The Word and Spirit Divorced

(This is chapter 2 of the book The Way of Sonship: Anointed to Overcome)

An acorn is a remarkable thing. Compared to an oak tree it is absolutely tiny, yet the power of the mighty father oak dwells within its acorn seed or son. If planted and with the right conditions to grow, one day it will become the image or reflection of its father by bearing the fruit of more acorn sons in the likeness of its father’s kind. The original son of God was Adam. He was created from the dust of the earth, but God personally breathed His own life’s breath into Adam. Like a mirror, Adam became the visible image or reflection of the breath of his indwelling Father into the natural world. Just like the acorn, Adam was meant to bear fruit by filling the earth with sons, each of whom by being filled with the mighty breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood would bear the name “the Sons of God” by behaving like God (bearing his fruit) in every aspect of life. In effect, these “Sons of God” were to be corporately seen as the City of God, the living word of God “Son” within whom God dwelt by the breath of God’s life (or Holy Spirit). In his great love, God as a father delegated authority to his son, Adam. Just as Adam was to have dominion upon the earth, God as a father had dominion within Adam’s heart. Adam with the authority and God with the power, the two would rule together and in the ages to come, God as a father would show Adam as the Corporate Son of God what it means to be called by the name the “Son of God” forever.

In the centre of the garden of Eden were two trees that were different from all other trees. The fruit of these two trees each represented a different name, a different source of life or life’s breath and therefore a different way of behaving. One was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the other the tree of life. In Hebrew, Yehovah (or Yah), “I Am“, is the name of God, and in John 8:58, Jesus said “Before Abraham was born, I Am“. In Greek, the words “I am” is “ego eimi“, this is the Greek form of the meaning of the name of God. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents the name “I am” or “I will” and it represents crown of pride and self-exaltation. Eating this fruit is becoming “as god” within one’s own psyche or life or sphere of influence, and is the root of independent self-determination, self-idolatry, self-exaltation and self-worship. It is grasping equality with God by saying in one’s heart “My will be done because I will decide what is good or evil, right, or wrong and true or false“. The tree of life however represents the Crown of Sonship and the character or name “HE IS the Father of my life, His will be done” and just as the Hebrew fathers gave their sons provision, protection, purpose and their presence, so God becomes the true and everlasting father that dwells within the hearts of those who eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God’s fatherhood.

