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.
