TWO TREES

9-30-17   Audio on Soundcloud

A little more than eighteen months ago a man was struck by the Holy Spirit like a bolt of lightning.  The simple words of His voice, “What Am I Doing Right Now?”, ignited a glorious and galvanizing blast to the spirit of the man.  It revolutionized and fundamentally transformed him with the understanding, God is not now, nor has he ever been sought, but in all ways, He seeks and leads by His Spirit with love and grace and that yoke is easy because it is for anyone with an ear to hear and a heart to follow.

Over the course of these seasons, a deep confirmation of life has been found in the voice of the Spirit.  The man, laid open on the inside to the river of life, has been fed by these waters and the power of the precious voice of the Spirit has induced enthusiasm and nourishment to the spirit of the man. The continual intrigue into what He says has developed an eternal enclave in the heart of the man aptly named, “The Ponder Stop”.  Through this gateway the Spirit brings all things pertaining to life and godliness.  These unsought, but piercing expressions have been offered in indescribable authority, while at the same time revealing a beauty in the hidden treasure of His words.  The continual consideration and conversation extended here has led the man to understand that he lives off of this intercession of God in repentance.

In the latest stop along this river of life His desired topic of conversation was freedom, spinning on the axle of this statement;  It is for freedom’s sake that Christ has set you free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1.  And with this awareness, as they rested there for a few months, the living waters turning over, flushing and flowing into the heart of the man took him back to the beginning, the very beginning.  There, for the sake of freedom, the Spirit authored questions and illustrated a view of the garden the man had never seen before.

He became aware of a rising tide of deep intrigue inside, inspiring desire to understand what had been planted at the center of the garden and why?  Freedom for freedom’s sake still in the offing, the Spirit began to illuminate and describe the nature of the center of the garden, the goodness of the fruit and the glory of God in it all.  For there, resonating unmistakably, at the center of the garden, were life and death, the glorious and sovereign fruit of the two trees.

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Now choose life so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen for His voice and hold fast to Him. Deut. 30:19-20

In freedom, God placed the man he had formed in the garden.  A location in the East, in Eden.  Many trees were made to grow from the ground; trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.  In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  It was there, as the Lord God spoke to Adam, the first mention of freedom is found in scripture.  He told Adam, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:16

In the Spirit’s discourse He posed some questions to me regarding the appearance of fairness to man and the motivation of God.  Asking; “Was God tempting Adam by saying you are free to eat from any tree, making them pleasing to the eye and good for food.  Placing them right in front of him at the center of the garden and then saying, don’t eat this one or you will die in the day you do?  Was this all just a sadistic trap?  A cosmic joke being played out?  Who could resist?”  Who could resist, indeed.

If you have been granted an inkling of the sovereign nature of God; His eternal desire to unveil the fullness of His truth, power, glory and Kingdom to man; His image and the freedom offered in creation for mankind to dwell in the love of His unity; then the conclusion of His motivations for the garden must exclude Him being sadistic or a tempter.

But He raised these questions to me to prove Himself in all truth.  How is it possible to be good for food, yet cause the man to die in the day that he eats from it?   If man was indeed free to eat from any tree and they were all good for food, why would he die in the day he ate from that particular tree?

In these many hours, days and weeks of allowing His intercession to flow over and deposit insight, the simple answer I have heard is this: “It was indeed good for food and it was pleasing to the eye, glorious in the sight of God.  But that tree wasn’t food for that man Adam, it was the food for another man, the Son of Man, the lamb of God slain from the foundations of the world.  He and only He was and is worthy to eat the fruit of that tree because He has overcome this world.”

Stop and ponder that one for a while.

If you allow His freedom it’s course, it just might begin to make perfect sense to you as well.  The Spirit has illuminated proof to me, in reminding me of the words Jesus spoke and the works He performed regarding condemnation, unforgiveness and judgement (C.U.J as He has been relaying it to me recently).  He showed me that the life and purpose of Jesus lines up perfectly with the understanding of the fruit of these two trees.  But don’t let it trip you up here if it isn’t clear yet.  Hold on to the understanding of these two trees in freedom, as one more element of the garden is brought into the picture.

With potential uncertainty in His “simple answer” notwithstanding, He also pointed out the nature of a competing condescending voice to the voice of God that Adam could hear in the garden.  He asked regarding this voice, Why?  Why was this distinct voice present and audible to man?  Truly the sovereign God had to have known the man would follow that voice.  Again posing the question, was God leading Adam into temptation, setting up failure for the man by allowing another voice to have access to him?  A voice of coercion and derision that was insinuating a lack in man and a possible jealousy or fear in God that He didn’t want man to be like Him knowing good and evil?

