It is hard to envision what the Garden of Eden was like before the fall of man. Can you imagine an existence on this earth where there are no laws to break except one, and no conscience to violate, but only love and acceptance? Man dwelt there with his Creator in love and all his livelihood was provided for him with no fear of death or sickness. There were no animals or men to fear, and no weeds or briars to fight. It was a place where there was total peace and fellowship with all God’s creatures. Even the animals communicated with man in love, using a common language that was heard from heart to heart instead of head to head. This is the world that God made for man to enjoy. Adam and Eve ran around like little naked kids with no sense of shame whatsoever and felt such love and intimacy together that their relationship was only driven by God’s agape love for and in them, not by self-centered lust. God was loving and communing with them as their Daddy.
After thousands of years of suffering the consequences of the fall, it is hard for us to imagine such a world. Yet the image of the garden gives us a glimpse of heaven. Man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and unleashed evil upon the earth, but God has had a plan to fully restore man to Himself and so we can walk in love with Him and one another once again and that plan was summed up with the words, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…”[1] Paul wrote of this saying, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren.”[2]
God so loved the world that He actually sent His own Son into this vile and dangerous place to restore man. Jesus not only consented to come here to the earth, but to be rejected, falsely accused by His own people and then tortured and killed in the most gruesome way possible, hanging on a cross. He did this so He could blot out the offence of our transgressions once and for all by taking our sin on Himself so we might be justified.[3]
The Hebrew word translated “restore” in the Old Testament is shub (shoob) and is found 1339 times in that ancient text. One of the most familiar verses is in David’s prayer, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me [with thy] free spirit.”[4] Restoration of mankind is high on God’s list of priorities.
The drawing above in my mind pictures what God has been showing many of us in one form or another as He calls us out of ourselves and into Him as His sons and daughters. The tangle of weeds and briars along the bottom represents the curse that man has been under for thousands of years. A concern over good and evil is an endless tangle and a trap that pitches one man against another through sin and the rigidity of laws and regulations. Much of Christianity is trapped there today. The first fruit of this wrong tree was Adam and Eve seeing their God-given state of nakedness as evil and making garments of fig leaves to cover themselves and hide from God. It is interesting that God said to them, “Who told you that you were naked?”[5] It was the serpent who filled them with guilt and shame as they submitted to him in order to become wise. On that day they lost their child-like faith and trust in God.
But God had a plan to pull us up out of the muck and mire of sin, law and death through the death and resurrection of His Son[6], the spotless Lamb Who takes away the sins of the world.[7] We all know His plan to bring about the salvation (the saving) of man by Christ’s death on the cross, but there is so much more to it than just getting us out of the miry clay and setting our feet on the Rock.[8]
God has wanted an intimate, loving relationship with man from the beginning. He identified Himself as a husband to both Jews and Gentiles in both the Old and New Testaments.[9] And finally in the New Testament, Jesus is identified as the Bridegroom and those who truly love Him as His Bride.[10] This brings up the subject of intimacy.
As depicted in the drawing above, Revelation, Love and Intimacy flow between and out from the Father, Son and Spirit. In this relationship, the Spirit reaches down into our lives with what the scriptures and is called the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ.[11] Jesus said that He would send the Spirit to us to lead us into all truth.[12]
With this revelation from Him we realized that God loves us and we in turn love God because He first loved us.[13] We come into a relationship with Christ because He calls us and reveals Himself in us.[14] We are also called into the intimacy of the Father and the Son, and from this intimacy comes and ever growing revelation of who They are.[15] With this growing revelation grows an ever greater love for Them in us as well. We are caught up into this circle of love with them as well.
