The Trees in the Garden of Eden (Part 2)
/I went through
the root fear
we all face and
how we conquer that fear.
We delve into the role of love and fear and
our role as sons and daughters of God.
Why it's so important that we find
our true individual identities
in relationship with God, so that we can be
a stronger community.
If you haven't,
before getting into the actual trees, but
part 2 will still make sense if you don't.
The Trees in the Garden of Eden
The two trees we hear of in the garden of Eden were the
Tree of Life (#1)
and the
Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil (#2)
.
Note,
it's not just "the Tree of Knowledge". I'm sure growing up you, too, were taught that when the Word said
"their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked"
, it meant they
suddenly knew too much; things they didn't know before.
Recently, however, God took me on another very visual, very vivid journey, to reveal
this new perspective.
(It is so true that no one knows the whole mind of Christ. It is beautiful that He gave us a lifetime of mystery and relationship with Him to learn it! So amazing, our God!)
All the knowledge we had was shrunk to knowledge of just good and evil.
In short, I've learned that the Knowledge of Good and Evil shrank the Knowledge of Life in it's Fullness to just black and white, good and evil, perpetual judgement. Get it?
Tree of Life, Tree #1,
revealed to us the
full range of colours,
the role of good and evil in the midst of the rest of life, and
the role of Love
in keeping everything else in place, in the 'right' roles. Perhaps this will help:
Tree #1 (Life) / Tree #2 (Knowledge of Good & Evil)
All colours (which make up white, coincidentally) / Black and white only (oh, and grey *sigh*)
All: good, evil, beauty, Love, growth, learning / Good and evil (and constant fear of falling)
Love keeping perfect balance, harmony / Perpetual judgement (fear of falling)
Source:
lovecoversall-godislove.blogspot.ca/2015/02/the-trees-in-garden-of-eden-part-2.html
You see, Adam and Eve didn't not recognize evil because it was in it's place, when they had only seen Life to the Fullest.
They enjoyed what was good because by contrast evil shows us that good is good - that way good is never boring or 'status quo'. Remember, the enemy fell before they came - they always knew he was always there - but they (and he) always knew his place, until they submitted to him. That is why it's called the Fall. They, we (we would have done the same thing),
fell from the
Full Knowledge of Life
to the mere
knowledge of Good and Evil.
Good news!
This is why
Jesus Christ's
coming, our LORD and Saviour, is just that - salvation - because
He restored to us the capacity to see that, again.
Our gospel is that!
Hence, Love is His message!
God is His message! God is Love! We utter words and don't hear our selves. Try this: Say it out loud and sit with it -
God is Love!
Are you free now to walk in that?
The Fullness of Life
A huge part of knowing the Fullness of Life, in Christ,
is knowing the place of Good and Evil in that Fullness. It is, then, that we begin living from a place of
restoring our Knowledge of the Fullness of Life.
That means dropping all that baggage - perfection, appearances, joggling balls, fears - and
choosing to walk (doing it, afraid or not) exactly as you truly are,
skeletons and all, right now. You will literally feel it physically: you breath more deeply, more slowly, your shoulders relax (or you finally realize they hurt! Lol), you stand straighter.
You simply are. No pressure.
No burden. You see,
we were not designed to carry all that weight.
That baggage is what came with the Knowledge of (only) Good and Evil.
That baggage is why death entered the equation. All that stress destroys us, and the enemy continues to deceive us into thinking
"oh, that's just the way it goes".
It doesn't have to be. It's why Christ revealed that it is this very body that will be transfigured. Why not start now? First, we have to accept and love our current selves, good, bad and other, before we can go any further. As long as you're holding on to all that baggage, your hands will be too full to walk out of that prison -
the prison you created after Christ died to free us from it.
This is what Christ died to give us.
That is
reconciliation with God
and
walking in Life Abundantly.
I know and honour the fact that this is not likely a perspective you've heard before. I just want you to know that. If you can see it, however, if this has awakened something in you or if it's put together all the pieces of a puzzle for you,
I'm honoured to have been a part of that.
Be & Love the True You
If you truly lived this, being true to who you are,
where you are, at all times, then light will always shine on what needs to change or a new opportunity for growth.
Your truth will illuminate your next level of learning and growth.
As you explore that new area of growth
in freedom, love and faith
(instead of the bondage of doubt, fear of doing wrong and guilt/shame),
you will enjoy it!
You will enjoy learning
"wow! all the time I thought X, and God's revealed Y to be true."
You'll want to learn more, no? Making mistakes is a part of the growth process! Learning from experience rather than the words of others is a part of the growth process.
Being a part of your own growth process is relationship with God!
Your pastor, priest, mentor, counselor cannot have that relationship on your behalf.
You have to live it.
You need to love it, however, in order to keep wanting to do it!
Look back on your life.
We make mistakes and then we see all the "negative consequences" of our action and we think
"I'm paying for..."
Isn't that, technically, blasphemy, if Christ was supposed to have paid? Aren't we supposed to truly repent,
and know that it's been paid for?
Take a look at one mistake you made
that you can see the trail of "consequences" for. I'd like to invite you, now, to
look at that same mistake, and see what you've learned from it,
what good things came out of what you learned, what good things you've learned about yourself, and how you can use all of that to empower, encourage, others who perhaps have made the same or similar mistakes.
Can you?
I'll ask the questions from the image in
, again:
Source:
lovecoversall-godislove.blogspot.ca/2015/02/the-trees-in-garden-of-eden-part-1.html
Write me or comment and let me know your thoughts?
I truly believe that as we discover our purpose in Christ, through relationship with Him, our lives will be the examples that empower others to do the same.
