School of the Spirit (17th June 2021)
Topic (Second Session): Understanding the Division of Edenic Trees
Ministering: Reverend Kayode Oyegoke
Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life (Matt. 7:14). The word ‘strait’ is different from ‘straight’. Strait means a passage that is long. Jesus Christ said 'I am the door to the sheepfold' (John 10:7). There are potential sheep; they are lambs and they need to be fed till they become sheep. They must go through the strait gate. We would travel through the strait door, as we are walking, we would be becoming free. As we walk, we engage the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus - that door is a world called Christ Jesus - until we come to the end; then we would burst into a vast land. The beginning is a door; the end is another door to the sheepfold. We must have been made sheep before entering the door.
Many sheep are not yet sheep, they are still lambs. What makes us sheep is the feeding of the law. What determines the growth of the lamb is a law. Laws are used to determine the destiny of a sheep/lamb. Pastures are laws. For any sheep to be healthy, it must use the law designed by the shepherd. The pasture is in the Shepherd. The pasture of a lamb to become a sheep is the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Every sheep needs to be free. There is a discipline in the milk of the word that makes a lamb a disciple. The lamb must continue in the pasture till he is made a disciple (John 8:31).
A disciple is not a missionary who goes to remote places to look for souls. Many zealous babies have gone into danger in their quest but God protected them. A disciple is one who is saved by the law of the New Testament. Being a disciple is not about doing something for God, but doing something for yourself. A disciple must be committed to his own salvation. A disciple must be strong to save himself first before he goes to save others. This is necessary because it is possible to save others and still be a castaway. We must be zealous of our personal salvation first.
God is interested in saving souls. Many of us are treading dangerous zones of evil spirits out of zeal but God is the one protecting us. The commitment of pastors is to feed the flock of God. As pastors, the sheep should not suffer under us. We must be resolved to feed the flock. Pastors must lay down our lives for their flocks.
Tongues and Interpretation (1)
“Might is to keep, it is for keeping. Many to be kept! Many to be kept! To keep you, for there is no other way by which the sheep would be kept protected but to teach. Teach them. Teach them. It is the way of the Spirit; it is the way ordained of the Father. For the lamb to be converted to sheep, they have to be taught. By teaching, you deliver laws in the mouth of the lamb. By teaching, you too will keep them from the mouth of the roaring lion that devours. Teaching is the way of salvation.”
Tongues and Interpretation (2)
“Show, show, show. I have come to show you, even things of the Shepherd. He sent me to show you things of the Shepherd, even things that the end of your faith journey would grant you entrance into. I have come to show you; for your feet must be cloven, the feet of a sheep, to find entrance into this world. It is in your feet. It is in the developed feet of the sheep that it can find this ground and have access. I have come to show you; I have come to call you in; I have come to let you in. I have come to show you, I have come to show you.”
(Message continues...)
The first conversion believers undergo is to become little children. The forgiveness of sins is the provision for entrance. Those who hath not, according to Matthew 13:12, are those who heard the Word but did not receive it. They were supposed to have the Word and own it. They were given but did not respond; they closed their ears. Because they closed their ears, what they have would be taken from them. Seeing with one’s eyes and hearing with the ears should lead to understanding. To see the kingdom is to understand it with the heart. The word preached contains the program of the dominion of the kingdom. We must view the kingdom through the seed. When we understand the Word, we would be converted and healed. Conversion is repentance. Then after conversion is healing - the forgiveness of sins. This is not new birth; it is soul entrance.
Entrance has to do with sight (understanding). When understanding occurs, washing takes place. When there is no understanding, we would not be able to follow properly. We gain access by understanding. When you have understanding, the Holy Ghost comes upon you and gives you access in Christ Jesus. Access is what is referred to as door in the spirit. It is the door the Holy Ghost uses in Christ. The door is a spiritual door that cannot be accessed except through the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit leads us through the door and creates the door of Christ around us till we fully partake of Christ. The leading of the Spirit takes place within the door; that is our walk.