Adam and Eve were originally created for pleasure, the absolute pleasure and contentment in the knowledge of the paradise of God indwelling their hearts. They lived in the paradise of Eden and enjoyed the blessing of a perfect knowledge of the love of God’s fatherhood. It says in Genesis 2:15 that Yehovah God caused Adam to find rest in the paradise of Eden so that he could serve and be served by the grace and blessing of paradise and keep it. God gave them the right to eat fruit from any of the trees in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He had said to Adam that in the day Adam ate of this tree, in dying he would die. They had no intention of ever eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. However, the serpent and father of lies, Satan or the devil, spoke words of lying breath to Eve. Like the Psalmist in Psalm 119:11, Eve had hidden God’s word within her heart and as long as the life’s breath of God’s word dwelt there, she was safe. As Eve entertained Satan’s lying promises of the deceptive pleasures of rebellion within the breathings of her personality (or soul) she traded the breath of God’s living word out of her heart. This made space for the lying breath of the serpent to become true to her. She saw that this fruit was pleasing to look at which appealed to the lust of her eyes, it was good for food which appealed to the lust of her flesh, and it was desirable to obtain wisdom which appealed to the pride of her life. In the rebellion of unbelief towards God she allowed the father of lies to deceive her, trading the absolute truth of the word of God’s fatherhood with the serpent’s lying false promise of more pleasure and a bigger blessing of becoming a god in her own right rather than being a mirror image or reflection or Son of God. She unwittingly joined the father of lies in his rebellion against the word of God by eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She gave some to Adam who was with her and he too joined in her rebellion. They became enraptured or enchanted with themselves. They gasped out or expired (from the Latin “exspirare” or outbreathed) the indwelling breath of God’s fatherhood from their heavenly hearts and their glorious crowns fell from their heads. They rejected a relationship with God and instead entered into a relationship with what was good and evil. The word of God was no longer absolute truth, the word of God was no longer the supernatural dawn of divine light within them. The words of God were divorced from the breath of divine life, they were no longer life-changing, special, holy, separate, or different to any other naturally spoken words. Their eyes were opened to the darkness and curse of egocentric self-admiration and self-exaltation, their hearts became hard and their natures and identity changed. By attempting to exalt themselves they actually fell, becoming self-aware and no longer God-aware. They unwittingly attempted to usurp the throne of God’s fatherhood and crown themselves as gods. The paradise of their pleasure in knowing the immediate and present tense presence, love and trust in God as their father was replaced by self-exaltation, self-love and trust in the pride of their “I am as god” and “what I will, that I will do” hearts. God knows all things, God is before all things, God is above all things. As gods, in their own hearts, Adam and Eve had replaced God with themselves. Their own personal realms, psyche, and sphere of influence, they imagined that they knew all things, they were now before all things, they were now above all things. Their heart attitude became “I am like God. I am the greatest, no one is greater than me. If I cannot win it, it cannot be won. If I cannot do it, it cannot be done.” Becoming in effect their own “gods” and a law unto themselves, through the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life they became subjected to the lying breaths or spirit of the father of lies who considers himself and not God to be the great “I am” god. Adam and Eve inadvertently became part of the kingdom of darkness and were transfigured in reverse. As “gods” they were no longer transfixed or captivated by the unconditional love and glorious image or reflection of God’s fatherhood and instead were bound or held captive or enslaved by attempting to maintain at all costs their own outward image of superiority. Just like the devil, prince of darkness, god of this world and father of their rebellion they became mirror images or reflections and worshippers of themselves. Being darkened in their understanding, in order to project a false image of superiority in all things they covered their sin-stained hearts with a shroud of self-effort but then secretly sought pleasure in things that were morally wrong. Now being enslaved to the pride of their “I am as god I will” hearts, in order to avoid the humiliation of being confronted by the truth of what they had done, they hid from God amongst the other trees in Eden. When challenged by God in the Garden of Eden, in his pride Adam said in his heart, “I am the way, the truth and the life. I am so incredible and admirably worthy of praise that this could not possibly be my fault even though I did actually eat that forbidden fruit“. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and so he said to God in Genesis 3:12 “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat“. Adam blamed God for giving him Eve, and Adam blamed Eve. That is why it says in Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV) “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?“.

Having been originally created like a sailing ship with the sails of their hearts filled with the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood, their sails were emptied of God. Their hearts were now subjected to whatever wind or breath filled the empty sails of their “I am as god” hearts. Because Adam and Eve had rejected the word of God, through the false promise of pleasure and the words of the lying breaths of the “I am the god of this world” god imposter, the prince of the power of the air began to trade himself into their empty and hardened hearts, taking God’s place of pleasure and pre-eminence within them. The breath of life is in the blood and their blood or natures had changed. With hearts now emptied of God, their now darkened minds caused them to think, feel and behave like the author of their rebellion. They were no longer Sons of God. They had become divorced from the living word of the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood and they had unwittingly become the orphan-hearted seed or sons of the serpent. Instead of everything being about the absolute truth of God’s living word and the wonderful love, blessing, and heavenly presence of God in his glorious fatherhood. Everything now revolved around them and their new-found egos; selfish, self-centred, self-absorbed, self-admiring, self-pleasing, self-glorying, self-protecting, self-advantaged, self-trusting, self-loving, self-saving, “I am the first and the last, I am the beginning and the end” rebellion. Wearing a crown of thorns rather than the glorious crown of Sonship, as “gods“, deciding for themselves what was right or wrong, good or evil, true or false was now the breath of their lives. In this, they established the foundation or throwing down of the darkness of the cursed world of fallen sons, Satan’s “religion” which would eventually constitute the antithesis of the City of God, the Babylon or Sin City of Hypocrisy, the “I am as god” pretence of everyone’s favourite religion – the adoration of self-worship. Having originally been created to find rest in the paradise of Eden and to serve and be served by the grace or blessing of paradise, they became “workers” of the dust or cursed ground of their own fallen hearts. Just as they “worked” to sew leaves together to cover the shame of their nakedness, by their own “sweaty” self-effort they now worked the ground of their fallen personalities to bring forth fruit by the sweat of their brow. They had been created out of dust; having gasped out the ever-living life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood they no longer had eternal life. They were simply living dust that eventually died.

