Everything happens for a reason

God has the perfect plan for my life, but I have the free will to follow his plan or follow my plan. I met Pastor Onesmus Atukwatse about a year ago through Facebook.  I friend of mine asked me to add Onesmus as a friend.  I looked at his profile & liked what I saw- an honest, good, Christian man.  Onesmus has asked me to post some thoughts.  I have on my fb profile page, “Everything happens for a reason”.  I truly believe this & have thought this for most of my life.  I think “the Master has the plan ,but we just need to choose to follow it”. I do not think it was by anything I did that Onesmus & I met… it was in the plan.  Now we just need to wait & see what will be revealed to us. 

God’s word says: “All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord [JesusChrist] as though reflected in a mirror, are being TRANSFORMED into the same image

from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit”

(2 Corinthians 3:18)

Please add Onesmus Atukwatse or add this link http://repemuint.org/

Sincerely,

Brenda Baum

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IS THE VINE BLOSSOMING PART 2

Jesus knew there were no figs on the tree even at a great distance away, and indeed everyone of the disciples knew that the season for figs was still early a little early. So, in essence Jesus was exposing the disciples to the fact that their nation of Israel was not yet ready to produce fruit for the Lord either. But alas, remember, a fig tree produces not one harvest, but two harvests in a growing season.

The fig tree normally produces a crop of figs in late June, and then again another crop comes along in early September. That first crop is produced on the branch grown the previous season.

The first crop produced by the Branch is symbolic of the harvest of the Church. It was to the Gentile world that Jesus turned his attention, after Israel had bypassed its time of visitation.

Acts 15:19 says: Simeon hath declared how God at first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.

Israel did indeed produce the righteous Branch, but the first crop of good figs has been cultivated from the nations of the rest of the world, instead of Israel.

Israel, by failing to acknowledge the timely visit of their Messiah, was thus subjected to the soil ( world ) of the earth, and became dried up and dispersed from its originally planted spot, to await yet another visitation, or season of harvest.

Make no mistake about it though, Gods promises to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the good basket of figs still remains intact. God still intends to glean a second harvest from the fig tree of Israel, but only after that fig tree ( Israel ) has again put forth its leaves; and produces another budding of the fig tree later on in the growing season.

Why has this taken place, and when will the rebudding season of the fig tree take place?

Romans 11:25, For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, till the “Fullness of the Gentiles” be come in.

The church is grafted onto the righteous “Branch” (Jesus ) of Israel, and Israel is indeed our tree of heritage, with the God of Israel being the root of it all.

For nearly 2000 years, Israel had lain dormant, like that old barren fig tree that Jesus cursed. Like the old fig tree, Israel was uprooted from the land, and left in desolation, while the Gentile nations have tread across the land of Israel. Jesus said this condition would persist until the Times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. ( Luke 21:24)

Jeremiah prophesied that Israel would be fruitless at the time of their initial visitation, and would lose their land at the first seasonal opportunity.

Jeremiah 8:13, I will surely consume them, saith the Lord: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor “figs on the fig tree” and leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.

The fading leaf of the fig tree is a prophetic foreglimpse of the apostate condition of the church in the Last Days when the fig tree of Israel shall indeed begin to rebud for its season of finally producing good figs.

The word “Gentile”, is a translation of the Hebrew word, “Goy”, with “Goyim” being the plural form of the word for Gentile Nations. The phrase that Jesus used, “Times of the Gentiles”, is a term which is synonymous with the Biblical concept of Gentile history; based on the two-fold relationship of the nations of the world with God, and his relationship with his selected nation, Israel. It could more aptly be termed as “the Times of the Nations”.

The times of the Nations historically and Biblically commenced with Israel’s demise at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, as has already been pointed out, and those times of the Gentiles have continued right on up to the present day.

Thence, we come to the specific point of the usage by Jesus of the analogy he used in comparing Israel with his parable of the fig tree. Again he said:

“Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:”

The command to “learn” is invoked in this usage. What have we learned from the fig tree? We know that Israel was the good figs that God promised to restore a kingdom to; and that when God sent forth HIS Branch, ( Jesus ) that while it was still yet “tender”, that the branch ?( Jesus ) would be “cut off”; ( killed ) but not to worry, the Branch would sprout forth “leaves”, ( church ) and that those leaves would be a grafting addition to the branch; and then afterward, that fig tree ( Israel ) would rebud, or blossom, and then the second crop of good figs would be harvested. (Israel’s salvation )

Israel is the natural branch of the fig tree, while the church, or Christians, are the grafted on branches.

The Church does not replace Israel, it was simply included into the productivity or fruitfulness of the tree.

Romans 11:21: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

This is a point of emphasis to the Gentile world, that if the nations-church does not heed the lesson of the fig tree, then likewise; the curse of death will overtake all who reject Christ.

