A Torn-Veil World
There is no separation between the natural and spiritual.
In the earliest times, before Adam’s sin, men lived in spiritual intimacy with their Creator, directly communicating and interacting with Him. This incredible spiritual privilege was forfeited at the fall, when Adam and Eve both decided to step away from God’ best intention, pursuing sin rather than relationship with God (Genesis 3:5).
There is no reason that the account of the Garden of Eden cannot be taken literally. However, this story is clearly a Hebraic allegory describing man’s spiritual relationship with God at the beginning of time. Intimacy with God kept man safe. The Lord always has the best for His children. Deliberately pursuing life without Him causes harm and allows evil a place in the world. The fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is not factual knowledge, scientific information, or rationality. The Tree and its fruit symbolize the pursuit of life and purpose apart from relationship with the Creator. Eating its fruit symbolizes pursuing a life apart from relationship with the Creator. Without God’s empowering Presence, man’s mind is inherently darkened, bent on seeing and understanding the world from a fallen perspective (Romans 1:21; Ephesians 4:18). God’s intention is, and always has been, that all areas of life be supernaturally empowered through intimate relationship with Him.
Jesus, the second Adam, destroyed the separation and darkness brought about by sin, nailing it to the Cross. The spiritual relationship man enjoyed with God was completely and totally restored through Him. The veil in the temple, adorned with images alluding to Eden, tore at the time of Jesus’ death (Matthew 27:51). This was a prophetic declaration that the broken body of Jesus had restored total access to God’s very Presence. This prophetic declaration would find actualized fulfillment with the coming of the Holy Spirit.
As believers, we live in a torn-veil world. This is not simply restored relationship with God and a path to heaven through the Holy Spirit - it is living in and accessing the spiritual realities that were available to Adam before His fall. We don’t experience them because we don’t believe for them. The early church was experiencing these realities, examples of which include angelic visitation, travelling in the Spirit, and unusual healing miracles. The Lord is raising the glass ceiling imposed by religion and theological dogma to bring us into a fuller reality of what is possible through life in the Spirit. The purpose is for His Body to shine His glory as radiantly as possible in the darkness, convicting and convincing the world to turn to Jesus.
Years ago, the Lord woke me up in the middle of night with the word bifurcation. This is a scientific term that describes the process of dividing something into two branches or parts. The Holy Spirit added, “There is no separation between the spiritual and natural.” This statement has become a central theme of my spiritual growth. I am learning more and more that the natural realm is in constant interaction with the spiritual realm, the “heavenly realms” as Paul calls them. We do not experience life in this way because we do not believe it is the case. We believe that experiencing God like Adam did must wait until we leave this earth. When we shift our thinking and faith to believe for more, the Lord reveals it to us. The key is believing (trusting) for it, dreaming with God, and renewing the mind through intimacy with Jesus.
The goal is not to somehow escape the natural realm or create an over-spiritualized paradigm for the Christian life. The objective is to experience the world exactly as Jesus does, who, as fully God and fully man, rules from heaven at the right hand of God. We have been seated with Him through our union with Christ (Ephesians 2:6). Through the mind of Christ, we have been granted the gift to see and experience the world as Adam did before he fell (1 Corinthians 2:16). The natural mind has become empowered by the spiritual. We see and experience the natural realm through the faith of Jesus (Galatians 2:20).
Although we still live in a world caught between the ages (Galatians 1:4), believers have been objectively restored to the spiritual life that was available in Eden. Jesus is our new Tree of Life, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit is our River of Life. As we grow in intimacy with the Lord and believe for the deeper things, we will experience them.
