No Small Tomatoes or Fairytales

1/12/2007

If you leave the door open in a tomato hot house your tomatoes will not grow. You need a certain temperature. You need hot air. You need it to be hot all the time. I’m not a specialist, but leave the door open for a few days and your tomato will not grow to its normal size. It will shrink in size. It will look red or green, but it will not be the tomato you expect.

So for us to be growing as fast as possible, if I can use that word, we must be kept all the time under the Spirit. That’s why walking in the Spirit is so important. It’s not just a theology, where you say, “I walk in the Spirit, and you, my brother? You, no? In the flesh a bit? Ok… Well, me always in the Spirit.” It’s not a kind of pride. It’s so important. It’s a matter of growth. We either try to walk in the Spirit, and the Lord will have to show us how to do it, or we walk so much in the flesh that there is no growth.

Like a positional tomato. What if you went to the market and the tomato was a certain size, and the person at the market says, “Well, in my eyes, it’s much bigger, so I’ll charge you for a positional tomato, the invisible tomato. We’ll charge you for the way it’s supposed to look…”

People will laugh at you!

“…And in your heart, you too should see it as much bigger. This is a positional tomato.” Well, no, the door’s been left open! It’s really a dinky, little, mutated, baby tomato at best and that’s all it’s worth. That’s not an equal yoke.

It’s funny, you know. When you speak about God’s word so many people have “fairy tale” ideas about it. I never suffered with having fairy tale ideas. From the start, after I gave my life to Him, the Lord showed me that it is His word and I must trust His word. It is as good as He is. So I never cushioned myself with Hebrew or Greek—I didn’t know that in any case. So I trusted Him, His word. Whatever He says must be applied. Finished! I never asked for any complicated situation. But as I came to hear more and more from people I could really see that fairy tale look and outlook.

I just saw a DVD called “The Ark of Noah.” So I watched it and the Ark was very great. It was really made like some books I’ve read. It was very good. But the rest of the movie was a COMPLETE fairy tale! And the man who made that movie also made a very famous French fairy tale movie. I mean, he is a producer of movies of fairy tale things. So for him to produce this, a story from Bible, was also a fairy tale story! “Let’s do it.” So, it’s no wonder that maybe people think the Bible is a fairy tale.

I used to think that way too; nobody told me this. It was very strong in me that the Bible was a fairy tale. Not to be trusted, of course! It was good to read sitting by the fire with Grandmama and Grandpapa, reading to the small children. That’s the kind of picture I had of the Bible.

So when it comes to the Truth, it’s nice to always make an earthly example for people to be able to come down from this fairy tale mood and say, “See this tomato business. People will laugh at you, man. See this little tomato and you think it’s big. And you buy the tomato because you think it is big. You will accept that? You would believe that? Will you pay for this stuff? No, you will laugh at my face. So why do you think…”

“Why do you accept a fairy tale church when the Bible does NOT say, “Oh, it’s really just this. Just believe in your heart that it’s really this. And don’t you dare criticize this little baby tomato, because God sees it like this—the invisible tomato.”

It is true.

Yes, we should expect the real thing. The scriptures teach it, and we need to live with the same principle, truth, heart, and passion. You even see in Acts 2 that 3,000 brand new baby Christians can do a pretty good job of it, even though they’re babies! They weren’t even mature and they were already expressing, according to Acts 2:42-47, the Life of Jesus—as babies! You don’t even have to be very mature to have a real Church. What is this, an “invisible” Church in Acts 2? I don’t think so! It says “ALL the Believers” not “10% committed nucleus.” “ALL the Believers were together and had all things in common, and were devoted to the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship.” ALL.

But the excuse is, “Yeah, but that was in THAT time. Today it’s changed. You can’t do the same now.” That’s the excuse.

That’s right. “We believe in baby tomatoes. We charge the same, but…”

That’s what I found very liberating last night when you spoke about it, because, if it’s true that babies can live a normal Christian life, then you don’t have to look forward to something in ten years’ time.

That’s right.

If you have a base that’s performance oriented, then you’ll have a problem and you’ll have to wait until everyone is really mature and really gets their life together, and even then it will be wobbly at the best of times. But if you have something where the basis is that everybody loves the Truth, then, it makes it immediate. I don’t have to wait for another five years to be forgiven or for another two months to come right in. I can come right now. Have a fresh start right now. Do the real thing. That’s the Hope.

•  No Small Tomatoes or Fairytales