There were Two Trees in the Garden	Menu

 

There were two trees in the garden, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve were instructed that they could eat from any tree in the garden except the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God knew that in the day they ate of that tree it would change the course of their live's forever.

The two trees God placed in the garden are still active today. The questions is, “Which tree are we eating from?” Unfortunately, the church has been eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil more than it's been eating from the Tree of Life. When we operate from our mind and reason we are operating from the tree of knowledge. When we operate through faith in God we are operating from the Tree of Life.

God wants to bring us back to the Tree of Life again. The following story illustrates how even the good things we know about Christ could replace Christ if we are not careful.

A Vision of Coming Changes in the Body of Christ
Chris Poole - June 2002

The following account spans a time period from last November 2001 to this past June 2002. It began during a time period when I was contemplating some really pronounced changes in the normal pattern of events in both the ministry I was engaged in and my “tent-making” endeavors.

Last November, I was sitting in my blue office recliner behind the desk when suddenly, I heard the voice of the Lord begin to speak to me in a very pronounced fashion. He said, “Chris, would you be OK if I told you that we are going to take a trip to the backside of the desert and in that place, all of what you have come to think of and know as normal will cease. There will be no meetings, no activity, no visibility. It will seem as if everything has come to a stop - but - what you will have is my manifest Presence.” There was a brief moment of silence at this point and then He came back to me and said, Chris, if all you have is Me and Me alone, would I be enough for you?”

As soon as Jesus finished asking this question, I immediately knew that the right answer was “Yes” but something in me prompted me to stop and think about the question and not answer hastily. It was as if what I said was going to prophesy what would happen - and it would be set in motion immediately after I spoke it. For a brief moment, I contemplated what a “No” answer would be saying (“No, Jesus, You would not be enough. We desire the ministry more than we desire You”) but this was so ludicrous that I was ready to answer His question even though there might have been an twist to it that I had not thought about. I knew that any ministry worth engaging in MUST always begin with and end with Jesus. So, I said “Yes Lord, You alone would be enough”. There was another moment of silence and then He simply said, “OK”. The intensity of His Presence left and I did not experience another visitation like this again until the end of June 2002.

One morning near the end of June 2002, I was sitting in exactly the same chair in my office working and the Lord again came to me as He had last November. Although it had been several months since the last “meeting”, He spoke to me as if we were still engaged in our last conversation. He said, “Chris, if I had given you the things you thought you wanted in ministry, you would have come to despise them even more than you despised the aspects of business that you felt were competing for your time and hindering My call on your life - making it difficult for you to walk out what I had called you to do.”

As He was speaking this to me, suddenly - I was no longer in my office but found myself in an outdoor setting looking straight ahead. It was obvious that I was outside but yet, I could not see past about 20 feet in any direction and it was clear that there was nothing important to be noticed beyond that distance. As I looked straight ahead, I saw the “body” of a person standing on two stones facing me about 15 feet in front of me.

As I looked at this person's body, there were several things that immediately stood out to me. First, the stones were separated enough such that the person's legs were at a 45 degree angle to each other. Next, the person had on generic clothing such that it was not clearly either make or female. This is because I believe it represented both male and female. Also, I could not see above the person's neck but yet, I knew it was not a headless body. It was very much alive and able to think, see, speak, and hear.

As I was contemplating this body standing spread-legged on these two large stones, I also was aware that Jesus was standing about 10 feet from me about 30 degrees to me left and He was looking at this person standing on these rocks also.

I again looked at the person in front of me and my attention was drawn to the rock under the right foot. Immediately, I knew this rock represented Jesus, the true foundation. Even as I thought this, Jesus knowing my thoughts said, “Yes, I Am the true foundation. What does the other rock represent?” As I looked at it, I felt as if I was “impacted” with revelation and I suddenly knew that it represented all the other things that were about Him - but they were not Him.

Again knowing my thoughts, Jesus looked straight at me with a rather piercing look and said, “Yes, you are right. Chris, this rock represents THE PROPHETIC… (I was almost pushed backwards by the forcefulness and volume of His voice and I felt for a moment that He was angry with me. Then, He lowered the tone of his voice and continued…), it represents full time ministry, it represents “call to the nations”, it represents the callings and destinies of My people…, it represents all the things other than Me over which My people have become so passionate and consumed.” Then, lowering His voice even more, He said, “Unfortunately, all these things represent the good things about Me which have replaced Me.”

I saw Jesus lower His head and there was a moment of silence. Then, He looked at me again and said, “Now that you understand this, you will understand what I must now do.” Having said that, He walked across in front of me and stopped in front of the rock under the left foot of the “body”. What happened next took place so quickly that I was not able to see all that happened, but Jesus suddenly kicked the rock out from under the left foot of the body of the person and it was gone. Almost immediately, the body fell to it's left and did a perfect belly-flop and impacted the ground hard - hard enough to produce a loud grunt - as the wind was knocked out of it. Then, it just lay there motionless.

Let's stop for just a moment and think about the scene presented. If a person is standing three feet up in the air because of the size of these rocks and they are spread-legged with their body above and between the rocks, they will have equal weight on each foot. Try this and you will see that it is impossible for this not to be so.

