Some things Jesus says are easy to gloss over, but deserve careful consideration (as does, of course, everything He says). “If your eye is single, your whole body is full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body is full of darkness. If therefore, the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”The scriptures, the entirety of them, conclude and culminate in a people restored to the very thing man kind began with and lost. Genesis refers to a tree of life, a bad choice, and the immediate setting about of the Spirit of God to effect redemption and restoration. This is further described as a river going out of the “garden” to water the earth. It is branched into four flows. Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel and Euphrates. The names form a statement of the work of the river, the Spirit of God: “Increase Bursting Forth Rapid Fruitfulness”. It speaks of a people being filled with the Spirit of God. In the concluding book of the Bible, the Euphrates is dried up…indicating that them who shall be born of the Spirit is a finite work. It is not limited to a certain head count, but to a certain time. The possibility to be born of the Spirit is not an open ended thing, but will come to a close, as “drying the Euphrates” signifies.

The prophets referred to Christ and His people collectively as “I and the children my Father has given me”. Jesus spoke and said, “fear not little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom of God”. Matthew’s gospel also perfectly details these things, calling it’s opening declaration, the “book of the generation of Jesus Christ”. The overshadowing word is “Christ”. Any time you see the title “Christ”, you may understand it is speaking of the dwelling of God by the Spirit. It is not speaking only of a man to whom the Father gave the Spirit without measure, but all who would be made participants in that. Matthew details in a count, that from Abraham to Christ are 42 generations. It begins not with Adam , but with what was in Abraham by faith. It lists names, father to son. When you get to the man Jesus, you are not on the 42nd and final generation. It is not possible to give that final name and number until Jesus would be raised from the dead. Here is the truth. From the time Jesus came out of the grave, until this very moment, and until the Father sums all things up at the time of His own choosing (no man knowing the time), everyone added to Christ and born of the Spirit in Him, is the 42nd and final generation. There will be none following this finished work. It is not a physical generation, but Spiritual, spanning the duration of the work of the resurrection.

Many presently seek and desire healing for the nations. This is commendable. But many do not pursue it according to knowledge. The conclusion of the Bible is a people firmly identified with the Tree of Life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. There is no healing for the nations outside of it. The river of life flows from it. Contemplate a tree, if you will, that has no roots because it does not drink water. It contains and disperses it abundantly and endlessly. It has no need of light of sun, moon, star or candle. It is filled with light. It’s leaves do not receive light from any external source and attempt to interpret it. It’s leaves convert endless, inextinguishable, inexhaustible inner light into healing for the nations. This describes the man Jesus, yes, but it does not stop there. It also describes a people that the scriptures say the very creation groans and murmurs in pain and travail, awaiting their manifestation. The scripture calls them the Sons of God. This is not gender specific. Whether male or female, this remains your possible inheritance in Christ. An apostle wrote to women, that they might be strengthened in their inner man. I do not venture into today’s gender debate, as I care nothing about it. I simply encourage and implore all to understand that the things Jesus admonished Nicodemus about, expounding these things, will not be available to humanity forever. When the Lord shuts a door, no man can open it. Esau recognized his folly too late and sought a place of repentance with hand wringing and tears. But once he lost birthright and blessing, he lost them. He lost them because he valued the immediate satiation of his belly with a bowl of bean soup, over inheritance and birthright.

If the light that is in you is intimate and perpetual knowledge of all the evil in the world, to the point that you are little more than a sounding board for it, well, how great is that darkness. No patient has ever been cured of a disease by shoving more of it down his throat. The healing of the nations, spoken of in the conclusion of the book, comes from a tree born in the one who declared, “the prince of this world is coming, and he has nothing in me”.