A lot of things that we choose to do in life that ends up affecting us, we start out doing in ignorance. We do without having knowledge of doors we have had NO business opening. It is one reason why we must “be very careful of how we live. As wise, not as unwise making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.”(Ephesians 5:15)
I say this as someone who has been there, as someone who stupidly (years ago) and very naively walked through a door to a pathway I had NO business walking. And the end results wrecked havoc on my life because I did not walk in the wisdom God had given me.
You see – we have an unseen enemy and if you don’t believe he exists, he already has you where he wants you because quite frankly – he is REALER than REAL. And guess what? HE HATES YOU. Hates you. Despises you. Wants to take you down. And if you are unaware of it or not careful – he will.
When someone hates you they will do whatever they can to make you unhappy or aware of it and its not until you come into the knowledge of how they feel about you that your attention becomes on high alert. The enemy of your soul will not always come in ways that you can pinpoint or detect. Sometimes, like in my case – you will walk into a trap unaware of what it is you are walking into. And he catches you unaware or at your most vulnerable time. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 10:16:
“Behold I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.”
I fell into a trap. One I didn’t EVEN realize WAS a trap. It was so hidden and disguised. But the trap was wide and deep and it was one I had naively walked in on my own accord. Who else do we know who did that?
Eve.
I visualize it well… Maybe it didn’t quite go down like this, but this is how I picture it. Eve was out walking admiring her surroundings. Conversing along the way with the animals, husband Adam at her side. (I say this because it didn’t seem to surprise her when the snake spoke to her, so it must have been something she was use to – talking with the animals… Although I found out last week that God created snakes without vocal cords, so you would of thought that red flags would have gone up with Eve when the snake began to talk…) anyhow, the true account in Genesis goes like this:
“Now the snake was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, did God really say, ‘you must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Let’s stop right here – look at your own life and situation – remember the Word is the LIVING Word of God. The examples written within it is for us to gain wisdom. And we gain wisdom from reading the Word of God. Once ol’ slewfoot finds a way to trap us, he uses the same gimmick for other situations and here is the first part of how he tripped Eve up. HE PUT DOUBT IN HER MIND AND MADE HER BEGIN TO QUESTION GOD. Are you questioning God about something in your life? Now it’s not a bad thing to ask God questions, to seek Him out on a matter – to inquire. But it is another thing to doubt Him. IF SOMEONE OR SOMETHING IS TRYING TO GET YOU TO DOUBT GOD SEE THAT AS A RED FLAG. This is an area where we need to exercise wisdom. Asking God a question is one thing. Questioning what God says is another. satan knew what he was doing. The battlefield occurs in our thought process. In our mind. We need to think wisely.
Eve’s response was her own translation of what God had said. She replied back to the snake:
“We may eat from the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will die.”
We have to be careful when we read the Word of God or hear from God to make sure that we are hearing Him correctly. Not adding on or taking away from His Word. What God had told Adam is listed in Genesis 2:17
“You may eat FREELY from every tree in the garden, but you must NOT eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil; for in the day you eat of it, you will surely die.”
It is very important that we carefully read the Word of God and that we pray for understanding it what He is saying so that we do not add on or takeaway what His Word says. God had not said they could not touch it. But the serpent continued to deceive her.
“You will not surely die.” The the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4)
The snake slithered doubt into Eve’s mind, causing her to doubt the goodness of God. Causing her to doubt the One who created her and who had FREELY given both her and Adam everything around them. And when she began to doubt God and to disregard ALL that He had said to them and to listen instead to a voice-less snake. She walked right into the trap.
“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked, so they sewed fig trees together and made coverings for themselves.” (Genesis 3:6-7)
Notice how the devil fooled Eve. He caused doubt to enter her mind, he seduced her through what she saw and caused her to think that God was holding back giving her wisdom. Now think about your own life, your own situation – when satan opens up a trap and we walk into it – it is something that captures our attention. Promises to give us (or make us feel) something we think we need. Causes us to decide to walk forward into something we think we want. And we become trapped in our own circumstance because instead of walking in wisdom of God’s Word and instruction. We think we know best. Or we think we “want” what we are walking into, only to find out we shouldn’t have gone there.
Once Adam and Eve sinned, they realized they should have listened to God. They sewed fig leaves together to try and hide. We cannot hide from God. He is omnipresent. He knows and sees ALL things. To make matter worse – instead of taking responsibility for their actions, they pointed fingers and did this (Genesis 3:9-13):
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God, as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God in the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, but I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
“And He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?’
“The man said, the woman – who You put here with me – she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.’
“The LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’
“The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me and I ate.’
See? Adam blamed the woman AND he blamed God for giving him the woman. The woman blamed the snake. WHO ARE YOU BLAMING FOR YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES??? I call that “the blame game.” Truly we need to take responsibility for our own actions. This is called “repentance.” Instead of pointing fingers towards the “reasons” we believe we have done what we’ve done (or do) we need to call it what it is – SIN. We look at Adam and Eve in Genesis at the fall and shake our heads at them, as if we do any better than them. Disobeying God or walking through life on our own accord is a choice WE choose to make. God created us with free will to decide – He did not make us with a “robotic response” because He created us IN LOVE. He gives us the choice to choose GOOD or Evil. And because He is a LOVING GOD, He always gives us a way out. If you note back in Genesis 2:17 it is clear that God already knew what Adam and Eve were going to do – because He says, “…when you eat of it, you will surely die.” He didn’t say IF you eat of it. God ALREADY KNEW the choice Adam and Eve were going to make. And He already had a plan in place for redemption (because He IS love).