In all this, we who are His elect grow together in our love for one another as we are made perfect in love. The perfect love of God casts out all fear.[16] This freedom allows us to walk in the transparency and the Light (spiritual intimacy) of Christ[17] with one another in true fellowship[18]. We pray for each other and work toward each other’s wholeness as members of Christ’s body[19] where all things are done unto edification.[20] As God unites us together in His love for one another, all our walls of separation come down, because in Christ there is no longer Jew nor Greek, slave or free, or male nor female, but a new creation allowing real intimacy and fellowship between us.[21] As our love grows for one another, our relationships take on a depth we never knew possible in the world. “Love is always supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting. Love never fails!”[22] Jesus said:
A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. (John 13:34 KJVCNT)
You might say that we are being sucked-up into this tornado of love where the Father, the Son and the Spirit live for us because they love us so much. The closer we are drawn to Them, the more we become like Them and the more the world rejects us because we are no longer of this world.[23] Soon, His love is so strong for and in us that we gladly loose ourselves from our earthly moorings like houses torn from their foundations in a tornado, and are totally caught up into the love of the Father and the Son. All the things of this world that were once near and dear to us lose their grip on our hearts.[24] In my own case I used to live to fish and hunt and have a place of my own in the country that made it easier to do so. I even built my own hunting lodge that was on 20 acres of forest near lakes and mountains, but before I was done, God’s love so changed me that it was all I could do to finish this lodge so we could sell it and move into town where Father wanted me.
Paul, who loved Jesus dearly, put it this way:
Those things were important to me, but now I think they are worth nothing because of Christ. Not only those things, but I think that all things are worth nothing compared with the greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him, I have lost all those things, and now I know they are worthless trash. This allows me to have Christ and to belong to him. Now I am right with God, not because I followed the law, but because I believed in Christ. God uses my faith to make me right with him. I want to know Christ and the power that raised him from the dead. I want to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death. (Philippians 3:7-10 NCV)
How else can we as His bride ever become one unless we have a common depth of love for Jesus and the Father? Soon we become so enraptured with Christ and the Father that we are in total identification and unity with them and with one another in this same love. This is the goal of the gospel!
Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife has made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he says unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he says unto me, These are the true sayings of God. (Revelation 19:7-9 KJVCNT)
Speaking of love and intimacy Oswald Chambers wrote:
After that, He appeared in another form to two of them… —Mark 16:12
Being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same thing. Many people who have never seen Jesus have received and share in God’s grace. But once you have seen Him, you can never be the same. Other things will not have the appeal they did before.
You should always recognize the difference between what you see Jesus to be and what He has done for you. If you see only what He has done for you, your God is not big enough. But if you have had a vision, seeing Jesus as He really is, experiences can come and go, yet you will endure “as seeing Him who is invisible” (Hebrews 11:27).
Jesus must appear to you and to your friend individually; no one can see Jesus with your eyes. And division takes place when one has seen Him and the other has not. You cannot bring your friend to the point of seeing; God must do it. Have you seen Jesus? If so, you will want others to see Him too. “And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either” (Mark 16:13). When you see Him, you must tell, even if they don’t believe. ~ http://utmost.org/have-you-seen-jesus/
(a special thanks to Susanne Schuberth for sharing this and her own experiences on her blog. https://enteringthepromisedland.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/a-life-redeemed-now-or-later/ )
Seeing Jesus as He IS makes all the difference in the world. Jesus calls us to be not only His friends, but His bride, intimately connected to Him. As called-out ones, we share a greater intimacy with Him and, as a result with others who have seen him, too. We cast off our earthly moorings and let the Spirit wind take us wherever He sees fit. The perfect love of the Father does a deep work in our hearts and draws us away from the cares, goals and values of this world system. Jesus had a circle of 70 disciples, but the original 12 were closer to Him. Inside this smaller group were the three He took up in mountain where He appeared to them clothed in Light. Finally there was John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”
So it is with the called and chosen. He loves everyone the same, but not all are able to receive everything He wants to share with them. John was not afraid to lay his head on Jesus’ breast because he was connected to Jesus by His great love. Of the twelve, only John was there with Him while He died on the cross.[25] The depth of love for Jesus and the ability to cast off our worldly and religious expectations and be caught up in Him alone will eventually make the difference for all of us.
At the last supper, before Jesus was taken captive by His murders, He prayed a very important prayer with His disciples.
Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you: As you have given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know [Grk. ginosko – intimate knowing[26]] you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent… I pray not for the world, but for them that you have given me; for they are yours. And all mine are yours and yours are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep through your own name those whom you have given me, that they may be one, as we are… That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me. And the glory which you gave me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that you have sent me, and have loved them, as you have loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which you have given me: for you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world has not known [ginosko] you: but I have known [ginosko] you, and these have known [ginosko] that you have sent me. And I have declared unto them your name, and will declare it: that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:1-26 KJ2000)
Here we see a prayer for revelation, love and intimacy… ONE. I cannot get away from this phrase, “that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one.” His desire was and is not only for us to join in their unity and love, but for us to know it among ourselves as His people! This vortex of love between the Father, Son and Spirit draws us up into intimate fellowship with Them.
