I've noticed that some people get confused over the difference between the tree of life in the garden of Eden, and the breath of life when God first breathed into Adam to make him a living soul.
By that I mean I've recently heard some people teaching that when God breathed into Adam the breath of life, that was God imparting Himself into Adam.
Of course that generates the question of what the purpose and results would have been if Adam and Eve had eaten of the tree of life in the Garden, and how it was different from the the breath of life God breathed into Adam's nostrils, where afterwards it was announced he was now a living soul.
If God had imparted part of Himself to Adam when he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, that means the tree of life would have to have had another type of life accompanying it, which would really be a stretch to believe.
Now why is this important? Because man in the state he was in after being brought to life, even though in the image of God, wasn't properly lined up with the order God wanted his being to have.
In other words, man wasn't meant to stay as a living soul, as God had more for him. When man was created, God gave him a spirit, soul and body. And while that was the image of God, the soul had yet to become submitted to the spirit in the way God intended, as something else had to happen before that was possible.
The soul will dominate unless the spirit is submitted to by the soul, and that can only happen with the life of Jesus Christ Himself being received by a person.
That's still the same today when someone becomes a believer in Christ, as the potential for the spirit of man, because he has been regenerated by the indwelling of the Spirit of God, which birthed Himself in man at the moment of belief, now can become the source of life if the soul of man will line itself up in submission the Spirit of God, which is now dwelling within the spirit of that individual.
It's vital to understand all of this because if someone confuses the breath of life with Jesus Christ, who has always been the tree of life, it can cause us to miss exactly what is that Christianity, in its essence, is.
The life of God in Christ was inherent in the tree of life in the Garden. If man had eaten of the tree of life, that's when the life of God would have entered into him, not before.
That's the very reason God put a cherubim in charge of protecting access to it so man couldn't take the life of God within himself at that time, as now the need for a Savior to come was part of the equation, and the Spirit wouldn't be given until it happened at Pentecost, thousands of years later.
All of this is significant in understanding that when the life of Christ indwells a believer, the soul, if it submits to the Spirit of God, will be changed and led by the Spirit of God.
This is the reason the scriptures mention that "Christ in Us" is the "hope of glory." It's not simply a reference to going to heaven after we die, but of an indwelling Lord who takes up residence within us in an intimate way, where we are changed into His image as we submit unto his Lordship.
The bottom line is Jesus is the tree of life, and only when we partake of Him in the Spirit do we have the life of God permeating our being.
Ultimately that leads to the soul lowering itself under the hand of the Spirit within so God can in fact, be the Lord of our lives.
To mistake the breath of life as when the life of God enters us, will cause us to miss out on the fact that man, at that moment, was only a living soul, He needed to eat of the tree of life to the very life of God could enter into and fill him, making him a spiritual man.
Remember, the tree of life was located in the center of the Garden of Eden. That means it was central to all of the eternal purpose of God. Again, it's all about the indwelling of the Lord Jesus Christ in our innermost man that Christianity is, and to miss that is to miss almost everything related to God.
Showing posts with label Garden of Eden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Garden of Eden. Show all posts
Monday, July 2, 2012
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Before we get into some important aspects of the matrix of Christ, let's get a basic definition of what matrix means, as many will think of the movie and the artificial world it revealed.
First of all, matrix comes from the Latin word "mater," which means mother, essentially referring to the womb.
It's a place where something originates, takes form, develops or is embedded.
While the word and what it means can be applied across many disciplines, we only want to look at it as it applies to Christ, because it gives some valuable insight into who He is and the purpose of His church.
Now, have you ever wondered what it would have been like if Adam and Eve hadn't eaten of the wrong tree, and instead had partaken of the tree of life?
You see, Adam and Eve were supposed to be a matrix of Christ. They were supposed to internalize Him by eating of His fruit, as portrayed by the tree of life. If that had happened, they would have had children born outside of what we call the old man, the first adam, and would instead have seen the new man spread across the earth from
the beginning.
For even though Adam and Eve were without sin, they were in reality incomplete in the sense of not partaking in the most important reason for their creation: fulfilling the eternal purpose of God, which was to fill them with Himself in Christ. That's what Jesus as the tree of life in the center of the garden was there for.
Adam and Eve were made in the image of God, but they weren't in the order of God, in that their spirits didn't have Him indwelling them. To have eaten of the Christ as the tree of life would have enlivened their spirits unto God, and as such, began the fulfillment of the purpose of God in creating man.
When I say they weren't in the order of God, I mean their souls hadn't subjected themselves to their spirits because to do that they had to eat of Christ. Once they did that their spirits would have been filled with God and their beings subject to and from heaven, rather than to the earth and flesh.
