WHO TENDS YOUR GARDEN?

Luke chapter 6






Today we are walking in: Who Tends Your Garden






Job 34:16




If now thou hast understanding, hear H8085 this: hearken to the voice of my words.

























UNDERSTAND







Today we look to the word-UNDERSTAND- H8085 shama`--to hear with attention or interest, listen to understand (language)






















The Torah testifies...............




Genesis 11:7




Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand H8085 one another's speech.






















The prophets proclaim..................




Nehemiah 8:2




And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear H8085 with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.

























The writings bear witness...........................




1 Kings 3:9




Give therefore thy servant an understanding H8085 heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?




Chapter Five


WHO TENDS YOUR GARDEN?


ON the face of it, Yah’s Garden Expansion Program for
reproducing His Kingdom culture in our lives sounds so simple. The King expresses His will to the Governor, and the Governor brings it to fruition in the lives of His citizens. What could be easier? And yet for so many believers, the process breaks down somewhere along the way. Countless citizens of the Kingdom neither live according to Kingdom government consistently nor manifest Kingdom culture convincingly. Why not? Because they take no care as to whose garden grows in their lives. Sometimes they do not even know who tends their garden.


Successful gardens may have many caretakers, but only one master gardener, one person whose vision oversees the overall design. More than one guiding plan leads to confusion, inefficiency, inconsistent results, and stunted fruitfulness. This is precisely the dilemma many believers face. On the one hand, they claim to follow the King and to live according to His government, while on the other, they continue to listen to the desires of the pretender and fail or refuse to uproot the “weeds” of evil, rebellion, and destruction he has sown in their hearts. And then they wonder why their garden is choked off and produces little fruit.


Gardens are known by the consistency, quality, and abundance of the fruit they produce; and these are direct reflections of the skill and character of the gardener. Yahusha expressed it this way:


For a good tree brings not forth corrupt fruit; neither does a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a thorn bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. And why call ye me, Adonai, Adonai, and do not את the things which I say? LUQAS (LUKE) 6:43-46 את CEPHER


The quality of the fruit depends on the nature of the root. In other words, the fruit we bear in our lives reveals who is tending our garden. There are only two choices: either the Holy Spirit, the Master Gardener, is in control, or else the pretender runs the show. And the fruit they produce could not be more different. Writing to the Galatian believers, the apostle Paul captured perfectly this contrast, as well as the dilemma faced by believers who try to balance between two gardeners:


So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of Yah. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Hamachiach Yahusha have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other (Galatians 5:16-26).


Every day we all make choices that determine which fruit will manifest in our lives: either the bad fruit of the pretender or the good fruit of the Master Gardener. HaSatan illegally stole the throne of the earthly dominion that rightly belonged to man and turned that domain into a spiritual wasteland. And since the natural reflects the supernatural, we see, in the many ways that the human race has mistreated the planet and misused its resources, a representation of the spiritual devastation wrought by the pretender’s depraved rule.


The Bible is the record of Yah’s plan to reclaim the earthly dominion and restore it to His original design and intent. As we have already seen, Yah’s big idea from the beginning was to extend His heavenly Kingdom to Earth, and He chose to do it through His very own children. This was not a religious act but an act of state. Adam and Eve had no religion in the Garden of Eden. What they did have was continuing fellowship with their Creator as they ruled the created order as His vice-regents. In bringing Heaven to Earth, the King was simply enacting His own governmental policy. His purpose was to fill the Earth with His glory. He wanted to bring His own nature to the Earth, and that nature was reflected in the lush beauty, abundant fruitfulness, and absolute perfection of the Garden.


SEEKING AND SAVING WHAT WAS LOST


It was not Yah’s purpose, however, to leave Heaven and come to Earth to rule it directly. He chose instead to give rulership of this domain to beings specially created for it. Yah created human beings specifically for the purpose of dominating the Earth for Him and filling it with His nature, character, and culture. No other created beings in Heaven or on Earth were suited for the task. Only humans were fit to rule the Earth because that is the way Yah designed us. First He created the territory, and then He created the kings to rule it. He said, “The earth is ready; now I will release the children, and they will dominate the land in My name.”


