Three Lives? Third Entry

This is the last of the "mini-series" which I wrote and posted  on my  previous blog concerning the breath of lives.   Hopefully,  it will lay a strong foundation for future blogs based on the same concepts laid out in these three entries.  

Three Lives? Third Entry 

I’ve been writing for a while concerning the segregation of mans’ spirit, soul and body, how it occurred and why. To recap, here’s a quote from the first blog in which I shared my understanding of the three distinct areas of man which once functioned as a unified whole being without schism when The Creator breathed the breath of lives into the original man, Adam:  

We know Satan entered in to cause separation and we also know he was successful.  His plan was to separate man from God and steal the ruling authority God had given man when He blessed them, but the way he so subtly chose to do this was to present them with something which would first divide them within themselves.  He needed to confuse and change the natural order in which they were created by God to operate to accomplish this.  This is clearly demonstrated in Genesis 3:6 when after listening to a strange voice and seeing that the forbidden fruit was good for food, pleasant to the eye and desirable to make one wise the woman being deceived, gave in to temptation, then, apart from her spirit and God's influence, she chose to eat. She gave some to the man who was with her and he also chose to eat.   By this act of disobedience they put their spirits in subjection to the sensual desires of their souls departing from God and the laws He had established to govern spiritual creatures such as themselves-those created in the God class…

...and in so doing, subordinated themselves under Satan's rule. 

The phrase “they put their spirits in subjection to the sensual desires of their souls” is the topic of interest at this point.  Without understanding they were already as gods having been created in God’s image and likeness, and choosing through ignorance to follow the thoughts received  into their minds from an outside source instead of checking with their spirits who always had access to God and His thoughts, they ate.  Up to this point they had been fully satisfied because of their heart to heart, intimate relationship with God which fully permeated and quickened their whole being, spirit soul and body.  Because of this it never occurred to them to eat from the tree because they not only didn't have a desire to do so  they were content to follow God simply because they were instructed not to eat of it.  They trusted Him who told them.  That tree belonged to God for only He at that point in time had the capability to know what evil was without having to experience it.  So, why was the tree there in the first place?  My idea of it is because Adam and Eve were created in the god class simply by being his children.  Everything God created had the seed within itself to reproduce after its kind (Gen 1:11-12), and since God created man after His kind (Gen.1:26-28) it stands to reason that he would also possess free will to make choices just as God made choices. God gave man that right in the very beginning when He instructed Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and informed him of the consequences if he did in Genesis 2:17.  

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

It was up to Adam and Eve to choose.  So, in essence, man was given the ability to chose either life or death, and in choosing to eat they learned by experience what evil meant and received the hellish consequences of their choice to gain knowledge apart from their Father-their Creator and their God-their life source.  So lets take a look at how the deceiver accomplished such a feat, because what gave him success then, often gives him success now.

However, I'd like to share a bit about how I came to what I believe to be insights into these things.  For quite some time now, I've asked God about what it really means to have an "undivided heart" and have desired mine to be so.  I've already written some of what I discovered, and next I'll be sharing a more detailed look into how the divided heart came about after God Himself breathed the "breath of lives" into Adam making man a triune being, yet a fully functional unified creation, even as God also Is. This being the case only as man stayed connected to His life source.  In subsequent post I hope to share the very good news concerning some of the ways  we can be restored to a more unified heart by reconnecting to Him and His way, but for now, let us continue on with this segment of the journey. 

The first thing the deceiver did was to question the woman’s knowledge by asking her if God really said they couldn't eat any of the fruit in the garden.  The woman answered that they could eat from all the trees except the one-the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil-and to defend her knowledge of what God said, she overcompensated by adding that not only could they not eat  the fruit from the tree,  but neither could they touch it or they would die!  Well honestly, God did not say they couldn't touch it, did He?  Their (Adam’s and Eve’s) greatest mistake was to begin listening to an unfamiliar voice thereby allowing the serpent’s spirit, deception, to rest on them like a fog.   (Please keep in mind what the woman added because we’ll get back to it later.)

