06/12/2025
THE PRINCIPLE OF ENVIRONMENT
The word environment is defined as βcircumstances, objects, and conditions
by which one is surroundedβ (Websterβs, βenvironmentβ).
Therefore, an environment may refer to the forces that affect the state of things, the components that make up the climate in which something exists, or the conditions in which a thing exists.
Everything in life was created to function within the particular environment that God prescribed for it before He created it.
In essence, before the moment of creation, God decided both what He would make His creation from and where He would place it after He had mad it.
This place designed to individually suit the makeup and purpose of each thing God made was its environment. When the environment was ready, God called forth each creation from its intended source and put it in the specific
environment He had made for it.
So before God created the sun and the moon and the myriad of stars, He first called forth the light and separated it from the darkness, calling the light βdayβ and the darkness βnight.β He also made a firmament or expanse to
separate the waters above from the waters below and called the firmament
βsky.β Only then, after all this was completed, did God call forth the lights from the heavens and set them in the sky to mark the day, the night, and the seasons. (See Genesis 1:1-8,14-18.)
God's process in creating plants and animals reveals the same pattern.
Before He spoke plants and animals into being, He gathered the waters together so that dry ground would appear. The dry ground He called βlandβ and the waters He called βseas.β Only then did He speak to the sea, commanding it
to bring forth the many kinds of fish and sea creatures, and to the land, commanding it to bring forth all manner of vegetation, seed-bearing plants and trees according to their kind, and all living creatures, livestock and wild animals according to their kind. (See Genesis 1:9-12,20-25.)
Finally, God was ready to make man.
Then God said, βLet Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.β So
God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male
and female He created them (Genesis 1:26-27).
These verses from Genesis clearly reveal that God is manβs source. When God made man, He spoke to Himself and man came out of Him. Thus, man was created both to be of the same essence as God, who is spirit (see Jn.4:24), and to live in the same environment as God, which is the realm of the spirit or the environment of God.
So we see that God prescribed an environment for everything He created before He created it. Then He placed the thing in it.
Therefore, you cannot expect one of Godβs products to function properly if you do not understand the environment He prescribed for it. In essence, a misplaced product will
malfunction if you do not follow the prescription for the environment God ordained.
A product in the wrong environment just wonβt work properly.
God prescribed an environment for everything He created. Therefore, environments can be good or bad, positive or negative, healthy or unhealthy depending on what the manufacturer prescribed for the product you are using.
The environment itself is not necessarily bad, negative, or unhealthy. Rather the problem is a misplaced product. A particular environment is wrong only because the product was not designed to function in it. The prescription and the actuality donβt match.
To say it another way, the nature of the environment will always affect the
state, function, and efficiency of a product. If, for example, you buy a $5,000 television, throw it into the ocean, then try to make it work, you will soon find that you wasted your $5,000. Or, if you drag a boat down a highway behind a
truck, you will find when you try to use the boat in the water that it has beendestroyed by the road. Why has this happened? You put the television and the boat into the wrong environment. The manufacturer never intended that you would put the television into the ocean or drag the boat on the highway.
Therefore, no matter how expensive the product is, it will shut down if the
environment of operation is different from what the manufacturer intended.
A wrong environmentβthat is, an environment where the product is out of placeβwill always translate into wasted potential.
Truly the key to a productβs efficient and effective operation is the environment in which it is placed.
Consequently, we must clearly understand the environment prescribed for each product because it is the environment that determines the productβs success or failure. This prescribed environment is what we may call a productβs ideal environment. An ideal environment means that there is a perfect
environment that God (or a manufacturer) has prescribed for each product. This
is why God placed the man in Eden. Eden is manβs ideal environment.
Manβs Ideal Environment
When God planned what man would be (spirit) and how man wouldfunction (by faith), He also determined where man would live (his ideal
environment). God didnβt take the man and put him just anywhere on earth.
God chose a specific spot on this big planet and put the man in that specially chosen place, which we know as Eden. Now letβs try to figure out what Eden is.
The root in Hebrew of the word Eden is uncertain. The Greek version of the
Old Testament, the Septuagint, relates the word to the Hebrew verb eden or
ayden, which means βdelightβ (Strongβs, H5731, H5730). Therefore, Edenis translated as the garden of delight. Other occurrences of the word Eden in the Old Testament equate Eden with the garden of the Lord.
The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord.
Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing (Isaiah 51:3).
You were in Eden, the garden of God... (Ezekiel 28:13).
This seems to concur with the Genesis description of the garden as the
place where God walked in the cool of the day (see Gen. 3:8)
Thus, God prepared a garden for man, an environment where it was pleasant and where His presence touched earth. This is why the Bible never says that Adam planted the garden. Rather, God was the One who planted the
garden. That is, God came and impressed (planted) His presence in the earth.
Can you get a picture of this? Eden was the one place where Godβs presence
dwelt on earth. It was the garden of His presence, the spot of His pleasantness,
and that was precisely where God placed Adam. Unbroken fellowship between
God and man was the environment that God planned for man.
This means that you donβt need church services, choirs, worship services,
and meetings to succeed in life. There were none of these in Eden. Neither were
there prophets, teachers, preachers, or apostles. Your ideal environment is
nothing more and nothing less than the presence of God Himself, which was
Godβs first gift to Adam.
Godβs presence is your ideal environment.
His presence in your house is the most beautiful presence in the world. You donβt need a husband or a wife to succeed. You need the presence of God. Consequently,
God gave Adam Himself before He gave him a woman. The first presence you need is a God-friend, not a boyfriend or a girlfriend. If you get a boyfriend or girlfriend, a husband or a wife, outside of Godβs presence, you have created a state of malfunction for yourself.
Why is this true? Everything that is not in its ideal environment malfunctions. This is inevitable. No person or product can function properly outside the environment specifically designed for it by its manufacturer. So just
as fish have to stay in water and plants have to stay in the ground if they are to flourish, so man must stay in Godβs presence.
Any fish that removes itself
from water or is removed by another creature will eventually die and rot. The same is true of a plant. No plant can continue to live and bear fruit if its roots are not covered and nourished by the ground. In truth, a plant starts to die the
instant its roots are removed from the ground, and its death is certain unless its roots are returned to the soil that is its source and ideal environment. Likewise, manβs life and the fulfillment of his destiny are possible only to the extent that he walks and talks with God in the garden of His presence.
Extracts of "The power and purpose of Praise and worship" Dr Myles Munroe.
