RESTORATION - WALK IN THE GARDEN WITH GOD

So many people seem shocked today when I mention "God said such and such to me last night." It is beyond their imagination that God would speak to a mere mortal man. And yet in the very beginning of the Bible, in the book of Genesis, we see accounts of where God came daily in the cool of the evening and walked in the Garden with Adam and Eve and He talked with them. There was no separation between them and God, and there was no shame. But at some point, Adam and Eve chose to do the one thing God asked them not to do: eat of the fruit of the tree of good and evil. God had placed a test before them and they did not pass the test. What was the "fruit" that they ate? Was it simply "taking their instructions from someone other than God – be it their carnal mind, the enemy of their soul, a literal devil in a suit dressed up like a snake? What we do know from the continuation of the story is: immediately there was separation -- a wall -- a barrier between Adam and Eve and God. That intimate fellowship was not the same and both Adam and Eve experienced shame for the first time. They suddenly knew they were naked and they felt the separation from God and they tried to hide themselves from God. Ultimately God moved them out of the Garden and stationed an angelic guard to protect them from the tree of life in the garden. The Bible says that sin entered in. The Bible also says that the wages of sin are death and we know by continued reading that it became appointed unto man once to die. That was not God’s original plan. He had created man to be an eternal being... to be a friend... a companion... to fellowship with Him.

Did God know that man was going to fail the test in the Garden? Of course He did and He made provision for man to come back into total fellowship with Himself once again by sending his Son, Jesus Christ, to be a perfect sacrifice [the lamb slain for our atonement] - once and for all - no need for any other sacrifice to make our restoration with God complete as it was from the beginning.

The Jewish feast of Passover is a perfect type and shadow of our present day salvation through Christ, our messiah. I encourage you to study the details of the feast of Passover. It will make you more aware of the riches we have in our blood-bought salvation, available only through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus. In fact, you might find a study of all seven of the Jewish feasts would be interesting to you. Many do not know that the combination of the details of all of these feasts is a perfect pattern of the steps of growth that take place in a Christian’s life.

Salvation is not just having the head knowledge that Jesus was crucified on a cross for the remission of our sins so that we might be reunited in close relationship with our heavenly Father; but it is taking that knowledge and applying it to our lives... taking the positive action of seeing ourselves as a sinner in need of a Savior, confessing our sins to God and asking him to forgive us and requesting the ability to walk a sin-free life before God - asking him to be our Father and accepting the adoption plan He made for our lives so that we might be adopted into God’s family and have the assurance that we may walk and talk with God while we are on this planet and that when we depart this life, we have the hope of an on-going life with God.

We know that, according to Deuteronomy, we reap curses as a result of our own sins, as well as curses as the result of some of the sins our own ancestors have committed. It is plain some of these curses are passed down 3, 4, ... even 10 generations. We also know that curses can be placed against us by the words that are spoken over us by others and even by ourselves. Words have great power.

The Bible makes it plain that Jesus died on that cruel cross that all of our curses might be broken. He opened the door... paved the way... made it possible that all of that negative power might be removed from us, but not unlike salvation, head knowledge of this sacrifice Christ made in our behalf is not the whole story. Once again, we must take that head knowledge we have concerning His sacrifice, use the authority He bought for us, speak the words of liberty over ourselves, and break ourselves free from the bonds that hold us back from all that God has for us.

A few months ago, I heard my prayers of ministry with people changing a lot. It was strange to my natural mind because it was so different than how I had prayed in the past. But I had been asking God to take control of every area of my life and I could certainly see how that prayer was being answered in this specific area.

The first thing the Lord did was take me into His written word and show me John 20:23 "if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." (NKJ) He reminded me the power and authority we have over all the wiles of the enemy of our soul because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. He reminded me of the power we have in the name of Jesus... devils flee at the very mention of his name. Then he had me do a strange (to me) thing. I was ministering to a young lady that was suffering from deep depression. He had me remit the sins she had committed [after I was allowed to see that the attitude of her heart was repentant] and then he had me remit the sins of all her ancestors in both her mother’s and her father’s bloodline... all the way back to Adam. Suddenly, I saw what God was doing. He was removing any possible foothold for Satan to continue to harass and torment this young lady.

As soon as the authority had been taken over the ancestral sins back to Adam, God had me speak "I sever all curses coming down on this woman with the shed blood of Jesus Christ and I cancel assignments of any demonic forces attacking this woman as a result of these curses. I bind all demons, renounce them, rebuke them, and cast them away from her."

