The enlightenment teaching of the Essene was known as THE WAY.  This teaching became the final interpretation of the Law and the Prophets, as revealed by Yeshua Messiah. The Way became the enlightened transitional teaching of the early church.

 

The teaching of the Way would describe the garden allegory as a picture of wholeness and oneness with God, the reality shared with Him, intimate and personal, including both Adam and Eve.  Although the garden is physically outside of oneself, the relationship with God seems existent as already birthed or awakened from within.  Adam and Eve thus directly share unity with God.  

The story later relates the lost enlightenment and relationship with God, lost power, and entering a world of consequences.

 

 

Biblical literalists contend the garden account is historical but then transcribed through figures of speech.  This view coincides with Pauline interpretation, then further developed under Augustine and others.  For centuries this interpretation became the Christian view.  Most scholars accept the garden story as an allegory.  Others have observed it as a slightly altered version of the Babylonian creation myth.  However a person may view the garden narrative, one concept within the story remains clear—through lack of discernment followed by disobedient acts, mankind falls from the enlightened condition, and his consciousness becomes tainted.

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GOOD and BAD

 

Right Choice

Man is made “from the dust of the ground” (2.7), “breath of life…living being.”

‘Dust’ is noted as dead or dead soil by the roadside (Mt. 13.4).

Within Judaism, death, the grave, and dust are spiritual references to being dead to the spirit within or unawakened (Mt. 23.27).

“Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat,” Gen. 2.16.  The fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad may not be eaten, “thou shalt surely die.”

Once you discern, choices follow.  Choices direct individual experiences and develop character and diversity within the soul.  Without choice, the soul’s individuality remains stagnate, sublimated.  

Having blown life into thee, God expects each person to develop better discernment.  Discernment within choice denotes soul awakening.  Lack of discernment leads to most of the problems we face in life.

 

The spiritual life within the garden is typified by communion with God, which represents wholeness.  

The garden symbolizes unity, peace, bounty, and physical wholeness.  

Adam and Eve share a relationship, masculine and feminine unity or wholeness.  

 

 

Jesus teaches about choice as he confronts the scribal authority and the Pharisees, Mt. 15.8-10; in Matt. 24.14 he illustrates the power of good choice when he states that many are called, but few are chosen.  In John, “If you keep my commands you will stay in my love—just as I have kept my Father’s commands and stay in His love,”* (15.10-17).  Bad choices, disobedience, and loss of unity and love all come into play as we witness the garden story unfold.

*Complete Jewish Study Bible

  

The power of choice is testified to throughout scripture. 

Sow for wisdom and good choice.

 

♥

 

The Seduction

 

The seduction begins when the serpent questions Eve about the fruit from the Tree of Desire.*  The seed of doubt is cast onto Eve’s innocent but fertile mind, “You are not to eat from any tree in the garden?”**

*Nachmonides interprets the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad as the Tree of Desire (ritz hada’at)

**KJ: “Ye shall not eat of every tree in the garden?”

This fruit of which Eve is to partake shares both the good and the bad.  The promised result is to make Eve wise and powerful, “…you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  The word ‘knowing’ does not mean to know about, but is understood as intimate, to experience it.  Eve might not understand what ‘knowing’ means.  Yet, as Eve would discern it, she would become exalted into new power and status, beckoning Eve toward a certain kind of divinity.

The serpent’s argument to freely eat (from any tree) harbors another much deeper issue.  Satan offers a way to access power outside the authority of God, and he offers a deal that is a bit too good to be true.  ‘All you have to do is eat this,’ he promises, ‘and you can have what God keeps from you.’

Remember that Eve is in a delicate position and does not know the good from the bad.  All she knows is good.  All she knows are personal choices.  The confrontation between likes and preferences, as opposed to obedience, has not occurred before. Eve has only indulged in desire, but desire without boundaries.  Adam has had responsibility, a kind of boundary, for he has named.   Both are learning in the context of a burgeoning awareness.  So, during their time of development, the seduction is well-placed.

Eve sits near the tree, near the place of temptation, and where seduction will be much easier accomplished.  Adam is nearby.  We later discover the Nazarenes distanced themselves from unnecessary temptation by living in semi-retreat communities, in part for that separation; we see this temptation in the story of Abraham and Lot, whilst Abraham stays away from Sodom, youth sees the flicking torches of the night.  Regardless of where you put yourself, the final choice becomes one of discernment that leads to wisdom or wise choice.  In the case of Adam and Eve, they possess undeveloped wisdom, so they must respond to obedience.  Opposed is the authority of likes and dislikes, preferences, or lust.

