Reconciliation - David Mitts

Strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners will be your plowmen and vinedressers. Isaiah 61:5 (HCSB)

We have been over the past few weeks looking at bearing fruit in our lives, 30-60-100 fold. We know that bearing fruit is a result of the abiding life.

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. (John 15:4 NKJV).

The question is: what does the abiding life look like in practical terms? One piece of this tapestry is how we think in our hearts. Our “is-ness” is defined by the thoughts we have.

Listen to Reconciliation

For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, "Eat and drink!" But his heart is not with you.(Proverbs 23:7 NASB).

We looked at water and how our thoughts are imprinted into water molecules. Since we are over 60% percent water this gives a deeper consequence to our thought life. When we became born again, living water began to flow in our heart and it contains the living testimony of God who spoke into the waters, “Light Be”. Gen 1:3. The waters in our heart contain the living testimony of ALL that has spoken, speaks and will speak.

So we have access in our heart to the flowing reality of God’s thoughts. This is called having the mind of Christ. It is an accessibility to the higher spiritual life. Look at 1 Corinthians 2:12-16

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit (living waters) who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:12-16 NASB)

This is the flow or living water that instructs us in the ways of the Lord. This is the anointing which we have been speaking of for the past weeks. It has not only content but objectives.

But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. (1 John 2:27 NKJV)

Isaiah 61 shows us the objectives and reveals God’s thoughts.

Isaiah 61 tells us the anointing brings good news to the poor. The anointing binds up the broken hearts. It sets at liberty those who are in captivity. It declares Jubilee, freedom from debts, physical and emotional. The anointing trusts that God is our avenger. The anointing is the power for great exchanges, beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, praise for heaviness. The anointing heals the bloodline the curse of generations past. The anointing has purpose and power and it reveals the heart of God for us, to be prosperous, healthy and exist as a peaceful soul.

By aligning ourselves with God’s thoughts in our hearts, it releases God’s power into our lives. Today, I want to look at the next part of Isaiah 61, verse 5.

Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks, And foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers. (Isaiah 61:5 NASB).

So, the question is what does it mean to have the outcome of strangers caring for our “flocks”? What does it mean that foreigners will care for our crops and tend to our vines?

This is a powerful part of the anointing, the Mind of Messiah. Remember this about good news or what we call the Gospel. The Good News is about reconciliation. Look with me at 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 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 5:17-21 NASB).

Everyone quotes verse 17. We are new creations in Christ. In that newness, though, we have a destiny. Our destiny at least in part, is to bring about reconciliation. First and foremost is reconciliation with God. “God in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself”. BUT He has also committed to us the “word of reconciliation”. We are to be bridge makers. In that place we are ambassadors for Him. To the World, we are Him.

Let’s look through this lens at the “strangers shall pasture your flocks” and “foreigners shall be your farmers and vinedressers”. What I see here is an anointing for favor and reconciliation. This is a strong focus on having such an impact on stranger and foreigners that they become fully integrated into our lives.

This component of the Mind of Christ, the thoughts of God, is the perspective that to Him we are ALL His children. Strangers and Foreigners are distinctions like sick, poor, mourning, sorrows that arise out of a broken and sinful world. The anointing comes to abolish that bondage.

"It shall come to pass in that day That his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, And his yoke from your neck, And the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil." Isaiah 10:27

When we look at the Hebrew word translated as “stranger” it is a strange word, “zur”. Usually the word for stranger is “gur”. In this case, “zur” means a totally alien person, not just unknown but of a different breed, a different covenant, an idolater, an enemy.

This is a true picture of the unbeliever who is in a covenant with death. Zur requires 2 participants. First it requires the one who is unwilling to become part of the Kingdom of God for whatever reason. This person or persons rejects God as they understand this whole thing. This might be from a hurt or a wound to religion as they perceive the experience. Maybe all they have seen of God and His “people” is groups flocking to a building once a week, usually on a Sunday, and when they draw close to observe they all seem to have a set of good and bad behaviors. One Sunday group allows music another says music is sin. One Sunday group shuns the divorced and another everyone seems to have been divorced. The distinctions of “groupthink” vary with the group.

The other component of “zur” is those on the “inside”. For there to be an outside, there has to be an inside. The “insiders”, let’s call them the “elect”, the “chosen” ones treat the “outsiders” as less than. These unfortunate souls haven’t received the news. These 2 yin-yang man created realities bring about the condition translated as “stranger”.

The anointing of God comes to destroy this distinction. The irony is that the word that separates us: “Christian” means the “anointed ones”!! In the anointing, which flows as we align ourselves to God’s thoughts, we come into agreement that the walls we erected to protect ourselves from hurt keep us prisoner to the hurt, that anointing is a clarion call to unity, one people who reflect the heart of the One True God.

For the stranger to nurture our flocks, our most treasured families, they must become family. How do we move in this direction? Well the anointing helps us with grace.

Grace in Hebrew is the word Chen. In Greek, it is the word Charis, where we get the concept of spiritual gifts, the charismata and the concept of a quality of being that attracts people, charisma. The Hebrew picture is of a camp defined by an order and symmetry and declared beautiful. Beauty is the picture that fits the anointing the best. It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

In Biblical terminology or word phrasing favor is defined as one who finds a special place in the eyes of another. It is how love begins. We say Love at first sight. The way we see another determines our heart towards them! This is why Yeshua, the Love Master, said:

"The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. "But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23 NASB)

Our perspective, how we see others determines how the anointing flows in our lives! It is no accident that these verses are in the middle of the teaching on mammon. We need to have a vision for our enemies through the eyes of love. How? It begins with a willing heart to go there.

Musicians and poets have sung and penned verses about such a world, with no boundaries and enemies living as family. A loving Father has no enemies in His children. We have to press in and profane the accuser spirit, the sower of discord among the brethren. We do that by walking in forgiveness.

4 key Areas to forgive:

1. Parents: Living or Dead. You must forgive them for every mistake, hurt, or wrong them committed and may still be committing. At the very least give thanks that they birthed you.

2. Close Personal Relationships. Spouses, close friends. These relationships can be so intense that when things fall apart, they tear at our hearts and we carry the scars of incomplete experiences full of pain. One key step to being free is to accept some of the responsibility. Victims never forgive. Release them and wish them well. Maybe write them a letter.

3. Clean your slate. Release anyone else in your life. Former bosses, crooks, ex-friends, fellow associates of any kind, mechanics, salespeople etc. Forgive them and wish them well.

4. Forgive yourself! You can’t really see others until you forgive yourself. Yeshua said this:

"Do not judge so that you will not be judged. "For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? (Matthew 7:1-3 NASB). The log in our eyes in our self-judgements. We need to forgive ourselves. The root of hating others in self-hatred. SO, let’s release ourselves and wish us well. Say to yourself: “God has paid the price for me with the life of His Son. I am worth that price! He is well-pleased with me and I accept that love!”

Now Let’s turn to our neighbor and pray a prayer of blessing over them releasing the Father’s