Man was put on this earth with a purpose that was to fulfill all that God has intended to do as it relates to this earth. This is indicated in the word that was spoken to Adam in the beginning, for he represents all of mankind on the earth. He was told in Genesis 1:28, “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
It would seem that very few of God’s people have ever even considered that theyRemember also that God was not speaking to Adam and Eve the man and the woman when he used the word “Them,” He was speaking to ADAM who was male and female in creation just as we all are today, in the reality of our true being, for we all came out of that man who was Christ Jesus. Remember spirit has no gender for there is no male spirit or female spirit, for they are ONE.
were included in that command.
If that was the purpose behind the creation of mankind, then every one of us should be exercised to fulfill that divine intention expressed by God. The Prophet Isaiah said, “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” So it is obvious that God plans to execute his counsel and fulfill his hearts desire as he expressed it at the beginning. Very few people consider that every one of us has a part to play in God’s great plan for the universe, and to see it fulfilled. The religious world has failed to encourage the Christians to become involved in God’s plan for this world in which we live, but has encouraged a selfish concept making “heaven” the ultimate goal of life on this earth.
Jesus Christ made his entry on this earth as a KING, indicating that he intended to establish his Kingdom right here where we live. His message was,
“The Kingdom of God is IN YOU.”What he was saying was that the expression of God’s spiritual authority had now become visible on the earth in the person of the King, Jesus Christ. As the Son of God he was bound to set the example for all of mankind who are also the children of God, revealing in a practical way what is our responsibility towards God in fulfilling his divine purpose through us. For most Christians, that has never registered as being our responsibility, seeing Christ as someone quite different to us. However, whatever he did, he told us that we also could do the same, meaning that we could represent the true manifestation of which we are, being of the same substance as him. “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the Kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” He never mentioned give your heart to Jesus, or going to heaven, which is the Gospel that is preached today.
Here we discover exactly what he did in fulfilling his responsibility on the earth doing his Father’s will, saying what ever he heard his Father say, and doing whatever he saw his Father do. There are two Kingdoms, but one is the mirror image of the other. God or “Elohim” created the first Kingdom in Gen 1, finishing it and resting on the 7th day, having declared that everything was very good. It was into a manifestation of that Kingdom called, “The Garden of Eden” that Adam was put in order to develop his responsibility to fulfill his purpose on the earth. He was told it was his responsibility to oversee the Garden and also to “Guard” it to make sure everything functioned as God intended. In a Kingdom the King is sovereign and his word is final. There was really only one issue that God raised with Adam and that was, he must not eat of the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil, lest he die.
I believe that this is the first manifestation of the Kingdom of God on the earth, so we will look at it more closely. Genesis 2:8 “And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.” First of all it is called a Garden that was established expressly as the place where the Man would live, and function according to the will and purpose of God. The first Man of Gen 1:26 who is now called the LORD GOD or Jehovah Elohim, was the one who planted and established this Garden. Such gardens were common in Bible days as a place of relaxation conducive to rest. These gardens were very private so they were enclosed with walls of stone or in some cases hedges of thorn bushes. One thing was required for such a garden and that was an abundance of water. We are told that this Garden had a source of water within its own confines that flowed as a river, and eventually divided into 4 streams to water the whole earth. The number “4” represents the four points of the compass covering the earth. Here, is God’s provision for the supply of the water of life to the whole earth, coming from the Kingdom of heaven and not from this world.
The religious world has always opposed what God was doing on the earth and has convinced the majority of people that the Kingdom has no present reality, thus locking up the “Water of Life” that could bring life to all of mankind. Theology has suggested that the Kingdom of God will only be established after the millennium, which is supposed to extend for a thousand years, and it has not yet even started. This is in spite of the fact that Jesus told the people of his day that the Kingdom of God is “AT HAND.” This is an old English term, which actually means, “The King has arrived.” According to Kingdom protocol a King never just arrives anywhere. Before a monarch visited a place there was always a person sent to prepare the way for the King, making arrangements for his reception and accommodation and what he intended to do. This role was fulfilled by John the Baptist, who was highly spoken of by Jesus Christ himself. “John 1:19 And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he said, I am not. Are you that prophet? And he answered, No. He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah.”