This last thought concerning lust is directed to the words spoken by Eve, “to make one wise,” which was first insinuated by Satan (knowing good and evil).  But wise how?  Adam and Eve are already like God,* made in God’s image, with the spirit within (breath of life) to give light to the soul.

*Lv. 19, “Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.”; Mt. 5.48, “…be perfect [complete], just as your Father in heaven is perfect [complete in all ways].”  The return to holiness, whole or at one with God, is a repeated theme from the beginnings of Judaism.  Through which avenues this return is structured becomes the spiritual journey of the Jewish people. 

Adam and Eve might be likened to spirit beings, innocent and pure, childlike and without guile, perhaps not yet fully situated in their body or habitat.  They are presented as explorers moving from tree to bush, picking and eating as they will (choice).  They seem to have no concerns.  Concerns or consequences may not be in their lexicon, and they may not know such things.  This lack of guile is a part of their shining innocence, not at all like the whispering voice that now beckons.

*

 

The Satan-Serpent proposes “…like God” to insinuate power, and Eve extends herself into that power.  But the Temptation does not infer godly character, of which one quality is discernment.  The base for handling power is not first put in place, which would align with God’s plan.  This knowing (“knowing good and evil”) and wisdom (“to make one wise”) will be assumed through the pathway of lust and aggrandizement.  The godly attribute of obedience will be left behind.  

In Jesus’ time, Knowledge (Knowing) and Wisdom will make up the final studies of priestly training.  Intuitively, Eve may have sensed the importance of these two qualities.  Regardless, for Adam and Eve, this timing is out of season.

A fuller embrace of the flesh awaits Adam and Eve.

 

The seduction becomes a contrast of loyalty, or trust in God’s word, now compared to Eve replacing that trust with her still-developing personal perception.  Eve sets spiritual perception and standards aside.  Lust will replace obedience as well as personal fealty and will cloud perception.  Eve also seems to have her interpretation of the nature of wisdom.  Within moments lust can introduce self-centeredness.

Regardless of how much we may think we know, it is still the knowledge that the self has assumed, and it falls far short of the knowledge God possesses.  That is why obedience (fealty, loyalty) comes first, and agreement (unity) is preeminent.  Eve does not rely on God, His teaching, or trust in the pathway God reveals.  Suddenly, these newly seeded events become the center focus, and part of that focus is Eve herself.

The seductive earthbound incense of power rises to exhilarate the mind.  Power out of season, perhaps?  Even so, the new Self is created, which operates through lust, acquisition, and satisfaction of desire but is acquired without merit or effort.  This act and the power that comes with it is intended to push the soul-mind into kingship, exalted, overriding the spirit ‘blown into man,’ much like Satan has done himself.  The soul nature becomes clouded and less connected to the spirit, producing the earthbound self.

Once this false and blinded Self is created, connections to the garden habitat cease physically and spiritually.   The crushing blow becomes leveled, as the creation of this false self will require complete expulsion.  The conduit to God and His spirit within is shredded.  Everything must now be filtered through Eve’s applique self.    

Nor is whatever wisdom to be assumed necessarily at God’s timing, nor may it be wisdom at all, but will reveal itself as guile, dishonesty.  Reaching and grasping out of season, Adam and Eve’s beingness is acted out through Satan’s vision—power unrestricted and curbed by only Satan’s reasonings—“ye shall be like gods.”    

Once eating the fruit from the Tree of Good and Evil, the Will becomes colored, not by wisdom but by desire.  The Mind becomes tainted, for the proposal is a deceit the mind has accepted and acted upon.  The Emotions, too, will be run through a rugged course.  The standards and requirements of the earthly journey have now been altered.  The knowledge and power to be assumed will mimic Satan’s character, as will later manifest within Cain.

 

     The Tree of Life represents the Spirit as an authority, wholeness or healing, and eternality.

 The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Bad) represents the world of circumstance or consequences.  

                                                                                                                                            

The Jewish people and all of man will contest and then suffer over the standards of good and bad.  This contention is unavoidable since the Fruit of Good and Bad is mixed.  It is not that one piece of fruit may be good but another bad, but that the same fruit contains both good and bad, mixed.  Thus, Satan’s temptation introduces confusion into the mind, for merely tasting the fruit draws you into the worldly condition—to taste the world as it were, but not well prepared nor armored by God.

