JUDGING BY APPEARANCES

Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the Tree of Life. There has been much sharing in the past fifteen or twenty years on these two trees. But I don’t believe that we’ve still had a full revelation, and an experiential knowledge of these two trees. First of all, we need to realize that these two trees were not something outside of Adam. Paul told the Corinthians, “You are God’s husbandry.” The word, “husbandry” means a farm, or a piece of ground to grow things. And we know how the scriptures repeatedly talk about the seed of Christ, and how that the seed of Christ was planted in our earthly body. I have shared many times before; that there are two seeds on this earth. There is the seed of Christ, and the seed of the serpent. These two trees are in every person on the face of the earth. The tree of life represents the seed of Christ. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents the seed of the serpent

We have done a lot of teaching over the years encouraging people not to eat from this tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The seed of the serpent represents living by the knowledge of good and evil, it also represents the belief in two powers. You can never live an abundant life as long as you believe in two powers, good vs. evil. This belief in two powers is living by the knowledge of good and evil.

Jesus said that every tree produces fruit. The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil produces a life that is both good and evil. Your life at times can be very good and at other times can be evil. This is what is known as the carnal life. Most people live by a carnal mindset. The danger, especially among the Christian mind-set, is that as long as we accept the good, as long as we obey certain rules and regulations, then we are OK and we will be blessed by God. Living by the carnal mind is what caused what most call the fall of Adam which we all have participated in.

. God told Adam, that if he ate from this tree of the knowledge of good and evil that he would die. We know that the death that Adam experienced was not a physical death but a death in his conscious awareness of being a manifestation, a representative of God on this earth. And he fell into a consciousness of having to live his life by the knowledge of good and evil, by the knowledge of choosing the good over the evil. Yet no matter how exercised you are in your life in trying to be good – perhaps you’ve lived for ninety years, and all of your life you’ve tried to exercise choosing the good over the evil, not realizing that as far as God is concerned you are dead. You are a dead man, because goodness does not necessarily produce God on the earth. Goodness can just produce more of the knowledge of good and evil.

Man had so fallen in their consciousness from eating of that tree, the writers of the Old Testament beginning with Moses, wrote the whole Old Testament scriptures from the knowledge of a God who was both good and evil – a God who would bless you if you were good, and curses you if you were evil. That is the very fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you are good, you will be blessed. If you are evil, you will be cursed. It is the law of sowing and reaping. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a consciousness that sows and reaps. If you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption. If you sow to the spirit, you will reap eternal life. But you have to remember there were two trees in the Garden, and not just one. And the tree of life is simply a life that is not lived by the knowledge of good and evil. God lives above the knowledge of good and evil. God just is. God just flows from the very essence of your being where that tree of life is. The tree of life is your human spirit. And as you begin to be awakened to that life, as you are regenerated by the Spirit, as you are quickened by that Spirit, you begin to live a life out from the Spirit of God which does not operate by the knowledge of good and evil.

The tree of life, the Spirit of God, the essence of God in your being simply flows out from you in a spirit of love, compassion, peace, joy, and righteousness, and does not go through life choosing the good over the evil. It goes through life just loving creation, loving life, restoring life, healing all that would come to it.

There was a promise made in the Garden, the Lord God said unto the woman, “What is this that you have done? And the woman said, ‘The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat’. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle, above every beast of the field. And upon thy belly thou shalt go. And dust shalt thou eat all of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” That prophecy, today, is becoming true in lives.

You see, the prophecy was, “The seed of the woman, the seed of Christ, the Spirit of the living God that is within you, the tree of life that is within you, the being of God that is within you will crush the head of the serpent.” Well, where is the head of the serpent? The head of the serpent is the carnal mind. The head of the serpent is the mind that is alienated and separated from God. The head of the serpent is the mind who considers itself something less than who God has made you to be. You see; the seed of Christ in you is crushing the head of that serpent, the head of that carnal mind. The mind of Christ is beginning to arise within us to crush the head of the serpent that resides between our ears.

There was also a statement made to the serpent that said, “You shall bruise His heel.” Well you see; the serpent bruised the heel of man. Ah, but the seed of Christ crushed the head of the serpent. And what happened by us partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it bruised our heel. Have you ever had a bruised heel? You can imagine what it would be like to have a bruised heel. It would be very difficult for you to walk. Well, that is exactly what the seed of the serpent has done to us. The seed of the serpent, the carnal mind, the human identity has bruised our heel, has caused us to be unable to walk uprightly in the Kingdom of God. The seed of Christ is crushing the head of the serpent so that that bruised heel will be healed. And we are now arising in the brightness of His coming within us. And we are able to walk in the Kingdom of God as sons of God on this earth.

Oh, I’m so thrilled in these days that God’s Son is being seen walking in the earth today. Oh, how wonderful it is. You know, we have tried for so many years – most of us, to walk uprightly in the Kingdom of God, and we have been such failures. Why? – Because we have not understood the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Oh, we’ve heard teachings about it; we’ve read about it; we’ve, somewhat, probably meditated on it, but in these days the fullness of that revelation has to hit us. We have to stop living by that knowledge of good and evil. We must stop judging by appearances. We are admonished to avoid the appearance of evil. Do you know what that really means? You see, I was taught that to avoid the appearance of evil, that you shouldn’t even drink a bottle of root beer that is colored like a beer bottle because somebody would think you are drinking, and that is the appearance of evil. That is not the appearance of evil! The appearance of evil is when you see your brother or your sister doing something, saying something that you think they should not be doing or saying. That is judging by appearances.

We need to stop judging with the seeing of the natural eye. You must realize that no matter what your brother, your sister may be doing, no matter what they are saying, you must stop judging by the appearance of evil, and you must focus on the Christ within them. You must realize that in the very center of their being, in the core of their being is the essence, the magnificence of God. That is what you must focus on, and that is what you must minister to. That is how you must see them. You know, consciousness is a powerful thing. Consciousness is the most powerful thing in the universe, because what you are conscious of, what you keep your focus and attention on you will attract in your life. We have been so focused on good and evil and until that changes we cannot possibly live by the tree of life.

TO BE CONTINUED