LAYING THE AXE TO THE ROOT

LAYING THE AXE TO THE ROOT - AUDIO 

Psalm 18: 6 - 22

⁶ In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.

⁷ Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth.

⁸ There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.

⁹ He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.

¹⁰ And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.

¹¹ He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

¹² At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.

¹³ The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.

¹⁴ Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.

¹⁵ Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

¹⁶ He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.

¹⁷ He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.

¹⁸ They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay.

¹⁹ He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

²⁰ The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.

²¹ For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God.

²² For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me.

I was in prayer this morning just contemplating the tapestry He has been weaving in the devotionals and how the one builds upon the other.  This devotional will do the same, but also bring some perspective that may or may not have been understood before. 

The Canaanites worshipped Baal-Hadad.  They worshipped him as the god of water, storm and fertility.  Baal means owner, master, husband or lord.  He was also known as the god of thunder, with his weapon of lightning.  So we can understand that when the two spies entered Canaan and came to Rahab, she could testify that they were terrified of their God, because they heard the report of how He caused them to cross over on dry ground through the Red Sea.  And they saw Baal as the god who ruled the sea.  They also considered him the god of rivers, and so when the report came that the Israelites crossed the Jordan River as well, they were terrified.  They knew that if the Israelite’s God ruled the sea and the rivers, then He could rule them as well.  In Joshua 10 hailstones were poured onto the enemies of Israel according to ancient literature, and hail was also contributed to Baal.  Josephus wrote that the Most High sent a storm with great rain and lightning that immobilized the Canaanite’s chariots in Judges 5.  Baal was also associated with dew as seen in a tablet, excavated in 1961, depicting Baal at the top of Mount Zephon surrounded by lightning and dew streaming from him.  There are also literature ascribing dew to him.  So it is no wonder that Gideon who overthrew the Baal altar, asked of the Most High to confirm with dew on a fleece whether He will be with Him in battle.  Then we have the great showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 17 - 19.  Elijah stood in absolute faith, even mocking the prophets of Baal.  He knew that His God was the God of the heavens and the earth and therefore when he drenched the sacrifice in water, it was a clear sign to the false prophets that His God was the God of water and lightning.  He alone was the God of sea, river, rain and dew.  He alone was the God of hail and lightning and every storm.  When the fire came down, the word says that it licked up the water.  (Information from scholars.archive.byu.edu)

1 Kings 18: 38

Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.

All of the above is about weather, but to an extent water.  Reminded of David and Goliath we see that David hewed off the head of Goliath with His own sword.  And so the Lord God defeats the enemy on the basis of whom they serve.  It is said that Baal is the father of Dagon, the Philistine’s God at that time.  We read about this conflict between the Most High and Baal since the time of Moses.  Exodus 32 makes it clear how the Lord God feels.

Exodus 32: 7 – 8

⁷ And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:

⁸ They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

He was furious with them. Not only for corrupting themselves, but also attributing their deliverance out of slavery to the god Baal.  It was He who parted the sea. 

