The Fruit of the Fathers

(This is chapter 16 of the book The Way of Sonship: Anointed to Overcome)

It says in Genesis 1:11-12 (KJV) “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good”. The life of the father dwells within the heart of the seed or son to bring forth fruit after the father’s kind. It says in Genesis 2:7 “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”. As a Father, God breathed into Adams’s heart the breath of Gods life and Adam became the original Son of God. In ancient Hebrew culture a soul was a breathing being, and just as trees bear fruit after their father’s kind, God Himself dwelt within the heart of Adam. We know from 1 John 4 that “God is love and those who live in love live in God and God lives in them”. That is how Adam was originally created: the paradise of God’s fatherhood dwelt within his heart to bring forth the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. It was the eternal purpose of God that Adam and Eve would establish the kingdom of God upon the earth by filling the earth with sons of God. Having hearts full of the supernatural life of God, the sons of God would bring glory to God by bearing the fruit of the personality Father God who dwelt within their hearts in every aspect of life everywhere they went.

It is not clear exactly how long Adam and Eve lived in paradise with the heavenly paradise of God filling their hearts but unfortunately it did not last. The devil is the father of lies, and by lying he has built a kingdom that is diametrically opposed to the kingdom of God. The devil fashions himself as God and just as God wanted to populate the earth with sons in whose hearts God Himself would live to bear the fruit of love, Satan wanted to become the god of this world. He wanted to populate the earth with sons in whose hearts his words of lying breath or evil spirits would live to kill, steal and destroy. Satan could not create a son, so he stole one. He tempted Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden to eat forbidden fruit. They unwittingly submitted to the rule of the authority of the father of lies and gasped out the breath of God’s life from their hearts. God spoke and said to Adam that in effect, the goodness of God had been cursed out of the ground or personality of his heart. Adam had changed fathers. He was no longer the son of God, and instead became the seed of the serpent who would bear thorns and thistles, the fruit after his newly acquired evil father’s kind. In ancient Hebrew culture the first fruit was seen as the totality of the whole. The firstborn son of Adam and Eve was Cain, the Son of Man. We know from scripture that Cain was actually the first murderer upon planet Earth. Sons bear fruit after their father’s kind because the father dwells within the heart of the son to bring forth his fruit. Because of the Fall, apart from the grace of God, everyone that has ever been born except Jesus to a greater or lesser extent shares the nature or natural life of Cain and if provoked have the capacity to bear evil fruit.

When God created the heavens and the earth, he established the divine law of sowing and reaping. Sowing good seed produces good fruit but bad seed produces bad fruit. Jesus said in Matthew 13:24-30 “The reign of the heavens was likened to a man sowing good seed in his field, and, while men are sleeping, his enemy came and sowed darnel [weeds] in the midst of the wheat, and went away, and when the herb sprang up, and yielded fruit, then appeared also the darnel. ‘And the servants of the householder, having come near, said to him, Sir, good seed did thou not sow in thy field? whence then has it the darnel? And he said to them, A man, an enemy, did this; and the servants said to him, Will thou, then, that having gone away we may gather it up? ‘And he said, No, lest—gathering up the darnel—ye root up with it the wheat, suffer both to grow together till the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the darnel, and bind it in bundles, to burn it, and the wheat gather up into my storehouse.’” Because of the Fall, the fallen human heart became darkened. In itself it was devoid of anything good. It became like a seed bed into which things, good or evil, could be sown. Humanity had fallen out of a relationship with God but into a relationship with that which was either good or evil, blessed, or cursed. Even though they are blind to Him, in His great love, God sows blessings and kindness by the word of His life’s breath or Holy Spirit into the seed bed of the hearts of all men. However, the devil fashions himself as God. By lying and deceiving people with false promises of blessing in things that are cursed he sows his words or evil breaths or spirits of curse into the seed bed of the hearts of people who listen to his temptations. The eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God brings a harvest of good fruit, things like love, kindness, mercy and forgiveness. The breath or evil spirits of the devil’s lies bring a bitter harvest of bad fruit, things like adultery, uncleanness, greed, hatred, jealousy and murder, things that lead to death. It is out of the relationship with good or evil, and blessing or curse that someone behaves, and it is the fruit of this behaviour that will ultimately be judged at the Great White Throne on the Day of Final Judgement. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 7:15-20 (KJV) “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruit. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Therefore, by their fruit ye shall know them”. Whatever the false prophets of the religion of tradition may say, God’s final judgement is based upon behaviour not beliefs, fruit not faith. This is because sons bear fruit after their father’s kind. That is why John the Baptist said to religious serpents in Matthew 3:8 (KJV) “Bring forth therefore fruit meet for repentance”. It is the life’s breath of the father that dwells within the heart of the seed or son to bring forth fruit after his father’s kind. The natural life of fallen humanity is derived from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The fruit of such a life is bad because people naturally decide for themselves what is good or evil, right or wrong, true or false. The eternal life of the Sons of God is derived from the tree of life. The fruit of such a life is good because the Sons of God do not decide for themselves what is good or evil, right or wrong, true or false. Through Jesus, God as a Father sows Himself into the hearts of His Sons by the word of his eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit. The Sons of God bear the fruit of love after their loving Heavenly Father’s kind.

