PART II the holy mountain


We stood in the Garden of God under the Tree of Life.
It seemed that the entire army was there, many of them kneeling before the Lord Jesus. He had just given us the charge to return to the battle for the sake of our brothers who were still bound and for the world that He loved. It was both a wonderful and a terrible command. It was wonderful because it came from Him. It was terrible because it meant that we would have to leave His manifest presence and the Garden that was more beautiful than any place we had ever been before. To leave all of this to go into battle again seemed incomprehensible.
The Lord continued His exhortation: "I have given you spiritual gifts and power, and an increasing understanding of My word and My kingdom, but the greatest weapon you have been given is the Father's love. As long as you walk in My Father's love, you will never fail. The fruit of this tree is the Father's love which is manifested in Me. This love, which is in Me, must be your daily bread."
In this setting of such beauty and glory, it did not seem that the Lord was appearing in His glory. In fact, His appearance was rather ordinary. Even so, the grace with which He moved and spoke made Him the most attractive person I had ever seen. He was beyond human definition in dignity and nobility. It was easy to understand why He is everything that the Father loves and esteems. Seeing Him this way, so full of grace and truth, made it seem that nothing but grace and truth should ever matter.
As I ate the fruit from the Tree of Life, the thought of every good thing I had ever known filled my soul. When Jesus spoke, it was the same, only magnified. All I wanted to do was stay in this place and listen to Him. I remembered how I had once thought it must be boring for those angels who do nothing but worship Him continually before the throne.
Now I knew that there was nothing more wonderful or exhila rating that we would ever do than to simply worship Him.
Such worship was what we were created for, and would surely be the best part of heaven. I could not imagine how wonderful it would be if all of the heavenly choirs were added. It was hard to believe that I had struggled so much with boredom during worship services. I knew that it was only because I had been almost completely out of touch with this heavenly reality during those times.
I was almost overwhelmed with the desire to go back and make up those times during worship services when I had allowed my mind to wander or had occupied myself with other things. The desire to express my adoration for Him became almost insatiable. I had to praise Him! As I opened my mouth, I was shocked by the spontaneous worship that erupted from the entire army at the same time. I had almost forgotten that anyone else was there, yet we were all in perfect unity. The glorious worship that followed could not be described in human language.
As we worshiped, a golden glow began to emanate from the Lord. Then silver appeared around the gold. After that, we were all enveloped in colors, the richness of which I have never seen with my natural eyes. With this glory, I entered a realm of emotion that I had never experienced before. Somehow I understood that this glory had been there all along, but when we focused on Him the way we did in worship, we began to see more of His glory. The more intensely we worshiped, the more glory we beheld. If this was heaven, it was much, much better than I had ever dreamed.