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The Garden Experience
Part
1
Hey, Good Morning Folks !! Are you ready for the best day of your life? Thought so! OK, so what are you waiting for? Go and grab that cup of Starbucks, or whatever kind of really good coffee you've got, pull up a chair, and get ready for something really different.
Up until now, most of my sharing with you over the table has been in the form of stories about folks who are friends or family, personal experiences, and just principles and truths I've learned over a lifetime of walking with the Lord Jesus Christ. We’re going to do it differently today. A few days ago, I was sharing with Bones over the telephone about some of my experiences of going to Heaven, and the fact that after three days of walking and talking with the Lord I was returned to the instant in time that I departed.
Bones was reminding me of some laws in Physics that explain my experience from a scientific standpoint: Unified Field Theory, for one, and Super String Theory, for another. If you are interested, you can check these theories out at
http://www.nathan.com/thoughts/unified/
and http://www.superstringtheory.com.
Anyway, a few years ago, I had one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life. For roughly six weeks (maybe it was longer), the Lord took me in the spirit back in time on a daily basis to witness some events firsthand so that I could understand and help to share what God has been doing with His people throughout history. Some of the things I witnessed contradicted everything I'd ever been taught, and I was reluctant to share any of it for a long time until I began to find confirming evidence otherwise in the Scripture, or in history or in archaeology, What I'm about to share with you, I will share as a firsthand witness. If this sounds a bit strange, that's OK. It seemed highly unusual to me, too. I won't blame you if you think I've gone over the edge, but bear with me until you've gotten through all of this.
I want to take you back into the Garden of Eden to witness for yourself -- through my eyes as I saw it -- the temptation of Eve, and how Adam reacted to it. Once you see and understand these events, it will change forever your perspective of Adam and Eve. You will understand how and why the Lord Jesus Christ came as He did, and just how accurately He undid the sin of Adam and Eve. I will share with you as we go, the revelation as it unfolds.
Ready?
In front of us is a portal. I guess that's the way you'd describe it. It is something like a gate, but what you see through the gate is a blur of images. What has happened is that we have been taken out of time itself into eternity and allowed to see past, present and future strung out before us as a huge panorama. This portal allows us to step into any period of time as the Holy Spirit so directs.
A spiral of light forms before us as we step through the portal. Instantly we are swept through a blur of colors so vivid and so bright that were we to view them through natural eyes, we might be blinded. The constant sounds of angelic voices and instruments, that being-filling penetration of vibration and thunderous harmony which we have experienced since the Wedding began, now falls absolutely silent. There is not so much as a breath of utterance of any kind.
The helical whir of lights and colors dissolves and gives way to...........
The Garden of Eden! Nothing we have known in our earthly lifetimes can equal the pristine beauty, the brilliant colors, the lush panoply of variegated vegetation, mountains carefully chiseled from granite and limestone, a sky so blue it redefines the color, a penetrating sunlight which brings a warmth and life to the plant life and animals scattered beyond the scope of our vision. We are bathed in a warm, moist fragrance and aroma which defies explanation.
The aroma brings reminiscences of times when we have experienced the presence of the Lord through the years of our preparation -- that sweet smell of flowers and perfume no apothecary or chemist, or purveyor of scents could ever match. There is only one word which defines this fragrance -- divine! And that is precisely what it is: it is the scent, the redolent bouquet of the Lord Himself.
The silence is awesome! I venture to say that you could hear a whisper a mile away. This is a different kind of silence than we have ever known. It is peace, serenity, and unequaled joy -- all wrapped together. This has to be the silence that Elijah experienced following the winds and storms and earthquakes when God spoke to him. It is tangible, and electrifying.
It is occasionally punctuated by the singing -- and harmonizing (if you can believe that!) -- of birds and animals. There is an entirely different character to these chirps, trills and tweets. I have never really thought of the chirping of birds as discordant in any way, but compared to this, that which we have heard during our years is cacophonous. Even the animals have a different character to their sounds. There are no sounds of hostility, anywhere. Every sound, every utterance, bespeaks peace. They harmonize as though miniature replicants of the sounds of the angelic hosts.
Trying to absorb that which we are seeing is almost stupefying. To realize that all of this came into being when Jesus Christ, our Bridegroom, simply uttered the sound of His will and purpose, speaking it into existence.......well....rational thought just fails us. He literally created a paradise for the dwelling of His Bride-to-be.
But, wait! Our attention is being drawn to......of course! Now coming into view are Adam and Eve. Looking at them makes you appreciate that the Lord did not speak the forebears of His Bride into existence. He molded them, formed them, created them with precision -- after His likeness, after His image, after His
onoma.
Contrary to what we have always thought -- if we have even considered it -- Adam stands an easy six foot, six inches in height. Eve, without question, is a good six feet tall. Their features are absolute perfection in artistry.