Paul’s prayer in Romans 1:1; was that Israel might be saved and it is Gods desire that ALL be saved; Jew and Gentile alike.

During Jesus first visitation to Jerusalem, he was questioned by the Pharisees and Sadducees, desiring that Jesus would simply show them a sign, so as to verify that Jesus was indeed the anticipated Messiah.

Now Jesus could have given them any sign that they might have required of him, or performed some tantilizing miracle, but he chose did not do so. Why not? God does not play games, or seek to entertain men with mindboggling magical wonders. He does not need the approval or popularity of mankind. The Lord does not bend to temptation, nor to the confidence of public opinion. Ironically, Satan does entertain men with such exploits, performing seemingly miraculous things, all for the express purpose of self-gloirification and deceit.

Matthew 16:4: A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and no sign shall be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Jesus didn’t need to give the Sadducees any more signs than those already that were already foretold of his coming. They had the prophetic information of the Old Testament detailing fully his visitation. God does not repeat himself, just to hear himself be doubted by the agnostic. The problem here was not verification, it was simply unbelief.

What was the sign of Jonah that Jesus referred to?

Just as Jonah had spent 3 days and 3 nights within the belly of the great fish; Jesus also would spend three days and nights in the belly of the earth, rising out on the third, just as Jonah came out of the belly of the fish on the third day. Jesus was here predicting that he would arise the third day after they had destroyed the temple which he himself embodied.

John 2:19: Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up.

This is the only sign that Israel would get. They already had rejected numerous signs.

Jesus used the parable of fig tree to display to the disciples, and then to whole house of Israel that although they would reject their Messiah, still he would come back unto them a second time, but only after they had learned to cry out to for him, as one mourneth for his only son.

The old testament prophet Hosea had hit upon this very delay in Israel’s restorative seasonal rebudding:

Hosea 6:1-2; Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten. and He will bind us up.

      After two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us ( Israel )up, and we shall live in his sight.

The fig tree of Israel was destined to be scattered among all the nations of the world for two complete days of God’s timetable, ( 1000 years/ one day ) but on the third day, Israel would be providentially returned to its land, and begin the rebirth process.

So then, Jesus very death and resurrection served as a paradigm for the restoration, and the rebudding of the fig tree which is national Israel.

What a tremendous SIGN that is! What could God have done any better to prove his love and genuine desire for Israel, and indeed the whole world?

      Have you ever thought about Satan preserving a nation unto himself with such a precise prophetic analogy? It would be preposterous to think of. Satan can’t do such a thing, because he is not alpha and omega. He can only destroy nations. The miracle of Israel is the divine proof of the supremacy of the God of Israel.

      Is it any wonder then, why Satan, the Great Red Dragon will pursue Israel with an all out vengeance during the Tribulational era?

      The reemergence of the state of Israel has always been a prerequisite for the fulfillment of prophetic destiny for all nations. The nations of this world are afflicted with a demonic disease that ultimately points to the acute pecularity of the peculiar people, Israel. 

      The leaves that sprouted forth from the Branch of the fig tree could have been for the healing process to be instilled in the souls of all the nations of this world. Had the church so conquered the nations in total, as did the preaching of Jonah to the Ninevites, Israel may have been spared the onslaught of Anti-Semitism. 

      But alas, the church has not brought peace, but it has brought separation. The nations are all at enmity with the God of Israel, and its grafted Christians!

      Perhaps this is the basis for the nations healing in the Post Millennial Kingdom of Israel. 

      Revelation 22:2: In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river of life, which bare twelve manner of Fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and “The Leaves” of the Tree were for the healing of the Nations. 

      God says in Ezekiel 28:25-26, that when He has gathered the house of Israel from among all those nations to where they were scattered, that He will execute His judgements upon all those nations that despised Israel; and that they will know that the “I AM” of Israel is indeed God. 

      From Isaiah 4:2 In that day shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the Fruit of the earth shall be excellant and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.

      Without question, the rebudding of national Israel 52 years ago now, is the most powerful message that God has sent to the nations-peoples in the last 20 centuries, since the first visitation of the Branch. In restoring Israel once again in their homeland, God is raising up an ensign, or banner, which the nations of the world cannot ignore.

      To the nations, God says from Ezekiel 36:23: 

      And I will sanctify My great name, which was profaned among all the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them, and the heathen shall know that I AM the Lord, when I shall be sanctified in you ( Israel ) before their ( nations ) eyes.

      God is about to undertake a great shaking in the land of Israel. The Fig Tree has been planted, but just as in the vision of the “Valley of Dry Bones”, Israel still is not spiritually alive; but that blossoming will take place upon the return visit of Jesus Christ to ISRAEL.