God loves you. HE SEES YOU. He knows you. Nothing you do or have done surprises Him. If you are in a prodigal state – if you have walked away from Him and found yourself in the same situation as Adam and Eve – you are trying to hide from God. You are afraid. Please know that God sees you. You simply CANNOT hide from Him. He sees you. And He loves you enough not just let you sit there hiding. Through His Son, Jesus He has provided a way out! A way of redemption. You ONLY need to take it. You ONLY need to listen to the voice of God and not the voice of the devil, your enemy. The one who blinded your eyes, the one who made you doubt God, the one who causes you to walk in sin. Thinking that you know better what you need than the One who created you does. If you are under the impression that you can hide from a God who SEES ALL. From a God who is omnipotent – YOU CAN’T. You can choose either death or life! I PRAY YOU CHOOSE LIFE! God knew you were going to come to a place where you are cornered. You are not far enough away from Him that He cannot reach you! If you are reading these words – He is right now extending His hand out to you and saying, “MY CHILD – TAKE MY HAND! COME OUT!” And He will LIFT you out of the pit you have fallen into. Right into His loving arms. I say this out of personal experience, because HE DID IT FOR ME.
Listen – this does not only pertain to those of you who are reading this and have not yet made Jesus Christ Lord of your life. Your personal savior. It ALSO pertains to those of us who ARE Christians who may have (however innocently we believe we did) found ourselves having had opened a doorway in this life that we had NO business opening. We because deceived. We chose to go where we should not have. God is saying, “My child – get back on the pathway I have for you. REPENT. CONFESS. And know that once you have – I have washed you through the blood of the lamb (my Son) as white as snow!” (See Isaiah 1:18)
We choose our pathway. We choose whether to walk in wisdom. We choose who it is we are going to listen to. Are you listening to the voice-less snake? Or are you listening to the One who instructs us? Choose wisely. Because at one point life will end and you will have to stand before the One who gave you life and give an account. There will be no one standing with you. You will be standing before the throne of God, alone. And you will either stand there pointing a finger at someone or something else (as Adam and Eve did before God in the garden of Eden. Or you will stand humble, before God covered with the precious blood of the One who died on the cross for forgiveness of your sins. The blood of the One who makes your sins white as snow…. Jesus. Which will you choose to do? Point or Repent?
And I also want to say something else – I speak as one who the devil tripped up. I speak as one who once wandered down a wrong path. BUT I REPENTED. And here is what God has done… If you are reading the words to this blog right now, it is because true repentance causes change. It doesn’t matter where I wandered or HOW I got tripped up, I share that with those God leads me to share the specifics with – that’s part of walking in wisdom… But God has USED my mess to bring a message that will glorify Him. What the devil meant to take me down I use to lift God up. If we are willing to repent and turn back to God, He will use what you went through to help someone else along the way. Ol’ slewfoot has tried over and over again throughout the generations to trip others up in the way he tripped up Adam and Eve. And sometimes he has been successful – and other times he has not. What he meant to harm me and turn me away from God is now a part of my walk where I can extend the right hand of fellowship behind me to another prodigal who is where I once was. GOD IS ABLE.
Listen, the Bible tells us that “our righteousness is as filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6). We CANNOT earn the kingdom of Heaven. We NEVER COULD. It is TRULY nothing but God’s love, His forgiveness, His mercy and His grace that keeps us going from day to day through this thing called life. WE ARE DEPENDENT UPON HIM. True wisdom is coming into the knowledge of that. How do you find wisdom? BY READING HIS WORD. Which is our instruction book. When we read it, we need to remember that the people the Bible is filled with were REAL LIVING PEOPLE, like you and me! The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes 1:9 “there is nothing new under the sun.” The big difference is when YOU put yourself “under the SON” He MAKES YOU LIKE NEW! The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17:
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, He is a new creature; Old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.”
“Father God, I thank you so much for the reading of your Word. I thank You for knowing even before Adam and Eve fell that they were going to and You had already prepared the Way of redemption before me. Please forgive me for my sins. Wash me with the blood of Jesus. I choose YOU. I want Jesus to come into my life and be my Lord and Savior. Jesus, I CHOOSE YOU. Forgive me, wash me, reside in me. Thank You in Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”
“Father, I had previously made Jesus my Lord and Savior but I’ve lost my way. I allowed myself to wander of the pathway you had designated for my life. I have become like the prodigal who thought he knew best what was for him. Father, I don’t. Please redirect my steps. Please forgive me for my sins and wash me with the blood of Jesus. I’m sorry Lord that I listened to voices that were not yours. I choose to return to You. Please wash me with the blood of my Savior, Jesus. Thank You for your forgiveness. Thank You for redemption. And in the process of forgiving me, let wisdom reside. Help me to hear Your voice LOUDER, STRONGER, CLEARER. And to walk not only in Your forgiveness but to forgive myself (before ol’ slewfoot tries to keep me down in guilt and condemnation). You tell me in Your Word that if I confess my sins, You will throw them in the “sea of forgetfulness.” (As in Micah 7:19). “Thank You Father. Please be glorified in my life. In Jesus name I pray. AMEN.”
God loves you so so much. He REALLY does. I pray no matter where life brings you that you walk in the knowledge of that fact. May He bless and keep you ALL the days of your life.
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