Adam is health personified. His face is finely chiseled, his hair flowing with grace and style, glistening in the sun. He is bronzed from head to toe from the sun, yet there is no trace of sunburn. He is neither muscle-man, nor wimp. His muscles, however, are well defined, and his legs speak strength. A smile wreaths his face, and love is in his deep-set eyes as he clasps Eve's waist ever so gently.
Eve is feminine perfection. When the Lord put Adam to sleep, drew a rib from his side and formed Eve, he created veritable ecstasy for him. Every line, every curve, every feature, flows with grace and beauty, and is complimented by thick, shiny, golden brown hair with natural wave and curl spilling over her shoulders and down her back. She too is bronzed and golden from head to foot, with nary a blemish anywhere.
In the same way that Adam's face is chiseled and well-defined, Eve is finely detailed, a nose, mouth and chin which would be an artisan's dream. Her eyes bespeak love and admiration of Adam. Solomon must have seen these eyes when he described Shuwlammiyth, his counterpart, as having "dove's eyes."
Eve is, in every respect, Adam's counterpart -- his other self. When the Lord formed her, he obviously saw her as a living picture of that Bride which he was forming for Himself. Watching her move, watching her responses to Adam as they talk joyfully, seeing and hearing her laugh -- then observing Adam as he throws back his head, tickled at her comments; then as he catches her shoulder with his free hand, whirls her about and buries his head in her hair -- we easily see part and counterpart, self and other self. Here are two people who, in every sense of the word, were "designed" for one another. They epitomize the concept of being One.
Digressing for a moment, for the first time perhaps, we understand the concept of being "designed" for one another. It is no doubt hard to think of the Lord as having been designed for us, although we clearly know that we were designed, created, shaped and molded, and formed in the midst of the furnace for Him. And yet, change has taken place in the Lord.
Yes, the Unchangeable One -- Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever -- has changed. He is changed by virtue of our having been made One with Him. He is changed by virtue of a new
onoma, a new makeup, a new essence to His being. This is not change as mortal men have thought of change.
It is Completion! Wholeness! Perfection! He is Finished! Remember his last words when He died on the cross? "It is finished!" What was finished? His plan ordained from before the foundations of the earth. His plan to have a Bride for Himself. His plan to have for Himself an overcoming people -- a people who would permit nothing to stand in the way of their fellowship with Him and their love for Him. To be sure, when viewed within the realm of time and space, it would have appeared that when He died on the cross, He had only established the foundations for a Bride to be formed -- a people free from the Serpent, a people free from the penalties of the Law, a people free to respond to Him -- no matter what the conditions! From His perspective, however, the die was cast. A people would come forth, surely, inexorably, unchangeably: His people, His Bride, His counterpart.
From the beginning, before time began, He set out to accomplish this, knowing that He needed the fellowship of a people, the intimacy of a counterpart, the merging with a co-equal with whom He would become One. Do we imply that, in the meantime, He was somehow sub-standard? No! No! And a thousand times, No!
The Adam and Eve we now view in this place of timelessness (for time has not yet begun) are a visible representation -- a prophetic image -- of that which will be worked through six millennia of time, as our Bridegroom forms for Himself a people -- a corporate entity -- who will become One with Him, and in so doing cause Completion! They are a picture of unity. Yes, Eve is different than Adam -- in the way she thinks, in the way she talks, in the way she arrives at conclusions -- and yet, no two people could be more alike. They share the same existence. They are a part of each other. Without Eve, Adam is incomplete. Without Adam, Eve is incomplete. They share the same purpose. They are best friends. Yet they are spiritual beings, created to have fellowship with the Lord, our Bridegroom, without whom they would be even more incomplete.
Consider Eve. She is the perfection of Adam. No woman could more compliment and finish a man. Yes, she is beautiful -- stunningly so -- but, that is not our focus. She has been given an independent mind with which to think. She has been given the independence to choose. Were a thousand other men arrayed before her, she would still choose Adam.
Why? Because she was literally taken from him. She was extracted from his side. Before she was, he was. Before she was, he saw her -- if only in his spirit. Before she was, they were one -- but incomplete. Adam had no separate feminine expression of his
onoma. He was forever bound to exist in only one dimension as a masculine expression. There was no independent expression of love and commitment towards him from a like being who could share his thoughts, his desires, his hopes, his purposes.
Though Adam was ruler over the earth, though he had been given power over every living species, though he had been given the wisdom and revelation to identify the
onoma of every living creature, he had no one with whom to identify his
onoma.
Eve is like him. Yet, she is different. Full of grace and beauty, Eve is the expression of all that Adam could not be. Her
onoma is his onoma because she was taken from his side. His
onoma is her onoma because he is in her as she is in him. Without Adam, Eve is terribly incomplete. Without Eve, Adam is incomplete, lonely, unable to fully express that
onoma which was bred into his genetic structure when the Lord breathed those first breaths into his being. Together, they make one whole being.
Even though the Adam we see walking here in the Garden is a picture of masculine greatness, authority and power, he is only that way because Eve is here to complete him. Remove Eve from the equation and you have a man unable to be whom the Lord created him to be. Remove Eve, and his destiny will never be fulfilled. Remove Eve, and you will have a partial man.