The contrast with obedience is straightforward.  Nothing had been denied to Adam and Eve, thus one issue of soul development points to timing.  God’s timing is measured in His ‘Order of Events’ and for your benefit.  You may ask, knock and seek, sow and then reap; there is timing to preparation and there is timing to experiences.  However, the seduction is opportunistic, not necessarily measured nor prepared for, but a sudden intrusion forcing a consequential decision.

What will become the pursuit of rampant desire, possessing and possessiveness, and grasping for power is the fundamental error Satan introduces.  These elements can only be initiated when moving out of season, else much better preparations would have been made.  Nor, while entranced with glitter may a person always consider what may be left behind.  

The garden of enlightened understanding will be left behind and with it the intimate communion with God.  This first effort in the garden is later mimicked when Satan tempts Jesus.  Desire, possessing, and grasping lead to greed and acquisition, with no necessary counterbalance toward love or spiritual beauty.  Satan’s nature begins to show in the body of man. 

In Jesus’ time, a clear-cut example emerges.  Since the time of the prophets (spokesman) had passed, the Jewish people had been extending law upon law, with over two thousand purity laws from what began as the Ten Commandments.  They not only had purity laws but had prayers to go with them.  The wrongheadedness of thinking that the ‘acquisition’ of more laws and lawyered behavior would somehow make a person more holy became the Satanic deceit Judaism had fallen into.  Adam and Eve face a similar problem.  Just as wrongheaded, they did not know the consequences of stepping out of God’s order.  They chose a divergent pathway. 

The later resolution to the issue of parsing the good and the bad will become the introduction of the Holy Spirit, presented as the Comforter.  The Holy Spirit awakens the kingdom of God within, from whence the restoration begins.  John 14.17 provides a clear description of the worldly as opposed to the awakened: “For even the Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”  This scripture directs us toward the kingdom within, with the Spirit of Truth (revealment) as to good and bad, essentially the original pathway intended for Adam and Eve.  

As to Satan, he still possesses wisdom, but it now manifests within the intellectual climate of craftiness.  He is angelic in his creation and still possesses light.  However, rebellion has darkened him in his person, and he loses sanctity.  He no longer pursues God’s course but pursues his own.  No longer within God’s will, he naturally disdains God’s creation and will attempt to destroy it.

Sow seed for the Spirit of Truth to manifest and reveal your pathway.

 

 

♥

 

Aftermath

The temptation is complex, so the conversation slyly begins with a question, but one which is technically misstated.  Gen. 3.1, “Yea, hath God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”  But Gen. 2.16-17 quotes God as saying, “Of every tree in the garden thou mayst freely eat. (17) But of the Tree of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

 

Adam has already initiated the power God has given him.  He demonstrates power over his dominion by naming the garden.  He names the animals.  He tends the garden.  He designates.  Through his actions, Adam now has the impetus for soul development and individuality.

As to Eve, she is understood as being once removed from the tenderest part, symbolized as being created from Adam’s rib.  She is designated to be better protected and thus perceived as innocent.  Without a doubt, Satan also perceives Eve as more vulnerable to his enticements and will engage in private discussions with her.  Eve, for her part, may have been admiring the fruit and wondering.  We know she was nearby, as was Adam.

*

 

The “surely die” God speaks of refers to spiritual death, even though Eve does not understand the real meaning.*  Eve thinks God refers to physical death, but the satanic voice tells her she will not die (3.3), in which Satan also infers physical death.  Satan has told a half-truth, or perhaps the truth turned backward.  Physical life continues, but it is the spirit that wanes in influence.  

*Most religious scholars think Adam would have told Eve about the Tree of Good and Evil.

As the spirit wanes, the new Self becomes more rapacious and is sometimes acted out through anger, violence, and the searing of conscience.  Satan indicates that God withholds bounty and that He is selfish, possessive, and unreasonable to deny Eve such fruit.  And in that God is possessive so also shall you be: reach out and possess it, and you too will be like God.  The reasoning is faulty, for God created the garden and gave Adam and Eve their very being.  Possessing or possessiveness does not describe the spirit that creates and then shares.                                                    

Now we discover the nature of Satan’s fallen intellect.  The shell Satan has built around himself is full of explanations and connivance, and now the same is proffered to Eve.  Satan may believe he also has been denied.  We will discover this fallen mind when Eve and Adam explain why they ate.  Much like Satan, each will tell a half-truth.  Neither takes responsibility, as Adam and Eve attempt to cover their wrong-thinking and wrong-doing.

