The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil by A.P.

I have never fully understood the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 

What was so bad about it?

The Tree of Knowledge feeds the soul with carnal, polluted information. The Tree of Life feeds the spirit with peace, joy, comfort and connection with God.

When you eat of the Tree of Knowledge, it causes you to separate from that Life of God, and your spirit dies. 

This is why God said to Adam and Eve: "The day you eat of the Tree of Knowledge, you will surely die."

When you deny your soul and eat of the Tree of Life, your spirit grows closer to God.

Everything–your vision–becomes clear, your heart sings and rejoices. You draw close to your Father. He is with you, you are comforted. There is no shame in our need and how we receive.

He shows us all we need to know.

In our most recent trial, we have been choosing to go to God to show us what we need to know. He has been revealing spirits in our lives to cast out, things to be repented of.

We draw close to Him in our need and frailty, and He draws close to us and sets us free. The physical body responds and symptoms change for the better. We are healed.

Then this revelation came this morning about the two trees.

This is what it means to me in our current situation:

Doctors will fill us with information, ideas, knowledge of this and that, things to do or not do.

Knowledge feels safe to the soul because then we will at least know what we are dealing with.

Yet, through knowledge, fear has an avenue to speak: “What if??”

Being filled with knowledge rather than the revelation of the Spirit of God, something in our spirits will stop seeking God’s wisdom. In that place we can separate a little from God. Not need Him so much anymore. Our hearts become a little dull.

Shame will cause us to hide from Him, and we die in our spirit man.

But if we continue to seek the heart of our Father and revelation of the Spirit of Life, we will continue in a continuous feast of Heaven. Every need supplied–continuous need and continuous response to our need.

I truly love how we have been drawing close to God! Unashamed, worthy to be with Him. I love the peace and joy. I love the revelation of what needs to go and what to receive next. I love the flow of life that is surging through me.

The choice is very, very simple: satisfy the soul with information, or surrender to the God who knows all things. 

This revelation has affected our journey of seeking healing for my husband, who has been in a life-threatening situation. We did choose to go see a doctor to ask some questions and maybe get some answers as to why my husband’s body is doing what it is.

But before we went, I had a subtle thought that morning.

“If you take the path of doctors, you will surely die”.

I didn’t know what to do with that.

Those words didn’t have the same sound as that still, small Voice that has been guiding is, but it also sounded so convincing.

But there was also fear when I heard it, which has not been there during this whole process.

Later, God clarified what those words were.

They were from the liar, trying to convince me to be in fear. We were not going to die.

But those evil things, the dark roots in our lives, were indeed dying.

DREAM

I was in my bed sleeping and woke up. (I truly thought I was awake!) 

Half of my face was completely numb and paralyzed, my speech was slurred, and I was quite concerned!

I was trying to tell my husband what was happening, but he wasn't really waking up.

So I got out of bed to try to walk it off. As I walked around the room I was stirred to declare Christ. So I began to clap my hands and stomp my feet saying:

"Jesus Christ is Lord of all, Jesus Christ is Lord of all..."

Little by little, feeling returned to my face, and I went back to bed.

When I actually did wake up, I was so glad it was just a dream!!!! ...or was it? 😁

Jesus Christ is Lord of all, Jesus Christ is Lord of all, Jesus Christ is Lord of all and I have been redeemed! 🎶🎶🎶

My song for the day, and the word of the Lord to defeat our enemies! 💕

The Secret Place of the Most High

Do you want to know a secret?

God led me to help a friend on a project. As I worked, God worked on me.

Partway through, my friend stopped.

“Come with me, I want to show you something,” he told me.

Not that far away, he showed me an incredible place. It was amazing and beautiful. It wasn’t even that far away.

Out of respect for him, I don’t even want to describe it much. I had lived there for years and never known about it.

Point is, though, if I hadn’t chosen to help him out that day, I would’ve never discovered that place.

God has that same place for us.

Jesus told his disciples: “I have much to tell you, but you cannot bear to hear it yet”.

In a typical relationship, that statement is ominous. “When you really get to know me, it gets much worse”.

Oh, joy.

It’s different with God. Glory to glory to glory.

God constantly challenges my belief. I like to figure things out. But I keep getting things changed up. It’s good.

