Walking in the Garden

Am I walking in the Garden? How do I walk in the Garden? What does it look like to constantly walk in the Garden? These are questions that I’ve thought about over the past 5 months. The first time I walked in the Garden was in Costa Rica when the guys did 24 hours of silence and solitude. My eyes were on Him and Him alone. I was talking to Him, singing songs of praise to Him, asking Him questions. I felt like Adam. 

That night, the tide of the ocean receded so far out that I was able to walk out past where I couldn’t stand earlier in the day. I was in awe of our Creator. I could see all of the stars in the sky and it was just Him and I. I am constantly in awe that the God who created the stars in the sky, all the planets that we can’t reach, the mountains, volcanoes, lakes, sent His son for me, so that I could walk in the Garden. 

Walking in the Garden is being an audience of the only One, not an audience of friends, family, coworkers, or society. Oftentimes when we feel that we heard the voice of the Lord, we can be quick to then relay that information to friends and family. Although it is good to share what the Lord is doing in our life, it can be easy to seek out the approval of man, rather than trust what the Lord has asked. In Acts 8:26, it says, “Now an angel of the Lord said to Phillip, ‘Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ This is a desert place.” The Lord told Phillip to go to the desert and in verse 27, it says, “And he rose and went.” How many people would go to the desert right now if the Lord told you to? It doesn’t make sense, but Phillip was walking in the Garden, he knew the voice of the Lord and put that much trust in Him. 

This is what the Lord has constantly reminded me of while on the World Race. Earlier I wrote a blog called, “Own It.” This blog was about me owning my faith and not piggybacking off of my parents’ faith (or anyone else’s) that it is my own now. The Lord has given us such a gift in Jesus Christ and a lot of times we don’t realize the weight that Jesus dying on the cross carries for us . 

When Adam and Eve were in the Garden, they were in perfect harmony with God. Then they became sinful because of their disobedience to God and they were driven out of the Garden. This was an act of God’s mercy because Adam and Eve’s sin would’ve killed them in God’s presence. In the Old Testament, there were several times where people went into the Holy of Holies and were killed because they were ceremonially unclean where the presence of God dwelled. God and sin cannot exist together. Because of God’s mercy, Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden; God’s mercy kept them alive. Jesus dying on the cross is so powerful because it allows us to be in the presence of the Lord. It allows us to walk in the Garden. It makes us righteous. It makes us pure. Romans 5:18 says, “Therefore as one trespass (Adam’s sin) led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.”  Hebrews 6:19-20 says, “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 says, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” Let that sink in. We are holy and precious because Jesus was obedient to death on the cross. He lived a perfect and blameless life and was made into the ultimate sin offering. There is no longer a veil separating us from God’s presence, we can enter into the Holy of Holies. Before Adam sinned he was holy, and now God has made a way for us to be holy through Jesus.

Jesus longs for us to abide in the Father. In John 17, He tells us what eternal life is in verse three, He says, “And this is eternal life, that they know they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Christ continues in the chapter and is praying for the believers and four seperate times He asks the Father that we would be one with Him just as He is one with the Father, to abide in Him. Jesus has made it so that we don’t need mediators in our faith. We don’t need a priest to take our prayers up, or friends or family to justify what we believe. We have the Father. He has made it so that we can walk in the Garden. Just you and Him. He has given this gift to me, I walk in the Garden. He has given this gift to you, all you have to say is yes!

Walk in the Garden.