Jesus said in Luke 8:5-8 (KJV) “A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bore fruit a hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that has ears to hear, let him hear”. God sows his kindness, blessing, and love into people’s hearts. However, some people have stony-hard hearts, the devil snatches away the blessing and sows weeds of curse in their place. Some people have shallow hearts, the blessing of love bears fruit for a while, but it is not watered by the river of life and it withers. Some people have thorny, bitter hearts, full of riches or cares or greed and it is choked out. But some people have good and honest hearts, and the blessing of God multiplies that blessing a hundredfold. Just as God sows good seed into people’s hearts and reaps a harvest thirty, sixty or a hundred times what is sown, so do people. God only sows good seed, but people can choose what they sow. They can be inspired by the blessing of God to sow to the good things that God gives, or they can be inspired by the false promises of the devil’s blessing and sow the bad seed of moral infidelity and unfaithfulness to God. Paul said in Galatians 6:7-10 (KJV) “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith”. Paul is clear, the things that people sow in life are the things that they will reap, both in life, and in resurrection. Paul said in Colossians 3:23-25 (KJV) “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that does wrong shall receive for the wrong which he has done and there is no respect of persons”. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 7:12 (KJV) “Therefore all things whatsoever ye that men would do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets”. The fruit of how people behave in life will become their inheritance in resurrection. Those who embrace blessing in live will be embraced by blessing in resurrection but those who embrace curse will be embraced by curse, forever.