      The second crop of good figs is already budding on the Branch. The Satanic hosts which are staged to pursue Israel will lead the nations to their fates; when God shakes the Fig Tree.

      Revelation 6:13: And the stars of Heaven fell unto the earth, even as a “fig tree” casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.

      The parable of the fig tree carries with it a like promise as the one which was made to Simeon. As Simeon was promised to not see death until he had seen the Messiah, also the rebudded generation of regathered Israel will see all things fulfilled before it passes. ( Matt 24:34 ) 

      “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:”

      The Fig Tree is planted once again in its natural homeland, it is ALIVE, and the blossoms are budding forth, and it signifies that the Branch shall returneth soon!

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IS THE FIG TREE BLOSSOMING?

In Matthew 24 : 32; Jesus used the descriptive analogy of a “fig tree”, to instruct his disciples about how we could discern the timeliness of his return to Israel.

“Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:”

The fig trees of the middle east region are a fruit- producing tree or shrub. The size of the tree, and the capacity to produce figs depends mainly on the soil that the tree is rooted in.

Typically, the fig tree blooms before sprouting forth its leaves in the spring, and normally would produce, not one, but two crops of figs each year.

In Mark 11:13 Jesus, after leaving Bethany, which is just to the east of Jerusalem; saw a fig tree off in the distance, and noticed the leaves that were thereon; and eagerly

looked forward to partaking of the fruit of it as he neared it; yet when finally arriving at the tree, he found there was no fruit upon it; for the time for figs was not yet in season.

Upon seeing that the fig tree produced no fruit, Jesus cursed the tree, with the disciples standing by observing.

He then proceeded on down to the city of Jerusalem, and into the Temple, whereupon he flew into a rage, chasing out the moneychangers, and calling the holy place nothing more than a den of thieves.

The disciples must have thought these actions were the actions of a madman. Afterall, what sane person talks to a tree and pronounces a curse upon it for heaven’s sake?

I believe that everything in the Bible, and in the entire life of Jesus has an divinely intended purpose or message. I don’t think God wastes his words, nor would Jesus have behaved in such a manner without it having some meritorious meaning.

But, try to imagine the disciples astonishment, when out on the same road back to Bethany, they pass right by that very same fig tree, and lo and behold, it has already withered up and dried. Why would Jesus curse a fig tree?

During the first dispersion of Israel, God sent a vision to the old prophet Jeremiah, of two baskets full of figs. One of the baskets had good figs while the other basket contained bad figs.

Jeremiah 24:5-7: Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for their good.

For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down, and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.

And I will give them an heart to know me, that “I AM” the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.

Here, in these verses, God likens the captive exiles of Israel to the those good figs in the basket. The Jewish remnant which was still left in Jerusalem, God likens to the bad, or evil figs retained in the second basket.

I should point out that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon rose up against Israel and took captive all the children of Israel except those princes who were left as mere puppet rulers in the holy city. The year of Israel’s defeat by Babylon was 606 B.C. Then nineteen years later in 587 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar returned back to Jerusalem and destroyed the city and executed King Zedekiah.

Remember those dates and the differential of the years as you read further in this newsletter. I have a point that I want to make clear later concerning that time interval.

Anyway, God promised through Jeremiah that he would return Israel once again into the land, and afterwards that Israel shall no more be uprooted from the promised land; and that He would write his law in their hearts.

This promised of course dream has never been fulfilled during the long history of Israel. It is still a future eventuality. But the fact has been historically established that Israel has forever become prophetically typecast, in a figurative sense, as a fig tree.

When Jesus came strolling down Bethany Road to the city of Jerusalem on that day, he wasn’t simply looking for something to eat off the fig tree to satisfy his bodily appetite; but rather, He was looking for “Good Figs”. It is national Israel that God has planted in the midst of the garden of nations to portray himself to all the rest of the nations of this world. God has historically longed for Israel to bear fruit (figs), but unfortunately, Israel has never acknowledged the true “Branch”; for which she has been a vehicle to bring fruit from the world.

In Jeremiah 23:5; God says:

“Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and also prosper, and shall execute judgement and justice in the earth.

This scripture continues on to say that in the days of the rule of the righteous Branch, that Judah itself shall be saved, and Israel will dwell safely in their land.

Of course Jesus was the righteous Branch that was born from out of the stem of Jesse; as Isaiah 11:1 foretold. In the strictest definition, God is in reality the fig tree; with the righteous branch being Jesus; while the figs are the fruit of the tree. Israel is symbolically represented as the early blooms on the fig tree, while the church is typified by the leaves that are on the branch. Later in Romans chapter 11 we find that the Gentiles have been grafted into the branch.