The next step involved verbal curses. Again, God had me take authority over all verbal curses spoken over the woman, by people living or dead, including herself, and I severed those curses with the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, I was instructed to come against any demonic forces on assignment against her as a result of these word curses being spoken over her and I was instructed to break those assignments against her, to bind the spirits, and to cast them away from her. I asked Holy Spirit to completely fill every place left void – fill those places to overflowing with the Love of God, the Power of God, and the Anointing of God.

There was some additional, specific ministry that went forth concerning some especially vulnerable areas of her life. Particularly the Holy Spirit spoke many positive words to her concerning who she really is in Christ Jesus... a child of the most high God... adopted into a family of priests and kings... born to rule and reign with Christ in heavenly places... accepted in the beloved. This lady had received so many negative pronouncements over herself, had believed them and refortified them with her own words about herself; that her self-esteem was at a very low level. So the Lord, through His spirit manifesting in me, continued to build her up in the spirit by speaking many loving words of truth over her.

Another area that God ministered to her was concerning soul ties. Many are unfamiliar with soul ties and how they operate. As I have been taught by the Holy Spirit, there are two ways an ungodly soul tie can be established:

1) participating in any type of ungodly sexual relationship--only sex within a God-ordained marriage is holy.

2) submitting yourself to any type of ungodly control.

I was taught to understand that in a sexual situation, if John and Mary are the two partners in this act, a spirit by the name of John enters Mary and likewise, a spirit of Mary also enters John. The function of these spirits is two-fold:

1) Initially, these spirits will draw these two people together in an unnatural way. The couple are so "obsessed" with being together that they will cancel appointments, fail in commitments, sometimes even lie to free themselves up to satisfy this need.

2) But should their relationship progress into a marriage and they never be freed of the sin [i.e., Sin confessed, and a period of celibacy following], the marriage is almost certainly doomed for divorce. Because the next function of these two soul tie spirits, named John and Mary are:

a) At some time in the marriage --- usually after children are born, these spirits now begin a campaign of lies and torment to destroy the marriage. They will be careful to point out to the guy, for example, that his "sweetie" isn’t nearly as thin and beautiful today as she was the day they married or they might attempt to plant a seed of doubt in him concerning her faithfulness to him.

b) On the other side, they may say things to the wife like "He could at least pick up his own socks, turn them right-side-out, and place them in the hamper... you’re not his slave... you have this house to clean and these children to care for." Another favorite attack is: "Why does he only notice the young, pretty girls and never seems to notice you anymore?"

America has a very high divorce rate and I believe that a major – if not THE major cause of this death to family life in America is the direct result of our immoral sexual lifestyle, as a nation. Americans have believed lies such as - "If it feels good, do it." "Surely God did not mean for you to wait until after marriage." The Bible says "the wages of sin are death" and sex outside of marriage is sin and divorce is certainly a form of death – death to the godly institution of marriage… death to a godly home life – a safe and secure environment to raise children – stability in our society.

In any event, the good news is that we have power over all spiritual bondages and we can take authority over these forces and cancel their power over us because of the right to liberty that Jesus purchased for us.

The Holy Spirit showed me to :

1) confess the sin

2) take authority over the soul tie and sever it with the blood of Jesus

3) rebuke that spirit of John and send it back to John himself [our example’s name]

4) command that spirit of Mary to come back to her [our example’s name]

5) seal the door between she and John and forbid any further transfer of spirits between John and Mary.

For many who have been very promiscuous, this may be a lengthy procedure, but I assure you, it is one that will reap rich rewards. Immediately you will be able to observe an absence of tormenting thoughts and, you will find you feel more complete in the sexual area of your life. You will be better able to give yourself completely to your mate, if you are married, and better able to contain yourself, if you are single.

We would never think we could be saved with head knowledge of Jesus’ sacrifice. We know that action is required on our part. We must appropriate that sacrifice Christ made for us to our own life by confessing our sins and receiving Jesus Christ as our savior - giving Him the controls – appointing Him the Lord of our life.

Jesus did all that was necessary for our liberty, but we have to take the authority He bought for us and appropriate the sacrifice He made to our own life and set ourselves free from all bondages by stripping Satan of his "foothold" in our lives. Then, we are assured that we have closed our door to the enemy of our soul. The only power he has today is what we give him.

A parting thought---God recently spoke to me: I will not have my son unequally yoked!