Many people are taught that right beliefs or faith in right teaching gives the “easy-believer” religo-matic immunity to the behavioural judgement of Almighty God. This teaching contradicts the teaching of the New Testament by promising that God will not render to every man according to their deeds. Instead, it teaches that God will respect the fact that, if they believe that sowing bad seed does not matter anymore, they will not reap the fruit of a bitter harvest (see Hebrews 6:4-8). However, Peter said in 1 Peter 2:25 “…so is the will of God, doing good, to put to silence the ignorance of the foolish men”. Jesus confirmed this when he said in Matthew 16:27 (KJV) “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” Paul also confirmed this when he said in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-6 (KJV) “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in the lust of concupiscence [improper desires], even as the Gentiles which know not God: That no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified”. John confirmed this when he wrote in 2 John 1:8  “See to yourselves that ye may not lose the things that we wrought, but a full reward may receive”. The fruit of people’s lives is not important to religion, but it is important in a relationship; the fruit of people’s lives is important to God. The Chief Priests, Scribes, Pharisees, and Teachers of the Law claimed to be the sons of Abraham, and therefore the sons of God. Jesus said in John 8:39-40,44 (KJV) “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that has told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this Abraham did not do…Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it”. These leaders had religion but not a relationship with God. They had taken the grace and blessing of God for granted and continually grieved the heart of God. God had withdrawn his blessing from them completely and they did not even notice. Jesus described these religious leaders as the sons of the devil because they bore the serpent’s slithery image in the way that they were inspired to behave. They brought forth the bad fruit of their evil father’s kind. Jesus said to these religious serpents in Matthew 12:33-37 (KJV) “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned”. God speaks His word by His life’s breath or Holy Spirit that dwells within Him. Those who receive the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of the word of God into their hearts are changed by the living breath of those words. That is why Paul said in Romans 10:10 (KJV) “For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”. There is nothing “religious” about the confession that Paul is describing here. As Jesus said, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”. Those whose hearts are abundantly filled with the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood are the Sons of God. They prove it in the way they are inspired by the presence of God within their hearts to overcome the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. What matters to religious man is right beliefs about wrong behaviour, not overcoming by bearing the fruit of God. Paul said in Romans 4:3-5 (KJV) “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that works, the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness”. Within ancient Hebrew culture, righteousness meant to walk on a straight path through life. It meant doing what was good, honourable, kind, merciful, right, straight, or true from the heart. Those who, like Abraham, are inspired by the love of God’s fatherhood to have a change of father have a change of heart, a change of nature, a change of their life’s breath (or Spirit), a change of behaviour, and a change of destiny. John said the same thing in a different way in 1 John 2:28-29, 3:7-10 (KJV) “And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that does righteousness is born of him…Little children, let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother”. There is only one truth, but many lies. Love is the heart of the gospel because love eternally flows from the heart of God into the hearts of His true Sons. That is why Jesus said in John 15:8-10 (KJV) “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love”. Without the fruit of a loving response to the love of God, faith is a fallacy.

After the Fall, Adam and Eve sewed leaves together to make coverings for themselves that were acceptable in their own eyes. In the same way, the religion of tradition sews together coverings of theoretical righteousness and conceptual arguments of religious reasoning that attempts to make the bad fruit of fallen hearts acceptably hidden in the sight of God. It says in 1 John 4:7-10 “Beloved, may we love one another, because the love is of God, and everyone who is loving, of God he has been begotten [born], and does know God;  he who is not loving did not know God, because God is love. In this was manifested the love of God in us, because His Son—the only begotten—has God sent to the world, that we may live through him;  in this is the love, not that we loved God, but that He did love us, and did send His Son a propitiation for our sins”. The word “propitiation” is from the Latin “propitius” which meant to seek, strive after, rush towards, or make good. The propitiation of religion makes good by offering life after death; it pretends that right beliefs transform the presumed furious rage of God towards the objects of his wrath into a peaceful sea of tranquillity but leaves the adulterous fallen human heart untouched. The propitiation of relationship transforms hearts from the inside. It transfigures the natural born darkness of orphan-hearted fallen humanity into those who are born of the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood. That is why it says in Ezekiel 36:26 (KJV) “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God”. Those who born of God are born out of love. They are the seed or Sons of God and they bear the fruit of their Heavenly Father’s kind because God Himself dwells within their hearts. They live in love and everything about them is love because God first loved them; this love propitiated their stony hearts to have new hearts that love like Jesus loves. Behaviour in life will become inheritance in resurrection; the heart that people die with they will rise with. That is why it says in 1 John 4:16-17 (KJV) “And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world”. Religion changes heads but through relationship, the grace of God changes hearts. The goodness of God can make a bad tree good; it is the goodness and the grace of God that leads people to repentance. Good trees bear good fruit; good men bring good things that are treasured up within their hearts. Bad behaviour is the absence of God’s blessing, it is sowing to the flesh and mocking God. God cannot be mocked, what a man sows, that he will one day reap. That is why Paul said in Romans 6:1-4 (KJV) “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into his death? Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life”.

