Longing for Eden - Part 1
Worship is what transforms a city. Extravagantly giving myself in strength, thought, and emotion (heart, soul, and strength) in my words AND my actions is what will cause my physical geographic location to begin to reflect Eden.
Whether my mind knows it or not, my being (spirit, soul, and body) longs for Eden. A longing for Eden...that experience of being face to face with the One who knows me perfectly in a safe and life-filled place...is the quiet standard in my heart that is unsatisfied with the evil (absence of God) that seems normal around me.
Psalms 63:1 O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.
Eden was what God called very good, and also what my heart was built to desire. My heart was made to be infinitely satisfied. I was made to live forever, therefore, I require an infinite source of satisfaction. Only an infinite well of transcendent, wonder-filled love and beauty can satisfy the human heart. Only God can satisfy my heart...this WILL be true forever, regardless of when I start really living like I believe it.
At the time Adam and Eve decided to doubt this reality, and fell, Eden was broken. For love, God erected a veil between His bright Holy infinite blazing glory, and my darkened frame. Light destroys darkness, and until the darkness is worked out of my frame...my will...That blazing glory would harm me. Thanks to God, Jesus defeated the legal claim of darkness and became a gate, AND a way, for me to walk in greater measures of light...God desires not for me to just "make it" through 80 physical years and then "see what happens next"...but to, step by step, rejoin the supernatural realm (heaven), where He dwells, with my physical presence...this is the entire ideal of Eden...God with me increasing in reality day by day...this is the way to life and what God desires:
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
But there is an enemy at work who desires to tempt me to feed on lesser pleasures...defining life simply in the physical realm... in order to dull my appetite for the superior pleasure, which is seeing more and more of the qualities of Eden appear in my life, which is what God, the author of life, desires for me. The lie of the enemy to go after what the world says is good is a satanic strategy to a) keep me from the gate, if possible...but then also, if satan looses at plan a, to invoke plan b) keeping me from the "way to Eden."
Many who name the name of Jesus have found the gate and lost the way...believing God is mostly interested in their best life now. This strategy is straight from the devil who is a thief and a liar. This worldly thinking produces a cycle of physical longing (lust) and frustration as my hunger goes unsatisfied and as time goes on my search for satisfaction gets more frenzied...pulling me further and further from the infinite source of satisfaction who simply says "come to me and drink."
This cycle of lust and frustration which robs peace and satisfaction isn't limited to those in the "world"...no! It is in the very Body of Jesus. Thinking that doing things "for" Jesus protects me from this cycle is the greatest lie of all! Within ministries all over the church, many measure their lives by the fulfillment of their desire to be successful as the world defines it: a "big" ministry, a "popular" book, the notice of a more famous leader (who is likely wishing someone more famous would notice them, too), accolades, recognition, a song or materials that sell, even just others to say "good word". This is all about getting a favorable evaluation from the physical, and making secondary the actual increase of the supernatural...the evaluation from the other side of the veil, which defines greatness much differently than the world:
Matthew 5:18-19 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus was the greatest teacher of the gospel the world has ever seen. He authored not just good songs, but music itself...He wrote the Bible by the Spirit He sent into the world, lived the Sermon on the Mount better than anyone else ever...and died with 12 guys following Him, who all ran away at just the wrong time. He died, from an earthly standard, very unsuccessfully...but He, as a man, completely recaptured Eden for the Father...restoring the possibility for what God calls "very good" for anyone else that wants to call that same thing "very good." He IS the greatest forever...the name above all other names. If you want to live close to where He lives, you need to live close to like He lived!
Many who claim the name of Jesus think heaven will be good "someday", but for now they have one life to "make a splash with." This is wrong thinking through and through...God earnestly desires Eden NOW and is actively searching the earth for anyone to agree with Him that real life isn't even possible apart from Eden restored!
II Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him...
Life doesn't even start again until Eden is restored. That happens through the fire of tribulation which becomes a blaze in one generation. This passage...which Jesus said was an end-time passage was written just for us:
Luke 12:49-53 “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
Jesus kindled it by the sacrifice of Himself and breathing the Spirit on those who would live intentionally for Eden. That kindling becomes a blaze in the generation in which whole communities decide they will live for nothing less than Eden...NOW!
II Peter 3:11-13 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
The truth is we are supposed to be holding out for Eden. To get your best life now...where it is less than Eden...is to have less life in the place called "very good" which is coming soon to a planet near you:
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Stamping the name of Jesus on a worldly desire doesn't just drag me further from the superior pleasure of Eden, but it muddies the water for every other beloved one of the Father who comes after me. Many are newly born of the Spirit and given a heart to look for the ideal of purity in their relationship with God and the power that flows from a bright and vibrant interaction with Him. To claim to know God, yet live desiring the world's accolades is to betray the very ideal Jesus paid for. Many have been deluded and harmed by this very dynamic in Jesus' Body. The world's ways can never draw me closer to Source....it might draw more people to me, but what good is it to win the world and loose my own fascination...my own reach for Eden?
Matthew 16:26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
It is a question of worship. Worship is the highest expression of desire. We were made to live in Eden and worship the greatest thing we could see, the bright holiness of God, our never ending source of life. When Eden was broken, and the veil erected...since man was separated from seeing God...we have had to fight our eyes from worshiping the choice things of the broken world. Worship is the first step in choosing our strength. We all have to choose what we define as strength...what we define as success. We choose with our trust, with our faith. Whichever strength we choose is the one that manifests in our life...it is what we stand on:
Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
Whether my mind knows it or not, my being (spirit, soul, and body) longs for Eden. A longing for Eden...that experience of being face to face with the One who knows me perfectly in a safe and life-filled place...is the quiet standard in my heart that is unsatisfied with the evil (absence of God) that seems normal around me.