The will of God is consistently being supplied. The will, which is called the washing of water by the word, is what performs conversion. And that water for entrance would keep spilling until the last Christ door, the door at which Christ is fully formed in the soul. That is the door of salvation, which we are being kept by the power of God unto (1 Pet. 1:5). Before we can be born of water and Spirit, we must understand. When we begin to see, washing of faith conversion takes place. The Holy Ghost creates an enabling environment for the word of God to take course in us. For this to happen, they need our cooperation which is our repentance. Our repentance is our obedience. Anytime we obey the word of faith, conversion takes place. For each conversion, there is a healing until full healing takes place.
A lamb has to be healed from sins to become a sheep. Sin is the hindrance preventing a lamb from being a sheep. When we are born again, we are potential sheep, we are lambs who can be fed to become sheep. The first sheepfold is the narrow corridor called Christ; all the sheep found in this door are the “first-fold”. The first-fold is the live-fold/live-gate - those who live. Then we would be born into the living-fold. We would live first then move into the living fold. "The just shall 'live' by faith" but that does not mean we are ‘the living’.
“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7). The breath of life means that what the body gets from it are interpretations of living. That was what made man a living soul. In Genesis one, Adam was created but was formed in chapter 2. He was a spirit with life but his life had not been determined/defined. The first man on earth was a living sheep. A living sheep is a sheep with the breath of the Almighty. Breath is a style of life. Sheep are known by their breath. God brought breath from His nostrils, breathed into man and he became living. Adam did not start life as flesh, rather, he began as an everlasting man.
‘Living’ is higher than 'to live’. At the new birth, your spirit is life but it does not mean you live. You start to live through the first pasture called Christ-Life, which makes you live. God breathed everlasting life of earth's order into Adam. The first pasture the believer partakes of is called Christ; Christ is life. Life makes you live. All Adams have everlasting life. John the Baptist had an everlasting life of an earthly order, because Adam was earthy. Adam was to respond to God directly, so he needed a measure of life that could enable him communicate with God. He must have a life commensurate to that dealing.
“Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. [13] For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:12-13). In the Spirit, to live is not the same as to be a living being. To be living, you must have lived. God is the God of the living not the God of 'those who live'. There is the revelation of our Father, the living Elohim. Jesus was a holy one; any holy one is a living being. A living being is a man with everlasting life. He is not just alive nor does he just have life; he has everlasting life.
God wants us to arrive at everlasting life (John 3:16). What will justify a person against perishing is everlasting life. God wants to give everlasting life to people. Beings with everlasting life are living. There are different kinds of everlasting life: there is the kind expressed by the living soul, another kind is that which angels have, and there is the kind Christ expresses.
Everlasting life is the life of any being that has just life; it is a life that can last. The enemy that fell unfortunately had everlasting life. Everlasting life has powers. The thought process and understanding of a person with everlasting life is different from those of others; it is higher than someone who just lives. Satan is dead but he was constructed with both everlasting life and angelic reward. He has a type of eternal reward. Everlasting men are kept in Eden. The sheep of paradise are a sheepfold.
Living is a state in the spirit of empowering those who live. A living man is the kind of man that can relate with the Almighty. He can learn God; he is a living soul. The everlasting state is higher than faith. The first man created in Genesis was created as a living soul. The living soul was not equated with the first Christ; Christ was referred to as the quickening Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). The comparison was on the basis of their finish. Adam eventually as a living soul was a finished man - he was made lower than the angels; he was rewarded in a type. His temptation was on rewards. He was already earthly-wise complete; he was no small man. He was a man ready to take of the tree of life. The word 'living soul' used to define him is not ordinary.
