“The Sting” Pt. 2 Name Your Poison By Debra Courtney

“And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone forgive him and let it drop (leave it, let it go), in order that your Father Who is in heaven may also forgive you your [own] failing and shortcomings and let them drop. 26: But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your failings and shortcomings. Mark 11:25-26 AMP

The fruit of un-forgiveness, bitterness and offenses must be dealt with clear down to the root of our soul, or we will continue to deal with them again and again. Another characteristic of the sycamine tree is its bark which is used to make caskets/coffins out of. Will we allow a fruit that produces a spiritual evilness and dryness in us to where we are of no use and we don’t even recognize it because we have encapsulated our self in a casket.

Note: Our friendships die through neglect. We cannot expect others to read our minds. We need to voice our concerns over any offenses we may have and express our desire to make things right. Our silence often waters the roots of the Sycamine tree. Talk it out!

Satan will “sting” us over and over again with “stingers” of un-forgiveness, bitterness and offenses towards others so that the Fruit of the Spirit we are told to produce in our lives don’t exist. We are bitter fruit living in a casket, dead to the blessings that we should be experiencing.

As we chew and nibble on the memory of what has happened to us in the past as we think and rethink on past offenses and we have internalized these bitter feelings of others because we didn’t take the time to deal with the offense or the wrong that caused the bitterness and un-forgiveness in us; which has now internalized that poisonous sting that has made us just like them! 

Yes, yes, yes … for me it was a very long antagonizing painful journey that almost got me killed. However, by the grace and mercy of Jesus I was shown with spiritual eyes my black and blue body beaten up by the devil; also, I don’t think I had one inch of skin that didn’t have a “welt” that was placed by a wasp sting of offenses, bitterness and un-forgiveness. By the grace and mercy of the Holy Spirit he began to heal me of my bruises and pulled the stingers out one by one. It didn’t come overnight but, by the grace of God I did get there.  It came to me that having a long stinger and stinging other people aggressively and repeatedly for what they had done to me was nothing compared to what I was allowing to happen to myself by the “sting”.

Debra’s life goal is to inspire and motivate women globally to become all they have been created and designed to be by using the guiding principles of their Creator’s word in gaining wisdom, understanding their designed-given personality identities & create their purpose!  You can contact Debra at dwcscc@yahoo.com.

“…, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice…”

                                                      Song of Songs 2:14 

The “Sting” Pt. 1 By Debra Courtney

“…if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say to this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” – Luke 17:6 KJV

Well… Spring time is coming upon us here in the Carolinas and all the trees are really beginning to come into full bloom. That means the fruit is not far behind.  The bees are all a buzzing around the fruit trees, pollinating them and soon we’ll have fruit of every kind that grows conducive to this climate.  

However, have you ever heard of a wasp sting pollinating a fruit tree? Yep! You heard right. It’s true! There is a certain tree that bears fruit that only the pollination process is initiated when a wasp will stick its stinger right into the heart of the fruit. The fruit of this tree has to be “stung” in order to reproduce. Wasp doesn’t have the barb as bees do, so they sting repeatedly and aggressively. This tree is not akin to our native North American Sycamore tree. The fruit of this tree is a fig. Its fig is black, the fruit is very bitter to eat unlike the Mulberry tree fig, whose fruit is very sweet.  It’s the Sycamine tree. To eat the fruit of the sycamine tree you would have to nibble on it a little bit at a time because of its bitter taste. This tree grows very fast and tall and has one of the deepest root structures of all the trees in the Middle East. It’s very hard to kill, even if it’s cut at the very base; due to the deep root system it keeps sprouting again and again. Harsh climates with little rain have little effect. Oh, one last thing: the wood from this tree is used to make caskets.

Let me ask you a question…  Why did Jesus use this type of tree as an example for us?

Have you ever been “wasp stung” by a person? Did you know some people when “wasp stung” can go into shock in response to the wasp venom? Have you ever been “wasp stung” to the extent that you went into shock by a person? It’s very hard to kill the “sting” of a person, who “stung” you, isn’t it? Usually after the initial sting and shock, thoughts enter your mind about how you would like to “sting” back for what they said or did to you and/or your reputation?”  How many times have you said to yourself, “I’ll never get “stung” by that person again?” or “That person will never get close enough to me again to “sting” me like that again, I’m done with them!” Yep, me too!  I never forgot it and I also never let them forget it either, if I ever had the opportunity.

So what are you trying to say Debra you might be asking yourself.  The verses preceding Luke 17:6 is talking about how much and many times are we to forgive a person who offends us. 

Debra’s life goal is to inspire and motivate women globally to become all they have been created and designed to be by using the guiding principles of their Creator’s word in gaining wisdom, understanding their designed-given personality identities & create their purpose!  You can contact Debra at dwcscc@yahoo.com.

“…, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice…”

                                                      Song of Songs 2:14