Unfortunately, in an act of treason and betrayal, the first two humans inadvertently surrendered their kingdom to one who greatly desired it but who was not qualified to rule it. HaSatan, also known as lucifer, had originally been part of the angelic host (spiritual beings created as servants of the King). Angels were not created to rule but to do the King’s bidding. Lucifer rebelled, however, along with one-third of the angels of Heaven. Cast out of Heaven, he set his sights on gaining control of the earthly realm, dominating not only it, but also the human vice-regents Yah had placed over it. In this he succeeded. A demonic pretender ascended the throne, and the earthly realm declared its independence from Heaven.


Yahusha Hamachiach, the King’s Son, came to Earth to take it back. He came to regain what was lost. When Yahusha announced the arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew 4:17, He was not bringing anything new to the Earth. He was bringing back what man had lost and what the pretender had stolen.


One day Yahusha and His disciples were passing through the city of Jericho and stopped at the home of a man named Zacchaeus, a tax collector. Although a Jew, Zacchaeus was despised by his own people, who saw him as a traitor for collaborating with the hated Roman occupation government. Furthermore, Zacchaeus cheated the people by charging more tax than the Romans demanded and enriching himself by pocketing the difference.


When Yahusha entered the tax collector’s house, He brought the Kingdom with Him, and Zacchaeus found it irresistible. His encounter with the King and the Kingdom changed Zacchaeus forever.


And Zakkai stood, and said unto Adonai; Behold, Adonai, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Yahusha said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Avraham. For the Son of A'dam is come to seek and to save that which was lost. LUQAS (LUKE) 19:8-10 את CEPHER.


Notice that Yahusha said He came “to seek and to save what was lost,” rather than “who” was lost. Other versions of the Bible translate the phrase, “that which was lost.” Certainly, in context, Yahusha was referring to Zacchaeus, who found salvation the day he encountered the Kingdom of Heaven. Until that day, Zacchaeus had been allowing the wrong person to tend his garden and had the bad fruit in his life to prove it. The moment he encountered Yahusha and the Kingdom of Heaven, however, he turned everything over to the Master Gardener and immediately began to bear good fruit. Another Kingdom garden had been planted.


But Yahusha was referring also to the Kingdom of Heaven itself, which had been lost, and which He came to seek and to save. In fact, the word save here literally means “to salvage, to restore what was lost,” not just to restore people to their status as children of Yah in relationship with Him, but also to restore to them the dominion lost by their ancestors, Adam and Eve. People everywhere are looking desperately for the Kingdom, even if they don’t know it. This is why, when they encounter it —when they hear the message of the Kingdom—they, like Zacchaeus, find it irresistible. It is this attractive, magnetic quality of the Kingdom that Yahusha had in mind when He said, “And from the days of Yahuchanon the Baptizer until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. MATTITHYAHU (MATTHEW) 11:12 את CEPHER. Once people know about the Kingdom and understand it, they flock to it, desperate to enter. This is only natural. The Kingdom is what we were created for.


IT’S TIME TO CHANGE OUR THINKING


When Adam and Eve declared independence in the Garden by disobeying Yah’s one restriction, they thought they could govern themselves and their earthly domain at least as well as Yah could, if not better. They were wrong. No sooner had they “freed” themselves from Yah’s control than they found themselves deposed from their earthly thrones altogether. Their sin against Yah corrupted their human nature, and they became enslaved to the power and will of the pretender. He preferred to work behind the scenes, however, pulling the strings while letting them think they were governing themselves.


Humanity’s efforts at self-government have been disastrous from the beginning. As we have already seen, the first act of human self-government after leaving Eden was an act of fratricide: Cain murdered his brother Abel. As a race, we humans have been chained by envy, hatred, and murder ever since. Thousands of wars and six millennia of social, scientific, and technological advancement have not changed things to any great degree. Our world is just as hate-filled and as violent as ever. Despite all our proud claims of advancement and bettering ourselves, we are actually getting worse. Rather than bringing about self-improvement, all our efforts at self- government have moved us closer and closer to self- destruction.


