Many times we think that eternity starts after we die. We’ve heard the Minister ask the question. “Where will you spend eternity?”
We are alive right now but somehow we don’t connect to the fact that we are at this very moment living in eternity.
When God breathed into Adam it didn’t say God breathed into Adam and Adam would only live maybe a hundred years. No it says, “God breathed into Adam and gave him a living soul.”
Now it does say that the body would go back to dust. But the soul lives. It lives forever. How your soul lives depends on your choice. It lives with fear, doubt, anxiety, hopelessness, selfishness, pride, arrogance, and dependent on self without God, or the soul will live in peace, truth, grace, faith, patience, hope, dependent on God. You will be sharing eternity with other souls, either in hate or in love. God is love. It is a choice.
Adam’s body died when he sinned, but his soul lived on; but it no longer could live in God’s presence because they were separated. It was like being in a room full of light and life and then suddenly someone turned out all the lights. Satan had turned man’s heart away from God’s life giving light. So God had a plan. In order for the relationship to be reunited God put His plan into action and over a long period of eternity…His plan came into fruition.
Jesus the son of God was born. He had made a way for mankind to be reunited with Himself once more but just like Adam, he gives us a choice. Obedience to Him, would cause new life in the spirit eternally, where disobedience would cause separation and death in the spirit eternally. If you eat of the tree of life (Jesus) you will live. But if you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you will surely die.
Remember there were two trees in the garden God mentions. The man and woman had to be put out of the garden because of the tree of life. If they ate of that tree they would live in a state of good and evil forever and be forever separated from God.
Jesus’ obedience, what he did on the cross and from the tomb, brought the soul back into right relationship with God. Sin/death, no longer separated God’s spirit from man’s spirit. When we accept Jesus as the Son of God we are reunited with Him. When we are newborn of Him, who is the tree of life, we will live reunited with Him in a brand new spirit.
From the moment we are conceived life begins and we are living in eternity. Now you may not believe that. You may not want to believe that. But God does not lie. He does not change. He is God. When your heart responds to His heart…your eyes are opened. Your spirit becomes aware. And then light comes flooding into your being in a way that is indescribable and whereas as you could not see before…you now see perfectly when you are new born you have new eyes, new spirit, new birth. The light of God has been turned on and you are no longer in darkness.
Jesus told Nicodemus you must be born again…(see the Word of God reference below.)
So, when you are born into this world your soul is separated from God. You are living in eternity day by day but you are separated from God. You grow and work and learn but you are living with a veil over your heart and spiritual eyes. You can’t see. When you hear the Holy Spirit calling you and you accept that call…you become new born. You have the knowledge of good and evil. But evil no longer controls you. You are connected once more with the living God and you will be living in eternity with new life.
This may sound utterly ridiculous but I promise you when the light is turned on you will say how did I not see this before?
Jesus is God in the flesh…He came and died and rose again so that you could live this eternity in hope, joy and peace. Say yes, when he calls today. He longs to walk with you and talk with you. The Holy Spirit is drawing you…surely you will live and not die…when you say yes to Him. Amen.
John 3:1-21New International Version (NIV)
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
3 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[d]
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[e] 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[g]
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
Genesis 3:22-24Amplified Bible (AMP)
The Tree of Life
22 And the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), knowing [how to distinguish between] good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take from the tree of life as well, and eat [its fruit], and live [in this fallen, sinful condition] forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent Adam away from the Garden of Eden, to till and cultivate the ground from which he was taken. 24 So God drove the man out; and at the east of the Garden of Eden He [permanently] stationed the [a]cherubim and the sword with the flashing blade which turned round and round [in every direction] to protect and guard the way (entrance, access) to the tree of life.
Footnotes:
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Genesis 3:24 Cherubim are ministering angelic beings who avenge assaults on God’s holiness.