I was really concerned for the “body” because of the fall and Jesus simply looked at me and said, “Just observe…”. So I just stood still and watched. As I looked, the body slowly began to stir and to regain its breath. It slowly stood to its feet and looked at its condition. I saw it hold out its arms and hands and examine the dirt on them and then I saw it look at its soiled clothes, all covered with dirt and debris. As it stood there realizing its condition, it slowly walked over to Jesus and held out its hands and arms to Him and said, “Jesus, we are so sorry we have done this to You. We are so sorry…

At this point, the body was weeping and quivering before the Lord having realized its condition. Then I heard it say, “Lord, please cleanse us of what we have done to You and heal us of our condition. We are so sorry…”

Suddenly, I am back in my office and no longer in the outdoor scene. Again, I hear the Lord's voice but no longer see anything. He said, “In the coming days, My people's greatest desire will be just to sit at My feet and enjoy sweet fellowship with Me. No longer will they have their passions wrapped around the things they do for Me. I will be their greatest passion. Then, I will say to this one, will you go and deliver this message to this group, and I will say to that one, will you go and help this one on the street who is in great need, and I will say to another, will you go and encourage this one who is My sheep. Because of their passion for Me, they will have no desire to leave their place at My feet but they will do as I ask out of their great love for me. They will all go and complete their assignments exactly as I instructed, but when they have complete what I told them to do, their only desire will be to quickly return to their place, sitting at My feet. Never again will they displace their passion for Me to those things that they do for Me. I alone will be their passion.”

Then the Lord said, “I am about to give My Body a revelation of Me”. With that, the vision ended.
Chris Poole

The Tree of Life stood for being filled with God's spirit. The Spirt of God brings life to everything it touches. That's why God had to remove Adam and Eve from the garden. If they ate from the Tree of Life they would have lived forever. This means that their sinful condition would have remained forever. God in his mercy removed them from the garden so they would not remain in a sinful condition forever.

The Tree of Life also mean's being lead and guided by God's spirit. When we enter God' kingdom we become children of God. In other words, Human beings walking around with the Spirit of God in them. So how do we eat from the Tree of Life today? Let's go to Romans 8:1-17. ...but those who live accordance to the spirit have thier minds set on what the spirit desires......those who are lead by the spirit of god are sons of god...

1) The more time we spend fellowshiping with God, the more of His spirit fills our soul. We become like a sponge soaking in God. Smith Wigglesworth once said that anyone who wanted to get serious with God should be spending at least 2 hours a day with Him. This is the same thing I have noticed in my life. An hour in the morning and another hour in the evening reading a good spiritual books will highen our spiritual awareness. Jesus did not say, "my sheep will know my book." He said, "My sheep will know my voice".

2 ) Bringing every thought into captivity and setting our minds on the things above. Pick up a Bill Johnson devotional and start feeding your spirit with a new mind set. I highly recommend Bill Johnson's "A Life of Miracles, a 365-day guide to prayer and miracles". Setting your mind on the things above is retraining our minds to follow your spirit. Bill once said," Our mind is a terrible master but a wonderful slave". Our spirit dreams and sours, then our minds try to rationalize it out and says that it not possible. Our mind needs to come into agreement with our spirit with the spirit leading the way..

3) Start following the promptings of the Holy Spirit and become obedient to God.

God's ultimate goal is "God and Man living together"

Ever since the fall, God has had a plan to restore all things and eventually bring us back to the garden.  The Garden represents God and Man living together in perfect fellowship. From Genesis to Revelation we see the end result as God and Man living together in perfect fellowship.

Biblical patterns of final destinations;

Each of these final destination has the same result, God and Man dwelling together in fellowship.

When we get to the end of the first Earth and God creates a new Earth, the Tree of Life will be there. God and man will be living together. The good news is that we don't have to wait fo the new Earth to come. God has given us a way of experiencing the presence of God and eating from the Tree of Life now.

We are living in the Joshua and Caleb generation. These two men entered the promised land and gave testimony to what the promised land was like. God’s is doing the same thing in this day and generation. He is raising up houses of prayer where people can experience the presense of God. So who will take the same attitude of Joshua and Caleb and fight to enter into the promise land.

A Word for the Joseph Company (Part 2) / Bob Jones
(Editor's note - This is a transcript, edited for style and length, of a spoken word Bob Jones brought at the recent Joseph Company Spring Summit on 5/2/05. Part 1 can be found in the July Joseph Company Journal.)

There's a child in this town (Kansas City), I said when he'd be conceived and born and that the heavens would proclaim his birth. They named him Joshua and it means that the Joshua generation is coming forth. Way back then I knew it would begin when he was 18 and he was 18 last Feb 20th. When he was born there was a great supernova in the heavens, there hasn't been one since 1604 (7 years later the King James Bible was released.). Children are signs and wonders.
I was told to watch that supernova. You may not know much about me, but I'll often speak of what will happen in the heavens before it does.
There are signs in the heavens like never before. Last June 6th there was a supernova in the heavens and there also came a great portal up there it's called the eye of God. That eye of God is going to be up there until June 8th 2012. By that time this (youth) army is going to be rolling. (See part 1 on the youth army.)
A number of years ago the Lord told me I had lost my marbles in the garden and that my generation has been crazy for six thousand years. He told me to go out in my garden and start digging them up - over the years I've dug up 12 - I got my marbles back!
I spoke to Rick Joyner that he was going to have another child and she'd be born on August 8th and she'd be 8 pounds. It was on that day nearly 15 years ago that I was out in my garden and I found my 8th marble. It was amber, which means "close to the throne" - this was a generation that would be close to the throne. So Rick put her on the scales the moment she was born - 8th day, 8th month, 8 pounds, 8 marbles. Children are signs and wonders. She'll be 15 this August 8th.

 

 

Last Updated: April 20, 2011	Feedback