Jesus said in Luke 14:12-14 (KJV) “When thou make a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou make a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just”. The religion of tradition teaches that these words of Jesus are “old hat”. It promises that sowing bad seed will not reap the fruit of a bitter harvest if people believe good things about the bad things that they have sown. The religion of tradition teaches that the faith of being presumed innocent has superseded the so-called “difficult” or “hard” or “under the law” words of Jesus. However, Jesus said in Matthew 7:21-23 (KJV) “Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity”. Hebraically, it is impossible to be a follower of Jesus and have a heart filled with the heavenly paradise of the Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood without doing what Jesus said. The faith of religion cannot make a bad tree bear good fruit, instead it teaches that the “work of iniquity” of the bad fruit of a bad tree is ignored or winked at by God because He is looking for faith, not the good fruit of love. Peter said in 1 Peter 2:11-12 “Beloved, I call upon you, as strangers and sojourners, to keep from the fleshly desires, that war against the soul, having your behaviour among the nations right, that in that which they speak against you as evil-doers, of the good works having beheld, they may glorify God in a day of inspection”. Paul, James, John, Jude, Peter, and Jesus taught that how people behave really does matter because people behave what they really believe. That is why Paul said in Romans 2:6-11 (KJV) “…God, who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that does evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God”. This will happen on the Day of Final Judgement when God will take the bitter, hateful, and hurtful fruit of the evil seeds sown into people’s own lives and the lives of others through their evil behaviour. He will take the fully ripe harvest of that bitter fruit and put it back into the hearts of those from whom it came. That is why Jesus said in Luke 6:37-38 (KJV) “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again”. On the cross, Jesus reaped that very same bitter fruit within his body or personality, so that the Sons of God could be freed from that bitter harvest and live a new life. God did this so that in the coming ages, God could show the incredible and exceeding riches of His amazing grace toward those whom God had sovereignly chosen before time began to become the person of His Son.

The attitude or behaviour of heart that people die with they will rise with. Behaviour in life will become inheritance in resurrection, that is why John the Baptist said in Luke 3:7-9 (KJV) “O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, ‘We have Abraham to our father’: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire”. The Final Judgement of God is based upon fruit, not faith, behaviour not intellectual beliefs, relationship and not religion. In Numbers 14, the Israelites refused to enter into the promised land because of their rebellious unbelief. As such, people behave what they really believe. That is why it says in Hebrews 11:8 “By faith Abraham, being called, did obey…”. Bad trees bear bad fruit; evil men bring bad things that are treasured up within their hearts, and the religion of their tradition gives them license to do so. However, James says in James 2:24,26 “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only…For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also”. It will be too late for “by faith alone” at the Final Judgement because Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:10 (KJV) “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad”. When Jesus returns, he will reward everyone for the fruit of their lives, whether good or evil. That is why Jesus said in John 5:26-29 (KJV) “For as the Father has life in himself; so has he given to the Son to have life in himself; And has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation”. 

Jesus said in John 3:16-18 (KJV) “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believes on him is not condemned: but he that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God”. When Nicodemus heard these words, he did not imagine for a second that Jesus was talking about people being saved from hell after they were dead. That was not part of their culture. Nicodemus was very much aware that people were condemned and perished in life, but these were people that lived outside of the “circumcision”, those not in covenant with Yehovah God who did not keep or guard the Law of Moses. Nicodemus would have been surprised that Jesus was talking about saving the world, but it was all the families of the world (or earth) that God promised to bless with the blessing that God promised to give to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3. It was this blessing of being supernaturally enabled to change fathers and therefore bear good fruit in life that Jesus was talking about. That is why it says in Deuteronomy 30:6 (KJV) “And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou may live”. Jesus was talking about being saved in life, a change of father, character, behaviour and heart that receives the blessing of Abraham that was poured out on the Day of Pentecost. That is why Peter said in Acts 3:25-26 (KJV) “Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities”. The Final Judgement of God is based upon behaviour not beliefs, fruit not intellectual faith, relationship and not religion. Jesus was talking about making bad trees good and the only way to make a bad tree good is to change its father. Hebraically, believing in Jesus meant to become established within his identity as a Son of God by changing fathers and receiving the unmerited grace and blessing of the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood. By being given the gift of righteousness or being filled with the Holy Spirit of righteousness, they would no longer have a relationship with good and evil but instead have a relationship with God, calling Him “Abba, Father” from the heart. Such a life is an overcoming eternal life which supernaturally overcomes the world, the flesh and the devil.