Psalms 63:1 O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.
Eden was what God called very good, and also what my heart was built to desire. My heart was made to be infinitely satisfied. I was made to live forever, therefore, I require an infinite source of satisfaction. Only an infinite well of transcendent, wonder-filled love and beauty can satisfy the human heart. Only God can satisfy my heart...this WILL be true forever, regardless of when I start really living like I believe it.
At the time Adam and Eve decided to doubt this reality, and fell, Eden was broken. For love, God erected a veil between His bright Holy infinite blazing glory, and my darkened frame. Light destroys darkness, and until the darkness is worked out of my frame...my will...That blazing glory would harm me. Thanks to God, Jesus defeated the legal claim of darkness and became a gate, AND a way, for me to walk in greater measures of light...God desires not for me to just "make it" through 80 physical years and then "see what happens next"...but to, step by step, rejoin the supernatural realm (heaven), where He dwells, with my physical presence...this is the entire ideal of Eden...God with me increasing in reality day by day...this is the way to life and what God desires:
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
But there is an enemy at work who desires to tempt me to feed on lesser pleasures...defining life simply in the physical realm... in order to dull my appetite for the superior pleasure, which is seeing more and more of the qualities of Eden appear in my life, which is what God, the author of life, desires for me. The lie of the enemy to go after what the world says is good is a satanic strategy to a) keep me from the gate, if possible...but then also, if satan looses at plan a, to invoke plan b) keeping me from the "way to Eden."
Many who name the name of Jesus have found the gate and lost the way...believing God is mostly interested in their best life now. This strategy is straight from the devil who is a thief and a liar. This worldly thinking produces a cycle of physical longing (lust) and frustration as my hunger goes unsatisfied and as time goes on my search for satisfaction gets more frenzied...pulling me further and further from the infinite source of satisfaction who simply says "come to me and drink."
This cycle of lust and frustration which robs peace and satisfaction isn't limited to those in the "world"...no! It is in the very Body of Jesus. Thinking that doing things "for" Jesus protects me from this cycle is the greatest lie of all! Within ministries all over the church, many measure their lives by the fulfillment of their desire to be successful as the world defines it: a "big" ministry, a "popular" book, the notice of a more famous leader (who is likely wishing someone more famous would notice them, too), accolades, recognition, a song or materials that sell, even just others to say "good word". This is all about getting a favorable evaluation from the physical, and making secondary the actual increase of the supernatural...the evaluation from the other side of the veil, which defines greatness much differently than the world:
Matthew 5:18-19 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus was the greatest teacher of the gospel the world has ever seen. He authored not just good songs, but music itself...He wrote the Bible by the Spirit He sent into the world, lived the Sermon on the Mount better than anyone else ever...and died with 12 guys following Him, who all ran away at just the wrong time. He died, from an earthly standard, very unsuccessfully...but He, as a man, completely recaptured Eden for the Father...restoring the possibility for what God calls "very good" for anyone else that wants to call that same thing "very good." He IS the greatest forever...the name above all other names. If you want to live close to where He lives, you need to live close to like He lived!
Many who claim the name of Jesus think heaven will be good "someday", but for now they have one life to "make a splash with." This is wrong thinking through and through...God earnestly desires Eden NOW and is actively searching the earth for anyone to agree with Him that real life isn't even possible apart from Eden restored!
II Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him...
Life doesn't even start again until Eden is restored. That happens through the fire of tribulation which becomes a blaze in one generation. This passage...which Jesus said was an end-time passage was written just for us:
Luke 12:49-53 “I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three. Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”
Jesus kindled it by the sacrifice of Himself and breathing the Spirit on those who would live intentionally for Eden. That kindling becomes a blaze in the generation in which whole communities decide they will live for nothing less than Eden...NOW!
II Peter 3:11-13 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
The truth is we are supposed to be holding out for Eden. To get your best life now...where it is less than Eden...is to have less life in the place called "very good" which is coming soon to a planet near you:
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Stamping the name of Jesus on a worldly desire doesn't just drag me further from the superior pleasure of Eden, but it muddies the water for every other beloved one of the Father who comes after me. Many are newly born of the Spirit and given a heart to look for the ideal of purity in their relationship with God and the power that flows from a bright and vibrant interaction with Him. To claim to know God, yet live desiring the world's accolades is to betray the very ideal Jesus paid for. Many have been deluded and harmed by this very dynamic in Jesus' Body. The world's ways can never draw me closer to Source....it might draw more people to me, but what good is it to win the world and loose my own fascination...my own reach for Eden?
Matthew 16:26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
It is a question of worship. Worship is the highest expression of desire. We were made to live in Eden and worship the greatest thing we could see, the bright holiness of God, our never ending source of life. When Eden was broken, and the veil erected...since man was separated from seeing God...we have had to fight our eyes from worshiping the choice things of the broken world. Worship is the first step in choosing our strength. We all have to choose what we define as strength...what we define as success. We choose with our trust, with our faith. Whichever strength we choose is the one that manifests in our life...it is what we stand on:
Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
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