Men As Trees Walking: What's in a Name?

Storms and Ghosts

Immediately, Yeshua made his talmidim get into the boat and go on ahead of him toward the other side of the lake, toward Beit-Tzaidah, while he sent the crowds away. After he had left them, he went into the hills to pray. When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, a considerable distance from land and he was by himself, on land. He saw the talmidim were having difficulty rowing, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against them; so at around four o'clock in the morning he came toward them, walking on the lake! He meant to come alongside them; but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought it was a ghost and let out a shriek; for they had all seen him and were terrified. Immediately he spoke to them and said, "Take courage! It is I. Stop being afraid!" He got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. They were completely astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves; on the contrary, their hearts had been made hardened. (Mark 6:45-52)

The talmidim (disciples) are having a bit of a rough day. It was suppose to be a day of rest and relaxation. Instead they are forced to think impractically and function in a dimension foreign to them and participate in a massive display of heaven on earth. Then, instead of having alone time with Yeshua, he orders them into the boat and across the lake without Him, where they find themselves struggling in a storm. Now, a ghost is approaching them, walking on the water (you see, they hadn't seen Rabbi walk on water before -- now...if Rabbi can walk on water, so can I, (Matthew 14:28-33) but that also is for another time).

Remember when I mentioned that the talmidim were going to have to pick up the pace? They saw what looked like a ghost and shrieked and were astounded by this display of authority over nature. Hadn't Yeshua spoken? Wasn't it going to come to pass simply because he had spoken it? Why didn't they believe that he would meet them on the other side? It's simple, actually. The reality of his words were trumped by the practicality of storms and ghosts! The text says "They were completely astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves; on the contrary, their hearts had been made hardened." They didn't believe or understand about the loaves. It wasn't practical. It was super-natural. A convergence of dimensional planes had occured and they couldn't wrap their brains around it, so they functioned from fear, doubt and unbelief, causing their hearts to become hardened to the reality of what they were experiencing.

Remember why the Children of Israel were forced to die in the wilderness? Fear, doubt and unbelief. Fear, doubt and unbelief causes us to walk in the practical - leaving us impotent (lacking power or ability, utterly unable to do something, without force or effectiveness) in the mandate to bring heaven to earth and to walk in our spiritual authority. It causes the heart to be hardened. They (we) had better understand about the loaves and do so quickly.

Practicality and the Religious Spirit

The Pharisees and some of the Torah-teachers who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Yeshua and saw that some of his talmidim ate with ritually unclean hands, that is, unwashed hands. (For the Pharisees, and indeed all the Judeans holding fast to the Tradition of the Elders, do not eat unless they have given their hands a ceremonial washing. Also, when they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they have rinsed their hands up to the wrist. They also adhere to many other traditions, such as washing cups, pots and bronze vessels.) So the Pharisees and Torah-teachers asked Yeshua, "Why don't your talmidim live in accordance with the Tradition of the Elders, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?" Yeshua answered them, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is useless, because they teach man-made rules as if they were doctrines.' You depart from the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men. Indeed," he said to them: "you have made a fine art of departing from God's command in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is korban' (that is, a gift devoted to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. Thus, you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down! And you do many things like that." Then Yeshua called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, all of you, and understand this! There is nothing outside a person which, by going into him, can make him unclean. Rather, it is the things that come out of a person which make a person unclean!"

So much of what we have been taught to believe as sound Christian doctrines are man-made rules and traditions that have been handed down for the last 1700 years. Unfortunately, many of them are based on the anti-Semitic traditions established by gentiles 300 years after Yeshua. Non-Jewish traditions you won't find in scripture and that were never practiced or taught by Yeshua or any of his disciples. These are gentile and pagan-based traditions that have a form of godliness but deny the Power of the Ruach HaKodesh (2 Timothy 3:5). Today, so much of Christianity is a social structure that is powerless, politically correct and tolerance based, severed from the House and people of Israel. Once we regain our identity, that Christianity is a Jewish-based religion, to the House of Israel first and then the gentile, we can begin to take the steps necessary for us, His church, to ready herself and become the blameless and spotless bride. (Revelation 19:7)

When Yeshua had left the people and entered the house, his talmidim asked him about the parable. He replied to them, "So you too are without understanding? Don't you see that nothing going into a person from outside can make him unclean? For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and it passes out into the latrine." It is what comes out of a person," he went on, "that makes him unclean. For from within, out of a person's heart, come forth wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, arrogance, foolishness... All these wicked things come from within, and they make a person unclean."