Within ancient Hebrew culture, a true son bore the image or reflection of his father by behaving like his father and bearing his fruit. It says in James 1:17 (KJV) “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”. God is so good that he sends the rain of His blessing upon the righteous and the wicked. The amazing grace of such blessing enables even the wicked to sometimes bear good fruit. Whilst there are many gifts, and many blessings, the greatest gift that God can give is the gift of Himself. That is why Jesus said in Luke 11:9 “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he asks for a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”. Those who share in Jesus’ identity as the Sons of God by believing “from within Him” are filled with the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God like He is. They behave like him and bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control just as He does. This is because He lives within them, and they live within Him and both He and them share the same Father. They are therefore no longer under condemnation because when God looks upon the hearts of His true Sons, He can see His own image in the way that His life’s breath or Holy Spirit inspires them to behave. That is why Paul said in Colossians 3:8-10 (KJV) “But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him”.

Jesus said in John 12:23-26 “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn [kernel, seed] of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serves me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serves me, him will my Father honour”. Hebraically, when Jesus spoke about he who “loves his life shall lose it” he was not talking about enjoying God’s wonderful creation. He was talking about loving the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of natural life that came from the Fall. The foundation of this world was the Fall, not creation. In the same way, when Jesus talked about those who “kept their lives for eternal life” he was not talking about dying and going to heaven. Eternal life is sharing in Jesus’ relationship with God as a Father that will last forever by being filled with the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood, not a life that begins after death. That is why John said in 1 John 3:15 (KJV) “Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him”. As the Son of Man (or Adam), Jesus died as a single seed on the cross to wipe clean the slate of people’s hearts. He died to reap within his own body and personality the bad fruit that people’s bad behaviour had sown; behaviour that would one day reap a bitter harvest. He died to give people a fresh start, a new beginning, a new revival-life through his resurrection from the dead. According to Leviticus 17:11, the life is in the blood. Through sharing in the blood of Jesus people can have a change of Father, a change of life’s breath, a change of heart, a change of behaviour and therefore a change of destiny. John the Baptist said in Luke 3:16-17 “I indeed with water do baptise you, but he comes who is mightier than I, of whom I am not worthy to loose the latchet of his sandals—he shall baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire; whose winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his floor, and will gather the wheat to his storehouse, and the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable”. The wheat are the Sons of God who have been baptised and filled with the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God and bear the fruit of God in their lives, day by day. The chaff are the sons of disobedience who are empty of God and therefore continue bear bad fruit by following the ways of this world and the prince of the power of the air, the rebellious breath or spirit that is at work within the breathings of their personality. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 5:44-48 “I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Those who are led by the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood to behave like Jesus love their enemies from the heart. They are the Sons of God together with Him. Paul says that the whole of creation is groaning in eager expectation for these Sons of God to be revealed (see Romans 8:19). That is because they are filled with God and behaviour in life will one day become inheritance in resurrection. One day, the Sons of God will be revealed to return to planet Earth together with Jesus. They will establish Heaven upon the Earth because Heaven reigns within their hearts.