The King who created us loved us too much to let us destroy ourselves, so He sent His Son to the Earth to restore His Kingdom and bring His wayward, rebellious human children back under His government. Yahusha Hamachiach inaugurated His public mission by announcing the return of the Kingdom and calling people to respond: “From that time Yahusha began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. MATTITHYAHU (MATTHEW) 4:17 את CEPHER. To repent means to change your mind; it involves a radical readjustment of one’s thinking. Yahusha was saying, in effect, “OK, everybody, the true Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven, has arrived. It’s time to change the way you’ve been thinking, because the one who has influenced you to think that way is wrong. Everything the pretender has told you is wrong. He is a liar and the father of lies.”


When Hamachiach came to the Earth, He brought the Governor, the Holy Spirit, with Him, but the Governor could not be released to His full work until Hamachiach completed His assignment and returned to Heaven. For 33 years, from Yahusha’ birth to His ascension, the Holy Spirit showed up nowhere on the Earth except in Yahusha Himself. Because of sin, no humans were adequate vessels in which the Holy Spirit could dwell. We had to be cleaned up first. This is why Yahusha came, and why He could not stay.


Hamachiach came to announce the return of the Kingdom and to give us access to it through His death, by the cleansing of our sins with His blood. His resurrection from the dead guaranteed eternal life to all who place their faith in Him. Then, by ascending to Heaven and returning to His Father, He enabled the releasing of the Holy Spirit to take up permanent residence in the life of every believer. The Governor returned to His mansion; the Master Gardener was back on the grounds.


Yahusha Hamachiach preached the Gospel of the Kingdom, which was His primary reason for coming. But His Kingdom message would mean nothing unless the sin that separated all people from Yah was removed. The Governor could not inhabit a sin- soiled vessel. So Yahusha completed His mission by dying on a crucifixion stake, shedding His sinless blood to save, or salvage us and restore us to a right relationship with our heavenly Father.


The Gospel, or “good news,” is not only the blood of Yahusha, but also the message of the Kingdom of Heaven—that it has arrived and is available for all to enter. The blood of Yahusha is the cleansing agent that we must pass through in order to make our “house” clean so that the Governor can take up residence. The death of Hamachiach on the crucifixion stake was absolutely necessary because “And almost all things are by the Torah purged with blood; and without the shedding of blood there is no remission. IVRIYM (HEBREWS) 9:22 את CEPHER.


The Bible says that all of us have sinned and fallen short of Yah’s righteous standard (see Rom. 3:23). Sin is rebellion against Yah, which separated us from Him and made the “houses” of our lives dirty and unholy, unfit for the presence of a holy Governor. The sinless blood of Yahusha has the power to thoroughly cleanse our house and make it holy again.


After Yahusha rose from the dead, one of His first acts was to appear to His disciples and release the Holy Spirit to be with them forever:

Accordingly, it being at even, the first of the Shabbath, when the doors were shut, where the Talmidiym were assembled for fear of the Yahudiym, came Yahusha, and stood in the midst, and said to them, Peace be with you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the Talmidiym glad, when they saw Adonai. Then said Yahusha to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father has sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said unto them, Receive ye the Ruach Ha'Qodesh: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. YOCHANON (JOHN) 20:19-23 את CEPHER.


Hamachiach the King came to Earth, took His property back from the pretender who had stolen it, and then returned to Heaven, leaving the Governor in charge. Yahusha likened this aspect of His mission to overpowering a strong man:


No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house. MARQUS (MARK) 3:27 את CEPHER.


The “house,” or the earthly dominion, was originally given to us, the human race. We lost it to HaSatan, the “strong man.” The Owner came to Earth to get His house back and return it to His children. Then, to ensure that His children need never again fall into HaSatan’s bondage, He shed His blood to cleanse their sins and set them free forever. The crucifixion stake broke the power of the devil over the lives of everyone who repents of their sins and turns in faith to Hamachiach for their cleansing. Anyone who lives under HaSatan’s control lives under an illegal government.


