Walking in the Cool of the Day
What does this phrase truly mean?
When the LORD God went looking for Man and Woman in the Garden of Eden after they had eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Bible tells us that He was walking in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8). If we were to translate this verse based on the English meaning of the word cool and through our western mindsets, we would think that this word refers to the temperature in the Garden. But is that what this truly means? The word cool in Hebrew means spirit, breath, and wind, and it refers to the Spirit of the Lord. It is the Hebrew word ruach (H7307), or Holy Spirit. Therefore, what we see in Genesis 3:8 is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Man and Woman walked with God in the Garden of Eden in the Spirit, and so can we. Jesus' mission was to make way for humankind to get back to the intimacy and realities of Garden of Eden life, but unfortunately, so many believers do not walk in this reality. Just like Man and Woman before the fall, we can also walk with God in the Spirit.
Before the fall, Man and Woman were in perfect connection with God. When God breathed life into them through His breath, He was placing a spirit inside them that could connect with Him (Genesis 2:7). When they disobeyed God's instructions and ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, their spirits became darkened. They were no longer connected to God in the spirit. This is why Jesus came. He came to make a way back for that connection. See, when the spirit in humankind became darkened, it left a hole in us. We are triune beings made up of spirit, soul, and body. Now that the spirit was darkened, we could only live from our soul and body, which the Bible calls the flesh. The flesh tries to fill this hole left inside us. How does it do this? Any way it can. This is the essence of idolatry and why the very first commandment is you shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3). Everything we use to fill that hole is an idol in our life.
Jesus had no idols, and He did not live from the flesh. He was not born from the conception of a human man and woman. He was born from the seed of the Spirit (Matthew 1:18-25). He was born without a sinful nature. Therefore, He was able to live in perfect connection and communion with the Father as Man and Woman did before the fall. Why is all this important?
The life Jesus lived can be the life we live! The life Man and Woman had before the fall is the life we can now live! There are people in the Body of Christ that will teach God does not still speak and that we cannot hear Him or commune with Him. That is a false teaching from the religious spirit. The truth is we were created to commune with God. We were created to hear His voice. Each day He is just waiting for us to come and sit before Him and seek Him for instruction. He wants to walk with us in the cool of the day. There are books written in heaven (Psalm 139:16) that we can have access to as we commune with God. This is how destiny and purpose are fulfilled over our lives! Every single person born has a destiny and a purpose. Communing with God is how we discover that destiny and purpose.
At the core of every person is a desire for unconditional love, acceptance, and purpose. Jesus made way for us to have both through His perfect life, death, and resurrection. There are some things we must do in order to walk in the fullness of communion that I will share in upcoming posts. For now, know that you were created to commune with God. You were created with destiny and purpose. You have a God that loves you unconditionally. And He wants to speak to you and bring you into all He prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Ephesians 2:10). This is what we were made for!