Basically Adam and Eve were between two worlds. The world of God and Satan, and they had a choice of which life they were going to live by, they had a decision to make. The decision was which world they were going to allow to enter into them.
In other words, man was built to be a container, a matrix. One way or the other that will happen, that's a choice we're not given. It will either be from a higher life or a lower life. There is no middle ground.
Those that attempt to live in the middle ground end up with mixture, which is one of the more hated things in the eyes of God, as it brings confusion to those viewing and/or partaking in it. That's the counterfeit woman called Babylon, also mentioned in book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ as the Great Whore.
It's interesting to note that the offer to eat of the tree of life was rejected again when Jesus physically appeared on the earth. When did that happen? When He told his followers they must eat His flesh and drink His blood. They again decided to reject God's eternal purpose of filling His chosen matrix of His people with
Himself.
To help us understand this a little, Jesus followed up His statement by saying His words are spirit and life. In other words, quit looking at things outwardly or hearing things He taught carnally. We must learn that He lived from another life than His own, and so are we to. And the words He spoke were about and from another realm.
That's why He encouraged us to pray for His kingdom to come and will be done on earth as it was in heaven. This is one reason why what is called the Lord's supper by most, where Jesus told us to eat it in remembrance of Him, is more than likely not referring to simply remembering His name or what he's done, as that's not too hard to do for any halfway serious Christian.
Rather, I think He's referring to what internalizing Him as the tree of life means; what it means to eat His flesh and drink His blood. We are to remember as we digest food and get physical sustanence, to also digest or internalize Him, and to receive our much more important spiritual sustanence.
What does it mean? That we are one with Him. That we are to be in union with Him. He is the bread of life that we are to eat of and internalize. I think that this is much more in line with what the rest of the scriptures reveal than simply eating unto the Lord to remember Him with the idea that we somehow forgot He existed.
What being a matrix of Christ means One important aspect of all this in our practical lives is that being a matrix is much different in being a place where Christ dwells, than it is in how He dwells in the overall universe.
Christ dwells in the physical universe, which is said to be continually expanding. The universe or heaven of heavens can't contain Him.
So when He dwells in the spirits of His people, He's doing something different than simply having a general presence there. He is very active within us, and He is working to shape and form Himself within.
The only matrix or container that can hold who He is is His people. That's much more than just carrying Him around within us, it's a deep working and shaping of Himself within us: individually and corporately. It's a very practical process that happens over our lifetimes if we have a revelation of it and allow it to. It is primarily meant to happen organically within a group of believers.
What is it God wants to happen in all this? Looking at it from the garden of Eden perspective, He's bringing two worlds together, which in reality is what the garden of Eden really was. It was where physical man and the invisible God met. Both worlds at the time were able to be seen by Adam and Eve.
When I say He's bringing two worlds together, I mean that what is real in the invisible world is to be just as real or mirrored in the visible world. Eden was the invisible and visible worlds meeting and where invisible and visible beings interacted and lived; most importantly God and man, who were created in His image.
Now of course the two worlds are out of balance because of the sin of man, but the people of God are meant to bring the two worlds back together again, in the sense of His kingdom coming and His will being done in both realms. (Realms is probably a better description than worlds.)
Bringing the two worlds together as one can only be done through redeemed believers in union with Christ. Not in union theoretically, positionally or revelationally - but practically.
The amazing gift of God to His people as it relates to the realms we dwell in, is that He has made us into a hybrid creature, built to dwell in the visible and invisible realms at once.
The whole idea of the eternal purpose of God is to reveal Himself in man in two different realms, where there is nothing that contradicts one another. He does it through filling everything with Himself. That is the road Christ has given us to travel, and it's what has been in the heart and mind of God from before the beginning.
First of all, matrix comes from the Latin word "mater," which means mother, essentially referring to the womb.
It's a place where something originates, takes form, develops or is embedded.
While the word and what it means can be applied across many disciplines, we only want to look at it as it applies to Christ, because it gives some valuable insight into who He is and the purpose of His church.
Now, have you ever wondered what it would have been like if Adam and Eve hadn't eaten of the wrong tree, and instead had partaken of the tree of life?
You see, Adam and Eve were supposed to be a matrix of Christ. They were supposed to internalize Him by eating of His fruit, as portrayed by the tree of life. If that had happened, they would have had children born outside of what we call the old man, the first adam, and would instead have seen the new man spread across the earth from
the beginning.
For even though Adam and Eve were without sin, they were in reality incomplete in the sense of not partaking in the most important reason for their creation: fulfilling the eternal purpose of God, which was to fill them with Himself in Christ. That's what Jesus as the tree of life in the center of the garden was there for.
