The Tree of Life

I have been writing a lot about the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil -- that is, the tree located in the soul of man (his intellect, his will, and his emotions).  But there is another tree in the Garden of Paradise-- the Tree of Life, from which man is not only free to eat at will, but which is necessary for him to sustain life itself.

When we are "rooted and grounded" in Christ, His Spirit flows through our souls (our hearts, our minds, our wills) to produce fruit 60, 70, or 100 fold.  Isaiah 11 gives us the characteristics of Christ's Spirit:  wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, piety, fortitude, and fear of the Lord.  We learned these at one time as the "Gifts of the Holy Spirit.  When we draw our view and understanding of the world from these roots, our lives produce the "Fruits of the Holy Spirit:" love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, and self-control.

Most of us are desperately searching for love, joy, and peace, without realizing that we are looking in the wrong direction.  These are produced by a tree whose roots are in good soil, the Spirit of God.  We cannot produce these fruits by eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Another way to name that tree is to call it the Tree of Sensuality -- that is, the fruit revealed to us by the senses.

When we reach down deep for Wisdom, Knowledge, and Understanding of the way mankind and the world systems operate, we begin to see the artificiality and superficiality of the world.  We begin to see from God's viewpoint: "My ways are not your ways, nor are My thoughts your thoughts...."  But there is a remedy for that situation --- God sends His word deep into the hearts and minds of those who seek Him, and His word produces fruit that will last:

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

and do not return to it without watering the earth

and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

and achieve the purpose for which I sent it (Is. 55: 10-11)

 

(Read the next few verses to see what "fruit" is produced by the Word of God in our lives.)

 

In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus tells us that He Himself is the Sower, and the seed is the Word of God.  He is sowing good seed into our hearts.  If our hearts are prepared to receive the seed, we will become rooted and grounded in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and our lives will produce fruit that will last forever.

If You Knew the Gift of God.....

Conscience, Intuition, Communion --  All three rely on direct sensing, independent of any outside influence.  They represent a kind of knowledge which comes to us without any help from the mind, emotions, or will.  We really know through intuition; the mind helps us to understand what we know.  All the movements of the Holy Spirit on our human spirit are known through conscience, intuition, and communion.
                                            (  --- from yesterday's posting on Body, Soul, Spirit)
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Late January 2010:  I was standing in my back yard surveying the damage from a recent freeze, thinking about all the work I'd have to do when spring arrived.  Suddenly, without explanation, I was surrounded from top to bottom by a bubble of deep peace, and I knew that I would not be doing that yard work.  At the time, I thought it meant I was going to die, and the peace that surrounded me made it all okay.

"Okay," I said, "just give me time to clean out the attic so the kids don't have to do it when I'm gone."  Immediately, still surrounded by a bubble of peace, I went inside and started cleaning out the attic, not telling my husband why I was suddenly so industrious.  Two weeks later, I found out that I had lung cancer; in fact, the surgeon sent me home to die after my first visit with him, because he said the cancer was in both lungs, and there was nothing he could do.  Chemo was not effective with this type of cancer, he told me.  Still, the peace remained.  I already "knew" I was going to die; it didn't matter much HOW I was going to die.

Surprisingly, the surgeon who sent me home on a Friday afternoon called me on Tuesday morning.  "I spoke to your pulmonologist," he told me.  "He thinks that what is in your left lung is not cancer, but inflammation.  Regardless, he wants me to treat the right lung."  Again, perfect peace reigned in me.  The surgeon decided to cut me down the middle, as they do with open-heart surgery, so he could look at both lungs.  He ended up cutting out most of the right lung and doing three excisions in the left lung.

Two weeks later, as I was learning to breathe all over again, I thought to myself, "I guess I'm not going to die; I'd better figure out what I am going to do."  That was six years ago.  I am eternally grateful to the pulmonologist whose intuition told him that it was not cancer in the left lung, showing up on the PET scan.  Both doctors viewed the same scan; one sent me home to die, and one said, "Not so fast!"  How did the latter know he was looking at inflammation in the left lung?  Intuition -- and maybe communion with God also.

And the peace that surrounded and enveloped me throughout the event?  A Gift from God:  intuition, communion -- beyond any knowledge my mind or emotions or "positive thinking" could have conjured up in those circumstances.  I thought I was going to die two weeks before I had a clue that I had lung cancer -- and I knew myself and my life to be in the hands of a loving God.  Nothing was going to happen to me that He did not know about, and I trusted Him. 

I am so thankful for good doctors, and for the amazing work of God in both the skill and knowledge of the doctors and in me.  He preserved me from all anxiety, worry, fear, and restlessness.  I never lost a moment's sleep over the diagnosis or over the surgery.  Throughout the entire time, I felt wrapped up in the peace of God. 

Jesus told the woman at the well, "If you knew the Gift of God, you would ask....and I would give a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  What an amazing Gift!  If only I could tell the world......

Body, Soul, Spirit -- Part II

There are certain functions that belong to the spirit of man, functions which the "soul" cannot approach, no matter how educated, sophisticated, or intelligent we are.  The three functions of the spirit are conscience, intuition, and communion.  None of these functions operate according to knowledge stored in the mind, but all three are spontaneous and direct judgments, which never bend to outside opinions.

All three rely on direct sensing, independent of any outside influence.  They represent a kind of knowledge which comes to us without any help from the mind, emotions, or will.  We really know through intuition; the mind helps us to understand what we know.  All the movements of the Holy Spirit on our human spirit are known through conscience, intuition, and communion. 

