“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision be cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.” – Helen Keller

In every battle there is a common rule, which both sides share. It is, to the victor go the spoils. This part of our response to the gospel of the kingdom is just that. There is a battle, there is a victor and there is a spoil. I would like to begin with the spoil of this battle for when we understand what the victor receives it will make this battle worth fighting no matter what it may cost.

If I could do a survey of all the Christians in America and ask just one question it would be this; why did you become a Christian? For many years my answer would be what most Christians would answer, and that is to escape hell. Today I would have a completely different response. At this point in my life I would become a Christian for the sole purpose of seeing God. I cannot think of any greater reason than this. I would gladly give my life for nothing more than to experience the wonder of seeing God.

This is why we want to become God’s child. To see Him is far better than escaping hell. Even the fullness of the makarios life doesn’t equal the value of seeing God. We need to catch what Jesus says here for in these eleven words He also gives the reason God allows life to be so full of difficulty. We have come to the crux of our response to the gospel of the kingdom.

What does it mean to see God? The Greek word translated as see means to perceive with your mind, to become acquainted with someone through experience, to discern clearly. This definition is wrapped up in two words that are used in numerous passages throughout the Bible speaking of this same concept. These two words are know and understand. Let’s look at a few verses that contain these two words to help us see what Jesus is saying:

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3)

The Greek word translated, know has a similar meaning as the word see. It means, through knowledge to understand and perceive. But it goes even further into the realm of perceiving and understanding someone. It is a Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse between a man and a woman therefore taking perception and understanding to a much deeper, more intimate level. This degree of intimacy is what Jesus says is eternal life. To perceive and understand God and Jesus Christ to the deepest level that can be reached. We think of eternal life as living forever. This is not accurate at all. Our living being, our nephesh, was created by God to live forever. It will either live in the future world under God’s kingdom rule or it will live forever in hell.

Jesus defines eternal life in John 17:3 as having a deep intimate relationship with God and Jesus Christ. This is the goal of the gospel of the kingdom. This is eternal life and it is just the opposite of the condition Adam and Eve found they were in the moment they transgressed the will of God.           

Let’s look at another verse that reinforces what eternal life is even further:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’“ (Matthew 7:21-23)

 

Jesus establishes the criteria here for entering into His kingdom. It requires that He has a deep, personal, intimate, relationship with us. Calling Jesus, Lord, Lord doesn’t do it. Casting out demons and performing many miracles in Jesus’ name doesn’t do it either. Going to church does not get anyone into heaven. Being a missionary won’t either. Giving away everything you own will not earn enough points to get anyone into heaven. The only way to get into the kingdom is to be restored to the relationship God first created us to have with Him, the relationship that gave God a naphash or joyful sigh. It’s not about performing enough good deeds. It is not about praying and confessing our sins. It’s not about living a perfect or even a good life. It all comes down to the relationship God has with us and we in turn have with Him.  

Another verse that puts this concept into perspective is Jeremiah 9:23, 24:

“Thus says the LORD, ‘Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,’ declares the LORD.”

In this passage we learn something very significant about God. It says that God delights that we understand who He is and what brings Him joy.

Knowing what makes a person smile, angry or sad, what brings them to tears or makes them jump for joy tells a lot about that person. It is no different with God. Producing lovingkindness, justice and righteousness in our lives makes God smile. He loves doing these things for us here on the earth. But having our minds full of this knowledge and understanding of God is what He says is the most important thing we can do with our little grey cells. So seeing God or intimately knowing and understanding God is the goal of being pure in heart. It is the criteria to receive eternal life in His kingdom; and intimacy with God is the substance of eternal life.

Let’s begin to dissect the concept of pure in heart and see what treasures there are in these words. The Greek word translated as pure has a definition as big as life itself. It is not just a dictionary definition. It encompasses the whole of our being and the whole plan of God in this one word’s definition and how it is used throughout the Bible.

The Greek word translated as pure is, katharos. This is where our English word catharsis comes from that is primarily used in psychology. The Greek word has to do with purging, cleaning or purifying. This can be a physical cleaning as we would do to a tree when we prune it or what is done to metal when it is heated up to a very high temperature to melt away the worthless and dangerous material that should be removed. It also has to do with a cleansing from corrupt desires, lying, or any sins.

The katharos cleansing is aimed at bringing about sincerity and genuineness leaving us blameless, innocent and unstained with the guilt of anything. The focus of all this katharos cleansing is on our heart, which is our nephesh, the living being that was once created in the righteous image of God.

Everything Jesus taught in the gospel of the kingdom is concerned with changing us back into the image of God so we can live with Him under His sovereign, righteous rule. This change takes place in two ways. The first change is to declare us transgressors/sinners to be the righteous beings we were first created to be. The second change is the transformation of a transgressor/sinner into the perfect image of God that Adam and Eve were first created in. This has to do with the word righteousness, which is about the way we act, the way we feel and the way we think. This is the goal of katharos: to purge us transgressors/sinners so we can be the image of God.

