There Were Two Trees In The Garden by Rick Joyner

The book for my growth that I am currently reading is There Were Two Trees In The Garden by Rick Joyner. It has been out for several years - I actually bought it quite some time back and it had just been sitting on my bookshelf. It just recently caught my eye and I decided to read it.

I am finding this book to be pretty challenging - some of the ideas are ones I've heard before, but then there ones I have never thought of, or at least not in that way. So here are my reactions to the book - not all of this stems straight from the book, but some are just the paths my thoughts took after reading it.

From the title you can probably guess that the main theme of the book has to do with the fact that there were 2 trees in the Garden of Eden that were specifically named - the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Hopefully anyone reading this will know the story of the Fall, how Eve and then Adam defied God's one command and ate from the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

In the book Rick Joyner takes a different path than I am used to hearing about the results of them eating from the tree. Obviously the Fall, getting kicked out of the Garden, separation from God, and all of the other consequences. But the part he examines is the part about their eyes being opened. What was it opened to? The knowledge of Good and Evil. Most the time we focus on the part about now being able to do evil. But what about the Good?

Also, why were there 2 trees? We only are told details about the one, the other is a complete mystery. Rick uses the 2 trees to symbolize the 2 paths Christians take toward daily life. The Tree of Life = Jesus, or living our life focused on him. The Tree of the KOG&E = living a self-focused life.

All Christians have to deal daily with the struggle to correctly choose between the Good and the Evil. Some are stronger and find some struggles easier to win out of their own willpower, but most of us are of the weaker variety, and most struggles are more than we can handle on our own. But that struggle in our power is the problem - it comes from our knowledge of Good and Evil. If we did not have that knowledge, then what we are at the core would be displayed by every action. We would not struggle, because you can only struggle when you know there are 2 sides. We only struggle because we know our automatic reaction is "wrong"; so now we have to fight to react with the "right" action.

Most of us fight so hard to correct the outward behavior, but then we forget the inward reason for that behavior. We are so consumed with what those around us think of us that we want to have the right behavior, but then forget about God who sees the inner man. Why are we more concerned about what our friends think than about what God thinks? This is also what drives so many Christians to live different lives around different groups of friends. Do you have certain behavior with one group that you would never have with another? Do you tell certain jokes, but then have to watch it on Sunday that one doesn't slip out?

Our lives are for the most part self-focused. What do I want, why did this happen to me ... every part of our daily lives train us to think in a very me-centric way. But what if we could ever perfect the Jesus mindset - "Not my will, but yours be done"? Not that we can perfect it in our frail flesh, but what if we could? How would life be if we did not face the daily struggle to force our will to the correct path, but instead surrendered our will to his?

I can only pray that God will help me to surrender more completely to him. As John the Baptist said - "I must decrease so he may increase."

And this is only the first part of the book.