What Do You See?

Almonds

We were recently asked a question that we thought we should share with everyone.

In Jeremiah 1: 11-12, it says:

“Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.

Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it. “ – Jer 1:11-12

The question that we received was:

“Could you please explain how a branch of an almond tree meant that God was watching over His word to perform it as He told Jeremiah?”

These scriptures are a very interesting set of scriptures because we see The Lord teaching Jeremiah, who is called to be a prophet from birth, how to ‘see’ by the Spirit.

Prophets are ordained by God to be His prophets from birth. No one can arbitrarily decide to become a prophet simply because they desire it. God gives His spiritual gifts liberally to all those who desire them. In fact, the Bible tells us that we should ‘Covet’ to prophesy! (1 Cor 14:39) This is the only time in the Bible where the Lord says it is ok to covet something. However, there is a clear distinction between those who flow in the gift of prophecy and those who walk in the Office of Prophet. However, with that being said, even prophets that are called from birth must be taught and trained in their spiritual gifts and spiritual protocol. This is evidenced by the School of the prophets as mentioned in 2 Kings 4:38, 1 Sam 19:20, 2^nd Kings 9:1-3, 2 Kings 2:15 along with other scriptures. An immature and untrained prophet can be a very dangerous thing. Untrained and immature prophets with the supernatural power of God can speak curses, death and lead people into bondages without realizing it.

In Jeremiah, 1:11-12, we see the Lord training Jeremiah. He is teaching him how to ‘see’ in the Spirit. The Lord asks him what does he ‘See’. His answer was “the rod of an almond tree”. The Lord confirmed that he had done well in his answer. To gain further insight, we must look thoroughly at his answer and examine the historical backdrop.

Jeremiah’s answer may appear to be simple on the surface but is in actuality, quite comprehensive. To fully understand this, we need to glean an understanding from the history found in the Old Testament. We get a better understanding of the backdrop when we look at Numbers 16 & 17, which we will do momentarily. First, we look at Jeremiah’s answer, which reveals several things:

Jeremiah saw the ‘rod’ of an almond tree. A rod or staff was significant in those days because the rod represented several things. It was a walking stick or something to assist you as you walked (Help you with your faith walk). It was also a representation of authority and power. It was a type of royal scepter.
The tree that he saw was Almond – the fact that Jeremiah saw that the type of tree was an Almond tree is a detail that we need to pay attention to. As Prophetic Seers, whenever we do a prophetic exercise, it is not enough to become excited simply because we see something or because we are flowing in the gift of God. It is equally important to examine the details that God gives. Our God is Perfect. Therefore the visions that He gives us are perfect. We can trust every detail that we see. Knowing this, we need to become experts at extracting every drop of information from the dreams and visions that He gives us. As we will learn to do this through training and practice, there is a ton of information that we can glean. It is commonly known that one picture is worth a thousand words. If God shows you a picture in a dream or vision, the onus is upon us to extract as much information from that dream or vision as possible. The increased level of detail can be crucial to the full understanding of what God intends to relay to us. As we consider Jeremiah’s answer through this vein of prophetic thinking, there was a vast amount of information that was communicated when Jeremiah saw an “Almond” tree.
When Jeremiah looked into the Spirit and saw the Almond tree, he also saw the spiritual lineage and priestly bloodline of Israel. We will see this as we examine and understand the history as recorded in the Old Testament.

Now that we have stated some basic concepts and painted a general background, we can move on to understanding the significance of the almond rod that Jeremiah saw. There was a group of anointed leaders in the church that rose up against Moses. You will find that story of Korah in Numbers 16. Korah, a ‘prince’ in the congregation, meaning that he was a church leader. He publicly challenged Moses’ leadership along with other men of the congregation that were ‘princes.’ God is very serious about His Authority and the leaders that He has chosen to lead His people. He does not take it lightly when people rebel against His chosen leadership. Those that have an understanding of this are truly wise indeed.

