So we're going to be talking about the two trees.
I like this little section here because, you know, I've talked about the fact that we're
one in spirit, now there's two trees, and then in Lex we're going to be talking about
three realms.
So it's like this little nice neat package, one, two, and three.
Something I do want to highlight here is the information, I think the information, this
message I was exposed to by a man, you know, Chris Blackaby.
If y'all would like to, if y'all like all of this information and you want to know more
about it, I love how he describes it.
He just makes it very clear and very down to earth.
He is the one through whom God began to reveal to me this message of the gospel.
And so I highly recommend that you go look him up, especially things like his things,
let's see, his sermon Living from Heaven is a very common one, and it's one that, I think
it's an hour, 45 minutes long, but I'm telling you what it goes into.
It explains the gospel and then it goes into, it takes what we're going to be talking about
today and it just really, really, really goes into depth.
So I highly recommend that.
I just wanted to mention him because I wanted to honor the fact that he is the one through
whom I heard this, but I had to own it in my relationship with my father before I could
give it out.
Because otherwise it's just reiterating something that somebody else said.
But when I say that, you now go and own it.
And now you go and teach it because this is the children's bread.
This is your message from your father.
This isn't mine.
This isn't Chris's.
This isn't anybody's to own, none of us have a corner on it.
This is God's to his children.
So when you own it and you live it out in your life, then you then have it to give to
someone else and then to pass all of that along.
But it is yours.
So it's not mine.
So people who go through my coaching program, I'll happen to catch them on live periodically
and in their other groups.
And I'll hear the things that we talk about in the rest intensive and like, they're owning
it and they're passing it along because it's theirs.
Okay, in talking about the two trees, so the difference between the tree of life versus
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the fact that operating according to the
tree of life versus operating according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
is a choice that goes all the way back to the reason why Adam and Eve originally fell.
That didn't happen once where Adam and Eve ruined it for the rest of us.
We continually are presented with this choice all day, every day in a thousand different
ways and we make a choice between the two trees.
So let's look at what happened here.
So now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, did God really say?
There's nothing more important than God's word.
When God, our God is invisible, right?
So how do we know God?
What does he give us of himself?
Remember we were talking about yesterday that it's about the giver and the best way to love
someone is to allow the giver to be himself and to give of himself what it is that he
wants.
What do we get from God?
What does he talk about continually in scripture?
Word.
When we want something from God, when we want God, we want a portion of him, what does he
give us?
Word.
That is himself.
Remember word is spelled with a capital W because it's a being and it was formed in
the image of Jesus Christ.
So that is how he chooses to give of himself.
So the very essence of who it is that God is and how he wants to be known and how he
wants to present himself comes because we can't see him, he's like, well, I want you
to see me, so here's word.
That is how we receive God.
So that is what Satan was questioning.
Did God really say?
It's going all the way back to what it is that God wants us to, how God wants us to
be able to receive him and he's trying to get her to question it.
Another thing that we're going to talk about here, I'm mentioning all kinds of things that
we're going to explain later, so I'm sorry to just keep dropping these things out of
context, but I think that they're so important to highlight when we see them.
So did God really say, Satan, we're going to discover has no power over us.
We're going to talk later about why that is and how we can be assured of that.
He has no power over us, so he had to convince, Eve is the one that had the power, so he had
to convince her to use her power against herself.
That's manipulation.
That's a violation of, this is a seeking to violate somebody else's free will.
So did God really say, you must not eat from any...
tree in the garden. The woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in
the garden. It wasn't just the tree of life. This was not just a choice between the tree
of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life is not mentioned
until after the fall. She compares the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to all the
other trees in the garden. There's lots of trees. It is a big world. We are not surrounded
by sin and everything bad, and we're trying to hold so tightly to this last little thread
of righteousness somewhere. The earth is our gods. He owns it. So he created all of these
trees that we can choose from. That was the choice. The choice was between the trees and
operating according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But God did say, you must
not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch
it or you will die. You will not certainly die, the serpent said to the woman, as we
know, trying to get her to doubt the Lord. For God knows that when you eat from it, your
eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. She didn't know
the difference between good and evil before she ate from the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, and she was perfect. You are not subject to not knowing about something.
You aren't subject to your knowledge about something in order to protect yourself or
to do what is good. It is who you are. You operate according to the character of God
that you are abiding in, and it's from that place that you always act according to his
character. So if God's character is always good, then everything that you do from that
place will always be good. So that was the temptation. The temptation is, wouldn't you
like to know the difference? Who wants to know the difference between good and evil?
An evil person or a person who wants to do good? Evil people don't care. Evil people
don't care about the difference between good and evil. They're doing what they want to
do as being very self-serving. Who wants to know the difference between good and evil?
Somebody who wants to know how to please God. She was being tempted to doubt that her being
was enough, and she wanted to know. She wanted to be like God. That was the temptation. There's
a variety of ways that we can see it. I actually believe that there's multiple layers to what
it is that Eve was being tempted with here, but that is in the fact of, well, was that
a good choice? Was that not a good choice? Was this a selfish choice? Was this a choice
of, well, actually, she was just trying to please the Lord. I believe that you can see
it in a variety of different ways, but I just wanted to bring up that element because I
think that so often we villainize Eve. She's just bad. She's just evil. She just wanted
to rebel. She wanted to be equal with God, be whatever. Personally, I see it a bit different.
I think that it is possible that there was that element in it. I believe that there might
be a layer, but what I also believe is a layer is the fact that she wanted to know the difference
between good and evil. She wanted to know. She wanted to understand.
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye
and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to
her husband who was with her, and he ate it. The eyes of both of them were opened. They
realized they were naked. They realized they had removed themselves from that covering
of Christ, and they realized that in their vulnerability not being covered, they were
now exposed. Nothing wrong with vulnerability. Vulnerability was meant to allow us intimacy,
but if you have that vulnerability without the intimacy, you're uncovered and you're
exposed.
Nakedness isn't bad, meaning like in the way that they mean it here as in spiritual, metaphysical,
whatever. This nakedness, this vulnerability that we think of, especially in the Western
world, but everywhere, we think of as weakness is not weakness. It allows intimacy, but intimacy
is only meant to be provided for in a particular context. It was created to be covered by him,
not covered because it was bad, but covering is the intimacy.
How does God cover us? He gives us himself with the two of us are united and we're inserted
into one another. That's how we're covered. She saw that it was good for food, pleasing
to the eye, also desirable for gaining wisdom.
ate it. She also gave some to her son, her husband, and then he ate it, excuse me.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, they realized they were naked, so
they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. That's what
happens when we operate according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
is now that we're exposed and we were vulnerable, we now know the
difference between good and evil. We can choose, we can choose, do I want to
follow the good or do I want to follow the evil, and we pick one in attempts to
cover, to cover that vulnerability. There's nothing wrong with our
vulnerability, but that vulnerability can only be safe
in one place, and that is an intimacy with them, that's an intimacy with the
father. When we don't have intimacy with the father, and when we're
outside and we were exposed, we're constantly trying to find our
protection provision and identity elsewhere,
trying to cover ourselves. Another point I wanted to make here really quick is
that he's trying to get Eve to question what it is that God
said. This sin is not action, sin is unbelief. So if God is word, and that's
God's initiation, God's initiation to us is giving us this word. So how do we
then, how are we then called to respond? Remember, all we do is receive, right? So
he initiates, we receive. He initiates word, how do we receive? Belief. That's how
we receive that. So unbelief is sin, and what do we see unbelief as?