 

Proverbs chapter three offers insight into dealing with this Self.  Notice how connected are scriptures 5-13 to the allegory of Adam and Eve.  The rest of chapter three conveys a similar personal and cognitive (knowing) relationship with God.  These values reflect standards of character, actions, and understanding.  Verses 14-22 expound on wisdom and where each person should sit (23-26) and behave toward others (27-32), ending with, “But His secret is with the righteous.”

5  Trust (=confide) in the Lord with all thine heart; And lean not unto thine own understanding (=discernment).

6  In all ways acknowledge (=recognize) Him, and he shall direct (=rightly divide) thy paths.

7  Be not wise in thine own eyes: Fear (=revere) the Lord, and depart (=shun, avoid) from evil.

8  It shall be health (=healing) to thy navel (=whole body), And marrow to thy bones.

9  Honour the Lord with thy substance, And with the first fruits of all thine increase:

10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, And thy presses (=wine vats) shall burst out with new wine.

11 My son, despise (=shrink not from) not the chastening of the Lord; Neither be weary of His correction:

12 For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth; Even as the father the son in whom he delighteth.

13 Happy (=blessed) is the man that findeth wisdom, And (=yea, or even) the man that getteth understanding.

 

Capricious and wayward goes the mind without responsibility.  Taking responsibility for one’s life is another key principle of the Way.  Self-pity robs power; responsibility forms a pathway.  If a person does not take responsibility they remain powerless to exert themselves in any meaningful manner. They have no power over their life.  When individuals absolve themselves of responsibility, consequences descend upon them, as Adam and Eve will soon learn.

Analyzing a situation is useful but the real issue becomes the standards you use.  Satan has entered into rebellion.  His misguided ‘intellect-creation’ has become the rebellion itself.  Satan has ‘thought himself’ there and persists in justifying himself.  There is no operating standard outside of himself.  His intellect appears as reasoning, appealing and seductive, much as a crop ready for harvest.  However, his intellect has already ‘gone to seed,’ dried up and corrupted.

The ‘true self’, the spiritual self, is exchanged for the ‘false self’, the deluded self, which will become what we call ‘the mortal sleep’.

*

In verse 3.3, Eve makes a peculiar statement.  She says, “…neither shall ye touch it, lest you die.”  

 

 

That you should not even touch the fruit issues a severe warning. Even so, something peculiar lurks within the fruit, seductive and most attractive to the eye (Gn. 3.6), else why does Eve sit next to it?  To sit close to the fruit is to engage it.  An opportunity has fallen into Satan’s hands.

 

Verse five concerns knowledge of good and evil, and  “ye shall be as gods”.  Eve perceives the fruit as “to make one wise,” which presumes to Eve that she is not wise, nor can obtain wisdom in any other manner, but then eat of this fruit.  Perhaps it is by ease she wishes to acquire this wisdom, as if by magic transference.  Trust in God, or God’s plan is abandoned.  Perhaps acquiring by ease leads the way to many false teachings.  The seduction of ease lulls us into this self-deception, and for Adam and Eve, the altered self becomes created.

After eating the fruit, the new creation is mixed, a shining light (eyes opened) that will soon turn toward tragedy.  This particular intellect will come forth not under God’s order but under Satan’s.  It will now contain the duplicity of Satan-mindedness, much like the mixed fruit itself.  Spiritual insight has become lost, and trial and error take its place.  A new self has suddenly been created and moves along a different thread.  The spirit within must now labor to affect conditions or deliver solutions through that stumbling block, this newly created self.

 

Gen. 3.5-6   “…ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”  Gen. 3.5-6 assaults Ex. 20.2, “Ye shall have no other gods before me.”  This subtle plot will incorporate Eve and her progeny into an unending uprising controlled by this new self. 

Satan intimates that God has withheld knowledge, that Adam and Eve are ‘not knowing.’  Eve’s desire grows, and by Eve the fruit is finally pronounced “good,” to wit she partakes.  She does not wait; her newly formed reasoning power (after Satan) guides her.

She will possess…out of season though it may be.