The soul -- that is, the mind, the will, and the emotions -- is incompetent to worship God, according to Jesus' words in John 4:  Those who worship God worship in spirit and in truth.  This does not mean what we are "taught" to worship according to doctrine -- in fact, Jesus addresses that question when He tells the woman, "You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.  Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

"I know that when the Messiah comes," said the woman, "He will explain everything to us."  In other words, with the Messiah's explanation, she will begin to understand (with her mind) that which she worships with her spirit.  In fact, one of the functions of the spirit is to enlighten the mind through communion with the Divine Presence, Who teaches us and explains reality to us.

We will never reach communion by thinking, by reasoning, by philosophy.  God is not apprehended by our thoughts, or by our feelings, or by our intentions.  He can be known directly only in our spirits.  Communion with God takes place in the inner man, and not in the soul, or outer man.  It is in the spirit that the Holy Spirit regenerates us, teaches us, and leads us into peace.

I have written before about my own efforts to find peace in the midst of chaos by transcendental meditation, Unitarianism, and yoga -- thinking "positive thoughts," closing my eyes and humming, or whatever.  None of these things really worked beyond the moment I was actually engaged in the practice.  Then a wise nun said to me, "Gayle, you cannot give yourself peace."  Her words struck home; for the first time, I realized that peace is not within reach of human nature--- it is a gift from the Holy Spirit.  For the first time, I looked "up" instead of "within" myself -- and the Holy Spirit was swift to descend in answer to my prayer. ( No wonder He is portrayed as a dove.)

If we remain in bondage to the soul -- the mind, the will, the emotions -- we will never experience the life of the Spirit/spirit..  That is why Jesus said, "Unless you are born again of water and the Spirit, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven."  Before re-birth, we are so sunken and surrounded by Soul that we cannot tell whether our spirit is alive and well or not.  The spirit feels dead to God and to the things of God.  We are controlled daily by what is in our heads, in our emotions, and in our decisions -- self-consciousness, in other words. 

Our personalities will be influenced either by the Spirit of God or by the world around us, as it shapes and molds our opinions. One of my favorite Psalms is 32:

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will counsel you and watch over you.

Do not be like the horse or the mule,

which have no understanding

but must be controlled by bit and bridle

or they will not come to you.

Many are the woes of the wicked,

but the Lord's unfailing love

surrounds the man who trusts in him.

 

Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous;

sing, all you who are upright in heart!

 

Here we see that one who listens, or communes with, God receives both understanding to the mind and joy to the heart.  As Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior."  Once the spirit connects with God, the soul is also enlightened and lifted.  Strength pours out of the spirit into the soul, and from there into the body also.

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -- his good, pleasing, and perfect will (Romans 12:2).

 

A renewed mind is Presence-focused.  Train your mind to seek Me in every moment, every situation....I am always present in your spirit.  Seek My Face, speak to Me, and I will light up your mind (Jesus Calling, Feb. 2).

 

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"So what's wrong with knowledge?" one of my students asked one day.  "Why doesn't God want us to have knowledge?"  This question was in reference to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in Genesis, the one tree in the Garden from which Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat.  Contrasting that tree was the "Tree of Life" in the center of the Garden, from which they were allowed to partake freely. 

 

The day I began to read the Book of Proverbs, I discovered an electrifying idea:  [Wisdom] is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed (3:18).  In order to get the full impact of this statement, it helps to continue reading Proverbs, especially 4-8, and the Book of Wisdom also.  In other words, the Tree of Life in the Garden is the Tree of Wisdom!

 

Coupled with the idea of Proverbs 4:13, we begin at last to understand something about the reading from Genesis and human nature:  Guard well your heart, for out of it flow all the issues of life, or an alternate reading might be:  Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

 

When the Bible speaks about the "heart," the reference is always to the "spirit," or the "inner man"  -- that part of us in closest connection with the Holy Spirit.  A couple of days ago, I wrote about the difference between "soul" and "spirit."  And our choice as human beings is to live according to the soul or to "keep in step with" (be led by) the Spirit of God.  Hence the difference between the Tree of Life (Wisdom) and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  To live by Wisdom is LIFE to man; to live by Knowledge is certain death.

 

One more distinction should be made:  when the Bible uses the word "knowledge," it always means "intimacy with," not just head knowledge or book learning.  For example, the Scripture says that Adam "knew" Eve, and she conceived.  To "know" is to embrace, to become one with.  So our choice is to become one with the world and what it offers us, or to become one with the Spirit of God, who teaches us which way to go, despite all outward appearances:  In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths (Proverbs 3:6).

 

With our minds, we can "see" only what is apparent to us.  The myth of the "poison apple" in Sleeping Beauty in a good example:  our eyes behold luscious fruit; we cannot see the hidden danger  --- unless we are warned by the Holy Spirit speaking in our spirit.  If we believe our senses, we are doomed.  If we adhere to the Spirit of God leading us to Truth, we are saved.

 

I usually represent the tripartite human complex as three concentric circles, with the largest, outer circle representing the physical part of us, and the smallest, inner circle representing the spirit in us.  In between the two is the "soul," comprised of mind, emotions, and will (choice).  Our "choice" at every moment is to adhere to what our physical senses are telling us or to turn inward, seeking the Face of God and listening to the Voice of the Holy Spirit advising us and telling us where to go and what to do. 

 

If we follow the Spirit, He will "light up our minds," giving us wisdom and understanding of the things we see.  This wisdom can never be gleaned through books or other people -- unless they themselves have been directed by the Spirit of God. 

 

Next time, I will explore a little further the differences between soul and spirit.