Separation. Everything goes back to union. Everything is always about union. All
union, no separation. Word, belief. Non-belief is sin. Why? It creates
separation. It all goes back to union, it always goes back to union. That's why sin
is bad. Sin isn't bad because, well, it's not good to, you know, kill
another person. It's not good to do whatever. Why do we, there's something, if
you go really, really deep down into it, what is actually going on? Deep down,
getting really, really seriously down to the root level, the issue is what it
means spiritually. That's why it's wrong. No wonder non-believers are tripping
over themselves trying to figure out why they feel a particular way, why they feel
that something's wrong, but they can't, in their worldly logic, work out why it's
wrong. And I'm using a very extreme example of like, of murder, but, but,
because I like to use extreme examples to help us understand that whatever it
is, that when I'm talking about things, you can take it as far as it can go.
These aren't just like, oh, these just, these, these things that we're talking
about, they only cover us in, they only cover us in the easy situations. No, they
cover us in everything. You can't get to the end of what, of what it can cover for
you. So, and the, what it was that Eve chose was a, excuse me, was she, she
thought, well, how do I want to word that? Okay, let me, let me rephrase it this way.
Eve and Jesus were tempted with the same thing, and so Eve, so let's remember that,
that when Adam ate of the tree, that, that, that, that is when there was the fall.
And, excuse me, so the second Adam, Jesus had to redeem what the first Adam did. So
both of them had to be tempted the same. So both Adam, you know, through, through
Eve, you know, with the questions that, that Satan asked her and tempted her
with, are the same questions that Jesus was tempted with in the wilderness.
Protection, provision, and identity all coming from God as the source. Both of
them had to be tempted in the same way, in the same, so that everything that
God, that, that, that Eve and Adam said no to, Jesus had to say yes to in order to
redeem. So if we look at, for instance, in, oh, can we pull, I'm sorry, Genesis 3
back up? I didn't realize I was gonna be referencing it again, sorry. Let's go down
to, yeah, can we go now to verse 6? There we go. Then the woman saw that the, that
the fruit of the tree was good for food, and, and that it was pleasing to the eye,
also desirable for...
gaining wisdom, and took some and ate it,
and then of course, you know,
knowing the difference between good and evil.
So the, excuse me, the protection,
there's protection, provision, and identity in here.
I'm sorry we're going so fast
and I'm not gonna be able to explain it,
but it's very, but it is in there.
Let me, but let me focus instead on Jesus,
because I wanna drive that one home,
and I only have so much time.
So in Jesus, there is the element of,
remember that he was tempted with,
if you are the son of God,
turn this bread, turn these stones into bread.
What is that?
That is your, that's your provision.
And so what did Jesus, what did Jesus give Satan?
We always talk about, oh, Jesus quoted a scripture at him.
No, Jesus gave him God's word.
That is how he, that is how he chose to reject
what it is that Satan was tempting him with.
He used God's word, not throwing a scripture at him.
God reveals himself through word.
God says, I want you to accept me as word.
So Jesus is like, I believe.
So that belief, that's how he didn't sin,
because Eve said, no, I don't believe,
but Jesus said, I do believe.
So that is his belief, receiving God's word.
That's what his declaring of all of that is.
It's not an attack against Satan of like,
okay, well, you know, I'm gonna,
if I throw God's word at you,
if I throw a Bible verse at you,
you know, you're gonna be hit in the face
and then trip over backwards, and that's how I overcome.
No, no, no, it's Jesus, it's not us fighting Satan.
We'll be talking about this much more in depth
when we talk about spiritual warfare later.
It's not us fighting Satan,
it's us joining ourselves together with God,
which completely annihilates the issue.
It completely neutralizes the issue.
Life is not a battle, it's just not.
All we have to do is neutralize it,
and how do we neutralize it?
We neutralize it as, what does God say?
God is giving me himself,
and what is of himself that he's giving me?
He's giving me word.
How do I receive that word?
How do I join with it?
I believe, that's all we have to do.
It's very effortless, we believe.
The reason why belief feels hard
is we continue as we resist by coming up with why not?
Why what God said might not be true?
But if we don't question, and if we just choose,
if we don't require that everything be reconciled first,
but we have full faith, it's just received.
It's very effortless.
So then when he was tempted with,
he was taken up to the temple and said,
throw yourself down because it says
that his angels will take charge over you
and keep you from dashing your foot against a stone.
So that was tempting Jesus
with questioning God's protection.
And what did he do then?
He said, no, God said.
What he's doing is he's choosing to put himself
in a position where he's like, I'm receiving God's word.
He's not taking God's word and slinging it at Satan.
Who cares, who cares?
The way that I deal with this temptation
is I remember who God is and I receive that.
That's all it is.
It's all you have to do to battle spiritual warfare.
Receive what God said, receive it.
Then the last thing is where he said,
excuse me, I took him up, what was that?
I don't remember where he took him up,
High Hill or something.
And then he said, and he looked down and he said,
these are all the kingdoms of the world
and I will give them all to you if you bow down to me.
What is that questioning?
It is getting Jesus to question the fact
that his identity is found in God.
So protection, provision, and identity
is what Jesus was tempted with with questioning
and every single time he said, no, no, no, God said.
And so he chose to receive it.
But it is very effortless.
And even Adam were tempted with the same thing.
They chose a different answer.
They chose sin, they chose unbelief.
But Jesus reconciled everything
by going through the exact same thing that they did
and making a different choice.
Now, okay, so the difference between,
what's the difference between these two trees?
So let's talk about in reference to the tree of life
versus the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
So the tree of life, what exactly is that?
That is actually, it's called life, right?
Tree of life.
Because in God, when we are joined together,
when we choose that we are joined together,
just like he said, in relationship with him
and we get everything from him.
Then it's from that, that's a place of rest, and we allow him to be the source of all the results that happen in our lives.
That's what, and it's very effortless, that's what abiding and operating according to the tree of life means.
Then you have the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and remember it's the knowledge of good and evil.
It's not the evil tree, it is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Relying on our knowledge, what it is that we know, relying on our knowledge of what's good and what's evil,
even the things that are good, our knowledge of them, thinking that that is what will save me,
that is what will make me pleasing to God, that is how I can get anything done in my business,
that's how I can get closer to God, that's how I can learn about Him, I mean because I'm learning about Him,
that's how I can know how to have a healthier marriage, how to raise my children, how to do whatever, knowledge.
The problem with that is that it's relying on something outside of ourselves, meaning outside of God,
because you know God's Spirit dwells within us, relying on something outside,
thinking that we are subject to it unless we have it, that we're subject to the fact that we don't have it.
So therefore that we're in lack, and we're relying on some other source to give us something that we don't have.