 

Satan demonstrates his nature by telling the half-truth that God has denied her when, in fact, God’s plan is developing quite nicely.  Once entering into the aura of deception she accepts the false promise.  Eve enters this world of deceit, deceived by what has now become her thinking.  She believes this fruit promises godly wisdom.  She no longer listens to the root of the instruction from God.  This leads us to the warning that great desire can replace the word and the will of God.  Eve, even now, is beginning to lose her illumination.

Eve enters into tantalizing temptation with an overwhelming desire for power and status.  Spiritual power and what she believes will be a new identity or status await her.  Instead of maintaining faithfulness and following God’s plan, Eve takes her life into her own hands.  This possession may sound reasonable, but Eve is sorely equipped for such a responsibility.  In the newly recreated Eve, her soul nature moves by lust (desire), not obedience, without discernment or wisdom.  

 

Concerning individual pathways: stepping back from that Self is often more helpful than repeatedly trying to resolve issues.  Eve does not step back and consider what is before her.

Stepping away from negative thought habits can provide personal resolution.  Walking in the Way is not intended to be a constant struggle but is often better served by letting go of the Self and allowing new seeds to grow in the silent places.

“That ye resist not evil…” (Mt. 5.39), ‘that you do not become entangled in evil, but turn away,’ not only refers to the Pharisees but the Pharisees within yourself.

Perhaps, much like the modern Humanist, Eve believes she will be like God by undertaking this task through her efforts and in her manner.  Be like God, how?  Is she to become an earthly copy of God or a godly copy of God?

 

                                                                           ‘You no longer need God, you need only eat of this fruit,’ Satan intimates.

 

 

Seeking the reins of power and wresting control out of God’s hands, the Hebrew Bible will relate the many facets of this initial rebellious act.  The enlightenment of the garden is no longer the predominating force of consciousness.  Temptation, through the conduit of disobedience and fueled by lust for power and status, Eve finds the fruit desirable and becomes overwhelmed.

 

 

Sow seed for spirit-thinking rather than self-thinking?

 

 

♥

 

 

REBELLION and AUTHORITY

 

Rebellion breaks down proper authority.  Discipline becomes corrupted, and the order of events wrecks upon the rocks of mortality.  The ensuing chaos stuns the mind of man.

The lust for power before the issuance of proper authority has been a plague throughout the history of man.  

 

 

Satan’s rebellious spirit emerges when he tempts Eve.  He already knows that misleading is often more effective than lying.  To engender doubt or suspicion leaves the door open to motive and thus allows for what appears to be an innocent inquiry.  The listener, once misled, begins to fill in the blanks as to what is right and wrong.  He begins to mislead himself, and finally, he fools himself.  Eve and then Adam chose a kind of spiritual death.

The pathway of growth God intends now becomes rewrought, and then redetermined goals begin to surface.  God’s plan for man’s progression now ends.  Man has made himself the center of all things (self-centered) and seals his fate into the world.  He is now subjected to worldly standards.  He may not be completely cut off from God, but he has separated himself and operates through his new mental creation.

From the act of rebellion, all other negative attributes begin to rise.  The folly of man, who forever pursues himself, yet cannot see—for him, the answer forever remains hidden just beyond the mist.  Satan has completed the insurrection.

*

 

Adam’s Lack of Responsibility

 

Interestingly, Adam does not correct Eve, nor does he disavow what she has done, but instead follows after.  Once closest to Adam, God is now distanced; Eve, once removed, is now brought close.  Then, Adam turns on Eve when confronted by God, and asked, “Hast thou eaten of the tree (3.11)?”  

“The woman whom though gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree.”  

The loss of spiritual light (the fall) makes them hide (Gn. 3.7).*  Shame appears, for they know they have disobeyed and are guilty.  Perhaps their spirit has convicted them.  They can no longer stand before God.  The tainted fruit has led them into a new worldly awareness, thus afraid, thus ashamed.  The fall is swift, as Satan, the Deceit, has accomplished the act.

 

*This area of scripture often designates the forbidden fruit as sex and is referenced as ‘eyes opened.’  The view is that Satan had sex with Eve, and then Adam followed after (4.1), leading to the birth of Cain, Satan’s child, and then Abel, Adam’s. This idea is briefly mentioned again in Who Is Cain and is accepted as a legitimate interpretation by scholars from differing backgrounds.  It lends credence to an even more popular view that Adam and Eve were not fully incarnate but by having intercourse would have become so, thus explaining no shame before but then shame afterward, recognizing their nakedness.  