In plain language John was saying, “The King is coming so get ready for his arrival and have everything in place for him.” When Princess Diana and Prince Charles visited Australia some years ago there was a great rush to make sure everything was organized and prepared for the royal couple before they came. No royalty ever just “Drops In” anywhere, they always have some one to go before and set everything up so that royalty know they are respected and appreciated, and protocol demands such respect. Why has the King not visited the earth in this our day, as many have expected and prayed, waiting for the heavenly visitor to come and establish his Kingdom? Where are those who are announcing the coming of the King, and what preparation is being made by the saints for the coming of the King. The royal welcome in Australia for the queen saw people dressed in the latest fashions and everything polished and in place, just as royalty would expect. But God’s people pray, “THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE ON THIS EARTH EVEN AS IT IS BEING DONE IN HEAVEN,” while they separate themselves from one another, judging and causing division, on the basis of doctrines, ethnic issues, skin color and a thousand other issues. What a mess the King would step into if he revealed himself to the world today. Where are the John the Baptists today who are calling on the saints to REPENT (get a new mind set) and prepare for the coming of the King to established his kingdom within a people. The King himself issued the call, “Seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things (the benefits of the kingdom) will be added unto you.” However, so many Christians are not involved in any specific preparation for the welcoming of the King, nor is his righteousness sought after with any great effort. So many of God’s people PRAY, “Thy Kingdom Come” but the “House” for him to dwell in is not clean, nor has it been prepared as the KING’S dwelling place.
“Eden” speaks of pure delight, so it is obvious that this “Garden” cannot be related to some geographic location on the earth, as we know it today. I believe that this “Garden” is essentially spiritual and represents a state of being that remains available to all of mankind today. In this case the “Garden of Eden” must be seen as being within every man, and available as a present reality to be experienced as we become aware that it exists.
This “Garden” was specially prepared and planted for the Mankind. The trees in our garden were divinely planted representing the thoughts that come from God, and these trees represent the Tree of Life for us. Thy word O Lord is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my Path. But there is another tree in which reside all the knowledge of good and evil. These are the thoughts that come to us not from within but from without.
I had to confess that at a certain point in my life after being a missionary and a Pastor, that what I knew and taught I did not receive from God but from MAN. It was men that taught me about a literal heaven up in the sky to which everybody would go after they die, if they gave their hearts to Jesus. These things and other teachings also became the basis of my theology.
But there was a day in my life when I heard a VOICE that I had never heard before. It was that still small voice that could so easily be missed, because it was not obtrusive or loud. But what I heard made me know that it was the voice of God. Everything he said to me I COULD DO. This was so different to what the religious world told me. After 2 years of saying and doing nothing from the religious point of view, I began to understand what God was saying, and found a new liberty in sharing it with others. However, I was somewhat confused by the fact that in many cases Christians rejected what I was saying, because it was different to what they also had been taught. But many who had not been indoctrinated by the religious world began to receive the word and lives were being changed like I had not seen before. Christians today have been taught the doctrines of men that center on sin and its consequences and how we must deal with it.
The message Jesus Christ came and delivered was so different to what was, andThe TREE of KNOWLEDGE has caught the imagination of so many of God’s people today so they have little desire to hear the voice of God, but would rather preach and debate the doctrines they have been taught by men, ignoring the one who is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE. Jesus introduced the Gospel of the Kingdom and preached it everywhere, for the KING had arrived, to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth.
still is being preached today. Jesus Christ did not come to this world to bring
us a new religion, but to remind mankind of God’s original intention for us in
creation. God’s wisdom is available to everyone if we will listen to the DIVINE
TEACHER, the Holy Spirit that is within every man who Jesus said, “Would guide
us into all truth.”
The Internet is packed with information that is designed to fill the minds of people with knowledge that in many cases has no bearing on spiritual life. Paul tells us that knowledge puffs up those who seek after it. For many it is almost a competition to see who knows more than others, while truth is discarded as being irrelevant. We need to rediscover what Jesus meant when he said, “I am the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE.” Religion has brought confusion to many of God’s people who simply believe what man has taught us. The Scriptures tell us that we will inherit the EARTH and not heaven. Psalm 115:16, Matt 5:5. Why do people go to Church on Sunday to worship God? Sunday was never designated by God as the day to worship. In fact it was a day of heathen worship, of the SUN GOD that Rome introduced to Christians calling it the “Christian Sabbath.” The commercial world has exploited for its own benefit the Christian’s “Celebration” of Christmas and Easter which have little to do with the true issues of life, but are so important to many.