We're claiming that it's more powerful than we are and that we need it, and if we don't have it, then we're in lack.
We don't have it, we're a victim, and that's not true. God takes it very seriously.
He says, no, no, no, I am your source for everything, do not reach outside of you.
Remember, what does she have to do with the fruit? It goes through this very lengthy process.
I think it says she saw, she reached, she took, or either that or she saw, she took, she ate.
In other words, I thought it was really fascinating. I've always thought this when I read that passage.
The Bible glosses over so much, but that, He walks us through each step that she did.
In other words, there is very intentional. She saw it, she made a decision, she took it, she ate it.
There's this process. It was something outside of her that she reached for.
She thought, I need that because I'm in lack, and God says, no, then you're not believing me because I say you are not in lack.
That is unbelief. It's denying that whatever God says about us is denying that we are not who God says that we are.
We're looking for something outside. We think that, okay, I need to go to, and this is not condemnation for coming to a conference or anything,
but the problem is if we think we have to come to a conference, we think that we have to be taught,
we think that someone out there knows something about business or relationships or finances that I don't know,
and therefore I'm not going to be successful in life or God's not going to love me or God's not going to be pleased with me
until I learn more. Someone out there has something that I don't have, and I am in lack until I find that person that has some secret magic sauce
that has the thing that I don't have, and that will empower me to do X, Y, and Z. That's a problem.
So we're thinking we're in lack and needing something outside of ourselves, and God says, no, no, no, you're never in lack
because I am your complete protection. I'm your complete provision. I'm where you find your complete identity.
It's in your union with me. So that's the difference in operating between the two trees.
If we think that we have to have something else, all of this stuff can sound very godly.
Everybody in this room wants to do the good things. We look at the tree and we're like, okay, I want to know all of the good things.
That's why we come to conferences, right? It's why we read books. It's why we go to Bible studies.
We learn things from different people. We're constantly seeking to know and understand.
The world tells us that knowledge is power, and we've believed it. We've believed that lie.
We're wanting to know the difference between good and evil so that we can know what to do and what to avoid.
We think that that attitude and that perspective is godly, and God says, no, you're relying on something that you do.
You're relying on your knowledge of something and then making a choice of that.
You're relying on that to provide for and to protect yourself, or that that's going to give you provision and protection.
He said, you don't even have to know the difference between good and evil.
evil, I'm telling you, you need to be unified with me. Once union from, you know, just like
that gentleman says that I was telling y'all about where the Lord told him, you know, out
of union with him, all else must flow. Once we have that union, everything else that it
is that we're needing and wanting comes from the union. So forget the knowing. We don't
need to know. When we understand that we're unified with God, we know all things. We always
act according to our character, which is that the character of God, and we always do the
good things. There's no good and evil. There's just God. God being who God is, you know,
and if we're in him, well then we're being who it is that we're being of God's very nature
and of God's very character too. And why do we like to pick the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil versus the tree of life? Sorry. The tree of the knowledge of good and
evil is the law, and then the tree of life is relationship. Everything from the tree
of life is a free gift. Everything according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
has to be earned by a wage. So it's very limiting. But if you receive things by gift, it's limitless.
It's very effortless. And there's no limitations on it whatsoever. Why do we like the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil versus the tree of life? The tree of life, we have to
rely on God. We're submitted to his will, meaning like, not that, oh well he just does
whatever we want and we don't have a say so. I don't mean that. I mean we submit and surrender
ourselves to his character and to his essence, which is always love and is always good. We
are out of control and we don't like that. So we pick the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil so that we can control something. So Adam and Eve were effortlessly covered,
but once they removed that covering, they chose to remove themselves outside of that
covering, they were exposed. Now they have to try to do everything themselves because
they believe that they're abandoned and alone. They're abandoned by God and alone. That he's
outside of them. Again, you see the problem? Separation. That he's outside of them and
that he's therefore looking at them, expecting them to go through life in a particular way,
make the right choices, don't make the bad choices, et cetera, and holding them accountable
for that. And so that's where you get that idea of that issue of what God's issue is
between us choosing the tree of life versus the tree of the knowledge of evil, is that
idea of that separation. We like to choose it because we like that element of control.
But what we don't understand is that while this is intimacy and this is distance, separation,
this is life and everything that we do from here, even all the good things, only has death
in it. Because this is called the tree of life. God is life himself, God's spirit, so
anything that we do from that spirit, that breeds life. The fruit from life and the fruit
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil can look the same. You can go out and
help people build homes for a habitat of humanity from the tree of life, or you can do it from
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They can both look the same. Two people can
be working on the project at the same time, but one is bringing life into the earth and
one is bringing death. It can look exactly the same. So my point in driving that home
is it's all about the source. Where is it coming from? That is bringing life into the
earth, this is bringing death. So why does this bring death, even if it's a quote unquote
good thing? Because it's one fruit, it's good and evil fruit. So in everything good,
there's evil in it. So everything it is that we're trying to do that's good, there's evil
in it when we're doing it from our own source. It always goes back to union, it always goes
back to the fact that we're being unified with God, that is our source. The source is
our union and our love and our relationship with him.
So, the law, however, is, I wanted to point out that the law is actually, and the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil is not a bad tree. It's a good tree. In fact, if we
could pull up Romans 7, we'll discover that the law, that tree, which is created by God
because he only creates good things, that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
is actually not only not a bad tree, it is quoted as a holy tree.
The problem is operating according to it, and thank you, I appreciate that, is the problem
is operating according to it, and using it as our source.
So where do I want to start?
Let's look at, so the law, and y'all let me know if y'all can hear this in the mic, because
if so I'll put it out.
So the law is a gift from our loving Father, and they are principles that are meant to
give us a way, if we've chosen to separate ourselves, God's like, okay, I don't want
to leave them abandoned and alone.
Isn't that fascinating?
We find ourselves feeling very abandoned and alone, and God's like, I don't want to leave
them unprotected.
I'm a loving Father, so if that's their choice, what we would see here is what in the world's
eyes would be referred to as enabling.
God gave us the law because he thought, okay, if you're not going to allow me to provide
for and protect you, I'm going to give you a way that if you're going to choose to do
it all on your own, I'm going to give you the tools to be able to do it on your own.
That's called enabling in our world.
But anyway, because in God's world, he's like, no, that's love.
I love my children.
If they are going to remove themselves from my protection and provision and me identifying
them, I want to give them a way in which they can provide for, protect, and seek to identify
themselves.
But here's the problem.
He also knew that because of separation, all of those things would bring death anyway.
We're still removed ourselves from life.
We'll start in verse 7, I think, what are we going to go till, sorry, 7 through 14.
So what should we say then?
Is the law sinful?
Certainly not.
The law is not sinful.
It's not a bad tree.
Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law, for I
would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said thou shalt not
covet.
But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind
of coveting.
For apart from the law, sin was dead.
So sin was dead.
We were exposed to the law.
The law is holy, but it created death within us.
Death was created within us when we were exposed to the law, but the tree itself is not bad.
When we operate according to it, it's bringing something up out of us that is death.
And so this is the point I wanted, one of the points I wanted to drive home about this.