Now that they had taken the bait and were opened to deception, the out and out lie was offered as Satan told them they would not “surely die.” Then he suggested to them that God didn’t want them to eat of the fruit because they’d be like God-which of course, they already were since God Himself created them in His own image and likeness , which Satan knew full well.  So , let's look at Genesis 3:5 again: 

For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 

“Knowing good and evil.”  That statement is true…in a sense.  They could have learned everything they needed to know about good and evil from God, but I'm not at all certain they would ever have had to know anything about evil at all if they had called on Him for help in this situation.  He would have taught them ALL they needed to know concerning ALL things as He instructed them in becoming  All He created them to be.  However Satan wanted them to follow his way of doing things, learning by experience rather than being taught by God.  So yes, they would have their “eyes opened” when they ate.  They would “know” good and evil by experiencing evil as the word “knowing” encompasses a wide range of learning by either seeing, perceiving, observing, experiencing and also by receiving instruction.  Since that time man’s default way of learning has been through experience rather than receiving sound instruction.   And we also, as Adam and Eve experienced, have become as gods but not the kind God intended.   We've become our own gods having fallen from our high calling to be like God Himself under His Lordship, into that lower category of gods where all false gods reside-those who choose to go their own way, make their own rules, all the while struggling to be the in the god class having dominion and authority that the Creator intended for man but having it without Him.

The following is how the fruit God gave them to eat looked and tasted, Genesis 2:9.

And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  (my emphasis)

Notice what God said  about every tree, that the fruit was "pleasant to the sight and good for food."  In other words it was pretty and it tasted good!  The couple had a great variety of delicious food sources from which to choose with only the one being restriction , but once the serpent was allowed in the garden, his lust for what belonged to them  and God enveloped Eve and certainly affected Adam as well-so entered lust for beauty, food, knowledge apart from God, power, and the list goes on. Eve having  her ear opened to a perverted voice began  seeing things differently.  Lusting for greater beauty, for food which surely must taste better than anything she had experienced, for wisdom which God, it seemed, was withholding from them, and now operating out of her soul rather than her spirit, and following another's voice, removed herself from the divine order, and having done so, lost the unity of her triune nature and the division within herself occurred.  Because of this the inevitable happened next,  Genesis 3:6:

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat...

Now that Eve saw the tree from a perverted viewpoint, lusting for its beauty, its taste and its power to make her wise, she picked fruit from the tree, and being further emboldened because she didn't die when she touched the fruit (remember what she added to God's instruction), she ate.  And we know she gave some to her husband who was with her observing all  that had taken place with the exchange between  the woman and the serpent, and he ate!  He took none of the authority God had given him to rule and have dominion, he just stood there and watched!  Is this not amazing!  Even though he chose to eat the fruit, I believe it was also because he had  been strongly influenced by the cloud of deception including its lust which had come with the serpent's presence because it is part of the fabric of his [the serpent's] nature.  However, either of them at anytime could have called out to God for help, but simply put, none of us is a match for the enemy's wiles in our own strength.  I dare say that no other man or woman would have fared better than they.

So it happened according to the Word of God.   The death of their spirits was immediate. With the taste of the fruit, they tasted death.  The death of their spirits would begin permeating their souls and bodies and had God not chosen to intervene, we, as well as they would have lived eternally separated from God had it not been for His great love for them and for us! 

So it is my belief that once man  was deceived into changing the natural order of how he was made to function by God-through his spirit in connection to the Divine Spirit- the schism irrevocably occurred resulting in a divided heart, therefore divided loyalties.  There was no longer unity in the "three lives" of man as his soul- including his mind, will and emotions- though unequipped to do so, took over leadership.  Even the body intended originally to house the spirit and soul occupying a place of subordination to them,  fell prey to the lust of fallen man having undue influence over soul and spirit with excessive cravings of its own. And such was and is the fallen state of man until God intervened providing the way of salvation  giving us all the power to choose life and that more abundant!

I consider this segment summed up  and gladly put it to rest.  I'm looking forward to getting into the good part, where all that's needed for us to be restored as  fully functional, unified, new creations has been bountifully supplied by God's great grace.  And just as it took TIME for man to die, so it takes TIME for the restoration  and transformation process to take place so we can really live!...and I'm ready to receive even more of the abundant life He promised to give us, so I'll conclude with this  familiar promise found in John 10:10:

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.