We need to stop allowing the wrong person to tend our garden. It is time to change both our thinking and our behavior to bring them in line with who we really are. Hamachiach set us free. Through His death and resurrection, He cleansed us of our sin —our rebellion against Yah—and gave us access to His Kingdom. Then He gave us the Governor to teach us how to live as Kingdom citizens. The Governor, the Holy Spirit, is the Master Gardener who ensures that the gardens of our lives produce good fruit that is appropriate and pleasing to the King, to whom the gardens belong. Could there be any greater freedom—or any greater destiny—than this?


NO FEAR OF THE DEVIL


This question of who tends our garden is vitally important, because whoever tends the garden controls the fruit. Whoever tends our garden determines our culture, our values, our beliefs, and our behavior. Yah created us. He fashioned our bodies from the dust of the ground and breathed His life into us. We belong to Him; we are His house. The devil wants to take up residence in us through demonic powers because he knows that once he is inside he can work through us to wield his evil influence at home, at school, at work, at church, in the neighborhood, in the community, and even in the nation.


We were created to be filled with the Spirit of Yah and to live in perfect harmony and fellowship with Him, not to be under the thumb of a demonic pretender exercising illegitimate authority. This is why, whenever Yahusha encountered a demonic spirit possessing a human being, He cast out the spirit on the grounds of illegal residence. As believers, we have a choice as to whom we allow to tend our garden. One choice leads to a wasted and unfulfilled life, while the other leads to great abundance and fullness of life. The apostle Paul described the choice this way:


Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto Elohiym through Yahusha Ha'Mashiach our Adonai. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto Elohiym, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto Elohiym. For sin does not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the Law, but under grace. ROMAIYM (ROMANS) 6:11-14 את CEPHER,


Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to Lawless deeds unto Lawless deeds; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to Elohiym, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of Elohiym is eternal life through Yahusha Ha'Mashiach our Adonai. ROMAIYM (ROMANS) 6:18-23 את CEPHER


We have been trained by religion to be scared of the devil. Most of our churches have taught us to regard the world situation as hopeless, to prepare ourselves to leave, and then to pray for the Most High to rescue us out of this world. Having conceded victory to the pretender, we feel that all we can hope to do is to circle the wagons and defend ourselves as best we can until Hamachiach comes back and takes us away. We have become a bunch of holy sissies. Not only is this an unnecessarily pessimistic and defeatist mindset, it also runs contrary to the expressed will and purpose of our King. Consider these words that Hamachiach Himself prayed regarding His followers the night before He was crucified: “I pray not that you should take them out of the world, but that you should guard them from the evil. YOCHANON (JOHN) 17:15 את CEPHER.


Yahusha’ prayer says nothing about our leaving the world. He doesn’t even pray for HaSatan to be removed from the scene. Instead, He asks His Father to protect us from the evil one. Ultimately, HaSatan the pretender poses no threat to us. His rule on Earth is illegal; legitimate dominion belongs to us, the children of Yah, just as He established it in the beginning. In league with our King, we have more power and authority than any fallen angel could ever hope to have. No angel was ever given a dominion to rule. No angel was ever given permission to cast out demons (which are, in fact, fallen angels).


Kingdom citizens, on the other hand, rule the Earth by divine decree and possess global authority to evict demonic spirits. We are not in a servile position toward angels. On the contrary, their job is to serve us. As the writer of the Book of Hebrews asks rhetorically, “Are they not all ministering ruachoth, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of yeshu`ah? IVRIYM (HEBREWS) 1:14 את CEPHER. We are the legal rulers on Earth with the power, authority, and protection of our King behind us. HaSatan is a liar, usurper, and pretender whose illegal power over us was broken forever at the crucifixion stake. Although we must always be on our guard against his schemes, deception, and treachery, as Kingdom citizens exercising our legitimate authority, we have no reason to fear him.