Remember, we were talking about the fact that no matter what it is that we do from this
place, it's always from a place of death, even the good things.
It's because God over here is our source, but over here, we're our source.
And so what are we giving, what are we fueling all of our efforts in?
All of our good efforts, all of our bad efforts doesn't matter.
We don't have life in us because we've separated ourselves from it in our belief.
I'm not saying we are separated from God, because even when we sin, we're not.
Even when we choose to operate according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
we're not separated from God.
You know, God's very serious about that.
But according to our belief, that's how we subject ourselves to operating like that and
getting those types of results in our life.
Not according to what's true, but according to what we believe is true.
We have that much power and that much authority.
So we're using ourselves as our own source, and all we have to give it is death.
That's why everything we do according to this tree brings death, because the law created
death within us, and that's all we have to give.
We have no life.
But over here, when we're one with Christ, we have life to be able to give us.
Thank you, I was meaning that, we have life to be able to give.
Once I was alive, apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life
and I died.
Sprang to life within me and I died.
Remember that the law, God only gives good gifts.
God is a good and a holy God, so he wouldn't create a bad tree.
But it created, it found something within us that caused a reaction and death rose within
us when we were exposed to that commandment.
Again, being vulnerable and exposed outside of, because we chose to believe we were separated.
I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
So in the first sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment deceived me through
the commandment put me to death.
I thought operating according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and doing
the good things would be, would, what does it say?
would actually bring life. I want to do good, Lord. I don't want to do the evil
things. I want to do the good things. So I'm thinking, oh this is gonna be work,
this is gonna be great, it's gonna bring forth life, but it didn't. It deceived me
and through the commandment put me into death. By operating, or put me to death, by
operating according to this, we think, oh I'm gonna do the, see Eve, oh I'm gonna
know the difference between good and evil and I can pick the good things. No,
it still doesn't work, because all she had, it caused death within her, so now
when she gives it out, she's used to giving things out over here and it
brings life. Now she, everything that she gives out can all, and you know in
Adam, speaking of the fact that he's Adam, so we can continue to compare to the
second Adam, everything that they did would only bring forth death. So then the
law is holy. God himself said that the law is holy, the commandment is holy,
righteous and good. Did that which is good then become death to me? No. So the
law does not become death to us. Instead, in order that sin might be recognized as
sin, it used what is good, you and all of the good things, you know in the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, used what is good, because God only creates good
things, to bring about my death. So that through the commandment, sin might become
utterly sinful. And then we know that the law is spiritual, but I'm unspiritual,
sold as a slave to sin. So the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it's not
a bad tree, it's a holy tree, but it brought death within us and now that's all we
have to give when we operate from that place, but God did give it. A really
fascinating point of how God actually identifies people operating from this
tree is in Deuteronomy 27 through 28. So at this point, if you remember back in
Exodus, which we're not going to look at, it does not mention this passage, it does
not mention this interaction between Moses and the Lord. So when the
Israelites were called by God, hey come to Mount Sinai, I want to make a
covenant with you. I want to make a covenant of, he didn't word it like this,
but we know what it means, that he wanted to make a covenant of sonship. The
Israelites came, they heard the thunder, saw the lightning, heard the booming
voice of the Lord, and they were like, okay we're scared. You know, Moses, you go talk
to the Lord, and you go talk to the Lord, and you tell us, and you get all the
instructions for us, and we will do whatever you say to do. So what did they
do? God wanted to create union, and they said no, we want separation, and instead
just tell us what to do. So according to the tree of life, remember how do we give
life? We're just being in God. We don't have to know the difference between good
and evil. We don't have to do anything. It's of who it is that we are. We just
operate according to how it is that we are. We just be. But according to the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, we don't have that ability to be
anymore, and so the only way that we have hope of getting anything
accomplished moving forward, trying to get protection, trying to get provision,
is to do something, and that's what the Israelites chose. They said just we want
separation because intimacy scares us. They came up to God, and they heard and
saw what God was, which is what we experienced yesterday. It's like,
okay, I really don't want to know. I don't know what it
is that he's going to see in me. I don't know how I'm going to experience him. I
don't know what he's going to be like, how he's going to reveal himself to me, how
he's going to show me what he's going to ask of me, what it is that I'm
surrendering myself to. I feel very, very unsafe. The Israelites would come up
against that same question. I feel very, very unsafe, and so they made the
choice, no, I want to stay separated, but God, we still want to be connected with
you. So just we will not live like the Gentiles.
We will live according to your laws. Just tell us what to do, and we'll do it. It
all sounds good, but what's not mentioned in the Exodus passage, and instead is
mentioned here in Deuteronomy, is the exchange that happened then between
Moses and God. So we're thinking, my goodness, they rejected the covenant of
sonship. Surely God would say this is evil, and this is bad. He did not.
I'm sorry, did I not give you the correct passage? So it's a Deuteronomy 5,
27 to 28. So in Deuteronomy, Moses is now talking to the
second generation. The first generation of the Israelites came to Canaan, and
they said, no, we're not going to go in. We're too afraid. We're concerned that
this isn't actually going to work out, and so God said, okay, according to
your words, so be it.
that much power and that much authority.
He said, here's my word.
And they said, no, I don't believe it.
And so God said, OK, then you're subject
to the consequences of that.
So they go around the wilderness.
They all die off, except Joshua, Caleb, and Moses.
They come to, now it's the second generation.
And Moses is now talking to them before he dies, telling him,
OK, the last time your fathers were here,
this is the choice that they made.
So he's reiterating to them what it is that they went through.
And that's when he talks about this interchange.
So the Israelites were telling Moses,
go near and listen to all that the Lord our God says.
Then tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you,
we will listen and obey.
Living a life of servitude and obedience of like,
I'm not saying that it's not good to obey God.
But living a life of servitude and this idea
that, oh, I have to, what is it that God's saying
and how do I obey, is living according
to the truth and knowledge of good and evil.
God calls us instead to understand
that you're reunified with me.
And I want you to, in that union with me, you will just be.
And you will naturally do all of these things
that you thought you had to try to do.
So the Lord heard you when you spoke to me.
And the Lord said to me, I have heard
what this people said to you.
Everything they said was good.
They rejected the covenant of sonship,
and God called it good.
Why could they do that?
Because what they chose is, when they chose something
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which
is not relationship, but understand,
what is this tree called?
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
They had a choice between good things and evil things,
because they chose separation, which puts them
in the tree of the operating according
to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Now that they're here, which one did they choose?
The good one.
I will obey you.
I could go the way of the Gentiles,
but instead, I will choose good things, and I will obey you.
That's how God was able to say, what they have chosen is good.
But the problem is, they still rejected him
and still wanted separation instead of union.
So I just wanted to point that out.
So God consistently talks about the fact the law is good.
The commandment is good.
It's from me.
It's holy.
But it's not union.
So do we understand that the thing in life
is not the difference of good and evil,
and doing good things in life, and doing evil things,
and make sure to do all of these right things
and hold all of these standards?
It's not.
The difference is separation and union.
So that's why I told you, no matter what it is
that you're going through, no matter how big the struggle is,
always don't think, oh my goodness,
what is God expecting me to do?