But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.., and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7 RSVA)
This precious promise is not in future tense, but in the present. Dear saints, let these words sink into the depths of your heart, for here is the reality of His revelation and love for us in the greatest intimacy imaginable. May we all come to know this intimacy and love as we abide IN Them. Amen.
[1] Gen. 1:26
[2] Romans 8:29 RSVA
[3] Romans 3:23-26, 1 John 2:2 and 4:10
[4] Psalm 51:12 KJV
[5] Gen. 3:11
[6] Rom. 8:2
[7] John 1:29
[8] Psalm 40:2, 1 Cor. 10:4
[9] Jer. 2:2, 3:14, 31:32; Isa. 54:5; Eze. 16:8, 23:4; Hos. 2:2, 3:1 ; John 3:29 and 2Cor. 11:2
[10] Matt. 22:1-14, John 3:29; Rev. 19:7-9, 21:2-9 and 17
[11] Eph. 1:17
[12] John 16:13-15
[13] 1 John 4:19
[14] 1 Cor. 2:7-16, Galatians 1:5 and 3:27, Acts 17:28
[15] Matt. 13:11; Mark 3:11; Luke 10:23; John 15:15; John 17:6-7, 26; Romans 16:25-26;1 Cor. 2:11-12; Col. 1:26
[16] 1 John 4:18
[17] John 1:9
[18] 1 John 1:5-8
[19] James 5:16, Eph. 1:17-18, Eph. 4:21-25
[20] Eph. 4:14-16
[21] Gal. 3:26-28 and 6:15, Eph. 2:13-22, 4:1-6 , 4:15-16, 2 Cor. 5:17
[22] 1 Corinthians 13:7-8a CEV
[23] Matt. 5:10-12, Matt. 10:22, Mark 13:9-13, Luke 6:22-23, Luke 21:17, John 15:18-20, John 17:14
[24] Matt. 10:37, Luke 14:26, 2 Cor. 5:14-15
[25] John 19:26
[26] Matt. 1:25
A Wilderness Voice 
[…] Faith, Revelation, Obedience The Gates of Hell The Last Supper Revelation Knowledge Revelation, Love and Intimacy […] https://hitchhikeamerica.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/upon-this-rock-i-will-build-my-church/
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Tim, YES!!! Your dream was right on. That teaching from this verse that Peter is the first pope and that only popes get divine revelation for the church is blown away by the fact that Father through the abiding Spirit of Christ gives ALL of us who ARE His Church the same Spirit of wisdom and revelation just as Paul said in Eph. 1:17. AMEN!!!
Here is a link to what my dear friend George Davis wrote about this:
http://www.awildernessvoice.com/UponRock.html
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Jesus made us a kingdom and priests to his God and Father so we could be a priesthood of believers; all carry his Presence and glory and bring his Light to the world! We are cities set on a hill, lighthouses of his Light without any darkness at all! Arise, shine church!
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That was wonderful. Well said! Lots of food for thought there.
God seeks intimacy with us, right in the here and now, and in spite of it all, we can still walk with Him in the cool of the evening, not unlike what Adam and Eve once did in the garden.
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Yes, Gabrielle! THAT is what I want with all my heart, in the cool and in the heat… at all times, whenever and whatever He want with me!
“And Enoch walked [in habitual fellowship] with God; and he was not, for God took him [home with Him].”
(Genesis 5:24 AMP)
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Thank you once again for your “special thanks“, dear Michael. I am glad you could use that excerpt from Oswald Chambers for your blog post, too. 🙂 I admit that the following is my favorite part of your whole blog post which is beautifully written – all of it! ⭐ Yet these words you shared consist of deep truths:
Jesus had a circle of 70 disciples, but the original 12 were closer to Him. Inside this smaller group were the three He took up in mountain where He appeared to them clothed in Light. Finally there was John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”
So it is with the called and chosen. He loves everyone the same, but not all are able to receive everything He wants to share with them. John was not afraid to lay his head on Jesus’ breast because he was connected to Jesus by His great love. Of the twelve, only John was there with Him while He died on the cross.