The Garden of Eden within us today, represents for us the principles of the Kingdom of God that were lost to Adam, as he found himself living in a wilderness where he had to fight with nature to supply the food that he needed every day. In Matt 6:25 THE King says to us, “TAKE NO THOUGHT for your Life, what you shall eat, or what you will drink, nor yet for your body, or what you will put on. For the KING accepts responsibility for every citizen of the Kingdom of God. Man was created to live in the Kingdom of God where the supply of our every need is taken care of. Adam never raised a sweat, yet everything he needed was provided for him in the Garden of Eden. If only God’s people could understand that in these scriptures we are looking at Kingdom principles that are available for us today. We have been taught that when Adam ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that the kingdom was lost to mankind forever. God’s original intention for man was that he would have dominion over the birds of the air, the animals, the fish of the sea and all the works of God’s hand. Proverbs 19:21 says, “There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, shall stand.” Or in plain language, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but God’s original intent will prevail.” There is absolutely nothing that God does, without his will and purpose being involved. God is not playing games but is working all things after the counsel of his own will, and nothing can change or alter his intention. Having been born on this earth is enough proof that God has a divine purpose for you being here. Our responsibility is to discover what is his intention for us, and see him fulfill all that he purposed you to be.
We can eat freely of the Tree of Life as much and as often as we desire, so that there should never be a need to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. All the knowledge of God is in that tree of Life which is Christ, for he said, “I am the Living bread, if any man eat of THIS BREAD he will LIVE FOREVER.” The Apostle John tells us that, “We have an anointing of God and we know all things…. And that we do not need anyone to teach us for the anointing which is CHRIST teaches us all things that we need to know.” Very few people have understood that the provision God has made in the beginning for mankind is still available and sufficient for us today. The general concept of the religious world is that Adam was put into the Garden, but because he ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, he was cast out and so “The Garden of Eden” as been lost to us forever. This concept shows that man has ignored the divine teacher who is the Holy Spirit, and instead filled his mind with knowledge that has not come from God and as a result has invented his own reality using his imagination.
I want you to know that the Garden that was prepared by the Lord for Adam is still available to you today. The Garden of Eden is not a literal garden, but spiritual and holds the answer to man’s every need, and this includes the tree of LIFE that represents C-H-R-I-S-T who is the BREAD of LIFE, the WATER of LIFE, and the SPIRIT of LIFE. The truth is that the GARDEN is within you and in every man, and it is just another allegory representing the principles of the Kingdom of God. Every citizen of the Kingdom becomes the responsibility of the KING, who guarantees they will never want for bread, or water, and no sickness, pain or death will be able to touch them. All these things have been relegated to a place the religious world calls heaven, which is up in the sky and can only be accessed after death, but all the benefits of the Kingdom of God are available to you NOW.
Revelation 21:3 “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, write: for these words are true and faithful.”
Of course I need to remind you that these verses are preceded by the Vision the Apostle John received on the Isle of Patmos of a New Heaven and a New Earth, speaking of a people who have been awakened out of the Adamic dream and are the Redeemed of the Lord. John sees these now in spirit form as a city, which is the same city that was sought after by Abraham.
These people form the CITY OF GOD, ZION the NEW JERUSALEM and the headquarters of the KING, JESUS CHRIST, from which he will rule the world.
Remember that Jesus Christ prophesied concerning the Temple in Jerusalem, and the City itself, that both would be destroyed, for that historical city has been subject to war, hatred and division over the centuries. This came to pass in AD70 when Titus and his army surrounded the city and destroyed it and the Temple as well. That city in the Middle East now has no place in the development of the Kingdom of God on the earth today, even though King David built his palace there many years before. Now the words of the Apostle John are a fulfillment of the prophecy, as the natural city of Jerusalem where Jesus Christ was rejected and finally crucified, has been replaced by a SPIRITUAL CITY AND TEMPLE, which are not made from bricks and mortar, but are the product of the spirit of God. We now hear the echo of the words, “BEHOLD I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW.” In this hour there is a desperate need for the “John the Baptist” ministries to call the people to REPENT, and change your mind until it agrees with God’s will and purpose for this day. This preparation has been delayed, as the religious world has preached for 2000 years another Gospel, and not the Gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus Christ the King delivered to the People.
