The Tree of Life Jun 1987 – Union with Christ and the Life of God

And he does something quite incredible. He throws out a cloak of anti-light and envelops the outer heavens in this spiritual reversal of heavenly places. Now the heavens are filled with light. He establishes a kingdom of the reverse of light. As is their matter, there is anti-matter, and as there is creation, there is anti-creation, as there is light, there is anti-light. It is a place that you can walk in. It is visible, and if you please, it is beautiful, but it is a kingdom of darkness, and there he has established the second kingdom existing within the Eternals; only He has established it in time and space around this planet. And He has made Himself overlord of this dark, supernal place.

Now the earth is not His. It belongs to Lord Adam. He is the Lord of this planet. Satan is Lord of the skies. God is Lord of Lords. There are three Lords: Lord of the skies, Lord of the earth, and Lord of lords. Lord of all things, who rules in that shining, unapproachable throne of God.

Now, that’s the introduction. We have to go now to the garden. Now, everything gets very positive here. Can you shift gears? I hope you can shift gears. God has made man. It is the end of the day. God’s seventh day is a day of rest. Man’s first day is a day of rest. Brother, the first day man ever lived on this earth, he rested. I want you to consider that; the first thing he ever learned to do was to do nothing. Now, please consider this: to rest was his first understanding. Hadn’t done anything. Hadn’t earned anything. Hadn’t worked at anything. Had not achieved anything. There were only two or three things God ever said to man to do; one of them was to lay down and rest. And I don’t know but what that might be still one of the greatest messages you will ever hear. Lay it down, sister. Lay it down, brothers, and rest. And rest.

Now, lazy people love that. Oh, oh. But go, go, go, people, they don’t like that at all. Well, lazy people should never hear it, but the intense people should hear it. You who are so intense about being a Christian, and Adam’s first lesson was to lay it down. And that is probably the first lesson any Christian ought to learn.

The next one we’re going to learn right now. On the seventh day, I do not know where they were. I do not know how they spent the seventh day. I have the distinct feeling they did not go into the garden. If you read the record very carefully, it is my distinct opinion. and I won’t give it up. I don’t care what Genesis says. I know what Genesis says. It seems in Genesis that God created Eve at the same time He created man, but when you read Genesis, very distinctly, you get the impression that it was on the eighth day, the day after the day of rest, that God took the bone from Adam’s rib.

Now, brothers and sisters, that is a glorious, wonderful, absolutely incredible story. The creation, the fashioning of Eve, is wonderful. And we’re going to pass it over. But I would like to recommend to you one of the great books penned in our lifetime that tells that story. We have them at the door. you can buy a copy here tonight by one of the outstanding authors of our time. The name of the book is The Divine Romance, and we’re going to pass that over because it’s already been revealed. We are definitely plowing new territory.

After Adam and Eve have met, fallen in love, all of these things, the Lord says, “Now come with me into the garden,” and it is at this point I really feel I have been struck dumb. I have to take you into this garden. Now, how can I do that? How can I possibly, as a fellow human being, do that? There is a place where the garden begins. All the rest is earth, and it probably was at that moment that there was no ocean upon this earth. None. It was a beautiful earth. The waters were underneath. If we’re to believe the scriptures, the waters were underneath. A mist came from time to time and watered the vegetation of the earth; I’m sure it was beautiful.

But there came a place, not too far from where God made the man, where you could step in and know that you had passed out of one realm into another. You had not passed into the heavenlies, but you had passed into a place where heavenlies and earthlies matched. A perfect earth and a perfect heaven combined and gave to the other all of its attributes. All that is glorious in the material created realm, and all that is glorious and splendorous in the other realm, gave one another. The visible could see the invisible. The invisible could see the visible. The glory of one was added to the other. The glory of the other was added to the first. The heavens and the earth cannot match what heaven and earth can do together, and this is the most glorious of all places. And it’s your home, it’s where Adam was intended to be.

Well, I wish I could do this. It was like a magical thing when they stepped across that border, that boundary, and they could see things eternal. It was a holy place, a place of total provision. It was a vast place. How big was it? It was as large as a subcontinent, probably about the same measurement that it was measured again when it was no longer a garden but became a city. I have a notion that size did not change.

One of the most fascinating things about it is, though, it is an unguarded garden. Unknown to Adam, unknown to Eve, as they began to walk, and whether it was known to God I do not know, I suppose it was, that as they stepped in to view this vast home, if you please, this vast home home. There came down out of the skies, and this is far, far away from Adam and Eve’s view, there comes down out of the skies this beautiful, incredible thing in the form and shape of a tree. And as it touches the earth and its root penetrates the soil, the soil sizzles and fumes and lets out a ghastly odor. Something truly foreign has come to this planet. It is beautiful. It is hypnotic in its glory. It is a brackish black. It has a magnetic charm about it, unlike anything else upon the earth or in the garden. It is utterly foreign to the heavens, to the earth, or to the garden, and Adam and Eve are unaware of this visitor from outer space. It’s filled with vast, vast fruits. They will see it before the day is over.

Now, they walk into the garden unguarded. I think I just would like to dismiss the meeting and go home at this point. What do I see? I see the sun tracking its way out of the east up some silver highway, its beauty is unmarred, its glory is white and almost crystal clear, and it sends down its beams upon this verdant green that is everywhere. Adam and Eve step into this garden fresh and newly made, still growing before them. The first thing that they notice is that coming right up to their feet and as they look toward what must be the center for their making their sojourn with the Lord Himself, they see this stream of water goes everywhere in the midst of this glorious garden as soon as Adam sees it, He scoops down his hand into the water and brings up glistening, living water. It lives within his hand. And it is all manner of colors, and from his hand pours gold and all manner of beautiful and precious stones. He sticks his hand, thrusts his hand into the water again, lifts it up, and I cannot explain this to you, but the stones that are in with the water are alive, they are not dead, and they are onyx, and they are rubies, they are emeralds, sapphire, and diamonds. And it’s as though they were on fire.

And they’re liquid. And they’re alive. And they brighten the water. And as he holds it in his hand, it’s a living, pulsating thing that, between the mixture of the living water and the scintillating precious stones, each of them casting the golden rays of the sun, they’re like 10,000 fireflies casting their beautiful glow, radiating and dancing across His face. He slips the water back into the stream, and he casts his eye forward to see from whence it came. The stream of water broadens, and he and Eve, like children frolicking in a heavenly playground, run instinctively to find the headwaters of this streamlet that seems to go everywhere.