No wonder that Peter seemed to be jealous of John at times. As long as we have not yet reached complete oneness with God which is equivalent to having died to our old self, jealousy does exist. It is difficult or even impossible for us to grasp why God makes such differences in choosing His disciples. But we may know that we all, finally, will be one with God and with one another.
Holy hugs to you,
Susanne
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Yes, Susanne, His powerful love will draw each of us as we surrender our fears up to Him. And the more we feel secure in His love, the less place their will be for jealousy in our lives as well. Thanks so much for sharing your life and your story with us all. What an inspiration and blessing you are!
Holy hugs to you, too!
Michael 🙂
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That comment about seeing Jesus is the secret to sweet fellowship between Christians..I have had divisions with people who call themselves Christians because I have seen Christ and they have not..seeing Him is revelation–knowing about Him by bible study is not.
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Yes, Kenneth, I agree, there is book learning and then there is the REVELATION of Jesus Christ. As, “righteous” Job also found out after all he went through, there is hearing (and reading), then there is SEEING and what a difference it makes!
When Jesus healed the man born blind He said to him, “Do you believe in the Son of God? He answered and said, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” And Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you.” Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped Him. (John 9:35-38 NKJV)
Yes, my brother, there is reading and hearing about Him, but seeing Him changes the heart forever. I saw Him once in the first couple of weeks of my spiritual walk and it changed me and set the coarse of the rest of my life. And now He has put a deep hunger in my heart to see Him again as Susanne has written about on her blog and all my Bible reading and understanding can not satiate this desire.
I love you, Kenneth!
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Yes Mike I read that post by T Austin about seeing..very beautiful indeed..thanks.
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Thanks Kenneth. For the rest of you, Kenneth is referring to an article by T. Austin-Sparks about seeing Jesus experientially and not only by book learning and can be read here: http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/004803.html
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Thanks for speaking of the bride! My soul as a bride has found the one it loves: the Spirit of God! I am my beloveds and the beloved is mine! Yes, a tornado of Love that shakes us up, shaking us until only that which cannot be shaken remains; a Fire of God’s holy Love that consumes all that is not of Christ in us; a tsunami of Love that we think will kill us, but instead we are crucified with Jesus and raised in Love with Christ and our soul can finally rest in his Love! “Our soul is restless until it rests in Thee” Augustine. I love this post! Keep up the great work as his Spirit works in and through you! ~Yvonne
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Thank you, Yvonne. Yes, we are promised that in this hour everything that can be shaken will be shaken until only that which unshakable remains. Having our vision fixed on He who is eternal and who has passed the test of all that Satan could through at Him is our only security… to be found IN Him, securely nestled in His love, even though our world falls apart around us. Seeing Him AS He is, the ONE who loves us, will be our salvation. Being secure in His love for us and knowing that everything else that takes away from this is a lie, is the key. “Love is always supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting. Love never fails” for “God is love.”
Thank you for your comment, dear sister ~ Michael
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Michael, I read that article by TAS about seeing Jesus, too, and I found it was very well put to discern between those four aspects of being able or unable to see Jesus as he put it.
First category: the disciples who know and see Him as He is (IMO: the called and chosen ones)
Second category: those who can be healed of their blindness (not doomed to remain blind; i.e. those who are being saved, I believe)
Third category: those who cannot be healed because of their stubbornness (doomed to remain blind)
Fourth category: the church, the inner company (I admit that this category has not yet become thaaat clear to me yet…..maybe, all who belong to the church without seeing Him as His disciples do?)
I decided to copy and paste an excerpt about the first two categories because I found it was quite enlightening.
The first aspect of it is that there is a nucleus secured unto this seeing and knowing Jesus – the disciples, chosen, not volunteering, but apprehended by the Lord. The object of their being chosen was in the first place, that they might be with Him and ultimately that they might see Him as others did not see Him, for, as we have said, everything of divine purpose is bound up with seeing Jesus, and so there must be those who are really secured unto that. The Lord must have, and will sovereignly act to have, those who really do see Him, but we must remember that the object of such sovereign choice does not set grace aside, but it is vocational, it is for a purpose, for ministry, for service. It is to serve the Lord in a vocation, the vocation of those who have seen Him, and that is a special vocation. But that is the first movement.
