Bitter Root Judgment
What in the world is bitter root judgment? The term comes from the Elijah house and the teaching of John Sanford. We always wonder how a woman can marry a man and he will turn into a raging alcoholic like her father may have been. And then she gets rid of him and marries another who seemingly doesn’t have abusivie tendancies and he turns into the same thing just like the other one. and the beat goes on. And a man mrries a women and she becomes critical and demanding. He gets rid of her and then meets a sweet innocent thing and within a short period of time she becomes critical and demanding, perhaps like his mother. What is going on? How do you explain this or do you?
Heb 12;15 is a scripture of warning. “See to it that no one fail to obtain the grace of God- That no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled.” Bitter roots not brought to the cross must defile. It is their nature. Defilement is tainting or changin somehting from one thing to another. Defilement has tremendous power. The word means to pollute or profane or just plain filth.
Mark 7:20 talks more about defilement and its power. “That which proceeds out of the man , that is what defiles the man.” So the defilement of a man comes from, as vs 21 ( out of the heart of man proceed the evil thoughts, wickedness, etc. Vs 23(sums it up) all these evil things proceed from within, that is what defiles the man. So what it seems to say is that men can be defiled by what proceeds out of the mouth and heart of another man. a novel thought. its kind of like going to another person and dumping a garbage can over thier head and letting all the filth profane and pollute them. So somehow we think this can happen and there is no defilement. Our word that come out of mouth can cleanse or defile depending on what we say.
The book of James 3:6, expands the topic and says the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity, the tongue is set among our members so that which defiles the entire body or can defile the entire body. Now that just isn’t our own body, it can defile and pollute another body. Paul adds a warning in 2 cor 7:1 Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit.
So defilement is real- It is done by the tongue. but it proceeds from the heart and bitter root judgments seem to be the major source of the defilement. Now what is a bitter root judgment and how do I check to see if I have one.
Let’s check with men first and see how this works.
* she always criticizes me
* she doesn’t take care of herself
* she is always spending money and shopping
* she is never on time
* she is always angry
* she isn’t very romantic (translated: I don’t get any sex)
* she doesn’t do the laundry on time
* she is a nag and always controls me
sound familar: If this is going on at a heart level, I probably have a bitter root judgment and accoding to the scripture it will cause trouble and she will be defiled by it. So the next time one of these thoughts come up which is a judgment just picture yourself heaping or dumping a trash can of filth and garbage on your wife. That is the power of judgment and defilement.
Now lets look at the wife and do a check for bitter root judgments.
*he never listens to me
*he always criticizes me and puts me down
*he drinks too much
*he lies to me all the time
*he is messy and never picks up
* he is so selfish
*he never disciplines the children
*he leaves everything for me to do
*he is always angry
and the list goes on and on. Sound familar? But you say it is true, everything I said is true. I see it with my own eyes. You want to come over to our house and look at it for yourself.
Paul makes an interesting statement in 2 cor 5:7 “for we walk by fatih, not by sight or what appears-and we say how rediculous. But guess what Christianity is all about, it is by faith and not by sight. Paul adds another thing in 1 cor 4:18 “while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Well, I would sure like to see something not seen which is eternal aabout my wife or husband. So here is one about the wife in Proverbs 30:10 This is how God sees your wife.
God sees the finished work as what she is going to be, He doesn’t see her as she is. He doesn’t see her as you see her because you are seeing her through bitter root judgment, and the judgment stops the growth of any person. It stunts them, holds them in bondage with ropes around them. It is called the rope of judgment, and I am holding her back with my words. Tying her up with bitter root judgments. Proverbs 30:10 says”An excellent wife who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. 11: The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. What? insane you say- My wife is not an excellent wife, she isn’t worth any jewels, and for the trust, give me a break
Look at vs 12 “She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. She doesn’t do me any good and all I see is lots of evel. But if I have anything less than the agreement with the word of God I am not using faith as a true Christian but am carnal looking at what my eyes see. Jesus did not come to judge the world but to save it and I want to do the same thing. When I judge a person I am touching God’s anointed and when I do that I cause trouble. David even wouldn’t touch Saul’s robe because he knew better. 1 Chronicles 16;22, God issues a strong warning “Do not touch my anointed ones, and do not do my prophets harm. End of Part 1 conclusion on bitter roots on Part 2.