Eric Walker - The Seven Laws of Abundant Living: Lessons Learned from The Tree of Life

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T HERE IS NO GREATER contributor to this book than the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who redeemed me from a life serving the world and gave me a gift so great that my life would be forever changed: Yeshua ha MashiachHe deserves all the praise, honor, and glory.

This book is a testimony to the love and prayerful support of many who have sown into my life. I have been privileged to sit under great teaching and want to thank those who have made an outstanding contribution to me in my walk with the Lord.

FAMILY

My mother, Iris Walker, and my late father, Herbert Walker, who equipped me to accomplish anything I believed in. Without that foundation, there would be nothing to build on.

My beloved late grandparents, Robert and Lillian Amper, who instilled in me a love of Israel and my Jewish heritage. Their vision, love, and support of Israel are as alive today as they were at those Shabbat, Holiday, and Israel Bond dinners in McKeesport in the 1960s and 70s.

CONTRIBUTORS

Karie Mitchell Photography for catching the vision and making extraordinary photographs through the eye of God!

Mark and Daniah Greenberg and the entire TLV team for their vision and support to bring the truth to life.

Destiny Image Publishers, that possesses a unique heart for this work to go forth and a heart for the restoration of Israel, both physically and spiritually.

And thank you, dear reader, for allowing this books influence in your life. May your walk be strengthened and deepened even a little as you walk through this text and as we take this journey together.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eric E. Walker is the executive director of Igniting a Nation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit ministry in Birmingham, as well as a bestselling author and sought after speaker/teacher of Prophecy in the News. He is the host of the Internet TV program Revealing the Truth, broadcast live Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM CST via www.ianbn.com. After 35 years working in corporate America, he devoted himself to full-time ministry and founded one of the largest Messianic congregations in the world. He has hosted, co-hosted, and been a regular contributor on hundreds of radio and TV programs. He has been a strong, biblically conservative media voice and averages over 250 in-person speaking engagements per year. As a strong advocate for Israel, he takes groups there annually. His traditional Jewish upbringing and journey to faith in Jesus give him a unique perspective on both the Old and New Testaments. Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he is a Penn State alum and holds both rabbinical and Baptist ordinations. His first book, Etz Chaim: Tree of Life was published in April, 2012 and is in its 3rd printing. His teachings and sermons have been downloaded over 50,000 times from the Internet and listened to worldwide over numerous internet radio stations.

Rabbi Eric has spoken on the role of Israel today, The Biblical Feasts, The Jewish Roots of Christianity, and Pauls Call to the Church along with many other topical and biblical themes.

To book Rabbi Eric into your congregation or event, please contact him by phone or email.

Phone: 205-478-4325

Email:

Twitter: RabbiEric

Facebook: RabbiEric

T HE PHRASE IN THE beginning evokes a knowing nod from all who have heard or read those words. We associate those very words to the opening of the Book of Genesis. As in all of life, there is a beginning, so too this book has its beginning. In the Introduction I shared the question I asked as I was searching for a starting point for the sermon series that led to this book. That question was, Lord, where do You want me to start? Some would say I heard the answer in my spirit, and others would say I heard an audible voice. All I know is I heard the words, Start with the dirt. Since I was already having a conversation with God, I did not hesitate to ask the obvious question, Why start with the dirt? I should not have been surprised by the answer, but I was when I heard, Because I did.

We serve a God of order, and He reveals to us in the natural what He wants us to see in the supernatural. Our origin has a genesis, a beginning. The dirt, the dust, the ground itself is the very place that man began. In Genesis 2:7, we read, The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Adams name in Hebrew means earth and has become a generic term for man. The dust of the earth is not only our beginning, in the end it is also our final, fleshly state. We return to our original state, back to the dirt, to become part of the land.

I have been blessed over the past two years to have had many in-depth conversations with a man whose credentials in science are as long as my arm. He has dedicated his life to the pursuit of new medical technologies and breakthrough science. Our conversations have ranged from the origins of life to brain activity after the heart stops. It was during these conversations that we began to discuss creation and the science of genetics and the building blocks of life. In preparation for this chapter, I asked my friend to write to me the answer to these questions:

Do all living creatures share a common element or elements in their DNA that would support that all is made from the dust of the earth?

If so, what and how many commonalities are there?

Would the common elements from the dust of the earth be enough to assign the label to the dust of the earth as the fundamental building block?

According to Dr. Donald H. Marks, noted author, patent holder, and a Messianic Jewish member of Congregation Beth Hallel in Birmingham, Alabama:

All living creatures on earth share a common set of molecules, which are the nucleic acids (DNA & RNA), protein, carbohydrates and lipids. All the molecules including DNA are made up from a few common elements: carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and phosphorous. Lesser component elements include potassium, calcium, selenium, sulfur and traces of others. All these elements are found in the earth, and in the air. Oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen are gases in the air that are also found in the ground, particularly in living and decaying organic waste. These gases are also trapped in minerals and dissolved in the water. I think that contemporary people may think of dust as simply loose dirt, but in the Bible, the dust of the earth is a reference to dry ground, not to dirt. In the biblical sense, the dust of the earth does therefore, refer in general to the ground that we live on and in, and from whose components all creatures are made. When it is written that we come from and return to the dust of the earth, it is in recognition that all creatures are composed physically of the same chemical elements of the earth. Since all living creatures come from the same dust of the earth, by implication all of life is composed of the same common chemical elements. The Bible states this, and we now know this to be true in a biochemical sense.

Just as in agriculture, the ground must be prepared in a certain way to obtain the highest yield, so too our hearts are the fertile ground that must be prepared properly for the Word of God to take hold. In Genesis 1:11, God said, Let the land produce vegetation. Its the land that produces the vegetation; its the land, the earth, the ground itself that produces the vegetation: Plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good (Gen. 1:12).

Genesis 2:4-7 tells us: