Healing from the poison of bitterness…

Ex 15:23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.
24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
25 And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,

Some have said, that the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.

Here, we read the account of the bitter waters made sweet, after God showed them a tree, and told them to cast it into the bitter waters, and the bitter waters became sweet.

Ever been broken, battered, shattered, and poisoned by betrayal: bitter?

I have. Seems to whom much is given, much is required, and true ministry comes out of a pure heart. Satan knows this, and it seems that when the call upon an persons life is large, so are the betrayals and heartbreaks that cause one to know Jesus in the depths of His suffering: His love goes deeper than our deepest pain.

Have you been betrayed? Jesus knows and understands.

When you cry out to God, He will show you a tree, that we all must find at some point in our life: The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The cross: God’s way of uniting suffering with love.
Georgia Harkness.

Here, where God the Son, laid His own life upon the alter, we call the cross, we discover the divine exchange. He took our pain, our sin, our shame, our punishment, and somehow, supernaturally, as we look upon this tree, and that cross get’s thrown into the bitter waters of our pain and lives, the bitter waters become sweet.

We see this illustration again in the book of Numbers, where a plague had broken in upon the people, and they were dying.

Nu 21:8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
Nu 21:9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

There is healing and purification through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Again, when we look upon the cross of Jesus, with the eye of faith, we find healing. It is this account that we see the medical symbol derived, a serpent on a pole symbolizing healing…

All heaven is interested in the cross of Christ, all hell is terribly afraid of it, while men are the only beings who more or less ignore its meaning.
Oswald Chambers.

Today, I want to pray for you, out of my own need. I have come out of a deep dark season in my life, where their have been many times in the past years places where I despaired of even life itself. Deep betrayals, brokeness, and helplessness, as circumstances in my life, threatened to literally choke the life of God from me.

Yet, I have found the cross of Jesus. An exchange has been made. My pain, for His victory. My sorrow, for His joy. The death of my dreams, for the resurrection power of the living Christ.

Truly, it is a divine exchange. It is a miracle, wrought once again, in a human heart, in this case, mine.

Question: How has He set you free from your bitterness…? it would be good to hear your testimony!

Let’s pray:
‘Father, even now my heart feels like hamburger, as I walk forward faithfully to what you have called me to do, emerging from circumstances that have been humanly impossible without your grace, strength, and you revelation to look upon a tree, the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ. Now Father, reveal this tree to those reading this tonight. Do what only you can do, throw that tree into the waters of their bitterness, and make their lives sweet, as you bring again, life out of death, in the mighty and matchless power and name of my Lord Jesus, I pray, Amen!’