Adam and Eve were made in the image of God, but they weren't in the order of God, in that their spirits didn't have Him indwelling them. To have eaten of the Christ as the tree of life would have enlivened their spirits unto God, and as such, began the fulfillment of the purpose of God in creating man.
When I say they weren't in the order of God, I mean their souls hadn't subjected themselves to their spirits because to do that they had to eat of Christ. Once they did that their spirits would have been filled with God and their beings subject to and from heaven, rather than to the earth and flesh.
Basically Adam and Eve were between two worlds. The world of God and Satan, and they had a choice of which life they were going to live by, they had a decision to make. The decision was which world they were going to allow to enter into them.
In other words, man was built to be a container, a matrix. One way or the other that will happen, that's a choice we're not given. It will either be from a higher life or a lower life. There is no middle ground.
Those that attempt to live in the middle ground end up with mixture, which is one of the more hated things in the eyes of God, as it brings confusion to those viewing and/or partaking in it. That's the counterfeit woman called Babylon, also mentioned in book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ as the Great Whore.
It's interesting to note that the offer to eat of the tree of life was rejected again when Jesus physically appeared on the earth. When did that happen? When He told his followers they must eat His flesh and drink His blood. They again decided to reject God's eternal purpose of filling His chosen matrix of His people with
Himself.
To help us understand this a little, Jesus followed up His statement by saying His words are spirit and life. In other words, quit looking at things outwardly or hearing things He taught carnally. We must learn that He lived from another life than His own, and so are we to. And the words He spoke were about and from another realm.
That's why He encouraged us to pray for His kingdom to come and will be done on earth as it was in heaven. This is one reason why what is called the Lord's supper by most, where Jesus told us to eat it in remembrance of Him, is more than likely not referring to simply remembering His name or what he's done, as that's not too hard to do for any halfway serious Christian.
Rather, I think He's referring to what internalizing Him as the tree of life means; what it means to eat His flesh and drink His blood. We are to remember as we digest food and get physical sustanence, to also digest or internalize Him, and to receive our much more important spiritual sustanence.
What does it mean? That we are one with Him. That we are to be in union with Him. He is the bread of life that we are to eat of and internalize. I think that this is much more in line with what the rest of the scriptures reveal than simply eating unto the Lord to remember Him with the idea that we somehow forgot He existed.
What being a matrix of Christ means One important aspect of all this in our practical lives is that being a matrix is much different in being a place where Christ dwells, than it is in how He dwells in the overall universe.
Christ dwells in the physical universe, which is said to be continually expanding. The universe or heaven of heavens can't contain Him.
So when He dwells in the spirits of His people, He's doing something different than simply having a general presence there. He is very active within us, and He is working to shape and form Himself within.
The only matrix or container that can hold who He is is His people. That's much more than just carrying Him around within us, it's a deep working and shaping of Himself within us: individually and corporately. It's a very practical process that happens over our lifetimes if we have a revelation of it and allow it to. It is primarily meant to happen organically within a group of believers.
What is it God wants to happen in all this? Looking at it from the garden of Eden perspective, He's bringing two worlds together, which in reality is what the garden of Eden really was. It was where physical man and the invisible God met. Both worlds at the time were able to be seen by Adam and Eve.
When I say He's bringing two worlds together, I mean that what is real in the invisible world is to be just as real or mirrored in the visible world. Eden was the invisible and visible worlds meeting and where invisible and visible beings interacted and lived; most importantly God and man, who were created in His image.
Now of course the two worlds are out of balance because of the sin of man, but the people of God are meant to bring the two worlds back together again, in the sense of His kingdom coming and His will being done in both realms. (Realms is probably a better description than worlds.)
Bringing the two worlds together as one can only be done through redeemed believers in union with Christ. Not in union theoretically, positionally or revelationally - but practically.
The amazing gift of God to His people as it relates to the realms we dwell in, is that He has made us into a hybrid creature, built to dwell in the visible and invisible realms at once.
The whole idea of the eternal purpose of God is to reveal Himself in man in two different realms, where there is nothing that contradicts one another. He does it through filling everything with Himself. That is the road Christ has given us to travel, and it's what has been in the heart and mind of God from before the beginning.
a
Saturday, May 10, 2008
One interesting thing when reading the story about Adam and Eve and the tree of life, is God never said a thing about it. Read it and see at the beginning. It is mentioned that the tree of life was in the center of the garden, but it doesn't say God communicates anything about that to Adam - before the bringing to life of Eve, or afterwards. It only says they can eat of any tree in Eden, with the exception of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Another interesting and enlightening part of the story, is right next to the tree of life in the center of the garden, is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Both are said to be in the center of the garden, which means they were side by side.