First, shift back.
I need to be.
I need to choose that I'm unified with God,
to receive that union, to receive that relationship
and love.
That is the choice that you're being faced with all day,
every day.
It's not, will you make a good choice or a bad choice?
It's, will you choose union or separation?
All day, every day, all of the little and the big decisions
that you make, the struggles, anything that comes to you,
it's all a question of, will you choose union or separation?
It's not, will you choose something good or something
evil?
So also, let me just point this out really quick,
that Chris Blackaby talks about this,
so I'll mention this real quick, because I
think it's really good.
And I was able to recognize it in my own life,
because you remember that I explained my testimony to you
yesterday.
So I was a very, very, very good girl.
Well, why did it take me burning out however many times
till I was 34 years old before I finally gave it all up?
How could I last that long?
And I didn't even explain to you fully
about how extreme that was, but my sister
can attest to you to the fact that I'm a different person.
I'm a very different person than the way that I used to be.
And once I'm inside, it gets better.
But once I go outside, I started getting all that tickle
in throat, and so I had to walk outside to get here,
so it's still liking to play with me.
But anyway, so I'm a very, very different person.
The reason why it took me so long, and other people
are able to get to this understanding faster.
is that what I chose when I chose from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is I chose the good things.
Both of them bring death, both doing good and doing evil, you know.
But the thing is, and this is the way that Chris talks about it,
is think of it kind of like a clock.
That when you're operating according to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,
both the good and the evil go around the same clock.
You're going around the same clock.
And it's going to eventually lead you all back to the same place,
whether you spend your whole life doing good or your whole life doing evil or a little bit of both.
And the thing is that if you are choosing the evil things, the clock goes faster.
You lead yourself to destruction faster.
But if you do good, you're on the same clock, but it's much slower.
But you go to the same place.
And so that's why it took me so much longer to get the idea across
is you're on the same trajectory.
It leads to nothing but death.
There's nothing but death in it.
It's not that, oh, I'm doing all these things and eventually I'm going to get to the point
where I'm going to experience some kind of a death.
No, no, no.
What you're giving out and what you're living is giving nothing but death into the world at that time.
There's nothing redeeming about it.
But doing good, which is why when God gave the law to the Israelites,
he gave the law to the Israelites to protect them because they had rejected the covenant of sonship.
It's like I desire them to, if they choose separation,
I want them to be able to have the tools to provide for and protect and figure out
and get a semblance or an idea or a feeling of identity for themselves.
And so I'm going to give them the law.
And in doing so, obviously it was a very kind thing.
It was a very loving thing.
And he gave them all those laws and all those rules and, oh, my word,
all the things they had to remember in order to be good.
Why did God give them those?
Because they chose that clock, but their clock is now moving slower.
And that's the mercy of God, giving them time.
Remember, he holds back his wrath, and he's waiting.
He's waiting.
So that's why there's a difference between the evil and the good
and within the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And another reason why God giving the Israelites the law was a loving thing to do.
It's like, okay, let's slow it down.
Follow all of these things, and you will be blessed.
Don't follow them, and you will be cursed.
You will travel, you know, pass through the clock a lot faster.
I wanted to point out the difference between those two.
Okay, I've already pointed that out.
I've already talked about a lot of these things.
Okay, why then did God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil even into the garden?
I've heard this explanation before,
but it didn't make sense until I fully understood more of the gospel.
He gave the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because he is a good God.
He's very loving.
And what is very, very important to him, remember,
multiple things that we now have here that God reiterates to him are very, very important.
Union, relationship, love, and free will.
He desired to give us a choice.
He's like, I don't want to be loved, and I don't want to be wanted,
and I don't want to be wanted union with, or how you have union with, and you have no choice.
You have the choice in having the choice to choose separation if you want.
You get to choose me, and that's what I want.
I want to be chosen.
So he created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to honor our free will
because he desires to be affected by us.
The God of the universe wanted to be chosen, and he didn't want us to have to.
That doesn't make any of us feel good if we feel obligated to love someone else
or someone else tries to make us feel obligated to love them.
God of the universe wanted to be chosen,
and so he created a good thing that will discover you can actually use the tools
at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
but there's a difference between using them.
Jesus used this tree, but he didn't operate through it.
He lorded over it, and once you lord over it and you realize you're not subjected to it,
you get to benefit by using all of the things without thinking you need them
and you're underneath them.
That's the difference.
So it's a good tree that we will continue to use.
Even Jesus used it.
But there's a vast difference between operating according to it and using all of the, using
all of the tools that come with it.
The, excuse me, I'm just going to point this out real quick because I think it's very interesting.
Could we look, pull up Revelation 2 and then we'll do like, I don't know, 18 through 20 maybe?
This is talking about, you know, the fact that God gave us free will,
gave us an opportunity in our free will to choose.
And so in this, excuse me, in this there, remember that the name of the tree is the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
So to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, these are the words of the son of God
whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are
now doing more than you did at first.
Nevertheless, I have this against you.
You tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophet by her teaching.
Something's wrong.
Do I have the wrong passage?
I mean, I think it's the same.
Revelation 2, 20.
Okay.
Could you expand it to, I must have the wrong verse.
We do want this chapter, but we'll just extend it to the rest of the,
and we'll start I think in, in, in 18, but I don't remember where it goes.
Okay.
It was, it was, let me change that minute.
It is verse 24.
Okay.
So, so let's look at verse 24.
Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to Jezebel's teachings
and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets, I will not impose any other burden
on you except to hold on to what you have until I come.
He commended them for not knowing.
Remember that over here, we don't need to know anything.
We already just are it.
We always operate according to good.
Everything, because it's of our character.
All of these commandments that we're seeing are actually descriptions of your character,
the descriptions of who it is that you are.
And, and over here, you can choose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
relying on your knowledge of things in order to know, okay, what's good?
What should I do?
What's godly?
And what should I do or not do, et cetera.
And, and, and relying on knowledge as our source is the source from which we can then
execute and get success or to get God's pleasure or, or connection or intimacy is,
oh, I have to know more about God.
No, you don't.
You have to abide in him.
Just abide in him.
Last night, I was here.
After all of y'all had your time with Jesus, it was my turn.
So all the lights were out and I, and I sat here on the floor and I had my time with the
Lord and, and one of the things that I noticed is instead of having Jesus come and sit there
and, and appear, because I couldn't see him last night.
Sometimes even I don't see him.
So I couldn't see him last night.
And so I thought, okay, but actually you don't even need a tool.
You know what it is.
You just need to submit and surrender yourself to God and allow him to love you.
So I found that place in me because I became familiar enough with it from having gone through
so much with the Lord and just like continue to try to expand myself and make myself vulnerable
with him.
So I went to, I went to that, that place that I learned to identify.
And then I opened myself and became vulnerable.
And he just came and he just, and I, and I just received his love.
He came and he, and he, and he would, and, and he would flood me, but see, I had to receive it.
That's what allowed me to feel it is I chose to be that vulnerable and that open.
And yes, it's very scary.
Oh, I'm sorry.
We're going to get back to it.