These two points, the two trees and their fruit being pleasing to the eye, good for food, but one bringing death in the day it was eaten and allowing a competing voice to the sovereign voice of God in the garden were sparked by the Spirit for conversation in light of freedom for freedoms sake.  He initiated these points to prove that for all eternity the motivation and reasoning of God has revolved around His desire to lead mankind into all truth in freedom.

In the corrupted mind of man or that of a serpent, governed by the knowledge of good and evil one might ask why the Spirit of truth would even bring these points up in conversation.  These two issues of good trees that should not be eaten and voices that can be heard but should not be followed seem to offer up a problematic conundrum for God, as if He is double minded or again, a tease and tempter who deliberately and maliciously set up all creation, and man in particular, to fail.

But that isn’t the truth about God’s complexion on the face of creation.  What He has shown me is the garden was and is a reflection and reenactment of the spiritual realm.  A microcosm of the eternal gift of life God held out to all His creation in freedom.  Prior to man, great failure and rebellion took place in freedom where the created willfully broke from His unity yet, still sought to operate and exercise the attributes and abilities uniquely characteristic to the creator while simultaneously denying the glory due and power thereof.  Does any of this sound familiar?

Through man in the garden a foreshadow of God’s eternal plan was set in place.  In freedom, as a testimony to all eternity, He created man in His image, made to glorify God in lifting up the standard for the love of His unity.  The garden would be a reiteration to the heavenly beings who had tasted and known the goodness and glory of His unity and rebelled.  Through the creation of man, being a little lower then the heavenly beings, the Lord God would make a testimony to all creation of the portion coming due to those in the rebellion.  Man was created as a testimony to God’s glory, fabricated in innocent ignorance of the prior heavenly existence,  yet with perfect capacity to live in repentance, with, after and behind the voice of the one and only true God.  The unity He desires would be made complete.

This reiteration of God and His desire for us to live in the love of the unity He dwells in would be proven out through the son of man, resulting in Him being crowned with God’s glory.  The very thing the rebellion sought in it’s own power.  Jesus said it like this, “He who wants to save his life will loose it; but whoever looses his life for my sake will find it; and …I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but for the one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away.  But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be King over them – bring them here and kill them in front of me”.

In order to uphold His word and lead us into all truth, life and death were placed in the center of the garden before man.  The contrarian voice, the rebellion to God’s unity and the choice in freedom between life and death were re-authored in the garden.  If you can see it, it was a statement to the rebellion that having once been enlightened, seen the heavenly glory, been acquainted with the goodness of the creator there would be no reconciliation or restoration to that former glory.

Out of the soil of the earth a lowly being would be created in freedom and even fail similar to the rebellion, but God who is rich in mercy would restore the failure for they acted out of ignorance and unbelief.  Indeed, the breaking of unity would be overcome by God Himself and mankind would triumph over the the accuser, that contrarian voice, by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.

God’s desire was and always has been to lead His human creation into all truth in freedom and this mandated both trees be at the center of the garden along with the voice of dissent.  Full disclosure of all the pieces in play, with His faithful leading and guidance in freedom to choose.

The two trees represent the bookends of all creation.  The first shall be last and the last shall be first.  They encapsulated the way, the truth and the life as well as the judgment and death to those in rebellion to the leading of His voice, the voice of the King who calls for unity in Him.

At the end of the age when the books are opened judgement will be executed by this King, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, for He has overcome the world.  As He walked the earth in millennia past, God was in Him reconciling the world to Himself, not counting men’s sins against them.  Jesus took up His cross, surrendered His will that the will of God would be done through Him.  He did not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but freely gave of the tree of life.  Jesus taking on the form of a man upheld the word from the garden offering freedom to man to choose life.  Proclaiming liberty to the captives and freedom to the oppressed he admonished those who would follow him to abstain from condemnation, unforgivenness and judgement, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Because He did not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but died to it’s fruit.  He therefore will have the honor to open the books, break the seals and rightly divide between life and death, the sheep and the goats the wheat and the chaff.  When the books are opened these two trees will again be at the center of it all.

There will be those who have entered into His glorious life because they listened for and followed His voice eating from the tree of life and giving Him all the glory.  And there will be those who have inherited death because they followed another voice and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, arbitrating degrees of righteousness for themselves and others, without paying the cost of it’s fruit.

The issue of the Two Trees is so deep and there are so many aspects of their purpose in placement in the garden, that another dispatch has proven to be necessary.  Many notes and thoughts were penned for this writing, but were shed from this piece because they didn’t expressly relate to the Holy Spirit returning me to the garden. They will be the nuts and bolts of the next message.  One thing I am led to leave you with, a revelation of God that you should ponder, consider and seek for the understanding.  God’s exhortation in the garden:  “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die,” is an eternal statement.  For the word of God and call of God does not change.  That exhortation still stands today.  This will be the leading edge into the next missive for it has become necessary to deal with these Two Trees Twice.