Believe it or not the tree of life is still available to us. When we were thrown out of the garden of Eden, a flaming sword was put at the east of the garden of Eden to keep the way of the tree of life. That is in:
Gen. 3:22. And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth the from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
We need to find out what the flaming sword is, if we want to get back to God and eat freely of that tree of life, because that is what stands stands between it and us.
Eph. 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
So from this one scripture we see the sword of the spirit is the word of God.
Is 66:16 For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
The Lord will use his sword to plead with us, because he does not want us to be slain.
Deut. 4:12 And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: Ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice. 13 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.
In this verse God spoke to them out of the midst of the fire, to declare his covenant to them. His word came out from within the fire.
Ps 55:21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil yet were they drawn swords.
Here words of the mouth are drawn swords.
Rev. 2:16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
If we do not repent from our sins, God himself fights against us with the sword of his mouth. So the sword came out of God’s mouth and the word came out of God’s mouth, and the sword of the spirit is the word of God. So, from here it looks like the flaming sword that keeps the way to the tree of life is the word of God.
It makes a lot of since, when you think about it, that the word would be the flaming sword that must be gone thru in order for us to reach the tree of life, because disobedience to the word of God is what got man thrown out of the garden of Eden to begin with. Choosing the serpents words over God’s words is what separated us from God, so choosing, obeying, and believing in what God says, could be the only way back to God. And that is why Jesus Christ had to come here as the word of God to reconcile us with God, just as it says in:
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his Glory, the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
1Tim. 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into Glory.
11Tim. 1:8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partakers of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God: 9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:
Life and immortality is brought to life through the gospel.
John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
Verse 63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. Verse 68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
Again, eternal life comes through the word.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The word is God, and it is life.
Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
11Cor. 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the Word of reconciliation.
Peter was talking about Jesus when he said, in:
Acts 4:12 Neither is their salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me: 7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
James 1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. 13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it b bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. 16 Do not err, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. 18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. 19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
Again, the engrafted word is able to save our souls.
Verse 22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
Since the Word of God is the only way back to the tree of life, then wouldn’t it be reasonable to think, that we need to know as much about it, or Him, as we possibly can? This time, we need to know the word so well that we cannot be deceived again, like man was the first time, in the garden of Eden.
Ps 85:9 Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.
Fear of God is also a requirement according to this verse.
Is. 33:6 And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.
The knowledge of God is vitally important.
Phil. 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Even Jesus himself, when tempted of the Devil, spoke these words saying, in:
Luke 4:4 It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
That shows the power of the written word. Because Jesus went through so much to give us a second chance to live with God and be reconciled back to him, if we are going to follow Jesus, we need to be able to see him as he really is. The most important thing you will need to learn about God, is a bible? Other than a bible written in the original languages, there is only one that I can recommend to you, and that one is the King James. Any of the other bibles that I have studied from do not have the same consistency, that is critical when trying to solve, or interpret Parables, and to understand what the Lord is talking about from Genesis to Revelation. A good Christian book store will have someone that can show you all the options you may choose from and how to use each option.
The next thing you should do if you can afford to, is to purchase a Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the bible. It is supposed to contain the original meaning of each word, in the Hebrew or Greek languages. It gives you an example of all the things each word could mean, and that is very useful if you don’t quite understand what a word means. It will also show you where in the bible you may find a particular word. That can be very useful, if you want to find out, for example, what the word sword means in the context of the bible, in God’s eyes.
It is like, when the bible describes a sword in a mouth, if you look up the word sword from Gen. thru Rev. you will get an understanding of the interpretation that God had, when he put that word in there. Another thing I would recommend that you purchase, would be a good bible dictionary. One I would highly recommend, would be the New Unger’s Bible Dictionary by Merrill F. Unger. I am sure there are probably better ones out there, but I am just saying that of the ones that I have seen, it is my preference.
When I study the word, I want to find out why God used a certain word in the place he did, and what he was trying to get across to us. Reading through the bible over and over will get you a better understanding. Each time you read his word, if you pray ahead of time, he will give you understanding, and open up his word to you, if you have a sincere heart to get to know him. In order to get to know someone, you have to spend time with them.
If you are raising up a child, you start out with milk for food. If you are going to raise up a spiritual child, you must feed that child what God calls, the milk of the word. That child needs nourishment every day. Would you let a baby go without feeding it? If you do, that baby is going to die. That can also happen to the spiritual child. As that child starts to grow up and mature, it is ready for meat. God gives us what we are ready for in his word, step by step.
Is. 28:9 Whom, shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. 10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line, here a little, and there a little:
Each time you read the word you get a little taste of the goodness of the Lord. His word is full of patterns all the way through it. You see, God wants us to get close to him. He wants us to have a close relationship with him, just like they started out with in the garden of Eden. Back then, they were close companions with him. That is our desired goal, walking and talking with him as a child does with their father. A child knows who his father is. knows his voice, and comes to him when he is being obedient.
As a child growing up, the other children often would tell me my daddy is bigger than your daddy. They would brag about their fathers one to another. I can now firmly say, my Father is greater than them all, and I everybody to know about him, so they also will know how wonderful he truly is. His love for you is greater than any love any human being could ever give another human being. He is the one that created you. He just wants you to know him, and be obedient to him, so he can share his kingdom and love with you for ever.
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