Now the talmidim are receiving the understanding Yeshua apparently expected them to already have grasped. It is rather elementary, isn't it? They would soon leave and make their way to Tyre, unable to make their presence unknown. A Greek women whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit would come and fall at His feet where He stressed the importance that Israel be fed first before "...tossing the bread to the dogs". Her reply that "...even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs", showed her understanding and place and that would prompt the deliverance of her daughter. They would leave Tyre, through Sidon, down to Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis where they would bring Him a deaf and mute man to heal.

Round Two

It was during that time that another large crowd gathered, and they had nothing to eat. Yeshua called his talmidim to him and said to them, "I feel sorry for these people, because they have been with me three days, and now they have nothing to eat. If I send them off to their homes hungry, they will collapse on the way; some of them have come a long distance."

(Doesn't this sound like a setup? Deja vu anyone?)

His talmidim said to him, "How can anyone find enough bread to satisfy these people in a remote place like this?" (You've got to be kidding...)

"How many loaves do you have?" Yeshua asked them. They answered, "Seven." He then told the crowd to sit down on the ground, took the seven loaves, made a b'rakhah, broke the loaves, and gave them to his talmidim to serve to the people. They also had a few small fish; making a b'rakhah over them he also ordered his talmidim to distribute them. The people ate their fill and were satisfied. Afterward, the talmidim picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. About four thousand men were present. After sending them away, Yeshua got into the boat with his talmidim and went off to the district of Dalmanuta. The Pharisees came and began arguing with Yeshua; they wanted him to give them a sign from Heaven, because they were out to trap him. With a sigh that came straight from his heart, he said, "Why does this generation want a sign? I tell you the truth! No sign will be given to this generation!" With that, he left them, got into the boat again, and went off to the other side of the lake. Now the talmidim had forgotten to bring bread and had with them in the boat only one loaf. So when Yeshua said to them, "Watch out! Guard yourselves from the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod," they thought he had said it because they had no bread. Aware of their discussion, Yeshua asked them: "Why are you talking with each other about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don't you remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?" "Twelve," they answered him. "And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?" "Seven," they answered. He said to them, "And you still don't understand?"

Can't you almost hear the frustration in Yeshua's voice? How could they not understand? The talmidim had received authority and power over evil and unclean spirits and all manner of sickness. They had testimonies of going throughout the region driving out demons and anointing sick people with oil and healing them. They had directly participated in the feeding of over 5000 with just five loaves and two fishes. They had seen Rabbi and Peter walking on water. They witnessed nature submit to Yeshua's authority. They had received insight into the falsehood of traditional doctrines. An evil spirit would leave a Greek child without Yeshua's need to even be present. They would hear of their role of seniority as Jews over gentiles when it came to the things of Abba. A deaf and mute man would be healed by Yeshua, emphasizing the model even more. And to make matters worst, they would seemingly be "set up" in the feeding of another throng of over 4000 with seven loaves and a few small fish. Yet, Yeshua would still have to chastise them for their inability to see, hear or understand.

What challenges keep you from seeing? Why, having ears, can you not hear? After all that the Father has revealed to you, do you still not understand?

What's In a Name?

We started this "Day in the Life" of the disciples so that you could see the many examples of convergence of dimensional planes they had experienced leading up to the blind man in Beit-Tzaidah... After asking rhetorically "And you still don't understand?", they came to Beit-Tzaidah and some people brought him a blind man and begged Yeshua to touch him. Taking the blind man's hand, he led him outside the town. He spit in his eyes, put his hands on him and asked him, "Do you see anything?" He looked up and said, "I see men, as trees, walking." Once more Yeshua put his hands on the blind man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Yeshua sent him home, saying, "Don't go into the village."

I contemplated ending with that last line but since this isn't a foreign film and we expect resolve... The text continues:

Yeshua and his talmidim went on to the towns of Caesarea Philippi. On the way, he asked his talmidim, "Who do people say I am?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Messiah." Then Yeshua warned them not to tell anyone about him. He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and the Torah-teachers, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke very plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But, turning around and looking at his talmidim, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said, "For your thinking is from a human perspective, not from God's perspective!"

There it is. The dimensional plane of practicality and it's root: "Your thinking is from a human perspective, not from God's perspective!"

Then Yeshua called the crowd and his talmidim to him and told them, "If anyone wants to come after me, let him say 'No' to himself, take up his execution stake, and keep following me. For whoever wants to save his own life will destroy it, but whoever destroys his life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will save it. Indeed, what will it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? What could a person give in exchange for his life? For if someone is ashamed of me and of what I say in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.

That's what Men As Trees Walking means. The convergence of heaven on earth. The paradigm shift between the dimensional plane of practicality and the higher dimensional plane of the Father's heart for His people. That's what we desire.

Men As Trees Walking means equipping others into the same testimony as the blind man of Beit-Tzaidah: "Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly." (Mark 8:25)

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