The devil, however, has every reason to fear us because we have the Governor residing in us. And he does fear us. He understands better than most of us the magnitude of the power and authority that are ours as children of the King and rightful heirs to the Kingdom. Having gone head-to-head against the power of the Kingdom and lost, he knows by bitter experience that ultimately he stands no chance against the legitimate heirs. This is why he seeks to gain advantage over us through lies, trickery, deceit, insinuation, distraction, indirect attacks, and temptations of all kinds. He knows that if he can get us to forget who we are and become convinced that we are powerless against him, he will win. So the next time you sense that the devil is attacking you in some way, remember that he is coming at you from a position of weakness, not strength, and from a posture of fear, not confidence. At heart, the devil is a coward. When faced with someone who truly is not afraid of him, he runs away. James states this explicitly: “Submit yourselves therefore to Elohiym. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. YA`AQOV (JAMES) 4:7 את CEPHER.


If we are Kingdom citizens and children of Yah, HaSatan has no authority over us. He can’t even touch us without Yah’s permission (see Job 1–2), so what are we afraid of ?


STRENGTH IN TRIALS


We are so in the habit of being afraid of the devil that whenever any kind of trial or trouble comes along, we immediately assume it is a demonic attack. We earnestly pray to the Most High to deliver us without ever considering the possibility that the trial may have come for the purpose of strengthening our faith and helping us to grow toward spiritual maturity. James, the brother of the Most High Yahusha, wrote:


My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. YA`AQOV (JAMES) 1:2-4 את CEPHER.


Do these sound like the words of someone who fears the enemy or someone who is getting ready to “skip town,” expecting to be taken out of the world at any moment? No, these are the words of someone determined to occupy until the Most High comes (see Luke 19:13 KJV). For those who do occupy and stand firm, a rich reward lies in store:


Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which Yahuah has promised to them that love him. YA`AQOV (JAMES) 1:12 את CEPHER.


Temptation is a fact of life in a fallen world. For Kingdom citizens, however, temptation does not have to mean fear or failure, but can be the catalyst for strengthening and growth. HaSatan tempts with the intent to destroy, but Kingdom citizens have an advantage not available to those outside the Kingdom: the King Himself places a limit on how much temptation He allows us to face. As the apostle Paul wrote to the believers in the city of Corinth:


There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but Elohiym is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. QORINTIYM RI'SHON (1 CORINTHIANS) 10:13 את CEPHER.


If our King will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear, that means that whatever temptations we do face, we can bear, as long as we do so in His strength rather than our own. The Governor is always with us, and His strength is readily available to us, so we need not fear anything the devil tries to do to us. Yah is committed to the glory of His name, the growth of His Kingdom, and the good of His children. And He will do whatever is necessary to turn everything to serve His divine purpose, even the evil efforts of the enemy. As Paul wrote to the Roman believers:


And we know that all things work together for good to them that love Elohiym, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom את he did foreknow, he also did predetermine to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predetermine, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If Elohiym be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? ROMAIYM (ROMANS) 8:28-32 את CEPHER


Our protection from the evil one is certain because of the King’s love for us. And because the Governor lives in us, nothing can stand in the way of His love. Again, in the words ofPaul:


Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of Elohiym, which is in Mashiach Yahusha our Adonai. ROMAIYM (ROMANS) 8:37-39 את CEPHER.


TESTED FOR WEAKNESS


First Corinthians 10:13 says There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but Elohiym is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. QORINTIYM RI'SHON (1 CORINTHIANS) 10:13 את CEPHER. The Greek word for tempted literally means “to test for weakness.” It is the same word used for the process of testing a sword for strength and proper forging—what we would call tempering today. This was done by putting the sword in fire. The steel for the sword was heated until it was redhot, beaten flat into the proper shape, and then held up to reveal any grayish spots in the red-hot metal that indicated areas of weakness. The sword then went back into the fire, and the weak spots were beaten with a hammer on an anvil to smash the molecules together so they would be tighter and stronger. After this, the sword was placed in cold water in order to freeze the molecules in place. Then it was heated to red-hot again and reexamined for weak spots. This process of examination, hammering, cooling, reheating, and reexamining was repeated until all the weak spots were beaten out of the sword. Only then was the sword ready for use in battle. An untested sword might break in the heat of battle, with deadly consequences for the soldier who used it.