More and more of God’s people are seeing this vision and are being caught up into it, to become a part of this “City”, which is the center of the divine activity on the earth, the NEW JERUSALEM which is ZION. Notice that these people are not being “CAUGHT UP to HEAVEN,” as is taught today, but is DESCENDING from the Spiritual Realm to the EARTH, bringing the Government of God to the earth, allowing heaven to impacts the earth. The time for this manifestation is personal for every one of us, but it will take place when we embrace the Truth, that God’s dwelling place IS WITH MEN. Christians have been confused in this issue, as religion has taught that; “We go to heaven to be forever with the Lord.”
THE GARDEN IN US
Most people’s reality does not include the realm of Spirit because their reality is in the physical, material world. The apostle Paul tells us in 2 Cor 4:18, “The things that are seen are temporary, or have no true reality, but the things that are invisible to our natural sight are eternal and will never pass away. Jesus told the Pharisees that the Kingdom of God does not come with observation, which means that it is not visible to these natural eyes. The Garden of Eden which stands as a type of the Kingdom of God in Genesis 2 is not to be understood as a literal Garden, for as such it would have no relevance to us at all, but is a spiritual dwelling place within us, where we learn to develop a genuine personal relationship with God day by day. For Adam, it was the place in which he could walk and talk with God and learn to function out of true love and obedience to God. There was nothing in that Garden that could cause hurt of pain, for it was especially prepared for the MAN to live in perfect peace, with everything he needed being supplied from within the Garden itself. God and Man living together in perfect harmony with nothing to intrude to mar their fellowship.
The Garden of Eden was designed especially for the development of man’s relationship with God, which is both intimate and personal. There is nothing else that can substitute for this Garden that could assist us in this desire for relationship with our heavenly Father. This aspect of our development is expressed in the Garden in the form of a TREE OF LIFE, which was freely available to man as “Food” that would result in a flow of divine LIFE into his being. There is no question in my mind, that Jesus Christ is indeed that TREE OF LIFE, for he said, “I am the way the truth and THE LIFE, and no man can come to the Father but through me.” If we put these two concepts together we have a clear picture of how we receive “Eternal Life.” The activity by which we access eternal life must be through Jesus Christ who is in fact the TREE OF LIFE but also dwells within every man in the garden within.
Religion has so muddied the waters that many flounder at this point on the doctrines of men that have been presented as the WAY OF LIFE ETERNAL. Religion teaches that the pathway to life is to give your heart to Jesus, confessing your sins and believing that he died on the cross for your sins, and finally asking him to come into your heart. Having followed this sequence we are now declared to be Christians, born again with eternal life, and we are assured that heaven is our home when we die. First of all these statements cannot be verified in the scriptures at all, for there is no mention of “Giving our hearts to Jesus,” in the scriptures. Secondly, the “New Birth” that is mentioned in John 3 is a spiritual birthing that requires the specific ministry of the spirit of God and impossible for any man to accomplish. So under this teaching the OLD creature becomes the NEW CREATION, purely as a result of a human response. This concept does not agree with the Biblical teaching both of the New as well as the Old Testament.
I would like to humbly submit what has been revealed to me over the last 40 years of my own personal search to touch reality in bridging the divide between earth, and the realm of spirit, which the Bible calls heaven. Can mortal man of flesh and blood share in the life that is “Eternal” being the life of God himself, and if so exactly what is the process that can bring this to pass. To answer these questions is the purpose of this writing. Gen 2 is an allegory and it is here that the answers we seek, are hidden. Verse 9 “And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant (to be desired) to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
These are not literal trees but their fruit represents our thoughts, being “Food for thought” bringing forth something according to what the thought may happen to be. James throws light on this concept saying, James 1:14 “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed, then when lust hath conceived, it brings forth sin and sin when it is finished, brings forth death.” If the thought is from a tree God planted then its fruit will gender life, but if the origin of a thought is from some other source its effect could be the opposite. So God told the man that he could eat from all the trees of the garden, but there was one tree that he was warned not to eat the fruit because the result would be DEATH. Many Christians have asked me why God planted that tree? My answer is that I do not believe God did plant that tree, for in all of God’s creation in Gen 1, he declared that everything was very good, so it could not have included a tree causing death. We are told that this tree holds the same position as the TREE OF LIFE, which is in the MIDST or the center of the Garden holding a key position of importance. In that same position of importance we find there is to be found, if your heart so desires a SUBSTITUTE TREE not sharing eternal life but DEATH.