We see that Apostle Paul had a clear understanding of the gravity of this concept this by his statement:

“For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed:”- 2 Co 10:8 KJV

Moses also understood this concept. However, Moses was so incensed with righteous indignation by Korah’s rebellious attitude that he responded with one of the more intense statements we have seen from a leader in the Bible. Basically, He tells Korah and his followers, “If I am sent by God, then you will die normally like everybody else. But if I am sent by God, then God will invent a NEW WAY to kill you before your natural time. (Numbers 16:29-30) And with that the Lord promptly opened up the ground and swallowed them all including their wives and children! Before this, there had never been the type or this level of catastrophe that had befallen the children of Israel. The Lord used a method never previously used. Truly, the Lord had backed the words of His servant Moses, by creating a ‘New Way’ to destroy the rebellious leaders.

Also, there were also those among the general congregation that were in agreement and had aligned themselves with the rebellious church leaders against Moses. After the Lord opened up the ground and swallowed the rebellious leaders, He then released a plague upon those in the general congregation who had rebelled. How’s that for an exclamation mark on the end of the sentence confirming that Moses was God’s man!!!!

Back to the Almond Tree…. Because of the rebellion of church leaders, The Lord was going to make it painfully obvious to everyone who He had placed His blessing upon. We find this story in the next chapter, Numbers 17. The Lord told all of the 12 tribe’s leaders to all put their staffs/rods with their names written upon them in the tabernacle. The Lord said that He would make the staff of the tribe that He chose to be the leader bloom.

“And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers, of all their princes according to the house of their fathers twelve rods: write thou every man’s name upon his rod. And thou shalt write Aaron’s name upon the rod of Levi: for one rod shall be for the head of the house of their fathers.” -Num 17:1-3 KJV

“And it shall come to pass, that the man’s rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom: and I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you.-“ Num 17:5

“And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness; and, behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds.” Num 17:8

“The LORD said to Moses, “Put Aaron’s staff back in front of the words of my promise, and keep it there as a sign to warn any other rebels. Then you will stop their complaints about me, and they won’t die.” – Num 17:10 (GWT)

The staff didn’t just bud. It budded. It bloomed and produced almonds!! The budded, bloomed and fruit producing rod of Aaron is the physical representation of God’s stamp of approval endorsing Aaron and the Levites as God’s priestly lineage. It is a physical manifestation and reminder that His perpetual Anointing and Promise to produce life was upon them. Further, it was an undeniable endorsement of the fact that the Levites would be God’s priests and that God’s Blessings would follow their generations beginning with Aaron. We also discover that Aaron’s rod was placed in the Ark of the Covenant as a continual reminder for all generations. (Heb 9:4)

As Jeremiah referenced the ‘Almond’ tree, he referenced the history of the entire priestly lineage and its formation. Now we are in a position to understand the Lord’s response to Jeremiah when He responded:

“…. Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it. ” – Jer 1:12

We can now see that The Lord was affirming that He would honor His Word concerning His Promise to Aaron and the Levitical priesthood throughout their generations.

As an interesting side note, we said earlier that a picture is worth a thousand words. In Jeremiah’s vision, the fact that he saw an ‘Almond’ tree is not only interesting from the historical perspective, but it is also interesting from a factual perspective. An almond’s make up contains 50% fat/oil and is one of the healthiest nuts you can eat. It is chock full of vitamins and minerals! The oil is prophetically representative of God’s anointing, and vitamins are like scriptures. Both vitamins and scriptures are essential nutrients for good health.

Consider the tremendous volume of information that was contained in Jeremiah’s simple vision of the rod of an almond tree!

Suffice it to say that the Lord spoke eloquently and succinctly when He said concluded the whole matter by simply saying…

“…. Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it. ” – Jer 1:12

That is serious food for thought. (Pun intended)

May God’s Grace Abundantly Reign In Your Life!

-Apostle Ric & Prophetess Kathy Steele

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