Jesus said in Matthew 22:14 (KJV) “For many are called, but few are chosen”, and in John 6:37,44 “All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out…No man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day”. Some religious traditions reason away these words of Jesus and instead teach that man is the master of his own destiny. They reason that anyone can come to Jesus at any time, or that God has chosen everyone, or that God is drawing everyone, or that God has chosen an amorphous mass of faceless “nobodies” so that anybody can choose to join them to gain face by becoming a somebody. They reason that people have free will; it is therefore either not fair or not even possible that God predestines some people to go to heaven and others to hell when they die, so it cannot be true. Such preoccupation with ideological and philosophically reasoned theological arguments is culturally Greek and not ancient Hebrew culture. Abraham did not think that way, nor was he preoccupied with heaven or hell as ethereal eternal dwelling places for the righteous or wicked because that was not part of their culture and that is not what the Bible teaches. For Abraham, there was no such place as hell or even hades, the realm of the underworld or conscious dead. Abraham did not go to heaven when he died. Death is temporary, resurrection is permanent. Behaviour in life will become inheritance in resurrection. There is absolutely no doubt that God sovereignly chose Abraham out of his natural father’s house, people, and religious tradition with the promise of Sonship, a personal Father-Son relationship with God in which God’s blessing changed Abraham’s behaviour from the inside out. This gifted Abraham and his true sons with the ability to bring forth the fruit of God in their lives and this in turn gave them the hope of a better resurrection at the End of Days, a resurrection that inherits God rather than “yourself” (see Hebrews 11:35). This was God’s purpose for Abraham, and just as God promised Abraham that the divine blessing of Sonship would be for all the families of the earth, so the Apostle Paul was sovereignly chosen by God to accomplish God’s purpose for his life by sending him to the chosen of the nations with that very same promise. The Lord spoke to Ananias in a dream and said to him regarding Paul in Acts 9:15-16 (KJV) “…he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles [nations], and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake”. The name that Paul was to bear before the nations was the name “Father”, the fatherhood of God for those who would be sovereignly chosen to experience the same blessing that Abraham experienced when he was sovereignly chosen out of his natural father’s house to receive the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood. That is why Peter said on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2:38-39 (KJV) “Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call”. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 11:27 “All things were delivered to me by my Father, and none does know the Son, except the Father, nor does any know the Father, except the Son, and he to whom the Son may wish to reveal Him”. It is Jesus who decides to whom He will reveal the fatherhood of God, and when He does, it is truly amazing grace.  

Paul said in Ephesians 1:11-14 (KJV) “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest [guarantee] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory”. A seal is something on the outside that proves that what is inside is genuine. Just as the Father makes the sun rise on the righteous and the wicked, the guarantee of an inheritance in God is being inspired by grace to bear the fruit of love in every circumstance of life, just like Jesus. People’s behaviour in life will become their inheritance in resurrection, whatever fruit that good or bad behaviour actually bears. Inheritance is a family thing, it cannot be “claimed” by someone who is not in the family or in the will of the Father. Inheritance is not a faith thing either; people can believe until the cows come home that they are going to get an inheritance from God but unless they resemble Jesus in the way they are inspired to behave, they never will because their behaviour proves that they are not “in the family way”. Anyone can be taught by the religion of tradition to call God “Father”, but only those who are the visible image of the invisible God, by being inspired to behave like Jesus, are recognised by Father God as Sons of God. Only those who behave like Jesus from the heart belong to him, only those that walk in love like Jesus loves are part of him. They are the ones that inherit God because God is their behaviour in life and so God will be their inheritance in resurrection. Sons or seeds bring forth fruit after their father’s kind. The inheritance that Paul is talking about is the Sons of God inheriting God as an inherited possession. This is the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood that indwelt their hearts as a blood-born purchased possession during their lifetime. That is why Peter says in 1 Peter 1:3-5 (KJV) “Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to the abundance of His kindness did beget us again to a living hope, through the rising again of Jesus Christ out of the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and unfading, reserved in the heavens for you, who, in the power of God are being guarded, through faith, unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time…”.