Let’s look at some of the ways this purging takes place:

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” (John 15:1, 2)

If you have ever pruned a tree or have at least watched one being pruned it is quite a sight to behold. What was once a majestic tree is viciously attacked with saws and clippers until a skeleton of the former tree is left standing. It hurts to watch such a process but by the end of the following spring the tree again looks healthy and even more majestic than it did before. What looks so devastated in the fall becomes beautiful in the spring.

The Greek word translated as prunes comes from the word katharos but there is a bit of a change in the meaning. It means to cleanse of filthy impurity. The focus of this cleansing is on filthy impurity. When Jesus spoke about pruning He was not giving a lesson in horticulture. His teaching was about cleansing the human heart of everything that’s filthy. At first we might think we do not have any filthy impurity in our heart but Jesus would beg to differ. That’s why we must become poor in spirit, surrendering to His sovereign, righteous rule. You see it’s not that we have some filthy impurities to deal with. The real problem is our transgressor/sinner nephesh is full of filthy impurity and needs a complete overhaul. 

I have heard it said a thousand times in my life, “Follow your heart and you can’t go wrong.” Look what God says about the human heart.

        “The heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately sick; Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

Do we really want to trust something that God says is going to lie to us, something He also says is sick? And God is not talking about a virus here. He is referring to the sickness of being wickedly insane for that’s what desperately sick means in the Hebrew language. That’s not my interpretation of our heart. It is God’s. That is why our heart is not a good barometer to judge what is right and wrong or a trustworthy source of how we should respond to life. Here is another passage that really identifies the cause of so many of our human struggles:

“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”        (Colossians 1:13)

The domain of darkness is another very interesting way God has of describing the condition of the human heart. The Greek word translated as domain refers to our power of choice or our ability to make choices on our own. God did not create us to be like a rock, sitting in one place and needing to be pushed around by some sort of force in order to move. God created us to make our own freewill choices, to go where we want to go and do what we want to do.

The Greek word translated as darkness puts our freewill into a whole different perspective though. This darkness means blindly ignorant. Do we really want something like our wickedly insane, lying heart to make decisions for us? Do we want to trust someone God says is blindly ignorant? Of course we don’t but this is whom God says we listen to every single day of our life when we listen to our heart – our transgressor ruled nephesh.

The only hope we have is to become poor in spirit, surrender to God’s rule in our life and mourn over our sorrowful condition. When we do then the fun begins. Now we get to be pruned by the Almighty vine dresser.

Jesus followed blessed are those who mourn with blessed are the gentle. Once again the word gentle means, a gentleness of spirit toward God in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting. To bring the attitude of gentleness into the context we are talking about here it may be more appropriate to define it this way,accepting God’s pruning as a good thing and welcoming the cut off limbs that may come as a result of His katharos. Such is the attitude of the pure in heart.

Now that we know God is the vine dresser and He is going to prune us, the question that needs to be asked is; how does God prune us? Once again the Bible is very clear on this:

“And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character, and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5)

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”(James 1:2-4)

These are the pruning methods of God – trials, tribulations and the testing of our faith. The Greek word translated as trial has to do with pressure. This pressure is in the way of helping us change by way of force. We may not like to think that God would ever squeeze us to the point of hurting us but He does, and often. And why would He do this? Because He loves us too much to leave us blindly ignorant, full of filthy impurity, with no hope of ever becoming someone better while waiting for our future redemption.

When Jesus taught about how we should respond to the gospel of the kingdom He went straight to the heart of the matter, our attitude. Attitudes determine everything. When dealing with God’s pruning, once again, it is about attitude. Just because we go through a struggle doesn’t mean we will see God and become more like we are supposed to be. In the Romans and James passage the first thing mentioned is an attitude of joy. This is crucial to the pruning process. We must have a gentle attitude that accepts God’s pruning process as good and therefore we do not resist or fight it. We must also consider the outcome of our pruning to be far greater than the struggle, or we will not experience a katharos pruning of our heart. Instead we will just suffer physical, psychological or emotional pain.

It doesn’t matter what our problem is. All problems present an opportunity to grow more like we are supposed to be and see God in the process, if we hunger and thirst after righteousness throughout the trial.

Here is how this works. The kingdom of God is His sovereign, righteous rule. It is sovereign because there is no other. Practically speaking this means, what we want is not what is most important here. The condition of our wickedly insane heart should tell us that. God wants us to be restored to the original way we were meant to be. Usually the most important thing to us when confronted with a difficult issue is first, our personal comfort. Second, is trying to stop that which is causing our problem or pain as soon as possible. Third, is how we are perceived by others while going through this difficulty. And fourth, if the reason for our troubles is the result of another human being, then inflicting justice back on that person becomes extremely important to us.

The biggest obstacle standing in the way of us becoming who God intended us to be is never the circumstances and problems we face. It is always our transgressor-influenced nephesh standing in the way of our ability to see God. It either sits apathetically complaining and feeling miserable or it resists and fights God’s pruning rather than surrendering with joy to what He wants to accomplish in us.