Um, oh no, I think that, I think that we're done anyway.
I can just continue to reference it.
So the thing is that the reason I wanted to, um, uh, point out the thing about, uh, what
he talks about Thyatira is he commended them for not knowing.
He said, you don't have to know.
You don't have to know Satan, Satan's dark secrets in order to avoid them or to know
how to combat them or, or, or anything.
That's not your protection.
We got to know what's out there.
So we know what to avoid.
It's not true.
If we know.
the truth, and we know who it is that we are, anything that comes that doesn't
line up with that is automatically obvious. We don't have to know it. We're
not in a place where we're not protected, not provided for, and we're all always on
the defensive in our lives. We abide in God. If we are, we're having to cover
ourselves. We feel that we're not protected, so what is it that we have to
rely on? Knowledge. I have to learn more about Satan's tactics. I have to
learn more about warfare tactics. I have to learn more about, like, how to heal, you
know, all of the ins and outs of the psychology of, you know, how to heal
from personal trauma. I've discovered that you can heal from personal
trauma, because I've done it myself, effortlessly, without even knowing and
recognizing or acknowledging what the trauma was, and I discovered it because I
would find myself in situations where I had always been triggered, and suddenly I
wasn't being triggered, because I found my identity in Christ, and I didn't have
to deal with it. I didn't have to battle it, battle the lies. Okay, well, I need to
remember, don't believe this about myself, and instead believe this. I just had to
be, and once I was, I wasn't being triggered anymore. It's wild. We don't have
to know, and it's all we need in order to heal. I'm not villainizing all of these
other tips, tricks, and tools that we can learn about how to heal from trauma or
how to heal from other things. I'm just saying that let's
make sure that we understand that if we use them to read the knowledge of
good and evil, understand they are good gifts from a holy tree, from a good
Father, but we are not subject to them. We do not need them in order to be healed.
We have permission to use them in our process, but in their using of
them, if we're feeling dependent on them that, oh, I need to go to a counselor, I
need this, I need it, nothing wrong with going to a counselor, nothing wrong with
going to a conference, nothing wrong with that. The problem is this internal
feeling, do I need it? Is that my source? That's the problem, but if you realize
it's not your source, everything is permissible. Paul says everything is
permissible, but not everything is edifying. Everything is permissible. Jesus
used tools. Eating is a tool, right, but Jesus ate. He even ate in his
spiritual body, but why could he do that? Why could he do that as a perfect man,
and in his human body, his physical body that was subject to corruption and
death, and then also ate again in his spiritual body. Remember when he ate fish
in front of them to prove to them that it really was him? It's because he
knows he's not subject to it, so once you understand you're not
subject to it, the world's yours. The world is not the devil's, the world is
yours. Heaven is the Lord's, the earth was given to man, but we have to
understand our position over it. We can use them, but we cannot
believe that we need it, and that we're in lack if we don't have it, but once we
realize that we're not, then God's like, hey, I created lots of trees in the
garden. Which one do you want to use? Which one do you want to do? So you see
the difference that God did not come to sit and make bad people good. He came to
make dead people live. The difference is between death and life, between distance
and intimacy, and between separation and union. That's the decision that we're
always faced with. So don't worry, oh, I'm in this situation, I need to
make sure to do the right thing. Mm-mm. Skip that. Back up. Excuse me.
Find your identity in the Lord, and then from your identity in the Lord, you're
now abiding, you know, in Him, according to the tree of life. You're
operating according to His character and yours, and out of that character flows
nothing but good, and out of that you are learning to operate in
wisdom and in knowledge, and then you will know what to do. Then you will know
what action to take, because the action is being done out of who it is that you
are, and who it is that Christ is, as opposed to what it is that you've
learned, and what it is that you know. Let's look at, I don't remember what this
verse says, but it must be important. Let's look at Galatians 1, 6 through 14.
And we'll see, we might be ending a little early today, which will be good.
Okay, yes, now I remember. Okay, so, I'm astonished that you are so quickly
deserting the one, so he's talking to Christians. I'm so astonished that you
are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of
Christ, and are turning to a different gospel. What different gospel? The tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, that what's required of us is what it is
that we do and don't do.
which is really no gospel at all.
This is the gospel that I was given when I was four years old.
This is the gospel that I received on July 11, 2019,
and this is what all of a sudden transformed my life.
My life turned into Technicolor, and I finally understood.
And you've got to understand, this person, this girl, knew the Bible very well.
I literally, not figuratively, literally spent,
I would wake up on Saturday mornings when I was in college,
wake up on Saturday mornings at, I don't remember if it was like 5.30 or 6,
I think it was probably 6, I would get ready.
The earliest that the cafeteria opened, I think, was 7.
So I would get there by 7, Saturday morning, get there by 7, eat my breakfast,
and then I would go to this little restaurant on campus,
and I would sit in the back corner, I'd get coffee,
and I would literally sit there until noon, every Saturday, and I would study the Bible.
But this girl got nowhere but condemnation.
I knew what I was talking about.
I could argue, I could debate.
I wrote theological papers that got As, but I wasn't experiencing life.
I transitioned into this, and all of a sudden, I began to understand that wasn't the gospel.
This is the gospel.
The fact that I am unified with Christ.
The fact that Christ has done everything.
The fact that it's not about the difference between doing something good or doing something evil
or doing something good or doing something bad.
The difference is between death and life.
The choice is do I choose separation or do I choose union?
Union requires my vulnerability.
That's the cost.
That's the living sacrifice.
It requires vulnerability, and it requires me choosing that I'm not unsafe
and choosing instead I'm going to cast myself into the unknown,
choosing that God will be there in the blackness, in the dark.
That blackness of faith in the dark, and then when I free fall, that safety net will catch me.
That is the gospel, and that is where I found freedom.
That's where I found life.
That is where I found joy.
That's where I found love.
God's constantly inviting us into deeper and deeper levels of all of that.
This other is what we have been taught and have taught our children is the gospel,
and we can all be freed from that.
This isn't condemnation.
None of us need to hear saving and condemnation.
Oh, my goodness, going back.
Oh, my goodness, who have I corrupted?
No, no, no, no, no.
The thing is do we realize that's not who you are, so just rest.
In other words, let it go.
That's what rest means.
That's how we shift into rest.
You let it go, and you just release.
You don't have to have it.
Just let it go.
There's no payment for what it is that we did and didn't do and believed and didn't believe.
There's no payment.
You just stop, and you move on because there is therefore now no condemnation,
nothing to have to pay for, nothing to have to feel sorry for.
You just stop.
That's all that Jesus required of the woman who committed adultery.
He didn't tell her, okay, I need you to go back and make restitution for everything, you know,
when he was down there drawing in the sand.
And the woman came up, you know, and this man said, you know, well, you know,
she needs to be stoned because she was found in the act of adultery.
He said, okay, whichever of you has not sinned, you know, cast the first stone.
They all leave.
He then turns to her and asks, well, where are those who condemn you,
and where are your accusers?
And she said they're all gone.
He said, then neither do I condemn you.
Go and sin no more.
He didn't tell her to feel sorry.
What he did tell her to do is repent, and all repent is stop and do the other thing.