Eve, for all her stunning beauty, is incomplete without Adam. Remove Adam from this picture and you have grace, form, stature, loveliness, compassion, love, emotional expression and tenderness that will never be fully expressed. There will be no counterpart with whom to express those facets; there will be no recipient of her love; there will be no complete demonstration of the power, authority and greatness incorporated into her
onoma.
With Adam, Eve is the personification of greatness. With Adam, Eve is the complete expression of love. With Adam, Eve is the visible manifestation of grace and power. With Adam, Eve is complete. With Adam, Eve is Eve!
With Eve, Adam has greatness. With Eve, Adam's authority can come forth. With Eve, Adam can rule the dominion he has been given. With Eve, love will go forth in the land. With Eve, Adam is Adam!
Together, there will be a full expression and demonstration of the
onoma that is Adam. Adam is not Adam without Eve. Eve is not Eve without Adam. Adam pours out his being to Eve. She reciprocates of her own free will and choice. They are Adam.
And now we understand the mystery of our Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. Now we know why He brought us to the Garden to see this picture. He is the second Adam. We are the second Eve.
Before we were, He was. Before we -- the second Eve -- became, we were One in Him. Before we were, He saw us and knew us. We are because of Him. And He now is because of us.
Before we were, He had no complete expression of the onoma which was incorporated into His spiritual genetic structure. To be sure, He was full of grace and beauty. To be sure, He was the personification of all that is love, the manifestation of all power, all authority, all strength, all life. And, yet, none of those facets had expression. There was no recipient of His love. There was no way for His strength and life to be demonstrated. There was no means for all that is His being, His essence, His makeup, His character, His
onoma to be shared and to be given back in a way that would fulfill Him. They were capped, enclosed, sealed within Him awaiting a counterpart: an other self who would receive and reciprocate His life -- all that He is -- by free will and choice, a co-equal who would know as He knows, see as He sees, and function as He functions. By the same token, this co-equal must have been taken from Him in order to be imbued with His
onoma.
Before we were, He was incomplete, unfinished, lacking in the expression of His innate perfection. For each of us here today, there is not a shred of doubt that we are because of Him. We, the second Eve, the Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, came forth from His side just as surely as the first Eve came forth from the side of the first Adam. In the same manner in which Adam willingly was put to sleep in order that Eve could be taken from His side and molded, conformed and shaped in his image, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, willingly allowed Himself to be put to sleep on the cross, suffering the pain of crucifixion and the sword thrust into His side so that the second Eve -- us, His Bride -- could be taken from Him and molded, conformed and shaped in His image and likeness. Just as Eve came forth to become the source of ecstasy for Adam, we have come forth to become the source of ecstasy for our Lord and second Adam, Jesus Christ.
This is the mystery of Godliness. This is the mystery of "the way of a man with a maid." This is the mystery of Christ and His Bride. The mystery is -- no more and no less -- the completed expression of His
onoma. It is the manifestation in both the first Adam and the first Eve of the completed Adam -- all that had been hidden in his being from the time of creation, and now expressed fully in both Adam and Eve. They were the complete Adam. The mystery of Godliness is the complete expression of Jesus Christ as the second Adam with His Bride who is the second Eve. Jesus Christ and His Bride are the completed I AM!
In the same way that Eve could not exist or function without Adam, we -- the second Eve -- cannot exist or function without our Bridegroom, the second Adam. Eve was because of Adam, and Adam was because of Eve. We, the Bride, are because of Jesus Christ, and He is because of us. Without Him, we are incomplete. Without us, He is incomplete.
So it has always been. So it has been written. So it shall always be.
This is the mystery of Jesus Christ and His Bride. This is the mystery of Godliness. This is the mystery of "the way of a man with a maid." So it was before time began. So it was in the beginning with Adam and Eve. So it shall ever be throughout eternity as the complete and completed
onoma of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Great I AM, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End is manifested in the Bridegroom and the Bride.
This is His new onoma! It has been written in Him, and He has written it in us!
We have not been brought to the Garden, however, to simply have this mystery revealed. A pattern of the heart of our Bridegroom began in this place, and our focus is now being directed to a series of events which will unfold. Though many will believe that these events changed the course of history, they were -- in fact -- set in motion when the Lord breathed those first breaths into Adam. And we now know that we will be taken -- once again -- back through the portal into eternity, and back into time, and back into eternity to see how this pattern of the heart of our Bridegroom was demonstrated, again and again and again throughout the millennia of time.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Got to stop there, folks! We'll resume this experience in the Garden tomorrow where we will watch the Serpent's temptation unfold. Kind of different, doing it like this, isn't it?
OK. Finish your coffee, and get your day's activities underway. Be blessed, my friends! May the Lord make this the most exciting day you've ever had!
--Regner
Regner A. Capener
EKKLESIA HOUSE
RR-15, Box 6180
Mission, TX 78574-9589
(956) 583-5355
Chat
with Regner
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