and promote the ministry of reconciliation; We may hold nothing, but we hold the righteousness and reconciliation, which will always lead us out of anxiety, to prayer – with supplication and thanksgiving.
We may be constantly pierced and tormented by the words and curses of the world, but above all, we project the salvation that comes through Christ alone, which allows us to give, even when the world thinks we have nothing.
We may be choked, but we still pray.
We may be agitated, but the grace and goodness of God continues to shine in our lives.
In righteousness, may we continue to sing for joy, and shout with a voice of triumph… and let us not be surprised if the solid walls that hinder us break, torn down by our Savior, the King of Kings. And by the sufficient grace of God, may the thorns be taken away from piercing our hearts.
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. For by His only begotten Son, who once bore a crown of thorns, we ourselves have been crowned with His glory, and we have been handed over His grace.
Cedars and Figs
Now I bring that up just so we’re up to speed, considering what we’re brought to look at next:
‘you shall grow spiritually like the trees of Lebanon. you shall bear fruits like a fig tree.’
18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. Colossians 2:18-19
That’s a pretty loaded list… and I pray I’m not insisting on any of it when I have the opportunity to speak – well, it doesn’t look like I advocate asceticism, worship of angels, and not holding fast to the Head (which consequently means I’m holding fast to something physical and/or conceptual, or I’m holding on to someone else)…
…That other item though, about going on in detail about visions – well, I’m sorry if all this writing and talking about a prophecy given to me almost 10 years ago qualifies, but I would like to strongly claim that I am who I am by the grace of God, and I test all this in light of the Living Word of God, and the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit. I believe I’m arriving at something here, working – that is, meditating and writing – with the mind of Christ, and not by a sensuous mind.
Defensive much? Sorry, I just wanted to share that – Checking myself in the process, honestly. I’d like to reiterate that I’m not for any exclusivity here, and that these gifts and words are for the furtherance of the entire church, and the entire body – and, really, through it all, no matter what we’re thinking after that tiny tirade, I’m just praying that our God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) be glorified to the maximum in all the time I’m spending, doing this.
Let’s keep going. Actually, I only pulled that verse that came before, but my focus was really supposed to be in the second part of the second verse; You know, for purposes of staying in context. But I suppose we needed to go through it in context, don’t you agree?
Anyway. Ahem. Do notice that second part of the second verse, and say it with me – we hold fast to the Head, who is Christ, because from Him we are nourished, from Him we are knit together, and, most important of all, from Him we grow… and I believe we do grow, spiritually, and actually in all aspects of our being, with a growth that is from God.
Just as we read elsewhere: 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 1 Corinthians 3:6-7
We may have our roles, we contribute. We may plant, we may water, we may be doing what we’re led to do… but lest we forget, it is God who gives the growth. The growth comes from God.
So when we say that we shall grow spiritually, even as the valuable, fragrant trees of Lebanon, it’s God who gives the growth.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. 2 Peter 3:18
We hold fast to the head, and grow with the growth that comes from God – but IN the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. It works both ways, I suppose – as we grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, so we grow with the growth that is from God… and as we grow with the growth that is from God, so we grow int he grace and knowledge of Christ.
That’s a lot of growth. That’s a lot of growing. But it all boils down to meditating and consequently celebrating the grace and knowledge of God, growing in our own lives – not primarily because of us, but through our Father, who gives the growth.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
The ESV added 2 Peter 1:5-7 as additional reference, and I suppose it’s a ‘map’ of sorts, of the growth that comes from God. And take note, it starts with faith – something that we never had or developed for ourselves, but authored into us by no less than Jesus Christ.
Growing starts with faith, then supplemented with virtue, then knowledge, then self control, then steadfastness, then godliness, then brotherly affection, then finally, with love. Faith from this ‘diagram’ is the first step to love, but I also have reason to believe that it’s also from the everlasting love of God that faith was established in us – but either way, there’s growth in between… and, again, for the nth time, this growth comes from God.
Growing In Grace, Bearing Fruit In Glory
So when we say that we shall grow spiritually, even as the pleasant fig trees which bear much fruit, it’s God who gives the growth.
That’s right, we aren’t mere ornamental trees, but functional ones that provide fruit. It’s like we were made to produce fruit.
We have been saying that God gives the growth, and we grow as the cedars, or just the trees of fertile Lebanon. Here I venture to say that it’s the Holy Spirit that produces the fruit in us, as we grow as the fig trees.
I take a look at 2 Peter 1:57 and I think to myself, what a wonderful world it can’t be possible that the growth between faith towards love (and the other way around) is a growth we achieve on our own. No, I believe that virtue is seen in us by way of our virtue towards others. Knowledge is seen from us by way of the knowledge we lovingly share to others.
Self-control – a fruit of the Holy Spirit as mentioned in the book of Galatians – is seen dangling from our own branches, for others to see and consume. And it’s the same thing for godliness, brotherly affection, steadfastness, and, finally, the first fruit of the Holy Spirit, love.
So the growth that we do have from God? It’s not for us primarily – it’s for others to see, to consume, and also for them to grow.
We give glory to God, because, again, we grow as the cedars of Lebanon, by the growth God gives us; We bear fruit as the prosperous fig tree, by the power of the fruit-producing Holy Spirit.
I also give glory to God, because, if we factor in what we talked about regarding thorns, I’m being led, here and now, to say – the thorns are our own insistence of what fruit we should be producing. The thorns are our own fleshly themes of how we should be growing. We brought ourselves to be choked and agitated.
I give glory to God, because through this ongoing journey of redemption and Renaissance, I’m learning of the futility of our own insistence of growing and being blessed, and the abject need for us to continue to trust in God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) – for, again, God gives the growth, and the Holy Spirit produces the fruit.
I give glory to God, because He has and continues to love me, and is always faithful to me, throughout this very unique journey.
I have at least one last post regarding this, Appraisal. Will put it all together, definitely involving ClaudeAI, and let’s see what we have going for us.
Until that next post, may the Lord continue to bless us.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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