The second is a general company, or the general crowd, who can be given to see; they are not seeing, they do not by nature have the power to see Jesus, but they are unspoilt in the fuller sense, they are just in nature’s state and they can be given sight, they can be made to see, they can have their eyes opened. The man born blind is in this company. He is just a simple fellow, artless, an ordinary man born blind, and he can be given eyes and he can be given sight (and he represents a multitude in that category of people who, born blind, are in a further and fuller sense unspoilt) can be given sight, can be made to see, as standing over against the third element in this Gospel: the Jewish official party.
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Thank you, Susanne, for your reference to the T. Austin-Sparks article, “Seeing Jesus” http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/004803.html I am not sure where I am at this time in 1,2 or the 4th category, though the 4th one seems to fit. I have a hunger for a total seeing of Jesus, but I feel like the blind man that had to have a second touch from Him… that I am still seeing men as “trees walking.”
It is interesting to me that after this man saw every man clearly that Jesus told him to tell no man and sent him away to his house. His seeing was just for him and not for ministry “out there.” He had seen Jesus clearly, too. And get this! Jesus made him look UP and see HIM before He sent him home. THAT is where I find myself… in His UPWARD CALL, to see HIM as He is. This is why the end of Revelation ch. 3 and the first verse of Rev. ch. 4 mean so much to me. I have left the closed door system of the church of Laodicea, opened up to Him and have spiritually supped with Him and He with me and now He has gone on and I am looking up. “After this I looked, and lo, in heaven an open door! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, ‘Come up hither, and I will show you what must take place after this.’ At once I was in the Spirit, and lo, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne!” (Revelation 4:1-2 RSVA)
This is also why Isaiah ch. six has been pounding on my heart as well.
Uzziah means, “strength of God.” I feel like all of His strength that I once have had from supping with Him has been drained out of me, my Uzziah has died. Paul said that when he was weak, then was Christ made perfect in him, so I guess there is hope. But it is SO unnerving to feel so weak. Dear sister, I think you know what I mean. Thanks for all your help and prayers on my journey over this last year.
Yours forever in Him,
Michael
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Michael, I will keep praying for you until you can say from the bottom of your heart, again,
“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13 ESV)
Yours forever in Christ’s love ❤
Susanne
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Hi Michael – As I read this, I’m reminded of a few things the Lord has used to help me in my constant weakness. Maybe you will be blessed by these as well. The first came when I was going through the Psalms many years ago: Psalm 103:14 “He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.” Psalm 103 might be my most favorite Psalm since it speaks of how He doesn’t deal with us according to our iniquities, and it brings out His compassion and love for us. Meditating on this Psalm just melts me! Then later I studied Genesis and began noticing how God poured out mercy and love even while He meted out judgment on His creature made from mere dust. One example was in Gen. 3. He did not curse Adam and Eve — He cursed the serpent and the earth. He told the devil of his curse, in the hearing of Eve BEFORE He gave her the bad news about her own sad judgment. And He covered the fallen couple before He sent them out of the garden. Once I saw these mercies, I began to notice that that there is a difference between God’s wrath and His judgment. Even in the case of the Noahic flood, His broken heart (not wrath) is paramount. And when He set the bow in the sky after the flood — He did NOT say that WE are to remember His promise about never destroying the earth with a flood again, He says that it’s a sign that HE remembers His promise (Gen. 9:16). Do you see where I’m going here? He is reluctant to judge, and His grace and mercy are woven into judgment, everywhere in Scripture. That is, until we get to the end of Revelation where His wrath is definitely poured out with no restraint.
One other thing that makes me relax a bit about all my weakness: I’ve heard teachers talk about how God uses sheep in the Bible to refer to us because we are “dumb just like sheep.” While that could be argued to be true — He NEVER says that, or even infers it. Sheep are depicted as needy and helpless. Our loving Father has pity on our weakness — His heart is moved to help us, protect us and comfort us. Sin in the world breaks His heart — death breaks His heart (I believe that’s the reason He wept at the tomb of Lazarus). I love how He constantly reminds us that His heart is FOR us – I need to know that every day.
