In my last blog post I spoke what the Lord had been showing me -That of becoming like little children. In that post I stated :
Intellectual knowledge of the Scriptures which they studied from youth was blinding them to the Messiah’s presence among them.https://dennisrhodes4.com/2023/08/23/become-one-with-a-machine-or-jesus/
Then today in a random – but God ordained way – I happened upon the following telling of a vision a brother was given in 1986. It perfectly describes this problem of living by intellect and knowledge versus the heart.
The truth of this is powerfully presented in the following vision given to Pablo Manzewitch. He writes:
In November, 1986, I was in the little town of Paraiso, Argentina. It was our usual weekly service there and I was trying to encourage the people to open their hearts to the Holy Spirit so that the life of God would be able to flow out to them. I noticed that the congregation was separated into two groups, one completely different from the other. One group — most of them very new in the Lord — were very simple and without very much instruction in doctrine. They immediately began to open their hearts without any fear or resistance, and the Lord began to reach out to them in a beautiful way. While this group of mostly new believers reached out to Him, rejoicing in God, the other group of people — most of them more knowledgeable in doctrines because of more years in the church — were still standing there with their hearts closed to God. They tried to say their usual pious prayers, but their faces reflected the dryness and hardness of their hearts. I invited the congregation to join in a time of prayer, so all began praying. In my heart I asked the Lord, “Why is this? Why do these who have more doctrinal knowledge and more years in the way of the Lord lag behind instead of advancing? Instead of being the first to open their hearts to the Lord, they are judgmental and their hearts are so hard and dry. The others — in their simplicity — are going on ahead and they open so easily when God draws near to them.”
Then God opened the eyes of my spirit and a voice from within said, “I will show you why.” Suddenly I saw a beautiful leafy tree with many different fruits of diverse colors and sizes. I saw this group of people who were not flowing in the service: they were sitting under the shade of this strange tree avidly eating of its fruit. One thing drew my attention: those who were eating of those fruits tried very hard to share them with others. They persistently tried to convince those around them to eat of them, telling them that it would make them possessors of great gain. I drew near to observe more closely this unusual tree which was before me and somehow I understood the significance of the difference in the color and size of its fruits. I observed and understood that one of them signified “good doctrine”. Another was “decency and order in the service”. Still another — and the most outstanding of the fruits — I understood was “knowing how to do things right” or “how to avoid ridicule”. Each one of these fruits looked so lovely and was so attractive and desirable.
The voice within me again spoke and said, “This tree is called the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He that eats of it shall die, because he puts himself in the place of God, judging by his own criterion what seems to be right or wrong.” Then he said to me, “Look what will happen to them.” I saw that this tree produced monsters. As these people ate of the different fruits of the tree, a terrible transformation occurred in their beings. Their bodies disappeared and I could only see their heads and their hearts. In the beginning, their size and aspect were normal, but as they partook of those different fruits from that strange tree, their heads began to grow in an exaggerated manner and their hearts noticeably shrank. They became more and more hardened until they were changed into beings with enormous heads and hearts that were minuscule and hard.
Immediately after that, I saw a narrow path that became more and more narrow as one advanced upon it. All of these people were walking upon this lane and each step they took caused it to become more narrow. Because of the great multitude of people in this condition who were walking on this path, they began to experience some real difficulties. With their huge heads they began to bump against each other very violently. This gave them terrible headaches. At the end of this path I saw a very large cross about seven feet tall by about three feet wide. Behind the cross flowed a beautiful river with cool and clear waters. He who would have access to this river would have to go by way of the cross. I saw that the cross had a very small door which was quite narrow. He who wanted to get to the other side and enter this place of refreshing was forced to pass through that narrow little door through the cross; there was no other entrance except through there.
I saw all these people draw near to that little door of the cross because all of them wanted to pass through to the other side to the place where the river was. But the problem was that their heads were so large and hardened there was no way that they could get through the little door. I saw these people persistently pounding on that door with their heads, but they could not pass through. They wept much because they couldn’t enter. Some even wanted to break their heads to pieces to be able to go through the door, but the effect of eating the fruit had hardened their heads too much and they only hurt themselves. They were filled with great bitterness and resentment and all of them were terribly injured. Of all the multitudes I saw, none of them were able to pass through to the other side. They all remained on this side of the cross. What a terrible scene it was of many creatures with monstrous heads, and hearts that were very little and hard!
Suddenly the scene changed and I saw another tree. At first sight it didn’t seem nearly as attractive as the first and I had to look very closely to be able to appreciate it. This second tree had lots of fruit, but it seemed to be of only one kind which was very large. A voice told me, “This is the tree of Life.” Then I saw this other group of people who were simple, without much instruction in doctrine and without pretensions. They were under the shadow of this second tree and all were eating of its fruit. Soon I was able to observe a transformation taking place in them, also. But it was totally contrary to that which had happened to those I had seen before. While they were eating the fruit, their heads — which had been of normal size before — began to shrink. At the same time that their heads became smaller, their hearts began to grow until they were as large as the heads of the first group had been. These, too, were walking on that narrow path which led to the narrow little door of the cross. Moreover, their hearts bumped against each other in the same way that the heads had bumped in the former group, but these people did not hurt themselves. On the contrary, they seemed quite comfortable. Then I thought in my spirit, “What a problem! These won’t be able to go through the door of the cross either because of their huge hearts. What will these people do to be able to enter?”
As these drew near to the cross, they could very easily get their heads through the narrow door. And when their hearts merely touched the cross, they immediately melted and became as water. In reality, this water was their melted hearts which simply flowed into the river which ran on the other side of the cross. Every heart which touched the cross and melted caused the river to increase in its flow and it became bigger and bigger. These creatures with small heads got to the other side with no difficulty at all. Their hearts were completely mixed and made one with the waters of that river which flowed ever more abundantly on the other side of the cross.
Again when I looked within my spirit, I saw those beings with their huge heads and little, hard hearts. It seemed to me that I could still hear them praying and crying on this side of the cross. Their prayers went something like this: “God! We are your servants and we want to work for You in Your vineyard.” Then I heard, as it were, someone speaking to them: “But the only thing you are able to do is to plow the ground. The rest of your lives you will have to wallow in earthly things until you change your attitude and repent of having eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Because now you believe that you can judge between what is right and wrong (choosing the good, of course!), you will never have access to the tree of Life…unless you will repent of having disobeyed God. Instead of OBEYING HIM, you have chosen to UNDERSTAND HIM.”
Finally, I saw those monsters in a very large field, working the soil and sowing their seed, but the field was dry and sterile. The only thing that would grow and that they could harvest were thorns, thistles, and foul-smelling weeds. I saw that they were very tired, bathed with sweat, and filthy from the dust of the earth, but they still insisted on plowing the field. They were content because they were doing it for God, but the only thing they reaped was pain and bitterness of spirit — end quote. SOURCE
