I had written a blog a little while back about what does it mean when we say we are trying to get back to Eden? In it I said how we are in the garden now! How we get to skip, run, walk, dance and sing in the garden right here and now, here on Earth! I get to talk with the God who created me and walk in step with Him because He is living inside of me. So I am coming back to Eden by exploring what the Lord has given me and by doing that I am coming closer to His heart, coming back into deeper relationship with him, restoring what once was lost and coming into closer union with Him just as He always intended.
Today, though, a much bigger revelation was given to me about Eden, Jesus, and us! Let me give you a little context first…
I have been reading the book of John and I was reading chapters 19:38-20:18; it is when Jesus is buried and His resurrection and He appears to Mary. Surprisingly enough really the only things that stuck out to me were the words “garden” and “gardener.” I thought to myself, “Why are these the only things that are capturing me? Why isn’t it Jesus coming back to life?” Clearly Abba was trying to show me something, so I sat with it, prayed about it and yet nothing. Apparently Papa wanted to show me something in His timing, and like He always does, He showed up right when He was needed.
We (meaning the CGA apprentices and myself) were in our Dangerous Jesus class and Clint (our teacher for the day) was sharing and something he said caught my attention. He said, “Jesus is the last Adam” and that’s all it took for God to start downloading a revelation to me. I quickly turned to Genesis 2 and my eyes got WIDE with amazement, for in that moment Abba was revealing to me why the words “garden” and “gardener” were so significant in John.
Jesus is the last Adam. He had that PERFECT union with the Father. He walked with Him and talked with Him; their relationship was PERFECT just as Adam’s was. Adam and Abba’s union was broken when Eve and Adam ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Jesus died on the cross. The cross is the tree of knowledge, which he died on and where Adam and Eve died with their sin. Yet Christ died for that very same sin. For when Jesus died for our sins He broke the barrier that was created at the fall of man, yet this time it was the fall of the enemy. Just as man was tempted by the enemy, man (Jesus) went and overthrew the enemy’s kingdom.
He was then buried in the garden; he was placed in the garden just as God placed man in Eden. Then there in the garden Christ fought against the temptations of the enemy. And He defeated him and created a new union with God for us; a PERFECT UNION. For when we choose to accept Christ in us, there is planted a garden which is the Holy Spirit which is deeply rooted and watered by the stream that flows from our relationship with God, just as the garden was watered by a single river that flowed out of Eden.
Just as God took care of the garden of Eden He is taking care of us. Mary mistook Jesus as the gardener; which He is! He prunes us and helps us bear fruit, He takes care of us! As He says in John 15:1-2 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”
He does this through the perfect helper- the Holy Spirit. God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” (Genesis 2:18). That helper for Adam was Eve. Just as it was not good for man to be alone then it is not good for us to be alone, our helper is not a man or a woman, ours is the Holy Spirit who is PERFECT for each of us. God uses the Holy Spirit to speak, work, and move in us differently, just as He made us differently. And just as Adam and Eve were not ashamed of their nakedness, we will not be ashamed in our nakedness before our PERFECT helper.
Will you choose to accept the flowing streams of mercy and the fruits of grace? Will you choose to walk in the garden of God’s heart?
FOR YOU ARE THE GARDEN!
