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Chapter Twenty Four
The World’s Way
The world’s way appears to work because as long as there is money coming from many sources -- the world’s way takes a long time to self-destruct. Even the Christian way that is following the principles of the kingdoms of this world seems to work for awhile -- but it soon dies off. People get tired of words without power to move God on their behalf. So I asked God -- What is wrong? I believe that what I just said is what is wrong and what follows is an overview of what is wrong.
Two Trees
The Bible says that the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil were both in the Garden of Eden. They were -- but they weren’t some specific tree. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was any tree that Adam or Eve would use to try to make themselves righteous or blessed by eating of it. In other words -- they tried to use the tree to change them into what they wanted to be. Their use of the tree revealed that they didn’t believe they were blessed by God -- but that they had to get blessed some other way – by doing works themselves. The thing we use to do the works to get blessed becomes evil to us.
Every thing God has given to Creation can become a tree of life to me or a tree of evil to me. It all depends on how I use what is given to me. If I use the item as a way for me to get changed into what I want to become – then that item becomes a tree of good and evil to me. If I believe that the Lord is my source of all blessings and it’s my relationship with Him that blesses me and this item is just a fruit of God’s goodness to me – then that item becomes a tree of life to me – a manifestation of God’s blessing to me.
I hope we can see by now that anything that we do that is working to be blessed or working to be righteous is automatically evil to us. First -- the belief of that Lie that the use of things will change me is evil to me because it isn’t the use of the thing that changes me -- it is what I believe about the use of a thing that changes me. Belief changes me – then the use of a thing is the evidence of that belief.
I would ask this question. Were the trees there in the Garden of Eden put there to make Adam and Eve more like God or were Adam and Eve there to bless the Garden with God’s presence? Let’s put it another way that makes it easier to see. Was the trees there to bless Jesus when He ate from them or was Jesus there to bless the trees? Could the tree make Jesus more like God -- or could Jesus make the tree more like God? If I look at the tree like it can change me then the tree becomes greater than me. It becomes like my god because it can change me into someone better. That is the Lie.
If I look at it another way. Supposing that the tree was alive and had an awareness of who Jesus was and maybe it did. Having never been a tree I don’t know what they are aware of.
The tree says -- I’m going to offer my fruit to Jesus and maybe he will eat it. When Jesus comes by He sees the tree and takes of its fruit and eats of it. What just happened? Jesus was blessed by the tree’s offering -- but the tree’s fruit just became a part of the Son of God. The fruit was lifted into a new realm of existence. The tree was now part of the Son of God. It was God that changed the tree by eating of it. The tree blessed the Lord with its fruit -- but it didn’t make the Lord better because He ate of it.
So I can conclude that the tree was blessed because it offered itself to God and because it did -- it was made into the image of God. Both got blessed – but the tree got the greatest blessing by far.
Jesus was the Son of God before He ate from the tree. Adam was the son of God before he ate from the tree. The tree didn’t make either Adam or Eve into something that they weren’t already. They made the fruit of the tree into something that it wasn’t already. Both Jesus and the tree got blessed because they both stayed in their place of order as God had made them.
However -- if the conscience one -- the one that knows God on the highest level -- believes the Lie that they aren’t who God has made them or are not satisfied with who God has made them -- then they act to make themselves into someone that they think they ought to be. The thing they use to do the work of making themselves into what they want to be -- becomes evil to them.
A man can sit under a tree and enjoy its shade and fruit and it is a blessing from God to that man. However -- if the same man takes the same tree and cuts it down and carves a wooden god out of it and then begins to worship it – that tree becomes an idol to him and a curse. It’s how we use an item that determines if it is a blessing or not. It’s what we believe about The Truth and The Lie that determines how we will use an item.
So with Adam and Eve. The trees were there to bless Adam and Eve with their offerings -- but Adam and Eve were there to lift creation to a new level of existence. Adam and Eve were made in the image of God so they were in the garden to bless the garden and replenish the Earth with the presence of God.
From this we can see the grave mistake of Adam and Eve thinking that the trees could make them more like God. They were there to make the trees more like God. This reveals a secret of Creation. The way we become like someone or make someone like us is -- we become one with them. We take the other person inside of us or we go inside of them. There are several ways to do that. We can do it by agreement with them -- by believing what they believe -- by being intimate with them physically. Those are a few of the methods of becoming one with the other person. We need to be careful what we are saying and what others are telling us.
With Adam and Eve -- by believing The Lie -- it caused them to reverse the purpose of God and try by their own works to become like the God they were already like simply by inheritance.
Why would that be wrong? Because we are to be blessed by inheritance only. Inheritance means that we receive something by a gift. What we receive as a gift from God will always bless us. (Prov 10:22 KJV) The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.
When Adam and Eve ate to be blessed -- that was works -- not inheritance. When they did that -- the tree that they ate from to become like God would become a tree of knowledge about good and evil to them.
On the other hand -- if they just ate from all the trees to enjoy the fruit of God’s goodness to them because they were already a son of God and blessed by inheritance -- then that tree is a tree of the life of God to them.
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