Back to the basics

Let’s go back for a minute to the beginning.. back to Adam and Eve. I want to talk about something that God has been revealing to me heavily in the past weeks. God’s original design for our lives. If we go back to the garden of Eden. We learn in Genesis 2:16-17 in the garden there was a tree known as the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We see here in this verse that God’s instruction is for man to never eat of it. That really got me thinking. You may wonder why the tree was put there in the first place if eating of it would cause death. The answer to this is Love. True love is not possible with out choice. You can’t have real genuine love with out the possibility of rejection. God wanted our whole hearts. He wanted us to love him and obey him because we choose to; not because we were forced into it out of lack of other options. The tree symbolized one’s desire to be independent, to decide truth on their own rather rest in the knowledge of God’s truth. Before eating of the tree Man only knew of good. They only knew of the light. There was no knowledge of the darkness and evil. Does that mean that it didn’t exist… no satan was still very real.. but they were guarded from it. They were safe from knowing it at all.

That was Gods ultimate design for our lives.. for us to never even know the darkness. He wanted us to only be present in the wisdom of His light. Even now in present time we all find ourselves still waiting for the day that we meet God in heaven.. this place we will find ourselves in after this life; where we are absent from remembering the bad, where there is no death or sickness. Where everything is good. We are essentially all waiting to finally be back in true alignment with how God had originally designed us to live.. but what if we chose to walk in that here and now. Matthew 4:17 “ The kingdom of heaven is at hand” a lot of us grew up learning this meant it was coming soon, but the original Greek word for the phrase “at hand” is ēngiken which means that it is present and available, it is with in reach. NOW.

Okay..Stay with me for a second.. because I wanna break down a few other statements Jesus made during his ministry here.

First I want to look into Faith. Greek word peithō. Meaning to be fully persuaded and convinced. Most of us in church have grown up hearing that all you need is faith the size of a mustard seed and you can tell mountains to move and they will.. but what if we were taught all these years wrong. In Matthew 17:20 Jesus in fact says to the disciples that the reason they aren’t  able to perform the miracles they are trying to perform is because of LITTLE FAITH. “Because of your little faith. For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there  and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” The only version you see size referenced is the NIV version. (Published in 1978) prior to that Jesus is telling you to be LIKE a mustard seed. So what is a mustard tree. The seed is one of the smallest seeds, but the tree it produces… is huge. It’s known to grow 6-12 feet in just one season. It spreads quickly. The roots grow so deep and wide that it takes over anything else planted around it… it grows so tall and strong that its branches are a place of rest as Jesus says for the birds of the air. Farmers during this time wouldn’t have planted a mustard seed in their gardens… because it would literally destroy everything it was planted around. Its known to be wild and uncontrollable.. now I want you too keep this knowledge of the mustard tree.. and faith.. now I want us to go into the verse Matthew 18:3.

“Truly I tell you unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”

The world gives the perception that being naive is a bad thing. That you are lacking in wisdom or common sense. What if we are actually called to be naive. The definition of the word is to be deficient of wisdom of the word, other descriptions include childlike. French and Latin derive the word from natural and innocent. Sounds to me exactly what Jesus was calling us to be.

Gods original design was for us to be naive to the ways of the world. To be naive of the darkness and evil not because it didn’t exist because our God is greater and more powerful than it is.

So what if to live in the alignment of the kingdom of heaven now… we were to walk in that naiveness of evil. To have a faith so strong, big , and wild that it controls everything in our lives. That like the mustard seed it takes over and destroys any other beliefs or ideas. It become the only thing planted in us. Being naive to the darkness… because you have the faith that you know even walking into a room that evil must flee. Being so secure in your alignment with the Holy Spirit that your very presence diminishes evil no matter where you are. We put so much emphasis on the attacks of satan… we talk about how to be prepared for them the closer we get to God. What if we stopped bringing so much enlightenment to the attack. The presence of God doesn’t stir up satan and his demons and make the stronger, it destroys them. It brings them to their knees begging. The presence of evil can only work if you give attention to it. This doesn’t mean that trails won’t come, because they will.. but instead.. Focus your minds on the protection of God. Every room you walk in, every conversation you have, every conversation that your name is even brought up in has the presence of God protecting it.. live like evil and  Darkness doesn't even exist for you… because essentially it doesn’t… because it’s already been conquered for you thru the blood of Jesus Christ. Walk in the kingdom of heaven, in the original will of God. There is nothing to fear, or worry about. He has you. Walk in the faith and childlike mindset that he calls you to.