The Tree of Life Jun 1987

In front of them and all around them are vast, enormous, what appear to be almost endless cypress, sequoia and pine that have erected their needle points into the heavens, and as the dew that waters this paradise forms upon those needles like silver glistening in the sun once more the sunbeams refracture off those gigantic trees and cast their rays upon the earth and everywhere. There is a dance of light about them. As far as they can see, these majestic trees seem to cast the beauty of the sundown upon them as some welcoming applause, greeting their Lord and Master.

And on they walk, and more they see. The streamlets have become now rushing streams, and they look ahead of them and they see no longer a quiet and restive brook, but they see like the mighty Oregon, they see a mighty stream roaring forth over gigantic, translucent boulders of diamonds and rubies and sapphire, and pearl, fighting its living way out from its source to water all this verdant paradise.

And on they trod, and they break forth into a meadow, and beyond the meadow in the far, far distance, they know there is something mighty beyond. The meadow is surrounded by these great woods. And now they enter what could only be called a botanical wonderland of flowers of every sort and kind. And there is a very delicate breeze that comes and captures the aromatic smell and flavor of each and all these flowers and gently lifts them up and wafts them forward and whirls them about their Lord, Lord Adam, and brings to his nostrils an almost divine fragrance of the mixture of all the flowers of the earth.

And once more, the sun works its magic, and the forest, like a watching audience looking over this endless, vast, unsearchable, unending valley of dancing flowers, seems to applaud its ballet that is choreographing there before their Lord. The exotic wind of this place matches, if not exceeds, the winds of heaven. Something new has been added as they journey further and further through this botanic wonderland, and that is they see something that you and I would have a hard time in our imagination considering beautiful, but to them it is as beautiful as the streams and the forest and the mighty streams in the forest and the lovely flowers.

And that is, they see huge ground roots of some incredible tree. Now the ground roots are like small hills that are growing into vast mountains, and in their unfallen state, they bound up upon these vast ground roots, and as they journey forward with all of that has been described so far growing in its glory and its beauty, all watered by this incredible living stream that glistens with all the light and brightness and color of all the precious stones of this earth. There are now leaves. Please, dear saint, these are leaves as vast as cities. These are not small leaves. These are real leaves. This is real water. This is the only real ground roots of a tree.

And after traveling on and on and on, farther and farther and farther into the center of this garden, this home for man, they begin to hear a roar of water beyond that crest. It sounds like the roar of a thousand and then ten thousand mighty gushing rivers. and there is beyond where they can see the brightness of a light that we would say, though they had never seen one, the brightness and the glory of a thousand rainbows gone wild. They have come to what they know must be not far away, the center of the garden. And there awaits for them their first sighting of the tree of life.

Do not see a tree. For this is a vine tree, and it has cast its own self throughout that entire vast subcontinent of a garden. We have come to its glorious center, and now I am at a total loss for words. Brothers and sisters, they mount the crest and view what they hope to see as the center of the garden, but they cannot see, for the light before them is too bright for their eyes. And even Adam in his glory has to shield from view that which is before him, and he gropes to adjust his eyes, his eagle eyes, to what he sees before him now. All I can tell you is that it seems to go on forever, as far to the east and far to the west as the eye can see, and it reaches to the heavens and disappears in the skies.

And behind it is a glistening, whirling light of emerald that must denote that it has come and grown out of the very throne of God. Now see it: not a vine not a tree, but something that reaches to the heavens and blots out the sun in its own glory, but see within it not one, not ten, not a hundred, not a thousand, but ten thousand gushing streams of brilliant water of all manner of light here and another and there and there and there bursting forth, pouring down, pouring upon the tree itself, bursting again, flowing again until finally at its base it collects into one marvelous river of life.

Adam and Eve, in a state of rapture, lose all sense except the sense of life and supply, and a sense, if you please, of the fellowship of the Godhead. And there is around them, beside them, at their feet, the flowing water containing the living stones, the living precious jewels of this earth, the leaves, the tree, the water, but at the foot and coming out from it is a fruit as beautiful as the water itself. The fruit is vast; it’s a vast supply. I would say to you that it glows, but it more than glows. Adam picks it up in his hand, and even while it is captured within the fiber of the skin of that fruit, his whole being pulsates with life as he holds it. He senses within it all the fellowship of God. The fellowship of the Godhead given before man in the form of a tree with fruit of that fellowship, made available to one not divine.

By instinct, Adam reaches down to take the fruit. The God of creation says to Adam and to Eve, Come with me. And he takes them a distance, and he shows them the visitor, and he says this to Adam, whom he has already said to lay down and rest; He now says two more things: guard the garden, it now needs guarding; and eat.

Now, if you ask me what my job is, I would say my job is to convince Christians that they should eat. That’s my job. Same job God had. Adam, eat of any of these trees and any of their fruit. Eat of anything here, Adam. Anything. Eat even of the fruit of the tree of life. Eat anything, but don’t eat out of that tree right there, because if you do, you die. And then the Lord walks with them, casually, He walks with them, and He returns toward the tree of life. And the Lord turns to Adam and says, I will leave you now to be in your home. Do that which is your deepest and highest spiritual instincts. For God has offered to Adam the nature, the content, the fellowship of the Godhead to become a partaker of the divine nature.
Now, brothers and sisters, you remember the last time we met, we talked about Adam and how glorious he was? Say amen. You remember how impressed you were? I forgot to tell you one thing. He has one problem. Diana, you know what that problem is. You’ll venture a guess. It doesn’t matter. Mike, you want to help her?

I will tell you, he has one thing that’s a problem. He cannot live the Christian life. Adam cannot live the Christian life. That tree can live the Christian life. The one who sits upon that throne that is within blinding, unsearchable, unseeable light, you cannot focus upon that light; He can live the Christian life. Adam cannot live the Christian life; it’s the only problem he’s got. He is not yet completed.