Restoring The Eden Experience by Pastor Mildred Kingsley-Okonkwo: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

What Was Lost in Eden

There is a place in God that can be called Eden — and most people have become so accustomed to living outside it that they no longer notice the gap.

From Genesis 2:5–17, God formed man from dust, breathed life into him, and placed him in a garden He had personally planted. Two trees stood at its centre: the Tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The instruction was simple — eat of everything, but not of that one.

Then in Genesis 3, the serpent approached the woman. It introduced doubt about God's word and desire, and the woman — seeing that the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable for wisdom — took from it and ate. She gave some to her husband, and he ate also.

When the Lord God came walking in the garden in the cool of the day, Adam and his wife hid. The voice that had once drawn them into fellowship was now the voice they ran from. "I heard Your voice," Adam said, "and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."

This is one of the most important moments in scripture. Fear was not present in Eden before this. It entered when they became more aware of their natural state than of their spiritual identity.

You Are a Spirit — Not a Person Who Has One

When God made man, He made man in His image and likeness. God is a spirit. That means man is, at core, a spirit being — not a person who happens to have a spirit, but a spirit who inhabits a body. The body is the legal instrument needed to exist and act on earth.

Adam in his Eden state was supernaturally natural — operating at optimal spiritual capacity. He was not more aware of what he could not do than of what he could do. He named every animal. He functioned with extraordinary intelligence and authority. Nothing was impossible to him because he was operating like God: in the spirit, without the limitation of fleshly consciousness.

When they ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, they became aware of both the spiritual and the natural simultaneously. The natural — shame, fear, vulnerability — began to dominate. Good ideas were replaced by inferior ones. The first thing Adam did after sinning was sew fig leaves together — a solution that would wither by evening. The man who had named every living creature could now only think in terms of leaves.

Children are closest to the Eden experience. As they grow and become more exposed to the world — its opinions, its threats, its social pressures — the natural begins to overtake the spiritual. A child who once fearlessly reached for a snake now screams at a mosquito. As we get older, if we are not intentional about cultivating the spiritual, we become increasingly fearful and full of shame.

The Two Things That Make People Afraid

Feeling alone. When someone is called to the principal's office alone, there is terror. When the whole class is called together, there is solidarity and even laughter. The fear of aloneness is universal — and Jesus addressed it directly: "Lo, I am with you always" Matthew 28:20. Always means always. He is never absent for a single moment.

Feeling unloved. When a person knows they are truly loved — unconditionally, without condition of performance — fear loses its grip. If a child breaks a plate in the home of a parent who genuinely loves them, there is no terror. But in a home where love is conditional, every mistake carries the weight of potential rejection. This is why 1 John 4:18 says perfect love casts out fear. Fear has to do with punishment — and punishment is the language of a relationship where love has not been made perfect.

Faith Is the Answer to Fear

Fear and faith operate by the same mechanism: what you hear is what grows. Fear comes by hearing the wrong things — news, threats, anxious speculation. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. The remedy to fear is not courage summoned from within; it is faith built from hearing.

Hebrews 13:5–6 in the Amplified Bible says: God Himself has said, "I will not in any degree leave you helpless, nor forsake you, nor let you down, nor relax my hold on you — assuredly not." Because that promise has been heard, absorbed and believed, the response becomes bold: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear."

That sequence matters. It is not that boldness is commanded arbitrarily. Boldness is the fruit of meditating on a God who has said "I will not" five different ways in a single sentence. When that enters the spirit, confidence follows naturally.

Sanitisers and masks cannot substitute for faith. During times of widespread fear — including disease outbreaks — the first casualty is clear thinking. People buy the wrong products, do the wrong things, and create more anxiety in each other. The instruction from Psalm 91 is not a charm to place under a pillow — it is a promise for those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High. The power is not in the words on a page; it is in the reality of dwelling there.

Fear Is a Spirit

2 Timothy 1:7 says God has not given a spirit of fear, but of love, power and a sound mind. Fear is called a spirit because it behaves like one — it can move from person to person, from generation to generation. Entire families carry a spirit of fear without recognising it. If everyone around you is fearful and you have absorbed it without questioning it, that spirit has simply moved in.

Fear operates in the mind, which is why the alternative given is a sound mind. God has not given fear; therefore, the instruction is to refuse it. Everything that has been causing fear — this is a conscious act of rejection, not a passive wish. Fear can only operate where God is not consciously known and trusted.