Date: Friday, 27th August 2021
Speaker 1: Pastor Ayo Omosehin
The ministration of the leaf of the Tree of Life is an administration of understanding. There are "two levels of understanding" in this ministration that will communicate two levels of healing. The first is the "understanding to live" and the second is the "understanding to abide" (1 Pet. 1:23).
What God breathed into man in Genesis – which drove his entire existence and mandate to subdue the earth – was an understanding (Gen. 2:7). It is called the breath of the Almighty God (Job 32:8). It was after God breathed into man that He put him in the garden of Eden (Gen. 2:8). Eden is inhabited and managed by the understanding of the life that God gave. It was that understanding that sustained the man in Eden before he fell. Understanding is full of many things; it is wisdom, knowledge, prudence etc. Understanding is the doorway into all of God’s resources, and man was put in charge of them in the beginning.
The trees in the garden of Eden typify different levels of understanding. The trees are beings or entities that can impart knowledge. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a tree of an understanding, likewise the Tree of Life. The essence of the Tree of Life is to graduate a man’s understanding from that of a living soul, to that of the everlasting life of God, and ultimately to the understanding of Eternal Life. All the realms of the life of God are realms of understanding. So the evil tree that Satan planted beside the Tree of Life carried a contrary understanding.
There are two expressions in the understanding that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil carries. The tree firstly ministers a “darkened understanding”, which make a man gentilic in nature (Eph. 4:17-18). It turned man from the state of a living soul into a state called flesh. The tree also raised some other (negatively) mighty men that were referred to as “clusters of the vine” in the book of Revelation. They are entities of an understanding that attract perdition (Rev. 14:18). In summary, the tree made a gentilic soul – one who lacks the understanding of the living God. The tree also made a soul of perdition - one who is rebellious and that can curse God. The tree carries the rebel nature of the dragon, it carries the genetic makeup of the perverted cherubim that fell.
When man partook of the evil tree, his spirit became born of the tree. Also, the key to dominion (which is understanding) was gradually taken from him. When a man lacks the understanding of the Holy, he comes under another dominion. Due to the fall, Satan gave another understanding to man, by which he executed his dominion over man. Dominion is tied to understanding. King Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom was taken from him when he lost his understanding (Dan. 4:33). That understanding tampered with his genetic makeup as a man and turned him into a beast who could survive in the wilderness. It is understanding that makes a man to adapt to an habitation in the spirit. The Outer Court, the Holy place and Most Holy Place are all realms of understanding.
Glory and honour rests upon the seat of understanding. When the understanding God put in man was tempered with, the glory left him. Nations became sick and men turned beastly in their nature when understanding was withdrawn from them.
The difference between spirit and flesh is understanding. Understanding is more precious than gold. Man was initially the glory of the earth because he had understanding; the earth was blessed because of man. But Satan gave man another understanding via the fall. It is this perverted understanding that teaches man to seek earthly things and to take thoughts of their lives. Whereas the understanding of God, personified in His Son, tells us to seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33). Jesus understands that the seeking of the Kingdom is the restoration of the understanding that man lost. The parables of Jesus in the synoptic gospels were communications of understanding to the hearers.
The problem of man was Edenic because it began from a being who used to be in the Eden of heaven. Hence, man would need a superior Eden for him to be restored. However, the Eden in Genesis is a prophetic representation of what will happen to man eventually. The garden of Eden is of God, and the Tree of Life embodies the nature of God. The presence of that Tree on earth showed that the earth and humanity will partake of divinity. It was a prophecy that the earth will partake of the Tree of Life.
“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” (Gen. 3:6-7). The knowledge of nakedness that came to Adam and Eve was the beginning of their death or separation from God. The shame they felt as a result of this nakedness was their first sin. The shame was the manifestation of the Christ of Satan in a little measure. Thus, God had to introduce the gospel of Christ to deal with this shame. Paul was a tree that was grown through this gospel, and this was why he exclaimed that he was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ (Rom. 1:16).
Shame is a genetic makeup of sin. The gospel of Christ is one that a man must embrace without shame. Whosoever is ashamed of the gospel of Christ will not be healed of his soul’s diseases and infirmities. When man fell into sin, he fell into the shame that this world designed. Then he sewed fig leaves to cover himself; the fig leaves refer to this world. It is the presence of the world in the soul of a man that makes him ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Every man will always require fig leaves to cover himself as long as he loves this world.
The first provision of healing in God is the healing from the shame that this world projects in the heart of men. There are evil spirits that manage this shame. The shame that man fell into in Genesis was not just a shame of being physically naked. It was rather as a result of an awareness of a lack or an imperfection that sin had brought them; and sin also taught them how to solve this problem of nakedness. So, the first healing is the healing from this shame. Jesus said that He would be ashamed of anyone who is ashamed of Him and will not confess such before His Father (Luke 9:26).
Christ is a tree and He has His own kind of shame, which is designed against this world. The shame that this world projects is the curriculum or teaching of those fallen spirits in Ephesians 6:12. Their doctrine is to teach men how to be ashamed and to also profer solution to the shame through the use of fig leaves. Thus, we are admonished not to love the world and the things that are in it, even in the season of everlasting life (1 John 2:15). Satan gave this world (fig leaf) to man to cover his shame. Fear (of shame) is the drive in every man to acquire earthly riches. A rich man on earth is the poorest when everything he does, including philanthropic activities, is born out of fear. There is nothing good in any man that is rich with worldly goods without Christ.
The first thing that fell into the earth via sin was shame and the essence of the doctrine of Christ is to make us not to be ashamed. The best way for a man to confront shame is to do so without having any clothing. This is when the man is living by the commandments of the gospel under the supervision of the Spirit, without having any reservations or entertaining any regret that accompanies such lifestyle. When the eyes of Adam and Eve opened, they became ashamed and afraid. The fear they expressed was a fear of death (Heb. 2:15).
“And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him…” (Rev. 22:1-3). When the Tree of Life is administered, it removes curse. The Tree also deals with death or separation from God (Rev. 21:4). The leaf of the Tree is for the healing of the nations. God enters into the realm of man when the Tree is revealed. The Tree is the way to God. Our legs are strengthened to take the journey towards God when we eat the leaves of the Tree of Life. A tree captures light through its leaves; and the light that grew the Tree of Life is light of God. Light speaks of knowledge. This means that the leaves custod the knowledge of God, which is the knowledge of the everlasting life of God. This knowledge of everlasting life teaches a man on how to be free from curses.
“Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren…” (Heb. 2:7-11). These sanctified brethren are the ones who make up the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven (Heb. 12:23). They constitute the church of Jesus. However, this church needs to learn how to overcome death, just as the firstborn (Jesus) overcame death. The teaching of the leaf of the Tree of Life is the teaching of how man can overcome death.
In this season, God is teaching us how death can be destroyed in our souls (Heb. 2:12-16). God is teaching us how to unlearn the understanding of death that fell into our souls, so we can learn of the fruit of the Tree of Life; and thereby overcome death.