The quickening spirit started as Christ. The last Adam began as Christ, entered into being the Son of the living God, then was raised to be the only begotten Son. That is, when He was resurrected, He was made a quickening spirit. If he was already a quickening Spirit, then Hebrews would have been wrong to say, 'Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels…' (Heb. 2:9)
Living soul is also referred to as, 'Oh my soul' (Psalm 103:22). ‘Oh my soul’ is a soul with God’s law - the highest law. A soul qualified with 'oh my' is a high soul in the realm of the spirit. Not many people have come to ‘oh my soul’. God wants us to resolve all kinds of life. We have been called to study life and we must pass it till we reach the tree of life.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil does not just mean where you find good and evil; and though you may find good and evil in it, it is more than that. Good and evil can lead to it. The way to that tree is good and evil. Adam did not know this dimension because he did not have the good and evil of that tree. But Adam knew some good and evil of man, not of angels. What was standing in the garden was more than man. The one beside it was more than that of man and angel. What was beside the other tree was so much better. Eden was an everlasting world. The word 'eastward' means eternal. Every tree had their roots in the tree of life. The trees were not meant for Adam but for his children and partially his wife. God's intention was that Cain and Abel should be born in Eden. We would have all been babies of paradise. God's intention was for paradise to expand and fill the earth. If we were born there, we would eat of the trees and eat of the tree of life easily. We would learn the trees and grow to become living souls easily.
Adam used the fruit of the trees of the Garden to keep his body, but his children will eat of the tree for their bodies and also have impartation of knowledge for their souls. All the trees in the Garden are living trees. When lambs are birthed in Eden, the first thing they eat is grass, after which they eat the trees, and the leaves. You ought to eat of the trees until you are able to stand before God as living; although you are still a sheep. A sheep stands on four feet and eats grass. But after feeding on that well enough, it becomes promoted to stand erect to eat the fruit of the trees.
Tongues and Interpretation (3)
Eat! Eat! Eat! For that is the way I cause you to grow, by eating. Eat. I cause you to grow by eating. I cause you to come up by eating. I cause you to stand erect by eating, by eating, by eating. I planted a garden in the eastward of Eden to show how men ought to grow up; how men ought to feed from trees to trees, till they would hold and eat of the tree of life. You need to feed from one tree, you need to feed from one pasture to another pasture. There is a pasture for the lamb, even the pasture that will convert the lamb into a sheep, that will change even a sheep into a higher sheep, that will change the life sheep to the living sheep. That will change by feeding. Therefore, I have raised ministers, men that I’ve made trees, even in the New Testament, that will feed My flock; that will communicate things that I am saying through my mouth. For the Chief Shepherd, the first one that I raised, was My Son. And in these last days, I’m speaking through Him, through ministers. I’m speaking through Him, through His gifts, to feed My flock, to convert lambs and make them sheep; to convert sheep and make them another sheep. For to convert sheep again and make them lambs, lambs that can stand before My throne. Lambs after the order of My Son. I’m going to feed you. For I change you by feeding; I convert you by feeding. Therefore, open your mouth and eat. Eat! Eat! Do not be tired of eating. Do not be weary of eating. Eat! For it is in your eating your conversion lies.
Tongues and Interpretation (4)
Attain growth! For you are meant to attain growth, even that which Adam could not do. The lamb of God, the pasture of eternal life is standing that you may take and eat, that you may grow thereby. Grow! Grow by the tree. Feed on the tree! For there is a transition that is going on by understanding. Transition of men from grass to tree. Transition of mouth from grass to tree. I want to cause men to grow by the tree, even trees that are grown by the waters of life, waters from the throne of the Lamb. I want men to eat, I will open the door. There is a transition. I will cause men to grow by the tree. For the tree will appear. The tree is appearing because men are emerging. Men will feed and they will grow thereby, and they will become trees. Saith the Spirit.
(Message Continues)
“For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” (Rev. 7:17). The Lamb feeds them and leads them - living food and living waters.
“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.” (Rev. 22:1-2). It is clearly stated that the water of life flowed from the throne of God and of the Lamb. This water is not the same as the living water but the water of life. The trees here also are not living trees but the tree of life. In the Holy of Holies, there are living things, but there are also things of life. The tree of life is different from living trees; so also the water of life is different from living waters.
The upward movement of the feeding of the soul from grass to trees typifies resurrection; it also relates to the resurrection of the dead. One can attain the resurrection of the dead, but there is another kind of resurrection that has to do with being begotten of the dead. This is the difference between living and life. Paul sought to attain the resurrection of the dead. By this, he meant that he had come into all living and was begotten. Jesus attained all living and became the first begotten amongst the resurrection of the dead.