You no longer have to pay for what you did.
So I just want to mention that.
So there's no condemnation.
So this other here, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
is really not a goddess of gospel at all.
Evidently, some people are throwing you into confusion
and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel
other than the one we preach to you, let them be under God's curse.
As we've already said, so now I say again,
if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted,
let them be under God's curse.
God takes this very seriously.
Remember, when Jesus was at set with people, what was he at set with people about?
When they were talking to people about having to live like this
in order to be connected or having a relationship with God
and affirming separation, Jesus took that very, very seriously.
So am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of God?
Am I trying to please people?
If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Okay, I think I'm going to, could you scroll down just a little bit?
Okay, never mind.
I already, yeah, I already reached the end and didn't realize it.
Yeah, okay, so that's all we need there.
So we're going to finish with some last things here.
One of them I've already mentioned and, oh, well, okay, let's look at Hebrews 6.
Where do I want to start?
Let's see, could we just pull up Hebrews 6 and then we'll scroll down to, okay, the certainty
of God's promise, that's where I want to start.
So this is how God makes promises.
We're about to talk about this because God makes promises and covenants with us when
we're at rest because there's nothing left to do.
Remember, if there's something for us to do, if this was the gospel, then we're operating
according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
So we're actually called to operate according to the tree of life.
So in the tree of life, how are covenants made?
They're always made where God initiates everything and we effortlessly receive it.
Here we realize we're not even part of the covenant.
We're the beneficiaries of the covenant.
So when God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to
swear by, he swore by himself saying, I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.
And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.
People swear by someone greater than themselves and the oath confirms what is said and puts
an end to all argument because God, over here, he's making this covenant, God wanted to make
the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the errors of what was promised and
he confirmed it with an oath.
God did this to that by two unchangeable things, which is his, I think it says promise, yeah,
being very clear to the errors of what was promised, two unchangeable things, promise
and an oath because God made covenant with himself in which it is impossible for God
to lie.
We who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged.
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.
So what it is, what it's saying there is it said God made covenant with himself, Abraham
received the benefit.
All covenants are made while we're at rest, even Jesus.
Jesus wasn't part of the covenant between the church and the bride.
It always says the father gave his bride to Christ.
I think even Christ says at some point, he says, you know, the father gave the bride
to me or God gave you to me and I don't take anyone except those that the father draws.
God the father initiates everything, God, Jesus wasn't even part of the covenant.
Jesus was at rest, he was in a deep sleep when God made the covenant.
God created his bride and made the covenant.
Abraham was asleep when God created Eve and made covenant.
Same thing with Abraham.
Abraham, if we go back to what this scripture reference is referring to, you remember when
Abraham made the altar and he took those does and all those other animals and he would divide
them in half and he had them all on the altar.
What does it say?
I always thought it was very weird.
This is a very important moment, Abraham.
Why are you going into a deep sleep?
It was very confusing to me.
It's because Abraham, God put Abraham at rest.
He's like, no, no, no, you're the beneficiary, but you're not part of the covenant.
You're not one of the two parties.
You're the third party beneficiary.
I make covenant with myself and you benefit and it goes so far as to show even in Christ's
life where Christ died and even Christ, who is God, in order for him to be the beneficiary.
So understand in our covenant with God, he's the beneficiary.
He wanted to bless himself and what did he bless himself with?
You.
You are what God chose to bless himself with to the point that he followed that same principle
and he put his son, who would benefit from having a bride, to sleep and Jesus wasn't
even part of the covenant.
God made covenant with himself, created a bride for his son so that when he reawoke,
they were reunited.
So God doesn't keep certain laws and rules and principles for us.
He proves how far this goes by operating according to those same principles.
Even when he wanted to give himself a blessing and a benefit, he put himself to sleep, made
covenant with the other aspects of himself, so to speak.
I know all of this is hard even for me. I don't even fully know how to articulate it, but
the other aspects of himself
made covenant while Jesus was asleep and he and he benefited us and gave us. He benefited himself
with us as the gift.
God always does everything.
So Adam, Abraham, and Jesus are just three examples in Christ in scripture that we see of being put at rest
when God wanted to make covenant. When God wants to do something, he does it.
Doesn't mean that we don't get to participate.
We'll be talking about that later about how to govern creation and our participation, which is very, very important.
That's that power of intention that we keep talking about.
We have a seed to contribute and we do have to voluntarily and of our free will give that seed.
But when God wants to actually, but
with God's seed comes everything that's needed in order to create the result.
But it's our partnership that he requires in
in the relationship of union with him that actually allows something to manifest on the earth.
Just drop that little thing in there, but we'll be explaining all that later.
Last thing I wanted to go over, there's lots of scripture references that we could use here, but I'm just going to mention my favorite.
I have this, I always remember this reference. It's Luke 12, 22, starting in verse 22.
I don't remember what it goes through, 26, 28, whatever. You might want to leave the end open-ended.
Okay.
Jesus has talked to me about this a lot. So for those of you who don't know, I guess I didn't mention this in my testimony.
God called me to start traveling with him back in June of last year.
So I am sold 90-95% of everything that I owned.
And
now literally everything that I own, including me and my little dog,
can fit into a closet that
where my parents allowed me to store my stuff in at their house. And no, it's not a big, huge walk-in closet.
It's just a closet. I can fit literally everything I own in there except my car.
And I went from about a 1,400 square foot home,
fully stocked and fully settled in, kitchen, dining, living room.
I mean, I had all of the furniture to fill that filled two bedrooms and two full-size baths.
I sold and got rid of all of that between
February and
August, I think. It took a very long time.
But anyway, and God did that in preparation for what he would tell me in June, which is,
Hey, Ashley, I want you to actually be on the road. And so I moved out of my apartment.
And
And so I've been, I, he called me, he said, Ashley, I want you to travel with me.
He'd given me a vision of him. And, and he's like, I want, when traveling with me,
he said, the purpose is I want you to rely on my character.
Now you can rely on God's character without, without traveling and doing anything as extreme as I did.
But I had been, understand, I had been living this while I had all my stuff. So now God's like, okay,
let's just take you to a new level.
Not everybody's gonna experience it quite like this, but this is how I want you to experience me.
I want you to experience being sustained by my character in multiple ways.
To the point, I run out of gas on the road. A single woman alone out in the middle of nowhere,
I've run out of gas. And it was the Lord that got me to the next gas station.
So, I mean, I have to rely on his character and that's what I did. In that moment,
I had to shift in and like, okay, God, who are you?
And the reason I'm interjecting this, this, um, this part here is
because remember I said that with God's word comes everything that we need in order to be sustained.
So I'm driving down the road and I'm thinking,
God said, I know who he is.
To the point where I choose him, even if I don't make it to the gas station.
My God is still good and the evidence does not tell me otherwise.
He gets to tell me what's really going on. The world does not dictate to me who God is.
So it's being sustained by, being sustained by his character.
So he always, very, very often takes me back to this, this passage to remember where my source is.
My source of my provision, my protection, you know, my money, um, uh, what's going to happen to me?
You know, physically, am I in a safe environment? Am I going to be protected?
