I want to talk about something that has been really precious to me and came at the end of a long series of spiritual events that began to happen in my life. It started as I was realizing things about the chambers of the heart and the garden of intimacy that you can build with God inside your life. You need to plow the ground of your heart, sow there and plant. I knew that there was a River, and once I had built this garden in my heart, I knew that there was more to this River.
I’m going to teach about the way God made things correctly, not the way that we may have often been taught in church. I did not grow up in church. I did things that probably were not very wise. God had a destiny for my life but the devil also had a plan and, unfortunately, from about eight years old I yielded to that other destiny. Then God found me, turned me around and shook me till I said, I repent! I repent!
I never really had any kind of background information or religious doctrine in my mind making me think a certain way that was not actually true. When I was growing up in the Baptist Church I would listen to the words of God being spoken and I relished it because finally I found something they gave me life did not steal from me when I thought it was giving me life.
In my first six or seven years with the Lord i became really fascinated with Eden. I’m always fascinated with the beginning of things, so I asked God, what were you before you was or, for you is, what were you? I wanted to know what Eden was like. Since then I have been there and it is really radical. I began to think around the concept of this garden called eden that we hear talked about a lot what it was like there.
One day I was praying about this garden of Eden when I realized that what I was taught in church is not what my Bible says! I’d read the Bible, then I would listen to these guys preaching and I would go back to my Bible and wonder what they were talking about. So I began to ask questions of God. I began to think, Lord, Adam walked with you in the cool of the day and it says that Adam heard the voice of God walking in the garden. How does a voice have footsteps? How does that work? – Genesis 3:8; 10. It is a mystery in itself!
When you begin to meditate and revolve these things around your mind, the revelation that is in the word will captivate your heart and it begins to captivate your imagination. i Found myself being caught in awe by some of the statements in the Bible. Before this started to happen I would read through the Bible, just read it and read it. One day the Lord said to me, do not read it anymore. I said, but they say you have to. He said, but I am telling you not to. I said, but… And he said, but…? And I said, but… And he said, I will kick your butt if you do not do the but I’m telling you to do! So I said, okay! So, for a year I did not read my Bible. It Was probably the best thing that ever happened to me because it made me realize that my source was not just the written word but also the revelation of what flows in me. Because I could not read it I used to think about it. It suddenly went from just reading information from the outside in to gleaning information from the inside out. So I started to meditate on the gleanings of Genesis. I love Genesis.
After that year I started reading Genesis chapter 1 through to the end, and by the time I got to chapter 24 I decided to go back to the beginning again. Every time I went back into it I got more revelation out if it because it began to captivate my mind. When no one was looking I would get my Bible ought, and then for weeks I would meditate around that one Scripture because I had nothing else to hold onto. It is not based on a religious rote. How you get revelation is based on a relationship. What captivates your mind is what releases the power of God on your behalf. When this started it mystified me and when something mystified me I kept on asking God, are you going to speak to me? Eventually God has enough of that! I would spend my 18,500 words (the average amount of words a man can listen to a day) listening to God and that meant I cannot listen to my wife!
Genesis 2:1 – thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and heaven’s.
Wait a minute. It says the heaven and the earth, then the earth and the heavens – that is interesting.
Genesis 2:5 – before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on your earth, and there was no man to till the ground.
Before it was in the earth; that is even more interesting, and every herb of the field before it grew. Where did it grow before it was in the earth? And there was not a man to till the ground. So, all this happened before and was even on the earth. Where did God cause all those plants to grow first?
Genesis 2:6 – but a mist whet up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Genesis 2:8 – the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden.
Now, that is really interesting – eastward in Eden. Now, that means that there is Eden and then there is a garden. There is no such thing as the garden of Eden, there is Eden and a garden.
Genesis 2:9 – and out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now a River when out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted became four River heads.
So there has got to be two gardens.
Genesis 2:10 – and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is pison: that is it which compasses the whole land of havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good.
I had believed that the garden of Eden was a thing I was I was unable to go and walk in. That was totally wrong doctrine, because there’s no such thing as the garden of Eden. There is a garden in Eden.
God put a garden in Eden, and what would happen is that on the seventh day when God rested he would go into Eden. The closest thing that he could have in relational connection with somebody was when he was off the throne. Eden is God’s garden. He put a garden in his garden. It was a place for man to live in his garden.
The Bible says that he caused every herb of the field and tree of the field to grow before it was on the earth – Genesis 2:5. So where did he make them grow first? In Eden. Then after this happened output Adam in the garden and Adam had access to the earth through the garden. So that means the garden was in the spirit. Then God told Adam and Eve to go and multiply and populate the earth. They then send practices but she did not bite and Apple!).
The reality is that there is a garden that is connected to the heart of God which expresses the pleasure of God. I began to do a study of the Bible just about gardens, how Solomon had a garden and all these men who were Kings had a garden. What did they used to do in the garden when they wanted a rest from the throne? They would go into the garden and prune flowers. They would just go one walk among the fragrance of their garden and thoroughly enjoy having timeout.
