In the garden of Eden, everything was holy and nothing was secular.
Nothing was separate from God, for Eden is the dwelling place of God. It has always been God’s desire for Heaven and Earth to be together. Eden can be seen as a metaphor for God’s temple. Aside from how the garden of Eden and the temple have very similar layouts and entrance points, the temple is, in Jewish understanding, the place where God meets man and where Heaven meets Earth. Eden was the very first temple.
Grasping that everything is holy is the basis for accessing God’s voice in every context and seeing the prophetic operate wherever we go.
You do not have to be a prophet to hear God’s voice in spaces that are not considered holy or sacred. You just need to be a daughter or son. Essential to seeing a dynamic expression of God’s voice pervading our lives is to understand that nothing is separate from God.
The only thing that is separate from God is sin, which He dealt with at the cross. God is not sin-conscious, he is relationship-conscious. He dealt with sin so that you and I can now enter into the joy of trinitarian intimacy. It is vital to grasp that everything is holy:
your workplace, your family life, your recreation and your creative expression is all sacred to the Lord, set apart for Him.
In the Old Testament, God created a temple in the midst of His people so that they would be a light unto the nations; however, Israel did not fulfill that calling. Consequently, God Himself came in the clothing of humanity: Emmanuel (God-with-us). In the person of Jesus, He demonstrated what it meant to be a walking temple.
A beautiful scene unfolds in John 7 when Jesus cries to the people at the Feast of Tabernacles,
If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
Jesus is alluding to the river found in Ezekiel 47, which the Feast of Tabernacles celebrated. The Jews were looking to the day when God’s river would flow from the temple. Jesus is saying, this temple built by man’s hands is no longer valid because I am the true temple. I am now the place where Heaven meets Earth. I am the expression of Eden — of pleasure, delight, beauty — on the earth.
His call of “Come to me and drink” is a beautiful picture of Ezekiel’s river that river flows from the throne (not to the throne) and covers the earth with life and fruitfulness.
Jesus ushers in a revolutionary shift as He beautifully says, “If you come to me and drink, out of your belly will flow rivers of living water.” He was saying to them, not only do you need to drink from Me as the true temple, but when you do drink from Me, you become a temple.
You become the place where Heaven meets Earth, where rivers begin to flow.
Wherever you go life breaks out.
There is a river you carry that releases fruitfulness because you are drinking from Him. Everything is holy, and we can demonstrate God’s divine purposes in everything.
One of the most significant lies the western Church has believed is that there is a separation between the spiritual and the physical. The result is we have given ourselves to that which is tangible around us while neglecting that which we are just as connected to — the unseen reality of Heaven. There is no separation between the realm of the invisible spirit world and this physical world. In fact, most of the world believes that to be true and generally only western nations believe in the separation. For us to shift out of this false thinking, we need to grasp that we are genuinely carrying the rivers of living water within us, just as Jesus said. This will impact how we create, work and live — because the reality we are most aware of is the reality we will most reflect.
God intends that from the throne the river would bless all of creation. As you become the temple from which the river flows, creation is blessed through you. Everything is to come under the blessing of Heaven. No place or person is irredeemable. Every single area of humanity must, and will, come under the gracious rulership of Jesus, and all things will be made new!
There has never been nor will there ever be a divide between the sacred and the secular. It is written, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”