I'm driving alone at night, you know, da, da, da, da. I'm out in the middle of nowhere.
You know, whatever's going on. And then, and then my identity, which we so often, um, uh,
and, uh, which we so often come up, um, uh, trying to figure, uh, trying to be,
where that aspect of this is questioned when someone is, um, uh, when we're being tempted to believe.
believe that we're something other than God said that we were because of
something that somebody said or some movie that we're watching or some or
something that happens and we think well surely that wouldn't have happened if I
was good surely that wouldn't have happened if I'm obeying God surely that
wouldn't have happened if I'm pleasing to him and we start questioning our
identity anyway and all of those things God wants us to rely completely on his
character I'm sustained by the fact that he said it and with his word comes
everything that I need and it can and I allow him to manifest his character
however he wants Shadrach Meshach and Abednego said he my God can save me from
the fire our God will save us from the fire but even if he doesn't so it they
what we're choosing is we're choosing God's character we're not choosing the
manifestation it's very very extreme so we've all heard this passage so many
times I ask you to take this passage in a way that maybe you never have before
God Jesus is talking literally this is not a parable it's very literal this is
how I live my life this is how God this is how God provides for me sometimes
it's financially some in the financial and the financial come in a variety of
ways sometimes it's not financial I can never I can never quantify it in a
dollar amount sometimes it's like a gift of something sometimes it's the fact
that I normally would need something and I don't have it and God makes me where I
don't even need it like think about food for instance we can think okay well that
okay well God I I don't have money oh my goodness that means that I won't have
food okay God can you please give me money so that I can have food well
instead of giving money so that you can get food God can just give you food and
completely bypass the money or he can simply make you not hungry where your
body is being completely sustained by his character and you don't need to eat
Jesus didn't need to eat Moses spent 80 days without food he spent 40 went down
off the mountain then immediately you know when and during the whole golden
calf fiasco went immediately back up and spent another 40 days fasting Moses
spent 80 days without food Jesus spent you know 40 days in the wilderness and
you know without food because they were relying on God's character to sustain
every aspect in the self spirit soul and body sustained by nothing but the
Word of God it's that extreme so God's teaching me more and more how to live
this and he's teaching all of us how to do that he's just taking me on my own
unique journey of what it happens to look like in life but but this is what
God wants for all of us so again take this literally I always used to take
this as a parable sort of kind of I mean I know I was supposed to take it
literally but I could never figure it out and then I started living it I'm
like oh wow this is literal so then Jesus said to his disciples therefore I
tell you do not do not worry about your life what you will eat and he does mean
that literally do not worry about your life what you will eat or about your
body what you will wear for life is more than food and the body more than than
these clothes right here not we're not talking parables we're talking about
literal I consider the Ravens they do not sow or reap they have no storm all
of those all of those animals out there that are outside right now they do not
sow or reap and they have no storeroom or born yet God feeds them and how much
more valuable you are than the birds so if God would literally give birds food
why would we think that God's talking in a parable to us literally God can give
us everything it is that we need it's not figurative and how much more
valuable than you are in the birds who of you by worrying can add a single hour
to your life oh my goodness where am I gonna get this where am I gonna get that
since you can't do this very little thing why do you worry about the rest of
it consider how the wildflowers grow they do not labor or spend yet I tell
you not even Solomon in all of his doing all of his trying all of his prove all
of his worldly provision and means of protection not even he in all of his
wonder was dressed like one who's not working for it if that is how God closed
the grass of the field which is here today and gone tomorrow but you're
eternal then how much more will he cloak you you of little faith so I encourage
you take passages like this there's multiple passages and beyond this where
God says if you abide in the tree of life you were I have everything with
God's God says you know actually I have everything within me and you are in me
and from that you have everything it is that you need you were always sustained
so here's something very interesting this is kind of the way that I think
about it
And this is where we'll close, is that I just kind of think about it like, as I've tried
to like kind of sense things in the spirit, I realized, okay, God says that we're not
in lack.
Therefore, provision, protection, identity, being loved, liked, and expect to be comforted
is not something that you're in lack of until you're given it by God.
It's not a thing that is transferred.
It is an environment and a substance that was created, yeah, it's an environment, I'm
trying to make sure that I get the right word to articulate what I'm trying to say.
It's an environment that was created in order to sustain you.
It's like this substance that we're in.
We're in this substance called, and don't think of it like literally, this is the best
way that I can picture it for us of what's going on in the spirit.
It's this, think of like a house that would be built, you know, that God says, you know,
that he was going to go and build mansions and all of that.
Think of like a house that God is building and you're thinking, okay, well, I'm going
to be put in it.
The house was built to create an environment to give you something.
So that's what it's like.
It's like this environment, the protection, provision, and identity is like this environment
in which we're always in.
We were born into this.
We've never, you know, being, when we've been, during the time that we've been, you know,
we accepted Christ our Savior, we're one with Christ, you know, however you see that.
When we're in that place, we have always, it is an environment in which we're in and
we're never in lack, no matter what our circumstances might try to prove to us otherwise.
Provision and protection is not something you don't have that you're praying God for
to give you something that you're in lack of, because that's an acknowledgment of the
fact I'm in lack, and God says, no, you're never in lack.
You're always in me and I am the provision and the supply of everything.
I am the thing from which everything else emanates.
So you're never in lack, and then I transfer it to you, and then you're not in lack.
It's that you are in a substance in which you are always provided for and protected.
So it's an actual environment that I believe was created for us that sustains us.
But it is, again, we're not subject to it.
We don't need it.
That's feeling that we're operating in life according to the tree of knowledge of good
and evil.
I need something outside of me.
God, I need you to give me something.
We think we're in lack and we need something outside of us, including God's provision and
protection.
God says, no.
Provision and protection is from me, but it's an environment in which you exist.
He wants us to not ever acknowledge that we don't have a measure of protection and provision,
but we're faithing in something he's going to transaction to us.
He's like, no, choose and acknowledge the fact that it's a substance and an environment
that you are always in that I have built specifically for the purpose to serve, to sustain, and
to support you in everything it is that you do.
What we've been learned from the Lord is, how then, Lord, am I in this feeling where
I'm not protected and I'm not provided for?
How mature me, Lord, to the point of understanding how to engage with the provision and the protection
of the environment in which I'm in.
It's an engagement of an environment that we're in, that we're maturing into understanding
how to do.
I'm sorry.
I know that this is a very big esoterical concept, but I just wanted to point it out
that it is something that as we mature, we're learning how to engage with.
That's the prayer.
God teach me how to understand what it is I already have to access and engage with it,
as opposed to, God, provide this for me.
Protect me.
I don't have.
I need.
God doesn't like us to feel that we even need protection and provision, because we're separating
that from him.
It's a thing he's giving us.
I know I'm really, really going into what to call that, that I'm not meaning to try
to split hairs.
I'm trying to give us the understanding that we're in that much freedom.
We are in that much freedom.
You were always provided for and protected and identified, because it's a substance and
environment that was created in order to serve you by sustaining you in your and the Father
journey through life, being propelled forward by your combined will.
That is what's moving us forward in life.
You