The Way, however, does not deal with this sexual controversy but more closely deals with the nature (attributes) of the seduction and the consequences for Adam and Eve and mankind.  Mark 4.19, John 8.42-44, Matt. 5.28, provides a spectrum of scripture concerning lust; John 2.14-16, the moneychangers, and the general lust for money within the Temple (Sadducees). 

 

In this matter, Adam now becomes a fellow traveler.  More might be insinuated relative to Adam: he has abrogated dominion and should have been overseeing conditions.  Adam had the God-given power to name, thus assert authority, discern, and accept or cast out.  With this oversight authority, just what was Adam doing?

The question alone draws the many comments that have been made concerning Adam’s behavior.  The power to make cogent soul decisions must remain spirit-driven, as this will tend to order authority issues.  Satan’s instruction to Eve, followed by Adam then listening to Eve, Adam essentially replaces his godly authority with the replica of Satan’s.  In the end, Adam and Eve are equally culpable and both disobey.

The above paragraphs may seem a slight treatment of Adam.  The fact is that authority affects almost all issues, and many different attributes.  Various disciplines may be called upon when exercising authority, such as clear thinking, leadership, responsibility, and a settling of wisdom.  Understood from this viewpoint, Adam’s behavior is shattering.  He has abrogated his authority, he has abrogated his power.

All events now move in the opposite direction God intended.  The conveyance from Satan to Eve to Adam replaces God’s established order of events.  In the new order, the fruits of desire will come first, with wisdom only accumulated after trial and error and much pain.  The corrupted intellect now forms the pathway.   ‘The fall’ becomes a reduction into a tainted self-conscious state instead of remaining in an enlightened God-conscious state.  Mankind has attempted to reclaim God-consciousness ever since.

Mankind no longer lives in the Garden of Blessing but becomes removed into the backyard of consequences.  This principle of where you abide, where you sit, in the garden or in the backyard, is most important to the Way.  The backyard harbors an unfriendly fortune, where various vagabonds tramp down the ally and through the soul—all are needy, all are weak.  The spirit is no longer foremost.  The circumstances of each individual’s backyard become foremost.  The backyard relative to the garden—all godly standards have become torn and must now be rebuilt.  Lust may have opened the door, but the obvious sin is walking through.  Much as it entered Adam and Eve and changed their nature, Satan’s rebellion enters the human condition.

Much like authority, rebellion also affects all attributes of character.  Faithfulness diminished, and Adam and Eve experience a loss of spiritual light and insight.  They have lost their vision and will have to determine good and bad for themselves.  Since they have accepted temptation and acted upon it, the Temptation will follow man throughout their life, unalterably handed down through their now-transformed self.

In the teaching of the Way, the lesson of the Garden of Eden shows us that the ‘Satan-Serpent’, seduction and temptation itself, will always boil down to desiring some form of unrighteous power or covetousness.  The allegorical story of the garden chronicles a very different outcome than originally intended for man.  With the perfection of the garden disassembled, the rebellion of Satan spreads to diminish the enlightenment and oneness with God!

*

 

That human beings deal with power daily is seldom mentioned, but true.  The lesson for Adam and Eve would caution to watch who and what you desire and be aware of the power you may initiate.  Just as with Adam and Eve, all excuses ring hollow when instead of progress, repercussions arrive.

Within this context of unrighteous desires spring many conniving human attitudes and motives.  Once indulging in the fruit of the Tree of (Unrighteous) Desire, the fracture and consuming dissolution within the soul becomes complete.  Such lust splinters throughout to produce varied consequences, some known and those unknown to be revealed later.

 

The Tree of (long) Life can no longer be a part of Adam and Eve’s world.  Hard experience and hard lessons now format the return to God.

 

 

The separation, or the ‘fall from wholeness’, Adam and Eve become diminished.  The soul light is diminished. The power to name is diminished (Naming: Back to the Garden), clarity within discernment becomes shadowed, and both stand revealed before God, or naked.  Where once their light shined bright, but by their own choices concerning disobedience, lust, and desire, they can no longer enjoy the garden of blessing.  Instead, they enter into a world of consequences.

In terms of the pathway with Him, the Way, God has drawn the lines.  Choosing between the good and the good allows some form of benefit to follow.  Choosing good from bad with what is now clouded judgment leads to the world we live in today, with careening cause and effect superseding the greater wisdom.

 

God Bless!