The makarios life is not about having a perfect life. It is all about having a perfect response to our life circumstances. The makarios life is living above our problems. Having joy in spite of bad circumstances. Being the image of God in the middle of a world totally contrary to God. Having joy even in the middle of a trial. This is the makarios life. It is getting to know and understand God more intimately while going through the difficult pruning circumstances of life.

The kingdom of God is also His sovereign, righteous rule meaning, it is always right and always the best. Our way of doing something is so shortsighted we cannot see the bigger plan of what God is doing. We can barely understand what is happening right before our eyes. What is right in God’s way of viewing things always goes way beyond our individual and shortsighted view. He sees how our responses and actions today will affect things twenty years or a hundred years from now. We have no possible way of knowing that. But we do know the only way God ever does anything is always the right and best way. God’s concern when pruning us is all about the greater good of His plan as it takes place on earth. Not just our individual personal growth and comfort.

The kingdom of God is about His rule meaning His will and desires are what need to be followed and obeyed. This is the most difficult aspect of the sovereign, righteous rule of God for us transgressors/sinners to accept and deal with. The transgression itself was based on rebellion against the authority and rule of God. Every human’s natural tendency since Adam and Eve is to resist authority, starting as little children. Place the ability to make our own choices under the control of our distorted nephesh and we will go to incredible lengths to avoid surrendering to God’s rule. Even as God’s children. This is why we need the vine dresser’s pruning so desperately. Our naturally rebellious ways are some of the filthy impurity God desires to free us from so we can become a person willingly surrendered to His rule.

As transgressors we do not respond well to self-cleansing. God’s pathway to righteousness is filled with more trials and tribulations than we would ever put ourselves through. If God left it up to us we would remain blindly ignorant, full of filthy impurities forever. This is why it is so important that we seek first His kingdom in every aspect of life. For when a trial is suddenly forced upon us we will respond to the bigger issues of life the same way we respond to the little ones. No one suddenly sees God in the middle of a difficult trial who hasn’t already learned how to surrender to the sovereign, righteous rule of God daily in the smaller issues of life.

There are two aspects to what Jesus says is the most important thing we are to do with our lives. We are to seek first the kingdom of God and second, we are to seek first His righteousness. Once again righteousness is referring to the righteous way we were first created to be as the image of God. This applies to both the declared righteousness that we receive from God through our faith, and to the righteous life God wants us to live now in our daily lives.

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”     (2 Corinthians 5:21)

This righteous way of living cannot be carried out as a transgressor/sinner. It can only be achieved by being filled with the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit is the goal of seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness. When we surrender to God’s rule we are also surrendering to the Holy Spirit’s rule for they are one and the same.

The way God rules in our life is through His Holy Spirit. He lives inside each of us who are reborn as God’s child. Being filled with the Holy Spirit has to do with the Holy Spirit ruling our individual life. Surrendering to the Holy Spirit’s control of our lives. This is the only hope we have of ever accomplishing what God desires for us. Our transgression is a far more formidable enemy than we have the ability to conquer. We are often blindly ignorant of even knowing when our distorted, transgressor nephesh is controlling us.  

We live in a world that is always trying to tell us how wonderful we are, that we are mostly good and to just follow our heart. This way of thinking is such a lie and nothing shows it more than what is said in Galatians 5:16, 17:

“But I say walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”  

When the New Testament says flesh it is usually not referring to our skin but to our fallen nephesh, the real living person that we are. This verse in Galatians shows how much the transgression has affected our nephesh. The Holy Spirit will never lead us to do something wrong. He will always lead us to do what God desires and what God desires is always right. It says here in Galatians that our flesh sets its desire against the Spirit so we will not always do what we think is right. Our flesh wants nothing to do with God’s righteous rule over us.

We cannot be good if we are in opposition to the Holy Spirit and fight what He is doing because He only wants to do what is right. This may be a difficult truth to swallow but nevertheless it is still the truth. This is exactly why we must be poor in spirit and mourn. This is how far we have fallen. We were created to be in perfect harmony with everything God thinks and does but far too often we are exactly the opposite because of the transgression.

Thank God for His salvation, for His mercy and love that did not just throw us away when He certainly could have. Thank God that He set in motion a plan to restore us back into His image and give us the Holy Spirit to guide and lead us to what is right. Thank God that He loves us so much that He will not let us stay transgressors/sinners but will prune us to become His righteousness. Blessed are the pure in heart for when the katharos does its job, we will see God clearly.

There is most likely no one who has ever gone through a katharos pruning experience to the degree that the upright and blameless Job did. He truly went through hell on earth with physical and emotional pain. At the end of all his suffering and trial he said this to God:

        “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You;” (Job 42:5)

Through all Job’s problems, trials and pain, he emerged pure in heart. He was now able to clearly see and understand God.

Getting to know and understand God is the most amazing gift of all the promises Jesus offers us but this only comes through God’s pruning ways of struggles and difficulties, so blessed is the Vine Dresser. Without His hungering and thirsting for righteousness to be in our lives, we would never know the wonder of seeing God.

 

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