So, when Jesus found no figs upon the fig tree, on that afternoon, and cursed the tree; He was displaying to the openly disciples in a figurative way, that national Israel still as yet had not bore any fruit from the branch; by the mere fact that their immediate generation still simply did not recognize the epic “time of visitation” by their Messiah.

In Luke 18:31-33; Jesus had already instructed the disciples that he was going down into Jerusalem, and while there all the things prophesied concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished. He informed them that he would be mocked, scourged, and put to death; and yet rise up again on the third day.

The symbolic paradigm acted out at the roadside fig tree was simply a public display of the rejection of Israel’s king, and that “ISRAEL”, would suffer the a historical curse in like manner as the fig tree that the disciples saw.

I recall in Luke 12:56, that Jesus took to task the Scribes and Pharisees for not being able to discern the signs of the times. Israel should have anticipated that the season for the Messiahs appearance was at hand, and that the time for the harvest of good figs was nigh at hand.

In Daniel 9:25-26; the prophet Daniel had foretold that the Messiah would make an appearance in the rebuilt city of Jerusalem exactly 483 years of the Hebrew calendar; after the commandment went forth from the Persian King Artaxerxes Longimangus, which was issued on March 14, in the year of 445 B.C. This commandment is recorded within the Bible in the book of Ezra 7:12-13, and again in most of the book of Nehemiah.

So then, on Palm Sunday, in the year of 32 A.D., every single Jewish believer should have been down at the Eastern Gate in anxious anticipation of giving a rousing welcome to the expected King of the Jews.

Although there was a moderate crowd assembled to welcome Jesus into the city, spreading some palm branches before him; by and large, Israel was very unimpressed with Jesus appearance.

Even the disciples were not altogether sure as to who Jesus was. In Luke 10:23-24, Jesus said to them: “For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye have seen, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.”

Many people throughout Israel’s history had desired to see the Deliverer, or the Messiah King; but to no avail. They were never been afforded that wonderful opportunity. However, a particular generation was providentially destined to be witnesses of the Kings timely presentation.

Even today, there is a generation that has a divine destiny to not see death, but to be transported away by the returning King; much in the same manner that Old Testament Enoch was ushered up into Heaven.

The Bible is accurate, right down to the very minutest detail. God expresses everything in a carefully designed pattern. Every single word, phrase, jot or tittle, has purpose. It is absolutely foolhearty to alter any of it, or to not consider any portion as intensely significant.

Consider Galations 4 : 4, for example:

But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

Notice the phrase, (“The fullness of The Time”). It is an indication that Jesus birth wassynchronised to occur at a definite and prearranged point in human history, an event which God foretold (prophecy), so that there would be absolutely no confusion about who the son of God, the seed of the woman, really and truly was.

All of Israel should have been on hand that Palm Sunday to thank God for being faithful to his word.

There indeed was a very devout man, who had discerned that the Messiah would come during his lifetime, and he had been individually promised via the Holy Spirit that he would see Jesus arrival before his death.

Luke 2 : 25; And, behold there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.

And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

Simeon had a direct promise from God of seeing the Messiah before he ever passed away. Simeon was not simply lucky, or rewarded for good behavior; Simeon was an old man by the time of the affixed timely event of the Virgin Birth; and he recognized fully that the anticipated date of the Messiah’s mission was only 3 short decades away; and therefore, he was afforded the opportunity to live to see the time of Israel’s promised visitation by God.

Simeon probably believed that Israel would accept their long awaited King. He had no idea that Israel would kill the very one that was the lifeblood of the kingdom of Israel. He most likely died comforted in the notion that Israel was rejoined to their King. He did apparently know that sorrow would be associated with his life, because he informed Mary about a future heartbreak for her.

The generation that immediately followed Simeon should have expected Jesus. Jesus very own generation should have had great expectation from among its own ranks that someone special from God would emerge.

Alas, that generation would fail to recognize him; and would cut him off, and then endure later in life to see the total destruction of the beloved rebuilt city of Jerusalem.

In Luke 19:41-44; Jesus approached the city, and on a high overlook, viewed out upon the city, and wept over it.

Luke 19 : 42: Jesus said, If thou hadst known, even thou at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto your peace! but now they are hid from your eyes.

Even at this late date, Jerusalem could have received its King, and enjoyed the promised Kingdom of God, but still their eyes were not opened to the reality of his imminent visit.

Saddened because of Israel’s ignorance, Jesus went on to proclaim that Jerusalem would undergo the loss of its national homeland, including the Holy City, and Temple.

Luke 19:44; And they shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in you one stone upon another; because “thou knewest not the TIME OF THY VISITATION!”

The season for Israel’s blossoming had arrived, and good figs were anticipated, but although the fig tree had blossomed forth, the time for figs was premature.

Mark 11:13 expresses thusly: And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing on it, and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.

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