Where did this “Tree” come from? It is obvious to me that Eve was the one who planted the SEED from which that tree has come. Remember that it is a TREE OF KNOWLEDGE, with no mention of LIFE at all. Eve was that female part that was taken out of Adam, and according to the Allegory was given status as a WOMAN that God never created. When she was introduced to Adam he responded that she was “Bone of his Bone, and Flesh of his flesh for she was taken out of the Man. However, in Creation Adam was MALE and FEMALE functioning together as ONE. Spirit has no gender, in other words there is no such thing as a male spirit or a female spirit, all spirit is male and female functioning together as ONE. That is how God could bring mankind forth of his own will with out any help form anyone else. When man was created he was told to be fruitful and fill the earth, and that we also are intended to be fruitful and multiply just as Adam was commanded in the beginning. So now we have laid the plot for the planting of another seed.
In the Allegory of Gen 2 we find Eve functioning on her own, and thoughts begin to rise up in her in the form of a conversation with what God called a serpent. Man’s imagination sees Eve conversing with a talking snake hanging out of a tree. We are told that the serpent was more subtle than all the “Beasts” of the field and this has been understood to compare the cunning of the natural animals with the snake. This concept is only valid if this account is to be taken literally, but it is obvious that such is not the case. Eve represents the “Female” aspect or “Soul” in Man that in the allegory has been taken out of Adam while he is in a deep sleep or Trance. The reason why this cannot be taken literally is that the Soul is an integral part of the spirit according to creation. It is not possible to literally divide spirit as was done in the allegory, for there is no such thing as half a spirit. So we must seek for a spiritual answer to know what the scriptures are saying to us in this regard.
Adam was created in the likeness and image of God who is spirit, and that is what he was in creation. It is also recorded that he was created MALE and FEMALE, and these two aspects constitute the spirit of his being. There is an interesting statement made in Gen 2:7 concerning Adam that he would become a LIVING SOUL. Strong’s concordance explains this “Living Soul” as, Heb. “Nephesh,” meaning soul, life, appetite, mind, living creature, emotion and passion. This statement in Gen 2:7 is based upon the foreknowledge of God and concerned some future time when a change would take place in the constitution of the MAN. It will be sufficient in this study to know that man was not created a “Living Soul” but Spirit. The “Living Soul” referred to anything on the earth that breathes, which includes the living creatures in nature. In Gen 1:21 the “Creatures” spoken of here is the same Heb. word “Nephesh.”
The Soul includes the Mind, Emotions and the Will, and involves the natural senses of man. In the allegory, the “Soul” is expressed as Eve who now finds herself free to function on her own having been separated from Adam who represents spirit. In this way we can see clearly how the Living Soul functions and the resulting issues that follow. At this point the soul has assumed command of her own life feeling it unnecessary to involve the spirit. But it is not good for man to be alone so now she looks for someone to share with and at this point the Serpent enters into the allegory. The snake as we understand it today was not a part of creation but has been recognized as the symbol of Wisdom from ancient times, and so it became a manifestation of wisdom for Eve, who found herself consulting with her “Natural Mind,” which is more subtle than all the beasts of the field. However, her mind has no input from the spirit, so its wisdom was not spiritual but earthly, and James speaks of this wisdom, in these words, “James 3:15 This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
Behind the allegory stands the will and intention of the Creator concerning MAN who was brought forth and given dominion over the birds of the air, the animals, the fish of the sea and over all the works of God’s hands. This was a Royal Mandate from the King to establish the Kingdom Government of God on this earth. Because God is a King all his offspring have been birthed into royalty, for the Apostle Paul said, “In God we LIVE, in God we MOVE and in God we HAVE OUR BEING, for we all are the offspring of God.” The mischief of the serpent therefore has a very sinister aspect to it, in seizing an opportunity to take over from Adam his dominion and office concerning the world. Lacking the spiritual understanding of spirit that contains all the wisdom of the universe, Eve was no match for the Subtlety of the serpent or natural mind, and she glibly ignored the Word of the Lord who said, “You may eat of all the trees in the Garden but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the Garden you shall not eat lest you die.”