(Also loved the TAS article! His ministry has been a great help to me over the years.)
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Dear Lori,
It is so good to hear from you again, especially with this wonderful reminder of the mercy of God toward us in all our weaknesses. God knows that I have a bunch of them. The first thing that came to mind as you wrote about His loving nature was psalm 136. It is twenty-six verses long and each one of them ends with “…for his mercy endures forever.” Yes, dear sister, He knows that we are but dust and Christ sits at the right hand of the Father as our Great High Priest making intercession for us because His mercy endures forever. If God be for us, who can be against us?
As for we being “dumb like sheep,” only wolves would cast derision on us for God making us the way we are. In Isaiah we read, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:5-6 KJ2000). This whole chapter is about the Son of God who was sent to take our sins upon Himself, because His mercy endures forever. Yes, dear sister, in our weakness is Christ made perfect IN us. For me, If I must error, I will error on the side of His grace and mercy.
“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven. Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield its increase. Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.” (Psalms 85:10-13 KJ2000)
Thank you for this wonderful reminder that we serve the God of ALL mercies who IS Love.
God bless you, dear sister!
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I found this insightful description of God’s love, His interaction with us, and the deeper relationship He desires with us striking when compared with human love. As a result of sin (in, by, and around us), we fear to reveal our true selves to one another. We put our best foot forward. We dress for success. We adopt a positive attitude, and hide the brokenness. God, of course, knows already who we are — just as He knew why and where Adam and Eve were hiding. We have to learn to trust that He will not exploit our weakness; that He will actually heal our wounds. We have to learn that He will accept us as we are, and that “qualifying” for His love is not required.
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Anna, that was very well said. This is exactly how we in our human frailties react to one another and God.. we put on airs and try to appear more than we are… we make our fig leaf garments and use them to hide who and what we are because of guilt. I believe that as we see ourselves IN Christ all this play acting goes away because He takes away our shame and guilt and covers us with His love.
Bless you, my sister! Thanks for sharing your wonderful thoughts.
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Thank you for the post, and also the link to the article by George Davis. I long for the intimacy that the scriptures tell us about.
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Dear Pat, Our Father will answer that longing in your heart. To many of us have spent or lives accepting a far less relationship with God and Jesus than they have been holding out to us, but His great love is breaking through all that dead religion and guilt that has held us captive.
Love you, my sister!
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Forgetful Suzy again… 😉
Michael, what I already wanted to say in the first place was that I love your description of how Adam and Eve might have lived with God before the fall. I believe your words were God-inspired. ⭐
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Thank you, Susanne. That means a lot to me coming from you ❤
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You’re very welcome, Michael. 🙂
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Thoughtful post! We can never have enough of His LOVE. I always thirst for God’s LOVE.
Roman 8:38-39 (ESV) 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Yes, Joseph. I read your blog as well and know you hunger to see, touch, hear and feel Him. Keep seeking and you will find, my brother. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
In His great love,
Michael
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Dear Michael, what a mammoth task you did in writing this my hat goes off to you! I read most of it Michael, I struggle with concentration but I just love the description of Adam and Eve at the beginning and oh what joy! I’ve been reading in my little cafe where I go for a coffee the new testament book by book and what is striking me more than ever is the connection of God the Father and Jesus Christ they are inseparable. I have never seen this before or even heard about it. I too hunger for all Christ has for me and having seen Christ myself who is beyond words and description I do consider everything as rubbish. I want to know more and more of Christ there is just nothing else. Once you have tasted the LORD nothing else is sweet. Thank you for sharing your gift of writing…… love jacqui xx
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Dear Jacqui, good to hear from you again. Yes, I had to do much praying and rewriting of this blog article as God tried to get my mind out of the way so He could share His heart about this truth with me. Initially I got the picture at the lead of the article in my mind, but then I had to put words to it. I had a lot of research into all those foot notes, but Bible without revelation is useless when it come to understanding the mind of the Spirit.
Yes, Jesus and the Father are ONE! Jesus told Philip, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” Inseparable! “I in thee and thou in me, that the might be ONE in us.” Our unity as saints of God comes from our unity in the Father and the Son.
I am pleased to see you growing in Him, dear sister. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
In God’s great love,
Michael
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