Why we need Holy Grounds for the building of God's Kingdom
- This page is part of an ERW course, section: Divine Principle - The spiritual world.
- By John Eagles, February 22, 2010.
A Holy Ground consists of one or two trees placed on a piece of dedicated ground. We need Holy Grounds not only for prayer and connection to the spiritual world, but also for the restoration of the Garden of Eden.
The Garden of Eden was the place of God's Ideal, the living place for the family of Adam and Eve and their children. On a family level, that place consisted not only of a garden but also of a house or home for Adam's family. The home and the garden together, they formed God's ideal living environment for God's children.
Although the Garden of Eden has been a special place, it also meant the entire earth. This is true because God wanted all people on earth to live in God's Kingdom of Heaven.
In the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve were symbolically represented by trees. From an external viewpoint, trees are necessary to give us life on earth. They provide oxygen to breathe in. They also more than any other plant species produced a fertile layer of top soil over many millions of years. And who doesn't like to look at the top of trees, seeing the clouds in the sky behind them, dreaming away in what can be and will be...?
From a spiritual viewpoint, thinking that you are an angel or spirit in spirit world and descending to the earth, what will catch your attention to a certain place on earth? Won't it be a magnificent tree towering over all the houses and the environment? Seen from the spiritual world, a Holy Tree standing on a Holy Ground is a beacon of light that attracts and directs the attention from the spiritual world.
The Kingdom of Heaven or the restored Garden of Eden begins from one family, one home, living in one house or family-level temple. The foundation of that one family under God must be expanded to other families, to other homes. It also must be extended into the spiritual world and over the entire earth.
The Holy Grounds can be seen as extensions of the central Garden of Eden that belong to the central home of Adam and Eve. They are supposed to become places of heaven in the midst of a dark and fallen world.
The Holy Grounds are to be oases in the midst of a spiritually dry desert land. When we make well use of them, praying there often with the proper understanding and respect for their meaning, we can make a connection to the good spirit world that originally has been invited to these Holy Grounds. Under the guidance of God and in cooperation with good spirits we can then bring to fruits these offshoots of the Garden of Eden.
Think of our earth as a spiritual Sahara. Everywhere we see dry sand, but we know that once the Sahara has been a fertile region with rivers flowing through them. In that Sahara we plant trees in a closed network over the entire desert. More than any trees growing in a forest, these lonely trees and oases need daily watering and fertilizing so that they become places where thirsty travelers can find refreshment. From these embryo-oases eventually the entire world of God's Ideal Garden of Eden must grow.
