THE ONE THING YOU SHOULD NEVER EAT

What I’m about to tell you could change your life and the lives of your children and your children’s children, forever!  I want to talk to you about not eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  I’m serious…. Have you ever really thought about this sin and what it means in our day to day lives?  Try to imagine what life would be like, had Adam and Eve not eaten this fruit.  Not just the lifting of all the pesky painful curse stuff, but how would we look at the world if we were not constantly judging between good and evil? 

Well, I never really thought about it either until God started doing a little tree work in my life. 

I’d been studying Prayers That Heal the Heart by Mark Virkler.  In it, Mark teaches that anything that steals our joy is A HEART ISSUE.  So, I started noticing what steals my joy.  I found that I spent undue time processing what I believed to be the motivation or reason behind other peoples’ actions…. “oh, they did that because they are afraid to…., or she does that because she never had this, or he doesn’t do it because he knows I will.”  In other words, “they’re afraid, they’re lazy, they’re selfish, they’re fill in the blank.”  I found I also lose a few minutes of joy when I get in the shower to no soap, or find something where it doesn’t belong for the umpteenth time.  Sound familiar to anyone?  Another area that had come to my attention was my need to give everything    or .  (Believe me, this started WAY BEFORE facebook!) It usually comes into play when I’m judging how I should spend my time. If I think something is productive, UP, if not, DOWN (with perhaps a raspberry sound included).  I got a clue the Holy Spirit was working on me in this area when I would give something a big ole thumbs down only to find out later that God did something amazing with it.  I began to dialogue with God on these issues, seeing similarities in my attitude and that’s when I started to consider….. perhaps…. just maybe…., I was dealing with a heart issue of JUDGING. 

Then came that fateful day in May of 2016, when I stepped across the line with a member of my family.  During the conversation that ensued, this person said, “I’m sick of you judging me!”   gasp!!!......There is was….., the J word!  Could this be true?  

No, you don’t understand!!! This was a really big deal for me because judging is part of my very personality.  Anyone take a personality test?  One of the defining aspects of a person’s type is whether you are Judging.  Well, I am Judging – off the charts!  (I’m not talking about judging if someone is a Christian or not, I feel confident that is not my job.)  This judging describes the process by which we view the world, sort information and make decisions.  It is fundamental to how I process…. In other words, it’s part of my shape.    

During this time, God started to show me some pretty stunning examples of the fact that I am not really equipped to judge between good and evil.  One example came from watching an interview of Jim Cavezeil about playing the role of Jesus in The Passion of the Christ. (Btw, you should watch this interview on youtube!)  Jim was talking about how the whole movie was being kept a secret and that the next day after he had accepted the part, Mel Gibson called to try to talk him out of it.  Mel told Jim it would likely be his last role in Hollywood, people would not be happy and that he (Mel) was the last person who should be producing it….  I can only guess why.  It’s my understanding many powerful people in Hollywood are Jewish.  It would seem, just like in biblical times, no one wants to be blamed for killing the Messiah.  Also, Mel knew what was in his own heart, some of the anti-Semitic remarks and actions, we learned about later, no doubt made him feel unworthy of such an important task.

All of the sudden, a thought popped into my head.  It is possible that God USED the anti-Semitism in Mel to cause him to produce the Passion of the Christ? I don’t just mean using bad for good, I’m talking about the idea that it was good that Mel has these attitudes, so God could get this movie made…. What?!?!  We would look at any racist comments and actions and say, that is evil and should not exist, but God totally had a plan for it!  In fact, God is just as skilled at using the good in people as He is at using the bad.  We judge between good and evil with so little information. God says, “Don’t call evil what I call good.”  

Hmmmmm....So then, if judging is such a bad thing, why did He make me with a such a strong judging personality? 

Because He shaped me for His glory, not mine. (whoa!)

So there it is, staring me in the face. I had a real heart issue with judging.  So, how do I get rid of it?  I went back to Prayers That Heal the Heart and followed the process. Being the good little student, I filled in all my blanks and thought I’d come to several key places where God wanted to change my thinking.  While praying through this with a couple of friends, the Lord showed one of them a large tree, and then words like pride, entitlement, control, perfectionism.  Excuse me?  Not just judgment, but all these other things AND my issue looks like a large tree?!?  Have you ever heard the question, “If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there, does it make a sound?”  The answer is “YES. It makes a lot of sound, it throws papers around her office, uses a few choice words and goes down with a mighty crash of tears and a “I GIVE UP” at about 3 in the morning!  I couldn’t believe that after 10 years of following hard after Jesus, I still had/have so much junk to surrender!

I still don’t know exactly what that tree represents.  Perhaps it is my self-image, perhaps it is THE TREE of the knowledge of good and evil, itself?!  I only know it is rooted in pride, grew through self-reliance and it produces control, entitlement, judgment and separation.

I’m pretty sure we can’t cut down this particular tree, the best we can do is crucify our “old man” on it, like Paul writes about in Romans Chapter 6. “Lord, I reject the tree of the knowledge of good and evil today! I renounce my right to judge and acknowledge I don’t have the capacity to rightly judge. I pray blessings over those I agree with and those I don’t.  Lord, with Your help, I purpose to leave all judgments to You.  I desire to eat only from the tree of life!”

When I look at the arguments raging online between zealous Christians, debating the finer points of our faith, vilifying “tv preachers” and coming to verbal blows over politicians; I now realize I’m witnessing a bunch of well-meaning people just eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Only God knows who he wants to hold the position of president in the upcoming election.  Let’s ask Him!  Jesus said to let the tares/weeds grow with the wheat. Nearly all of the churches in Revelation had some things right and some things wrong.  Let us hear what the Spirit is saying to us in this hour. Let us take our eyes off of each other and fix them on Jesus, the only righteous judge.  Let us focus on the plank in our own eyes and take our stand together against our real enemy.  May it be so in my lifetime!