TAKING DOMINION THROUGH SPIRITUAL MATURITY BOOK

Genesis 2:16-17 And the Lord God commanded the man saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

There were many trees but there were two very important trees in Eden’s garden. One was the the "Tree of Life" and the other was the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil."

When Eve was tempted by the serpent her reasoning was defiled the same as Lucifer’s. She lied by adding to what God had commanded her and Adam to do. She had entered into deception. She saw through the lust of her flesh that the tree was good for food. Through the lust of her eyes it was a pleasant tree. Through the pride of life Eve saw that it was a tree to be desired to make one wise. When Eve took the fruit she disobeyed God and rebelled against His commandment. Eve believed that God was holding out on her and Adam and saving the best tree for Himself. She doubted God’s integrity. She believed a lie from the enemy.

The serpent deceived Eve. Adam willfully ate the forbidden fruit. Adam had a choice, and the choice he made was to partake of the fruit from the one tree that God told him not to eat.

God warned Adam, "Do not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the day you eat of it, you are going to die."

When their eyes were opened they knew that they were naked. They were ashamed of what they had done and ashamed of their own bodies. The very moment they ate the fruit they separated themselves from God’s presence. An eternal death sentence hung over the first couple like a shroud of darkness. When they heard God’s voice they hid themselves from His presence. They were now afraid of the One they had been fellowshipping with before. When Adam told God that the woman He had given to be with him had given him the fruit of the tree he betrayed Eve. He turned against his helpmate instead of protecting her. In order to save his own skin Adam betrayed Eve and shifted all the blame and responsibility onto her. He now resented her instead of covering her.

And the Lord God said, "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the "Tree of Life" and eat, and live for ever."

When they ate the forbidden fruit they didn’t die a natural death but they died spiritually. Spiritual death means to be separated from God. Why did Adam fall when he ate from that particular tree? When Adam ate from this tree he now had the knowledge of good and evil. Adam had the ability to understand that there are many different kinds of knowledge that causes good to happen and there is knowledge that causes evil to happen.

EXAMPLE: Physicians can save lives, heal and restore health through their knowledge of medicine and surgery. They can bring babies into this world but when evil invades their hearts they can abort unborn babies or provide mercy killings for the elderly and the incapacitated.

It was not just the evil knowledge that destroyed mankind; it was the good knowledge also. How does good knowledge destroy Christians? When religious churches teach or preach from the wrong tree their teachings will destroy believers. Ministries have built and laid their foundation on a doctrine of good and evil instead of building a lasting relationship with God. The Tree of Life helps to build a relationship between you and God and it gives you the life of God. The Tree of Good and Evil separates you from God and causes you to die spiritually.

All churches can preach communion and fellowship with God but the tree of life church will actually experience this intimacy and relationship. It isn’t enough to just learn the knowledge of God, but you need to experience a fellowship with Him through prayer and worship.

When religious Christians eat off of the wrong tree they live by the letter of the law. They perform their religious duties or dead works while expecting an eternal payoff in the eternal hereafter. Religious people believe the doctrines of man and they are snared through traditionalism. They believe false doctrines. Their vain imaginations stem from their defiled reasoning and their analysis of each spiritual pattern. They stubbornly accept error as truth. Hireling shepherds come to them as wolves in sheep’s clothing and fleece the flock of God. False teachers teach them their damnable heresies. False preachers preach their false messages while false prophets prophesy untruths or prophesy through familiar spirits. These Christians seek after a false vision because they don’t have the fellowship with the Father or the Son. Legalism becomes their spiritual guideline or plum line. The summation of their spiritual walk will be to follow after false christ’s and possibly wind up in a cult serving their leader instead of serving Christ Himself. They show no love and will withhold their love from the rest of the body of Christ. Those eating on the wrong tree will perform their dead works, believe in a dead religion, follow a false christ, attend a dead church and live by the letter of the law. Then at the end of their natural life, they will stand in their lot and be judged by the Prince of Peace. When their eternal sentence is handed down they will be cast into outer darkness all the while wondering what happened and asking themselves why they lived such a wasted, deceived life. Eternal separation from the Father will be their judged state the same as it was for Adam and Eve.

I Corinthians 8:1 Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.

When Christians eat off of the wrong kind of knowledge, it causes them to be puffed up in pride. It causes them to be exalted. Lucifer decided one day to exalt his throne above the Throne of the most high God. There is a puffed up, proud, haughty spirit that abounds in the church today because of a lack of fellowship with God. True fellowship with God does not breed being puffed up and having a prideful attitude. True fellowship causes humility and submissiveness.

When you get in the word, if you aren’t building that word around a fellowship with the Father and with Jesus, then you are going to get puffed up. That is what is going on in the church right now.

Many Christians wonder why their prayers aren’t answered or why certain teachings don’t work for them. They get angry with God and go before the Throne of grace with accusations of their failures and blame God for not delivering their desired end results. They are trying to twist God’s arm with their knowledge of His word.

God’s Spirit is supposed to lead, guide and direct you while you are trying to be more like Jesus because He is your example.

Nowhere in God’s word does it claim that Jesus said, "I did all these steps. I followed what that teacher taught me. Now God you have to move and do your part."

Jesus said, "I don’t do anything unless I see my Father do it. I don’t say anything unless I hear my Father say it."