The inhabitants of the world (or Babylon) or the corporate City or Son of Man eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to find their strength and source of supply. Just as natural fruit comes from the outside and when eaten it enters into the body and gives energy or strength for life, those who eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil draw a sense of their “I am as god” identity, value, significance, honour, worth or importance from the environment in which they live. With darkened loveless hearts that only genuinely love those that love them, they work their lives up into a “sweat” by living in a way that hopes to make them feel important and puffed up whatever the cost. In order to foster their own “I am as god” over-inflated opinion of themselves and secretly elicit the praise of others, they believe that unless they are worthy, they cannot be loved. Being admirable, worthy, or superior to others is the rather shaky foundation of their lives that ever seeks the acceptance and praise of others that flows from the outside in. In the pride of their hearts they will often lie, hiding their true thoughts and feelings in order to project an outward image of superiority and worthiness. In reality, in their hearts they are self-admiring, hypocritical, and false. This attempt to protect their “as god” identity as being worthy of admiration and guard the inner object of their idolatrous “I am” self-worship can often lead to pretence, manipulation, domination, shirking family responsibilities, neglect, abuse and in extreme cases outbursts of rage, violence and even murder. They dwell within darkness, and the pride poisoned “I am” god imposter and prince of darkness, by his lying breaths, dwells within them. Behaviour in life will become inheritance in resurrection. This is the natural state of the fallen human heart. The fallen heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked and beyond cure, who can understand it? (see Jeremiah 17:9). Because of the Fall, the eyes of the fallen human heart became darkened, blinded to God, and blinded to the devil. All it could see was itself.

When God created the heavens and the earth, he established the divine law of sowing and reaping. Sowing good seed produces good fruit but bad seed produces bad fruit. Both are after their kind. In effect, this is the knowledge of good or evil. The fallen heart deserves nothing from God, but in His great love, God sows blessings and kindness by the word of His life’s breath or Holy Spirit into the seed bed of the hearts of men. The life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God brings a harvest of good things. Things like love, kindness, mercy, and forgiveness for those who follow in God’s ways. These things lead to life. However, the devil fashions himself as God. By lying and deceiving people with false promises he sows his words or evil breaths or spirits of curse into the seed bed of the hearts of people who follow him. The breath or evil spirits of the devil’s lies bring a bitter harvest of things like adultery, uncleanness, greed, hatred, jealousy, and murder for those who follow in the devil’s ways. These things lead to death. The physical death that the sin of Adam and Eve brought into the lives of their descendants is not permanent, death will end in resurrection. In life, people are free to live however they want to live. People can choose whether they sow blessing or curse into their lives and into the lives of others. At the End of Days, everyone except those who have already experienced the First Resurrection will rise from the dead. They will be called to give to God an account of the way that they behaved in life and their relationship with either good or evil, blessing or curse. On the Day of Final Judgement, God people will reap the fully ripe fruit of the behaviour of people’s lives. God will give them their own back; what they “worked” into their lives by sowing in life, this will be reaped in resurrection. The fruit of their lives will be poured back into their hearts, full measure, pressed down, and running over. God has a different destiny for those whom He has chosen to become the Sons of God. They are the ones who are counted worthy to experience the First Resurrection, but in order for them to enter into that destiny, they must first overcome.

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