“And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,” (Rev. 1:5). The dead here does not refer to those who sleep but an estate/place of the dead, i.e. attaining the dead state. God will not raise anyone who is not dead. He, therefore, had to wait for Jesus to die before resurrecting Him. By this, Jesus was showing us the pattern of how man will be raised. It is not a man that raises himself but God raises him to the throne. Therefore, it is not of our will that we get to sit on the throne; "so then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy" (Rom. 9:16). This Bible verse was referring to those in the Most Holy because it is in the Most Holy we run the race set before us - we do not walk. To race is to die, to run into death. Death is not an ordinary course.
No one can sit on the throne of his own will, even though he is born again and has the benefits of redemption. Jesus did not raise Himself; the same principle will apply to us. The purpose of raising Him was for Him to sit on the throne. The boundary between living and life is death. When Jesus died, God took Him up and sat Him on the throne.
"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,” (Heb. 13:20). Jesus, the Great Shepherd was brought up from the dead. He did not have this great status initially but came into it when He was raised. He was first the Good Shepherd but was then raised to become the Great Shepherd.
In paradise, there are living trees and there is the tree of life. The living trees represent the holy ones. The difference between both kinds of trees lies in their content. The tree of life should not be touched because it stamps (seals) a man; that is, it makes you, based on whatever state it meets you. The tree of life is a tree of eternal strength. A believer does not eat of this tree when he gets to heaven but when he has finished the course of everlasting life. And one can finish the course while on earth. You can cross the river and eat the tree here on earth if you overcome.
Prophetic Utterance
Enter your lot, take your lot, see your lot.
(Message continues)
The tree of life is in the midst of the Garden Eden. This implies that there is some distance between it and other trees. Satan also by contest, planted his own tree (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) beside it, because he claims some level of eternity; he had said he would be like the Most High (Isa. 14:13). This declaration of Satan’s desire was a contest for God’s eternal domain. Satan wanted to get into the realm of the uncreated by war. Thus, he planted his tree also in the midst of the Garden. When Satan did this, God did not resist him because doing so would have been out of order, as Adam was the custodian of the Garden. The Garden was Adam’s responsibility and he could remove any tree he wanted to. He only needed to say the words and believe in his heart, and it would be so (Mark 11:23). When God instructed Adam to dress the garden, He meant that he should remove the tree Satan planted and keep the garden from intruders; but he kept that tree - that was disobedience.
“See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.” (Jeremiah 1:10). The Lord called Jeremiah, ‘son of man’ when He gave him this mandate. Jeremiah was a lower ‘son of man’; thus, the higher ‘son of man’ would have a higher mandate. All the trees in the garden were in the hands of Adam, including the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, even though it was planted there by Satan.
A shepherd is a guard, therefore, a reward is a guard. A shepherd is a keeper, a watcher. The tree of life has in it the shepherdic grace; it is a shepherd’s tree. The tree of life watches over the other trees of the garden. He bears the eternal watch and is the light to the rest of the trees. Everything about the rest of the trees lies in it, and yet, it is higher than them. It possesses a shepherdic strength. Therefore, anyone who is looking for the tree of life is one who is seeking to attain the ultimate shepherd state, referred to as, ‘in the midst’. This is how the Lamb was addressed in Revelation 7:17. Such a Being is a Being of the midst; no one follows the Being of the midst and does not end up in eternal life.
God’s intention is to make every sheep a shepherd. To attain the shepherdic state is a high eternal honour. Not every king is a shepherd. No one can come into eternal life by kingly might but by shepherdic law. Laying down your life is the way of the shepherd, and the way of the trees, the way of the living. This state does not assume a position when he is not called. Thus, it is wise to stay low and take the rear position until you are called. Satan coveted a high estate and was disgraced. “And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Matt. 23:12). This Scripture defines our law; we abase ourselves so that we can be exalted.
Tongues and Interpretation (5)
Might! Light! I lead light. My light! It is My light. It is My administration. For I have fed you with My light. I brought the light! I brought the light because I know you can become that which I have spoken. Saith the Lord Jesus.
Message ends