In John 5:19,30 Jesus submitted Himself to His Father.

Can you imagine Jesus saying, "Well, I’ve read Isaiah and Jeremiah and I see how this is supposed to work, so Father, you do it that way here and now."

A major branch of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that has grown up in Christians is judging others. Judgment or condemnation does not heal. Judgment and condemnation do not save. The love of God raises you up out of the miry clay of the world’s system. The goodness of God draws you to repentance. Judgments tear down your spirit.

Why do people judge? Having the knowledge of good and evil and being puffed up will cause you to judge others. What does God do with the knowledge of good and evil? He judges. The word of God tells us that we are not to judge. A god judges. Our God judges with the knowledge of good and evil. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was a tree that mankind was not supposed to eat from. Why wasn’t mankind supposed to eat from this tree? Humanity was never supposed to be in the position of judging one another. The only true Judge is God. In Psalm 82, God stands in the congregation of the Mighty. He judges the gods.

There has been a lot of false teaching about Christians being gods. This is kin to the New Age belief.

When Satan was tempting Eve he said, "In the day ye eat thereof...ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." What he was telling her was that knowing good and evil would cause her to be a god.

Those who are religious are eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil because they are puffed up. Listen to what Jesus spoke to the Pharisees, the priests, and anybody religious.

John 10:34-38 Jesus answered, "Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods? If He called them gods, unto whom the Word of God came, and scripture can not be broken, Say ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe the works; that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in Me and I in Him."

Jesus quoted scripture where the scripture is the law. Genesis to Revelation is the law; it is the letter. Jesus said that in the scripture, it says you are gods. The only way they could have become gods is through eating from the wrong tree. Jesus was rebuking them! He said that the scripture called them gods. Where did that happen? It happened at the fall of man when they ate from the forbidden tree. Man became puffed up and began to judge. Being a god says that you are exalted, that you are doing the same thing Satan did when he said, "I’m going to exalt my throne above that of the Most High God. I am going to take a position that does not belong to me."

Read Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 where it proves that Satan tried to usurp God’s position.

When God calls you to do something for Him and His kingdom it is usually something you don’t know how to do or something you have absolutely no knowledge of how to make it work. If you are eating off of the right tree you will continue working on your relationship with God and obey His voice. When He tells you what or when to do a certain thing be obedient and do it.

Why did God place the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden in the first place? It wasn’t a tree that was all evil. It was a tree of knowledge that God used to judge man by. When man ate of that tree, he exalted himself to God’s authority and God’s place. That is the reason mankind fell. It is the knowledge of good and evil that brings forth the judgment of God. So when Christians eat of this tree they exalt themselves above the Throne of the Most High God and they take on His responsibility. When this happens, then God stands in the congregation of the mighty and judges among the gods. Why is He judging us? It is because we are judging others!

Matthew 7:1-2 Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.

God judges us with the very judgment that we judge others by. When you continue rebuking and judging others somewhere in time you will find yourself being judged by someone else. It is a spiritual judgment that comes from heaven.

Where does the judgment of God begin? It begins in the house of the Lord.

In I Peter 4:17 why does God judge His house? Isn’t it because Christians are running around eating from the wrong tree? Why do churches have to have new converts to grow? It is because the old converts bear no fruit. They have locked themselves into the knowledge of God, not fellowship with God. The very minute any new convert gets hooked on the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, there will be a separation between them and the Father. When their fellowship ends they will live their lives by the letter of the law. They will remain in the logos and never hear the rhema word of God unless a prophet declares a word to them.

The way to Christ is not knowledge; the way to Christ is love. When you are strengthened in your inner man, you are rooted and grounded in love. When you are rooted and grounded in love you are going to be able to understand the length and depth and height of the love of God. You will understand God and how He operates and what He likes and dislikes. When you try to understand God through knowledge you will fail because His thoughts and His ways are higher than yours. You learn how to understand God through a love relationship with Him. When you walk in love, you come to know the love of Christ that passes knowledge. When you know the love of Christ that passes knowledge, you are free from judgment and free from that drive for a lot of knowledge that is not going to do you any good, but only cause you to sit on a throne that you do not belong on! When you receive the love of Christ that passes knowledge, you will be filled with the fullness of God. The Lord said the way to get filled with the fullness of God is through love, relationship, and fellowship with God. If we love one another, the Father abides in us.

Ephesians 3:14-19 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of whom the whole family in Heaven and earth is named, That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.

Galatians 6:13-21 ------ states the 17 works of the flesh

I Timothy 1:9-10 ------- the law was made for these 15 groups of people, not for a righteous man

I Corinthians 6:9-11 ------- declares the 10 unrighteous categories of those who shall not inherit the

kingdom of God

Romans 1:26-32 -------- states the 27 homosexual actions and deeds

II Timothy 3:2-8,12-13 -------- declares the 19 different categories of those who will live in deception in

the last days during dangerous times.

What type of tree are you eating from? What sins are currently hindering your Christian walk with God?

Take a look at the charts on the following pages and you will see what devils you are battling. When you allow a prince spirit into your life through willful sin then you give him accessibility to your heart, mind, body, soul (will, intellect and emotions) and your human spirit. When a prince spirit gains entrance into your life in any area he then brings his co-hosts with him to torment you endlessly until you gain your rightful power of authority over him and all the other demons.