I suddenly began to realize that perhaps on the seventh day God has timeout. I had been in heaven and I knew that heaven shuts down on the seventh day, which meant that he must go somewhere. I never really understood where he went until this began to click in my brain. I began to realize that when God comes off the throne he goes to walk in his garden called Eden. His main objective for going into his garden, from the point he made Adam, was to go and have a friendship and relationship, to spend time with his son who he had made for himself to have pleasure in as a father.
Eden is God’s garden. Then there is a garden that God put eastward in Eden, which is called Adam and Eve’s garden. Scripture talks about a River which flows from Eden into the garden and from the garden it breaks into four heads and water see earth. So that is why we have four chambers to our heart, the four heads that flow life around our natural body. Those four heads practices before Adam sinned and we had this phone body) used to flow through the spiritual garden and a spiritual four heads used to water not only the garden but here. How did the earth get life except from the river? Where did the river come from? It came out of Adam.
I began to realize that there is a River and at this river has a connection all the way into Eden, through Eden, and write the way to the throne. Revelation talks about the river running out of the throne.
Revelation 22:1 – and he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
That is the same River that runs through Eden into the garden and from there it waters the earth. How is God going to water the earth today except through us? We are the clouds caring the rain, full of glory, the water the earth and bring revival.
I realized there was a River and I needed to grow my own garden in my heart, because my heart is the closest thing to that place of God. Whatever goes on in the heart of the person is what they become. The heart is where all the issues of life flow out of.
I began to work on this. First of all I had a garden in my heart I needed to cultivate. I grew this garden in my own heart and life where I would go and celebrate the victories in the things that had happened in my life. I have a padlock of daffodils. I love daffodils. But the daffodils that are grown in my own heart garden do not die when you stand on them, they do not break. They bend over, celebrate and shaken and stand up again when you get off them!
I would go and enjoy myself in that garden with the expectation that when I am there God will come walking to meet with me in my garden, because the Bible says he is to go and meet Adam. So I wanted him to meet me in my garden. I remember in those days I can never see him, I just knew he was there. I would feel his presence come into my garden in my heart and I would feel him there. I can remember one day thinking that this is a pretty one-sided relationship really, he comes to me but I do not go to him. That began a journey which ended up at an encounter with God in Eden.
Eden is the most amazing place that you could ever imagine. Trees 10 times the size of the redwood forests, mountains of gold with glory on them! I began to realize that when God comes off the throne he spends time in his garden. It only says that he came walking in the cool of the day with Adam. So what did he do for the rest of the day? I began to ask, father what you do for the rest of the day? I want to come and share a little bit with you and what you do with the rest of your day off. If you are going to take a holiday then I would love to come and spend some time with you on holiday. Just like I love going fishing with my friend and spending some time with him.
I began to yarn in my heart, God I want to spend time with you when you rest. I want to walk with you. I knew the river was the key because when you follow the river it leads through your garden, up this glorious waterfall into Eden, which is his garden. I did not know that you could swim upriver, you could float upriver, you could fly upriver, you could do anything you like up the river. I did not know that, so I figured I would jump into the river and just start walking, because there is no resistance in the river and it is not hard work. In fact, you can just think and you can move, it is just one of those things. So I got into the river and said, Lord, I am coming. I did not know what to do; I just started moving up the river, Lord, I am coming! We get a choice to go, the Bible says – come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest… Take my yoke – Matthew 11:28 – 29.
To come to God you need to make a choice – Lord, I am coming to you. I made that choice that day and I found myself going. Then I saw this waterfall and it was the most amazing thing! I stood there for maybe two or three hours just going while!
I was thinking, if I go under there I’m going to get pulverized! There are diamonds, stones and gems that flow out, which have been carved out of Eden. They fall into the river and each one is cut beautifully. I was thinking, man, I’m not going to go anywhere near that massive fountain of those things! But there is no resistance, the natural mind is thinking in the natural way. There is no resistance in the water… But… But… But… Backwards and forwards until I realized that it will not really matter if I died. Who cares?! I cannot dine any better place so I went into the fountain. When I got into it I started to float up the waterfall. The more I moved up, the faster I went. When I got up to the top it was like a whole new world had opened up and I was standing on the top, and the very edge, with this great big drop behind me and this water rushing through me, standing there going, wow!
I just fell backwards. You can float move in the realm of the spirit, there is no gravity. I floated down and it felt really good. So I floated up again. I stood on the edge and I fell off it again. So I just started to play! You can get caught in these little things. The issue is not that you get caught their; the issue is that you are on a journey of discovery to find out what it is really like. So I spent time standing there, diving off, and found that if you do not swallow dives you just stay there. Then, when you think, I will float down, you start to float down. The realm of heaven is not what we think it is.
He came to the point where I knew I had to go and encounter Jesus.