INTIMACY III

In the garden, the tree of knowledge represents self-dependence, and the tree of life represents Christ. Today we still have the choice in our garden of life, to develop an environment to communicate and to see Christ. We cannot know intimacy with Christ if we are afraid to have intimacy with others. It is an infatuation when we think we are close to God and we live at arm’s length with those we love. We cover ourselves in self-rule and hide from His presence. Self-rule in our marriage, in our home, in our lives will always take us away from the presence of God. Self-rule comes from knowledge, as we learn about things in our mind and reason in our mind, but our spirit man is not awakened to the place where we need to be. When the wall of protection is broken down, we think we can do what we want without submission to God.

Looking at Song of Solomon 4:12-16, “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, fragrant henna with spikenard, spikenard and saffron, Calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with aloes, with all the chief spices—a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind, and come, O south! Blow upon my garden, that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its pleasant fruits.”

The bridegroom says that his beloved is like a garden. When we enter marriage because we have been attracted to each other or may be because we have attributes that we liked that’s when you start creating an environment. That is why you must forsake your mother and father. Some of us do not forsake our mother or father. We bring them into our marriages. If we do not forsake our mother or father, which means that we want our wife to be our mom or we want our husband to be our father, we don’t really want to have a marriage partner, but rather a “Mamma” who feels our need or a “Papa,” to be obedient to, so we don’t have to have any responsibilities to grow up. Today there are hundreds and thousands “old” little girls and “old” little boys, who have never created a garden and who have always taken “ma” and “pa” along. They want their wife to fulfill their needs or they want their husband to carry their burden like papa did. God said when we have a wife, we must forsake our mom, forsake our emotional dependency of needing to be encouraged. We forsake our dad, who had created his garden and environment, so that we can become one who can create a new garden and a new environment for our family. When we forsake those things as God said, we can begin to build a garden. Without that cutting of the navel cord from our parents, there is no way to be free from the influence, the abuse, the control, and after many years of marriage that bondage will still exist. If we are lazy to lose our life to build our garden, the influences from outside will eventually destroy what God wants to build.

In His Love,
      Sigi

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