God placed Adam in charge of the Garden of Eden. God planted the Garden and Adam was supposed to be in charge of everything He planted. Pertaining to our own garden of God, we're not only required to take care of it, but we're to guard what is planted there.
Proverbs 4:23(Amplified) says, "Keep and guard your heart." I believe God instructs us to guard our heart because this is your born again spirit and the place (the garden) that produces the things of God in our lives. Verse 23 goes on to say, "With all vigilance, and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life."
In Mark 4:24 (Amplified) we read Jesus' saying, "And He said to them, Be careful what you are hearing." Being careful what you are hearing is tending or guarding our gardens.
When Jesus declared in Mark 4:14 (Amplified) that, "The sower sows the Word," He was referring to Himself and the Word of God that He was sowing in their hearts. We need to understand that all words are seeds. The Words Jesus spoke are the seeds (Words) of the Kingdom of God. Other words are the seeds of the world or the enemy. Since the entire earth and everything on it (along with the entire universe) came from words, it's crucial we "heed" or be careful what we hear.
If words are seeds (and they are), then we need to be careful what we allow into our spirit man. The power of communication in these last days has risen to a level never seen before in history. It can be used for either good or evil. There are many things in the cyber world that will not produce good fruit in people's lives.
Most of us are aware that nudity, violence and profanity are being put out there, but are we aware that the seeds of doubt, fear, anger, depression and futility being planted there? We allow our spirits to feed on things that only produce thorns and weeds that choke out the fruit of the seed of God's Kingdom. I'm convinced that the Holy Spirit was speaking in Hebrews 4:11 (Amplified) about "Laboring to enter the rest," He was speaking about "tending our garden." This was the only job given to Adam and I firmly believe that the only "labor" required of us is to guard the garden.
We know we cannot obtain the grace or blessings of God by working for them because it would no longer be grace. The things we do as Christians aren't jobs we must perform, but privileges we get to do.
The only time I see that we are to labor is found in Hebrews 4:11 which says we are to labor to enter the rest or grace. People under the Law needed to produce by works, but we are to produce by grace. What we produce depends on our guarding the garden. If we sufficiently guard it, then it will produce life and blessing in our lives and the lives of those around us. This "labor" is the same responsibility given to Adam.
John 1:16 (Amplified) says, "For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received (all had a share and were all supplied with) once grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift (heaped) upon gift." These are the produce of the garden of the Lord. This is what was sown in His heart and this is the "seed" Jesus sowed in Mark 4:14 when He said, "The sower sows the Word."
When satan came to Jesus in Matthew 4:1-11 and tried sowing the seeds of doubt and temptation in Jesus' heart, we see how Jesus guarded His heart using the overpowering seed (Word) of God to respond. Jesus never allowed the "seed" or word of the enemy to reach the soil of His heart.
James 3:2 (Amplified) tells us, "For we all often stumble and fall and offend in many things. And if anyone does not offend in speech (never says the wrong things) he is a fully developed character and a perfect man, able to control his whole body and to curb his enter nature." James goes into a whole teaching about the tongue and how it can destroy in James 3:6 (Amplified) saying, "And the tongue is a fire (the tongue is a) world of wickedness set among our members, contaminating and depraving the whole body and setting on fire the wheel of birth (the cycle of mans nature) being itself ignited by hell (Gehenna)."
Proverbs 4:20-27 instructed us on the importance of having the Word in our hearts rather than having something else there. Jesus told us in Matthew 12:33-37 that, "From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." Either good is produced or evil is, depending on what we allow to be sown in it. James 3:10-12 (Amplified) tells us, "Out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing, these things, my brethren, ought not to be so. Does a fountain send forth (simultaneously) from the opening fresh water and bitter? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine? neither can a salt spring furnish fresh water.
We only get out of the garden, what we sow into it. We've been tasked with guarding it. We get upset over Adam's failure to secure the Garden of Eden, when he allowed the enemy to enter and destroy it by sowing seeds of doubt in his and Eve's hearts. We're not responsible for every garden like Adam was, but for our own gardens and what is produced.
We can also speak forth or sow the wrong seeds or words into the lives of others. By knowing our Father and saying only what He says, we can sow seed to the kingdom and blessing into the lives of others. We are both "hearers of the Word" and "doers of the Word." We not only produce good things from the abundance of our heart, but we sow good seed into others from what's been sown in our hearts.
We cannot receive seeds of doubt, fear. unbelief and misinterpretations of the Word and then grow a crop of faith, courage and trust in our garden. We must learn how to guard our heart. We will further discuss James 3 and Proverbs 4 in our next lesson and see if we can understand more about the "cycle of life" and man's nature. We'll also learn more about receiving health and healing to our flesh, through the seeds we allow into our garden.
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