The Gates of Eden

In the first book in this series I told some of the stories of my youth and childhood, especially experiences of my father’s love and how that became a doorway into the heavenly Father’s love. The Road to Eden is the journey into knowing God our Father, as we were created to know him. This book takes up the story of what happened in the seven years that followed. I will begin with a short excerpt from the earlier book so that this one can stand alone if necessary.
‘Gates’ in the Bible is often a metaphor for the place of ruling and authority because the elders and governors of ancient cities assembled at the gates—‘city hall’ by modern parlance. Additionally, gates had a literal physical role in the military security of the city, and in being the place where trade and the movement of people could be controlled.
When Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, God placed at its gate behind them, ‘...the Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.’ (Genesis 3:24) The Hebrew root concept relating to the word ‘Cherubim’ (which is not formally defined) suggests the idea of guarding and intercession—and with the flaming sword, we can add spiritual warfare. Before Jesus came, died, and rose again, however, we were on the wrong side of the gates, and the wrong end of the sword.
‘But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.’ (John 1:12) We have been offered access in Christ, through the cross, to the authority of God our Father once again. And we are invited in the Lord’s Prayer to exert that will and authority of God—his kingdom—on earth, by prayer and intercession; a work which takes us back to Adam and Eve’s proper occupation, before they fell to sin. In sum: The Gates of Eden is about the place of intimacy, love, intercession and warfare through which the sons and daughters release their Father’s will and kingdom on earth.
If you don’t like the subjects of prayer, spiritual warfare and intercession—with all the strange mystical and spiritual talk that surrounds them—this is probably not the book for you. I make little effort to convince sceptics of anything; rather, I assume my readers are born again in the death and resurrection of Jesus, baptised in the Holy Spirit, and have at least rudimentary knowledge of those things of the Spirit which the Apostle Paul says are foolishness to worldly thinkers. (Ref: I Corinthians 2:14)
And finally, please remember what James said: ‘...for we all make many mistakes.’ (James 3:2) This is my own story about a season of prayer as I understood it at the time, from memory, and with hindsight, but of course many details are left out. Then, too, many things that were only embryonic in 1984 are developed more fully here—I can’t always remember exactly what I was thinking at that time. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will guide you into his truth and cause any wrong or unhelpful words to fall by the wayside.