Within ancient Hebrew culture, a person’s breath or spirit was their life, and the expression of this breath was a person’s character or personality. A person’s character was an expression of the inspiration (from the Latin “inspirare”, in-breathe) of their spirit or breath displayed by what they did (their words). Their words collectively were called their “ways” and their ways or habitual behaviour was an expression of their “name”. Within ancient Hebrew culture, a father provided a bride for his son, the sons did not choose a bride for themselves. This was because the son and his bride together established the “house” or habitation of his father by bearing sons in the image or reflection of the behaviour of their father. This was to enable them to inherit the father’s blessing so that the name of the father would live on. Esau took wives for himself; it says in the book of Hebrews that Esau was a fornicator (see Hebrews 12:16). Esau’s behaviour was not a reflection of the behaviour of his father. He did not walk in his father’s ways, he did not bear the fruit of his father’s name, and he therefore could not inherit his father’s blessing or establish his father’s house. Jesus told a parable about ten virgins who had been chosen to become betrothed to the divine bridegroom. Jesus said in Matthew 25:1-4 (KJV) “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps”. The ten virgins had been chosen as a bride for the divine bridegroom in order to establish the house or “habitation” of God and to inherit God’s blessing. In the ancient world, one of the most important commodities in life was olive oil. It was used as a form of currency, a cosmetic and covering for the body, a medicine, as food and as a fuel for lamps. Oil was also symbolic of blessing. In Deuteronomy 32:13 Moses declared that Yehovah would make barren rocks drip with honey and oil. The very wide range of uses and benefits of oil made it a valuable type for the fragrant anointing or inspiration or empowerment of the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood. Paul says in Romans 8:1-2 “There is, then, now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit; for the law of the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus did set me free from the law of the sin and of the death”. The law of sin and death was not the Law of Moses, Paul specifically declared in Romans 7:7 that the Law is not sin; rather it is holy, righteous, and good (see Romans 7:12). The law of sin and death is the bad fruit of the behaviour of those who walk through life apart from the blessing or grace of God. Paul said in Romans 8:4 “…that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”. From Abraham’s perspective, the “flesh” is the barren rock of the the natural life of fallen human heart. The “Spirit” was the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood promised to Abraham and his true seed or sons that enabled them to bear the fruit of the true vine (see John 15:1) instead of the thorn (see Genesis 3:18). The bridegroom came for His bride in the darkness at midnight when the virgins were asleep. The wise virgins did not walk according to the flesh, so they trimmed their lamps and followed the bridegroom to the wedding. The unmerited grace or blessing of the gift of the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God inspired the wise virgins or “bride” to fulfil the righteous requirements of the law of love by following in the loving ways of the divine bridegroom. They did not live under condemnation because there was nothing in their behaviour to condemn; the way in which they habitually loved qualified them by them being holy, blameless, perfect, or complete in the way that the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God inspired them to behave. The foolish virgins had not received the grace of God’s blessing. They had not changed fathers. They could not bear the fruit of love by walking in the loving ways of the divine bridegroom and could therefore not find their way in the darkness to the marriage because they had no oil for their lamps. When they eventually turned up it was already too late. There is no repentance in resurrection, the door was already shut, and the bridegroom said, “I do not know you”. The five foolish virgins missed out because they had not made their hearts the house or temple of the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God. They had education but no revelation, religion but no relationship. Man does not live on bread alone but upon every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. They had natural religious words that had proceeded from the mouth of religious man, but they did not have the living words of the life’s breath of God. Despite their religious boasts and claims their barren hearts did not drip with the oil of the blessing or gift or anointing of God. John says in 1 John 2:4-6 “He that says, I know him, and keeps not his commandments [to love], is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keeps his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that says he abides in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked”.  The foolish virgins claimed to be “in him” but because of the absence of God’s blessing they could not follow him by walking in love. They conceptually claimed the promises of God as their own but did nothing to put them into a place of encounter. They did not receive the life-changing heart-changing life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God that would have redeemed their hearts and would have brought them to a place where all things were done in the power of the Spirit.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 “According to the grace of God, which is given unto me, as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds thereon. But let every man take heed how he builds thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abides which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire”. The seed bed of the human heart was originally created by God to be the house, home or temple of the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God. The wise virgins who had lamps full of oil were building a habitation within their hearts for the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God. The habitation of their hearts was built on the foundation of dying on the cross together with Jesus to lives of the pride of self-love and then being inspired or inbreathed by God into having God as their first-love through Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. God had no inheritance within the lives of the foolish virgins because their behaviour had not been the reflection of the character and personality of Jesus. As such, they loved the world or something within the world and the Kingdom of God was not ruling their hearts. Because of the way they had behaved and what they had treasured up in their hearts, there was no habitation or “living space” for the life’s breath of God in their hearts. They may have had lukewarm love for Jesus, but they did not love him first. They loved other things more and as such, they were not worthy of him. Their other “lovers” made them unfit to become the Bride of the King. Something else had taken God’s prime position in the race of their lives. They had put down a small deposit on the pearl of great worth, but they did not sell everything that they had treasured in their hearts to buy it. By faith they imagined that it was their own, but it remained in the marketplace waiting for someone who really loved it to pay the full price, the price that it was really worth. They will not be counted worthy to be part of the First Resurrection. Behaviour in life will become inheritance in resurrection. The foolish virgins who fail to build a habitation of God within their hearts will be saved by fire. Everything unlike Jesus will be burned up. They will not be part of the corporate City or Son of God, but neither will they be consigned to the lake of fire. They may be allowed to walk in the light of the City of God but will never be able to enter it.