Last night some friends and I were zooming again and we found that within our sharing there were two common denominators.  The one was generational and the other was bitterness.  I was waiting on Father to show me clearly how He wished me to go forward from where He has brought me personally.  First thing I noticed upon opening my Bible, was a small sticky note that I wrote probably more than 2 years ago, found in the book of Jonah.  On this note was a word Father gave me.  It was basically about Jonah that could not really care about the fate of the Ninevites.  They had it coming so to speak.  But the Lord God had mercy on them.  Then, reading my devotional psalm for the morning, which was Psalm 133 talking about Aaron and how the precious ointment upon him as the High Priest comes down on his garments, I felt my spirit stir with regard to the office of intercession of the High Priest.  Then my eyes fell on another sticky note at this psalm, that read…He my head, and I His knees.  At that moment I clearly heard Him say, “Will you be My knees?”  This reminded me of something my daughter told me the previous day regarding James the Just, the writer of the epistle, James.  He is known as Old Camel Knees.  This is because it was documented that upon his death, they found his knees full of callouses like a camel from all the praying on his knees.  When I spoke to my daughter about this, I thought she was speaking about Father Nash, another great man of God who went approximately 3 weeks before Charles Finney preached and prayed for revival and lost souls.  He would rent a room with another brother and there they would stay, fasting and praying, travailing in the spirit for lost souls.  It was found that the space next to his bed had indents in where his knees were when praying.  So when I heard, “Will you be My knees?” I had no doubt that what He was calling me to was intercession of another kind.  You see, He said that the ground that I place my feet on, is already mine, but now He was showing me that the way to place my feet there, is on my knees.  So down I went and asked Him to guide me in prayer as to whom I needed to intercede for.  Immediately my sister came to mind.  She has been in a horrible marriage of abuse and the likes, and sadly lukewarm in the faith.  When I prayed for her I saw a vision of this tree and this luscious ivy growing up the trunk over the branches, literally taking over the whole tree.  I knew it was the root of bitterness I had to pray for.  So when we zoomed, it was clear after sharing what the Lord was doing, that He was directing us to intercede regarding bitterness in our generations.  So this morning the thought came, “I wonder if there is a connection between Baal and bitterness?”

How does this apply to the topic at hand which is the Lord God and His war against Baal, and water?  We read the following in Exodus 32.

Exodus 32: 9

And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

The word stiffnecked is the Strong’s number H7186, which means hardhearted, impudent, and stubborn amongst others.

You will remember in my previous devotional that the Lord showed us that the words spoken by Samuel to Saul was addressing this stiffneckedness or stubbornness. 

1 Samuel 15: 23

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.

This word rebellion that we discussed is synonymous to bitterness and enmity.  And stiffneckedness, the reason for their Baal worship in the wilderness, is stubbornness. The Lord God’s response was to burn the idol they made and grind it into a powder, casting it in the water and causing them to drink it.  This made me think how He tells us that we have no part in Him unless we eat His flesh and drink His blood.  What you eat and drink becomes part of you and so He was literally giving them over to their idol.  In the same way that this bitterness has taken over the tree in my vision.   We have to remember that the Word says that we cannot serve two masters, for even we will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.  Whomever you serve, you are a slave to.  Baal means owner, master, husband and lord.  By your rebellion and stubbornness you pledge your allegiance to Baal.  By your obedience and humility your allegiance to the Most High. 

This is why the Lord God told the Israelites in the wilderness that as their God, He would provide for them and they no longer need to look to other gods.

Deuteronomy 11: 8 – 14

⁸Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it;

⁹ And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey.

¹⁰ For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:

¹¹ But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven:

¹² A land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.

¹³ And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,

¹⁴ That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.

No longer are they to look to any other god to provide for them if only they lived in obedience unto Him.  He is the God of heaven and earth, the God of the rain.

And so we find that in the word, particularly in Numbers 5 bitter water is considered a curse.

Numbers 5: 18

And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman's head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse.

We also find another correlation to bitter and water in Revelation 8:11

Revelation 8: 11

And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

To bring the whole devotional into context, we have to understand this on a personal level as well.  The Word says that we are to guard our hearts with all diligence for out of it flows the issues of life.  We also know that it says that out of the abundance of the heart we speak.  To which James places further emphasis asking how bitter and sweet water can flow from the same fountain.  We are made of 70% water and what we speak influence the balance and construction of the water within us. It has been shown how water reacts to different genre of music, and so we can know that death and life truly is in the power of the tongue.  This is why He says in Hebrews 12…