At this point we need to recognize that God never acknowledged EVE as a true entity. Not once did God refer to the woman as Eve. In Genesis 5:2 It says, “Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.” So the woman as a separate entity was not part of the creation process, but the allegory clearly reveals what the LIVING SOUL represents. Not simply the woman on the earth, but the MAN who lives his life, and functions out of the SOUL without reference to the spirit of his true identity. Now we are ready to look at this tree called the “Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil.” You will notice that it occupies the place that was given to the “Tree of Life,” in the midst or middle of the garden. So this signifies that the tree of Knowledge has now replaced the tree of life. The tree of LIFE represents Jesus Christ who said, “I am the LIFE.” He is Omni present, that is he is present everywhere, and he is Omniscient which means he has all the wisdom of God, and that he knows everything about everything, and finally he is Omnipotent meaning that he is all powerful, for he could say, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” Why would Eve be interested in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, this is the question?
The mind of man was designed by God to contain all the wisdom of God but as a “Living Soul” man is limited to the knowledge of his natural mind unless he finds how to tap into the “Hidden Wisdom” of God invested in the spirit in man. The prophet said in Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (of God).” We live in a world today where knowledge has increased at an amazing rate, but much of this knowledge is designed to destroy and kill. The quest for knowledge is filling universities with people seeking knowledge to equip them to earn money and be comfortable. Very few people in the world have a sincere desire to KNOW GOD whom to know is life eternal. For each of us there is a tree on our “Garden” that God said we were not to eat from, because it would result in death. This “Death” has nothing to do with the cemetery for nothing in the Garden can die. But the death God spoke about here had to do with a break in the flow of LIFE from God to his children. This flow of Life to us is through the spirit that is in every man, but remember that as a “LIVING SOUL” the spirit lays dormant while the soul, mind, emotions and the will take command cutting us off the flow of God’s life. If you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will not be able to eat of the tree of life.
We need to know how all this applies to us in the world today. The enemy of LIFE for us is really not the devil or Satan, but our appetite for knowledge even though some may desire to know God. Here is a statement that we all need to know and acknowledge, that it is impossible to KNOW GOD through knowledge. Young Christian men have a desire to serve God in some capacity and the first thing they do is go to a Bible School or Theological Seminary. This is the natural thing in a Christian’s mind if we desire to serve the Lord. But such a choice will not achieve their hearts desire TO KNOW GOD. In fact for most it has the opposite result for now they have so much knowledge to sift through that their true quest is lost and their mind is filled with knowledge but not the knowledge of God. It is not that all knowledge is bad or evil, no, but God can only be known by a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP. This is the lesson Adam teaches us while he was in the Garden, where he walked and talked with God every day in union and fellowship. The Bible itself has been elevated and venerated above any desire we may have to walk in constant oneness and fellowship with God. The New Testament Saints did not have a Bible to study as we have today and for hundreds of years after that Christians did not have a Bible to Study. It was not until the printing press was invented that Bibles started to appear.