Jesus said in Revelation 2:1-7 “To the messenger of the Ephesian assembly write: These things says he who is holding the seven stars in his right hand, who is walking in the midst of the seven lamp-stands—the golden: I have known thy works, and thy labour, and thy endurance, and that thou art not able to bear evil ones, and that thou has tried those saying themselves to be apostles and are not, and has found them liars, and thou did bear, and has endurance, and because of my name hast toiled, and has not been weary. ‘But I have against thee: That thy first love thou did leave! remember, then, whence thou hast fallen, and reform, and the first works do; and if not, I come to thee quickly, and will remove thy lamp-stand from its place—if thou mayest not reform [repent]; but this thou has, that thou do hate the works of the Nicolaitans, that I also hate. He who is having an ear—let him hear what the Spirit saith to the assemblies: To him who is overcoming—I will give to him to eat of the tree of life that is in the midst of the paradise of God”. The Ephesians had been wise virgins shining like stars in a crooked and perverse generation but were deceived by religion into thinking that love did not matter if they had “faith” in the religion of their tradition. Jesus said to the Pharisees in Matthew 21:42-44 (KJV) “The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore, say I unto you, ‘The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruit thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder’”. The same thing that had happened to the Pharisees was starting to happen to the Ephesians. The Ephesians were meant to be the lampstands of God, shining with the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God. They were meant to be the Bride of Christ, bearing the fruit of love. There were many good things about them, but the most important thing had vanished. They had replaced relationship with religion and had forsaken or rejected their first love. Jesus said in Luke 9:23-25 “If any one does will to come after me, let him disown himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me; for whoever may will to save his life, shall lose it, and whoever may lose his life for my sake, he shall save it; for what is a man profited, having gained the whole world, and having lost or having forfeited himself?”. They no longer saw the need to deny the natural born pride of their hearts by humbly picking up their crosses and following Jesus because they had done that once and now considered themselves “saved”. Their love of “self” had taken God’s place or pre-eminence within their hearts. They no longer had loving hearts that were full of God, they no longer bore the name the “Bride of Christ”. That is why Jesus threatened to come and remove their lampstand from its place. Within ancient Hebrew culture a “name” was the expression of someone’s behaviour. Behaviour is a form of sowing. The name that people bear in life, what people sow in life; that fruit they will reap in resurrection. That is why Jesus said in Revelation 22:11-12 “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be”.  How people behave in life will become their inheritance in resurrection and there is no repentance in resurrection. That is why Jesus said in Revelation 3:19 “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent”. Those who bear the names “unjust”, “unkind”, “hateful”, “profane” or “filthy” will bear that same name in resurrection. People who are “loving”, “kind”, and “merciful” in life will eternally inherit that same name in resurrection. It is the life’s breath of the father that dwells within the hearts of the seeds or sons to bring forth fruit after their father’s kind. This is either the natural life of fallen humanity that is indwelt by the father of lies and prince of the power of the air that people naturally breathe, or the supernatural eternal life of the Sons of God whose hearts are is indwelt by the eternal life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood. That is why Jesus said in John 15:5-8 (KJV) “I AM the vine, ye are the branches. He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abides not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples”.

[Go to Previous Chapter] [Go to Next Chapter]