That seems to speak to them being competitive in nature, and opposing possibilities.
I've heard some say that the reason it was sin to partake in it was because mankind prematurely reached for knowledge before partaking of life. I think that's completely wrong and false. Those who assert that are intellectuals who attempt to justify their way of thinking and interaction with the scriptures. They're wrong.
How do I know they're wrong? Look at the last part of the book of Revelation. Along with the throne being in the center of New Jerusalem, there is also the tree of life and the river. Where do you see the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? It's not there. And it's not there because it doesn't belong there.
Inside this city, which is the people of God, there is only one tree, and that tree is Jesus Christ - the tree of life. To say the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a separate part of God is ridiculous to assert.
That would mean that Jesus Christ as the word of God really didn't contain the full thought of the Father. When Jesus said He and the Father were one, He was saying if you see Me you see the Father. To make it look like there was something more to the Father that was kept from Christ wouldn't make any sense, and would make Jesus a liar, or minimally confused. We know that isn't true, so these types of assertions are wrong, and the people making them confused.
When Jesus is referred to as the word of God, it means everything that God had to say in and through Him was represented; that's why Jesus is called the Word of God. He was the full representation of who the Father was. So to have a second tree being something of God but not represented by the life of the Father in Christ would be complete confusion and contrary to what the scriptures reveal throughout them of Christ.
The trees were two competing life forms, or rather, two ways of living. Life is defined by Christ as fellowship with the Godhead and man, so life in that sense can't be ascribed to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Just like Satan exists, but he's not life, but rather murder and death. Because something's alive doesn't mean it gives life. That's why Adam was commanded by God to guard the garden, which he immediately failed to do.
So here we are in the garden of Eden where God put Adam and Eve, and we have all this abundance available as expressed by God through trees to eat, with only one guideline: that they refrain from eating from one tree. That was it!
In the middle of paradise where mankind was placed, we have the history of man about to be decided, as the great enemy of manking attempts to immediately move them off of the eternal purpose of God, which as we know now, he was successful in doing.
It all centered around what man was going to internalize. God was saying we have to be careful what we eat, and He wasn't talking about natural food for the body.
Jesus Christ: The Tree of Life Series
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
a
Another interesting and enlightening part of the story, is right next to the tree of life in the center of the garden, is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Both are said to be in the center of the garden, which means they were side by side.
That seems to speak to them being competitive in nature, and opposing possibilities.
I've heard some say that the reason it was sin to partake in it was because mankind prematurely reached for knowledge before partaking of life. I think that's completely wrong and false. Those who assert that are intellectuals who attempt to justify their way of thinking and interaction with the scriptures. They're wrong.
How do I know they're wrong? Look at the last part of the book of Revelation. Along with the throne being in the center of New Jerusalem, there is also the tree of life and the river. Where do you see the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? It's not there. And it's not there because it doesn't belong there.
Inside this city, which is the people of God, there is only one tree, and that tree is Jesus Christ - the tree of life. To say the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a separate part of God is ridiculous to assert.
That would mean that Jesus Christ as the word of God really didn't contain the full thought of the Father. When Jesus said He and the Father were one, He was saying if you see Me you see the Father. To make it look like there was something more to the Father that was kept from Christ wouldn't make any sense, and would make Jesus a liar, or minimally confused. We know that isn't true, so these types of assertions are wrong, and the people making them confused.
When Jesus is referred to as the word of God, it means everything that God had to say in and through Him was represented; that's why Jesus is called the Word of God. He was the full representation of who the Father was. So to have a second tree being something of God but not represented by the life of the Father in Christ would be complete confusion and contrary to what the scriptures reveal throughout them of Christ.
The trees were two competing life forms, or rather, two ways of living. Life is defined by Christ as fellowship with the Godhead and man, so life in that sense can't be ascribed to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Just like Satan exists, but he's not life, but rather murder and death. Because something's alive doesn't mean it gives life. That's why Adam was commanded by God to guard the garden, which he immediately failed to do.
So here we are in the garden of Eden where God put Adam and Eve, and we have all this abundance available as expressed by God through trees to eat, with only one guideline: that they refrain from eating from one tree. That was it!
In the middle of paradise where mankind was placed, we have the history of man about to be decided, as the great enemy of manking attempts to immediately move them off of the eternal purpose of God, which as we know now, he was successful in doing.
It all centered around what man was going to internalize. God was saying we have to be careful what we eat, and He wasn't talking about natural food for the body.
Jesus Christ: The Tree of Life Series
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
a
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