Our King James Bible is not a translation from the original text much of which has been lost, but is a translation from the Bishops Bible, and history declares that the translators were instructed that they were not to change any of the accepted doctrines of the Church. This has resulted in doctrines like the Trinity Teaching, and “Sunday” being the divinely appointed day for Christians to go to church and worship the Lord as it was called the Christian Sabbath under the Emperor of Rome. A burning hell came with the translation with the word used some 37 times in the New Testament, where the Greek should have been translated most times as Sheol of Hades speaking not of a firey Hell but simply the GRAVE. So Bible students spend most of the time debating a thousand questions to do with translation and interpretation, but never get to know God. This is just a few issues that fill the minds of Christians and provide the issues upon which the Church has been divided into thousands of groups who all think they are right and everybody else is wrong. Christianity has divided the world and will continue to divide while the emphasis is on KNOWLEDGE and not on relationship.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil needs examining to understand why it is the tree of death. When God had finished creation he looked at everything he had made and said that it was all very good. This word “Good” in the Hebrew has a different connotation to our English word, which is a word of comparison, meaning, “Good compared to what.” If I say that was a good meal, I mean it is good by comparison with a lot of other meals that I have eaten. But in Genesis it means it is fulfilling the purpose and intention for which the creator made it. There was nothing that could be called evil, in all that God created, for everything God made fulfilled his purpose and intention, for everything was “GOOD.” But since Man has eaten of the fruit of that tree Christians believe they can discern certain things in this world are GOOD, but there are other things that to them are definitely EVIL. Once you are of that opinion you will automatically recognize God as the GOD OF THE GOOD, but you will then have to find a GOD FOR THE EVIL. So today Christians are convinced that God has an enemy who spends his time fouling up whatever God is doing. This keeps them busy fighting this “Other” god by praying and telling God to destroy this devil or asking God for power so they can do the job for him. So Christians wear themselves out fighting this opposing power so God can do what he wants to do. May the Lord open the eyes of his people to see how they have been deceived just like Eve in the garden, shadow boxing with an unseen and unreal opponent that is a figment of their imagination.
I know that such a statement will bring the wrath of many people upon me, and from the religious standpoint it could be justified, for if you took the “Devil” out of Christianity most Christians would not know what to do. I have no intention of trying to prove the correctness of the statement I made because once you eat the fruit of the tree of the KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL; you are experiencing a condition that God calls D-E-A-T-H. This state exists not because you are bad or wicked, but because your understanding of God is now based upon a knowledge that is supplied through your natural or carnal mind, for this is what the SERPENT and the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents. Remember God warned mankind NOT TO EAT THE FRUIT, or consider that your natural mind has the KNOWLEDGE that will allow you to KNOW or UNDERSTAND GOD. Eve represents the SOUL that functions through the natural MIND, the emotions and the WILL. God is spirit therefore only SPIRIT can truly know SPIRIT, but the “Natural man CANNOT receive the things that pertain to spirit, neither can he know them for they must be spiritually discerned.” 1Cor 2:14. The LIVING SOUL has no capacity to know God, for she is functioning out of the deception initiated by the serpent, who convinced Eve that she would not die if she ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Today we know she was deceived by the snake, but we are convinced by the same snake that we are smarter than she was and so we will not die.
For those who have ears to hear let them hear what the spirit is saying to his people today. If we trust our natural mind to supply us with true knowledge that will allow us to rightly identify the true God we will spend our money buying the myriad books on the market in our search for the knowledge that we believe we have, but deep down our search continues. Christians are out many nights in the week at Bible Studies to satisfy the lack in our knowledge of TRUTH. New Age has succeeded in drawing many to its banqueting table, but even there the search continues.
Now let us see if there is an answer to the search in everyman’s heart to KNOW the TRUE GOD, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. There are two distinct roads that are available to mankind in his search for TRUTH. The first one was demonstrated in the Garden of Eden that was prepared for the Man created in the likeness and image of God. We are told that every day Adam walked and talked with God as they were carried along by the Spirit. At that time Adam had a body but it was spirit and not flesh and blood. So we do not see Adam walking as humans do today with “God” walking alongside him, or sitting together on the grass. In this spiritual setting, God and MAN were ONE functioning together in perfect harmony, so if you saw God there in the Garden, you would see the MAN. If you saw the MAN you would see God for they were of the same substance. Under these conditions the MAN knew God as intimately as he could know himself, flowing together as a single stream. Was there any further knowledge that the MAN needed to enable him to know God more intimately? I do not think so, because in their RELATIONSHIP there was nothing of God that was hidden from the MAN, and nothing of the MAN that was hidden from God. Did the MAN know that God loved him, or did he need someone to come and tell him? Everything was provided for him without any lack whatsoever so in practical ways the character of God had been made evident to Adam.
But there is another pathway that most people have walked in their quest to know God in Truth, and that is the pathway of KNOWLEDGE. It is the pathway most traveled and it is called religion. More books have been written on this subject than any other, and these are eagerly sort after by God’s people. Religion is man’s personal attempt to find and know God, which must always end in frustration, for God is spirit. When a young person is drawn to the Lord and he desires to serve him he is immediately advised to go to a Bible School, or a theological School. This is the usual advice that is given because to serve the Lord we believe that we must know the Bible and understand theology. The reality is that the Bible School teachers will teach you only what they know according to the religious system they belong to. So the student becomes an extension of that particular religious organization that goes out to indoctrinate others into the same religious beliefs. He will usually become a missionary or a Pastor helping to build their kingdom.