For awhile, I was working somewhere. It was a very challenging place for me to work–I felt I couldn’t talk to anyone there. I felt like I made mistakes a lot. I struggled a lot with oppression because of it.

Finally, I said: “this is crazy. This is not where I need to be. I’m not developing properly here. I need to find a better working environment and change things up so I can keep growing here.”

But God had brought me there, I knew that. When I talked about leaving and finding somewhere else, my friends, who were also my brother and sister in Christ, challenged me.

“Hey, God brought you there, right?”

“Yes, but–”

“No buts about it,” they said. “Look, if you leave the place where God brought you prematurely, you won’t learn what you need to.

"When it’s time, you’ll know. But don’t leave until you know.”

I returned to that workplace. I told God, “Look, people can find you in prison scenarios. So I know You can meet me here.”

Then I told God: “I dare you to meet me in this hell. You make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. You brought me here. You had better show up for me.”

By faith, I sang to God as I returned: “You lead me to the wasteland and there give me a song. To the land of the giants, and there You lead me on.”

I stood outside outside of my “Jericho”, where the relationships seemed like walled cities, where my own demons of oppression and confusion and insecurity warred against me, and I held God accountable to what He said in the Bible.

“My God shall provide all your needs…”

What were my needs?

I needed a breakthrough.

In the Jericho of my workplace, God must have crumbled those fortified walls. Because as I challenged God to show up, He did!

Within a few weeks of me returning to my awful workplace, within a few weeks of me singing to the Lord about giving me a song in my “wasteland”, I had a reason for my song!

Within a few weeks, those challenging relationships did a 180. Out of nowhere, people started coming up to me and repenting for being a jerk, although their apology was a bit more graphic.

I hadn’t said anything to them about it! God did that.

Suddenly, God started moving in my life to bring vision as well.

Within six months of me returning, my experience, which I had for years, was completely different.

Jericho was flattened!!!

This is one of many times God has surprised me. Another time was when the girl I was dating was telling me about her significant physical issues.

Burdened by it, I told her about God’s miracle power.

A few months later, she told me: “God healed me!”

Just like that!

The Bible says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He’ll give you the desires of your heart”.

I believe this is the secret place of the most High, like it talks about in Psalm 91:1. Someone said: “we need to spend more time ministering to the Lord”.

Yes, even God needs ministering to! Our hearts to worship Him is a beautiful gift we can offer Him.

My brother told me that this week: “You need to fall in love with the Lord. Just minister to Him.”

To paraphrase A.P. in a recent article: “More than mere healing, I need the Healer”.

When communists took over their country, Russian believers stayed in that “secret place of the Most High”.

God led them supernaturally to escape. At a time when many people were running for the border, God directed one man to hook his wagon up to their milk cow.

It made no sense to him at first. But over time, the man saw God’s wisdom in it.

Nobody stopped him because they figured he couldn’t be trying to escape. After all, who tries to escape with a milk cow?

Because he had the milk cow, he was able to avoid suspicion from the authority, plus he was able to milk his cow to feed his family.

God led him to the China border, but he couldn’t cross. The soldiers couldn’t figure out what he was doing, but they took him and his family prisoner.

The man, however, kept seeking the Lord, even as he worked for the Communists.

One day, a fire broke out, moving towards the tents where this man and his family worked. The soldiers panicked. Everyone ran for their lives. This man and his family ran until they were clear and then fell down, exhausted.

God spoke to them then: “My son, you’re in China.”

God had made a way for them to escape. The fire literally chased them across the border.

Despite what is going on in the world, this story alone of God’s provision even in the midst of a national upheaval has comforted me a lot.

There is much God has yet to show us. The best is truly yet to come. Draw close. Stay close. Stay with Him.

Discover the secret place of the most High.

My Place by Lily

The winds of change

Surround me; they penetrate and guide me

To a haven of my own...

A place where God has shown

Me a place, a place of my own.

Where joy and love intone

A place, a place of my own.

Not a bird doesn't sing,

Not a teardrop fell

A place of joy

No one can tell

Is sung out in a song

Where Love lasts on and on,

In a lovely tone,

In this place, this place of my own.

Never grass so green,

Never life so sweet,

Or a flower so beautiful

Ever seen.

In a heart very beautiful to me

Golden threads of love are sewn

Into this place, this place of my own.