Hebrews 12: 14 – 15

¹⁴Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

¹⁵ Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

Bitterness or rebellion is no joke.  At the heart of this message still lies the issue of the Most High who is the defender and warrior against our enemy, Baal-Hadad.  He who is the seat of rebellion, who causes us to drink bitter water and cause us to speak both life and death at the same time.  This bitterness comes through divorce, abuse, family deaths, and heartache upon heartache through our generations.  At the heart of rebellion is the worship of Baal.  At the heart of rebellion is bitterness and stubbornness or stiffneckedness.  This bitterness affects our bones, our hearts and health in general and it does defile many.  However, in this He is asking us to intercede. His focus is on the lost and those who are lukewarm, apart from our own hearts.  Under microscope the brain shows healthy thoughts as beautiful trees.  The opposite is also true.  Negative thoughts are shown as ugly thorny trees.  We are shown as trees in the word of God and even our body is spoken of as having a trunk and our arms seen as the branches, our hands the leaves even with the veins we see in them exactly like leaves.  Our head has a crown like a tree and our toes form the roots.  But all of us are also from a family tree.

You will remember that He showed me a vision of the skull of a bull or cow and the axe that came swooshing past me, hitting it right between the eyes.  The words that followed was “It is time to lay the axe to the root!”  He meant this on a global capacity with regard to the Baal system, but foremost on a personal level with regard to our own hearts.  Because the axe needs to be laid to the root of bitterness, that root that have defiled your family tree and have caused many to turn to Baal in their daily lives. Do not separate bitterness from rebellion in your thoughts.  We are to search our hearts for any bitterness towards others, which includes Israel, government and the likes.  We don’t have to like them, but we are to guard our hearts.  And once we have searched our own hearts we will be able to speak like Ezekiel to the dry bones of our family or like Elijah to Ahab saying, “By my word it shall not rain…”  If there was any bitterness or rebellion in Elijah, would he have been able to speak it?  So we are to search our own hearts and lay the axe to our root, and then proceed to intercede for our family tree. 

Remembering that our God is the God of water, there is the promise that when the enemy comes in, like a flood the Lord will raise a standard against him.  For us there is the promise to be baptized in water, to be washed with the water of the Word.  To us the promise of living water that will flow from our innermost being.  And to us the promise of being planted by the river of God.

Psalm 1: 1 – 4

¹Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

² But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

³ And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

⁴ The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

Baal has always been depicted as a bull or an ox.  The Most High says that He is the Alpha and Omega, the Aleph and the Tav.  The word Aleph is depicted as an Ox.  And right through the pages of the Scripture He is making it abundantly clear that He is the Ox.  I rule heaven and earth.  I rule the weather, waters and all things created.  Worship Me!  And when we become rebellious, which is bitterness, we become stiffnecked like the Israelites of old who could not enter Canaan.  He will eventually give us over to the one we serve.  But if we repent and drink of the living water, we become one with Him.  When He is saying that He is laying the axe to the root, He is saying that the axe is about to be laid to the root of all things. 

Moses response to the Lord when He wanted to destroy the Israelites is what He is seeking of us now, before the battle axe of God comes down.

Exodus 32: 11 - 14

¹¹And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?

¹² Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.

¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.

¹⁴ And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

It would do us well to remember that our generations go as far back as Eve and we by faith are the seed of Abraham.  From a prophetic standpoint the ultimate showdown is about to happen.  We read of the woman riding the beast in Revelation.  This woman is called Jezebel, the very entity that came against Elijah.  This beast, I can see as Baal.  There are two factions within the enemy’s court. The Phoenix and the Golden Dawn.  You may know them as the Democrats and the Republicans or any other form they wish to take in country or media.  Make no mistake, they are against each other as they are fighting for the seat in the Holy of Holies.  Starting small with the vaccine, that comes from the word Vacca, which means cow.  They will be joined in the end to come against the Most High.  God will raise an Elijah company in the last days to come against the enemy, that vile serpent and the beast, and this time fire will come from their mouths.  He will lay the axe to the root of the tree, that tree of the knowledge of good and evil that have caused the fall of man.  He will bring all to full circle and will use those who have not compromised with Baal and destroy him utterly. 

Revelation 21:1 - 8

¹And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

² And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

³ And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

⁴ And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

⁵ And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

⁶ And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

⁷ He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

⁸ But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Lamentations 2: 19

Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

I’m attaching a link to the testimony about three wonderful intercessors that will greatly bless you.

INTERCESSORS LINK