I had been a missionary and a Pastor for many years until at the age of 40 my life changed dramatically. The reason for this change was that for the first time in my life I HEARD THE VOICE OF GOD. However what Father was saying to me contradicted so much of what I had been taught by men, which confused me at first. But as I meditated on what I was hearing it was like someone had just turned on the LIGHT and many things became clear that I had not understood before. I began to share just a little of what Father was saying to me but many Christians rejected what I was sharing as being heresy. I discovered that everything that I knew about God I had been taught by men who had been taught by other men. What was the difference between the doctrines of MAN and the teachings of Jesus Christ? Man’s doctrines could be debated according to the religious concepts established in the world, but TRUTH IS ABSOLUTE. Jesus Christ said, “I AM THE TRUTH.” Here was a person who did not just come to preach the truth, but he was IN HIMSELF the embodiment of the truth concerning God. What ever was true about God would be evident in the LIFE and BEING of Jesus Christ, so there could be no argument.
So many Christians believe we have an angry GOD who will destroy those who do not repent, in a Burning Hell forever. Is this true, in relation to Jesus Christ who IS THE TRUTH? Did he kill people who did not repent by destroying them forever? Just one example should be sufficient to let us know that such a concept of God is absolutely wrong, and that is when Jesus Christ hung on the cross between two criminals. He looked upon those who crucified him and said, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” This does not seem to me to manifest an angry God, and he is the TRUTH. In John 5:39 Jesus said to the people of his day, “You search the scriptures for in them you think (Mind activity) you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me but you will not come to ME, Jesus Christ, that you might have life.” They never established a relationship with Christ who said, “I and my Father are ONE.”
Again Jesus Christ challenged those who wanted to help him in the ministry, saying in Matthew 7:21 “Not every one that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
There are two key words that must be understood in what Jesus said, and the first is the fact that the people called Jesus LORD. The word LORD in the Greek actually means, “The OWNER.” So few Christians today recognize that each person belongs to the LORD, and that he actually OWNS US. We have no right to use our body for any purpose other than God’s will in our lives. Psalm 24:1 says “The earth is the LORDS…. it belongs to him.” But there is another word that also needs to be clarified and that is what Jesus said to those who had done miracles and other great things in his name, but in the end he declared, “Depart from me for I NEVER KNEW YOU.” It is the word to KNOW, which in the Greek is “Ginosko” and has a much deeper meaning than our English concept. Strong’s Concordance tells us that it carries a knowledge far beyond that which is intellectual. It means the knowledge that a man has of his WIFE in marriage. The Hebrew equivalent “YAW-DAH” is found in Gen 4:1 where it says, “And Adam KNEW HIS WIFE.”
This knowledge in not intellectual, but comes as a result of the most intimate relationship that we can have with another person. This is the desire that the Apostle Paul expressed when he said, “That I might KNOW him and the power of his resurrection.” Phil 3:10. Paul was not speaking about doing some study to help him to know Jesus Christ but to develop such a relationship with him that would eclipse the closest relationship we can have on this earth. Of course we are not speaking of anything physical or sensual but the pinnacle of a love relationship consummated in the spirit. When Paul was arrested by Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus his life was transformed, but not by KNOWLEDGE in the intellectual sense. He responded out of a part of his being that had never been activated before, the spirit that was in him. That Spirit is CHRIST who is Omni-present, which means that he is everywhere, and there is no place where he cannot be found. He is also Omniscient which means that he knows everything there is to know about God, and full of wisdom. He is also Omnipotent which means that he is all-powerful, so he could say, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,” and he is your true identity for you were created in him.
Moses spoke a word to Israel that I feel is just as applicable today as it was when he spoke the words.
“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you LIFE and DEATH, blessing and cursing, therefore choose LIFE so that both you and your seed shall live, and love the Lord they God and obey his voice, and that you will cleave unto him, for he is YOUR LIFE, and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the Land, which the Lord has given to you.”
May the Lord give you understanding of these things
In His Love Des Walter 24-4-07
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