13 NOVEMBER 2018 BODY OF CHRIST NEWS away today from the lord our god to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you 'a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit!' " Like all weeds, “bitterness” has a way of spreading! This passage describes one possible progression. A man infects his wife. She infects her children. The "bitterness" spreads, and soon the whole tribe, clan, family is infected! Is your marriage marked by "bit- terness?" Are your children "bitter?" Does your group of friends tend to "sit around and gripe?" Is your church filled with "harsh and angry people?" Is your community "prone to placing blame?" Is it possible that “your own bitter- ness” has had a ‘ripple effect’ and that the poisonous root has burrowed 'past your own heart' and into the hearts of the people you love? Let’s start dig- ging!! Come out of denial!! Perhaps god has used this study to expose “a root of bitterness” you didn’t know was there—or maybe you ‘did’ know it was there... So now what? Here’s what: take an ‘honest inven- tory of yourself!’ Then call on and rely on “the holy spirit” within you to help you to…“let all 'bitterness' and ‘wrath’ and ‘anger’ and ‘clamor’ and ‘slander’ be put away from "you," along with all ‘malice’!” (Ephesians 4:31) !! Beloved, you can be, and you must be victorious!! said, “so shall your children be.” And this is a man who still did not have one child. Another time he said, “if you say so,” he believed God. At that time something happened in his spirit, he connects with the word of God and it was counted to him as righteous- ness. Now, you don’t know that that verse was supposed to follow what God did. This verse came ahead to let you know that Abraham believed God. But this verse actually was supposed to be below of what happened next. What happened next is God now said, “Abraham I want you to go get some animal. I want you to Cherith it.” God came back to Abraham real- izing that Abraham was now getting edgy. You promised me you will do this, and I don’t have anything yet. So, God speaks the language that Abraham understands. The language that Abraham understood was the language of covenant. In their own life if anything is not covenanted there is no reason for me to believe you. So, God said, “Ok, I know your language let’s do a covenant and I will seal the covenant with blood.” So, he told Abraham to kill all those animals and to and sever them and separate them and put them zig zag because in the covenant agreement the blood will seal the covenant and when there is blood flowing everywhere and then at that place the both of them will begin to walk in between the pieces of the animal that they killed with the blood flowing in the middle. As they are walking they will be saying, as this ani- mal has been cut into pieces and been scattered all over, so shall my life be and the life of my family if I don’t keep this part of my own of the covenant. That is heavy duty. But watch this, you don’t have a covenant with God. God did not have a covenant with you. God did not have covenant with us. We don’t have covenant with him. We are the benefit of the covenant he has with himself. Husband and wife, they have covenant. A husband is not in covenant relationship with his chil- dren. He is covenant relationship with his wife. The children are the benefit of the covenant. They are the result of the covenant. That is why they don’t have to do anything to be your child. There is nothing they can do that will change the fact they are your children. They can’t break anything. If they say, I don’t like you anymore. It doesn’t change the fact they are still your child. Abraham did all this to prove this point. You will expect Abraham and God to walk in between the blood. You would expect Abraham and God to do the walking. No, what happened to Abraham? Abraham was asleep. God put him to sleep and when he was half asleep and half-awake God showed him as God himself walked without compelling Abraham to do the work. He walked between the two blood and what is he saying, when you just severe and scat- tered and put in strategic places those dreams, those ambitions, those things that you thought it can never happen. When you put them around and you brought me in I will make a covenant of myself with myself that surely, I will bless you and in blessing I will lift you up. All you need to do is to chill. Abraham was sleeping when God was cutting covenant. Fast forward to 1st Kings 17:1-7 And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.” 2 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 3 “Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. 4 And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have com- manded the ravens to feed you there.” 5 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. 7 And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. Elijah was sitting down, and God was providing for him. Until you sepa- rate yourself to that place of cutting. Sometimes it is difficult, sometimes it is painful. I’m not talking about somebody offends you and because of that you are cutting, no. I’m talk- ing of people that didn’t even offend you. But, God is saying listen to me. I am taking you higher. God said to me, “As long as you want to be among the crowd you will not rise above the crowd.” I heard him clearly. We came to the United States and people were giving us great ideas. Matt 6:8 “Therefore, do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” God gave it to us so clearly. God said to me, “You cannot be a solu- tion to a problem if you are a part of it. Separate yourself!” So, I separated myself and God started to increase my knowledge of his word. He began to increase and open my influence. There is a place of separation that is preparing you for a greater height in life! FIRE ... continued from page 8 BITTERNESS ... continued from page 12