So the word tempt means “to test for weakness,” not out of a desire to destroy, but for the purpose of making one strong and unbreakable. When the Bible says that Yah will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear, it means He will not allow the devil to strengthen our weak areas without His permission. Despite HaSatan’s evil intent, temptation does not come to destroy us but to strengthen us where we are weak.


Why are we afraid of the devil? Why do so many of us give him free reign to tend our garden his way? He is a defeated enemy with no power or authority over us except what we allow him to have. HaSatan is no match for Yah. Even in his rebellion, HaSatan inadvertently ends up serving Yah’s ultimate purpose by strengthening the weaknesses of his own enemies through temptation.


At this point, let me make it perfectly clear that Yah never tempts anyone to evil. James writes:


Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of Elohiym: for Elohiym cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the Word of Truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. YA`AQOV (JAMES) 1:13-18 את CEPHER.


HaSatan tempts us by enticing us in the areas where he knows we are weak. His intent is to distract us, to induce us to turn our hearts away from our King and His righteous government, and to destroy our usefulness as Kingdom citizens. If we, however, rather than turning away and giving in, rely on the strengthening presence of the Master Gardener in our hearts, He can give us the grace to persevere; and in persevering, we grow stronger in the weak area in which we are being tempted. We do not possess the strength to persevere on our own, and the Most High does not expect us to. That is why He gave us the Holy Spirit as a permanent resident in our hearts.


As Kingdom citizens and children of Yah, we have no reason to fear the devil as long as we are seeking first the Kingdom of Yah and His righteousness (see Matt. 6:33). The devil fears us because the greatest power in the universe is on our side, and the Creator and King of the universe Himself lives in us through His Spirit. Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world (see 1 John 4:4). We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (see Rom. 8:37), and we can do all things through Hamachiach, who gives us strength (see Phil. 4:13). Against such power and invincibility, the devil can’t help but be afraid.


LISTEN TO THE MASTER GARDENER
When Yahusha inaugurated His public ministry by being baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove (see Matt. 3:16). The first thing the Holy Spirit did was lead Yahusha into the wilderness to have His weak areas tested by the devil. After 40 days the test was over, and Yahusha passed with flying colors. He emerged from the desert full of the Master Gardener and of power. He called the first of His disciples, and then went into a local synagogue, where he encountered a man possessed by a demonic spirit.


And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean ruach; and he cried out, Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with you, Yahusha the Netseriy? are you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of Elohiym. And Yahusha rebuked him, saying, Hold your peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean ruach had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. MARQUS (MARK) 1:23-26 את CEPHER.


Hamachiach’s arrival on the earthly scene put the devil on notice. The Kingdom on Earth was being taken from him and restored to its rightful overMost Highs. The devil was being kicked out of the garden, and the Master Gardener was taking over.


Who is tending your garden? Have you given free reign to the illegal pretender to fill your mind with the weeds of his evil thoughts, desires, fears, and imaginations? Or have you yielded the fertile soil of your mind to the skillful and loving hands of the Master Gardener, allowing Him to cultivate in you the rich and abundant fruit of Kingdom government and culture? The way of the pretender leads to futility and death; the way of the Master Gardener leads to fulfillment and life. The choice is yours.
The psalmist draws the contrast quite clearly:


BLESSED is the man that walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the Torah of Yahuah; and in his Torah he meditates day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper. The wicked are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For Yahuah knows the way of the righteous: but the way of the wicked shall perish. TEHILLIYM (PSALMS) 1:1-6 את CEPHER.


Listen to the voice of the Master Gardener. Let Him strengthen you in your weak areas so that you can stand firm and become a distinctive Kingdom presence in the world around you. Let Him make of your life a garden truly fit for the King.