Adam and Eve, walking through the garden, had no idea of the full consequences of what they were about to do.  If they had fully understood they surely would not have eaten the fruit or, afterward, they would have fallen on their faces before God, repenting.  Sin is disobedience to God.  When Adam took the fruit from Eve, she didn't understand what she was doing but Adam did. He made a decision that effected all of mankind.  Disobedience to God (sin) lodged deep in the hearts of mankind.  We are born that way and will die that way if we do not accept Jesus as the only answer to our sinful ways.

Satan is not a creator.  He is a created being just as we are.  He cannot create.  He can only make something out of the things God created, like we make steak out of a cow he created or we make houses out of trees God created.  Every resource satan has was taken from what God had already made.  The Bible tells us that all musical instruments and vocals were placed in satan when he was created.  He was supposed to praise and worship God but instead became lifted up in pride and perverted what God had made. God gave us, and satan, a free will.  Satan used what God gave him to twist words in order to deceive Eve.   The eyes of Adam and Eve were opened to know the difference between good and evil after Adam ate.  You see, Adam was the one in control because he wasn’t deceived by satan’s lies. 

Jesus said if we know to do good and don't do it we are sinning.  Adam and Eve were just innocent children, living their lives in harmony with God, not knowing what was good to do and what was bad to do.  When they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they suddenly became judges of what was right and wrong.  They started making bad decisions right away, becoming self-conscious, defensive and self-confident.  They felt self-conscious because of their nakedness and attempted to cover themselves with leaves.  They blamed others for their wrong choices.  They hid from God.

God knew they had been listening to the serpent, satan.  Adam blamed the woman and God for giving her to him.  Eve blamed the serpent, saying he beguiled her, which actually means he tricked or conned her.   God removed them from the Garden of Eden because he didn't want them eating from the tree of life and living forever.  They hadn't eaten yet but would have done so eventually.  Therefore, God brought death into the world when He killed the animals for skin to cover Adam and Eve.  He also cursed the earth.  Up till that time the earth automatically brought forth on its own.  Dew came up from the ground every day to provide water.  You didn't have to work tilling the soil and planting seed.  Man's job was to watch over God's creation and control what went on in it.   Adam should have run off satan as soon as he opened his mouth.  He had dominion, authority and power, over the earth.  God had given it to Adam and Adam turned around and gave it to the devil.

"Just say no" was the control that would have kept the earth as it was in the garden.  We have the same problem today.  We can say "no" to the thoughts that enter our minds but we don't.  We sit and dwell, as I'm sure Eve did, on how things look, why they happened and become tempted by our own desire to go our own way and do our own thing.  We enjoy watching others do wrong things on television or in movies and convince ourselves that we are doing nothing wrong, because after all that is really the way the world is.  If we are not careful our hearts become hardened by all the violence, sexual perversion and ungodly things we watch.  We come into agreement with the evil desires of people who don't know Jesus and it pushes up further away from a life of peace and contentment in Him.  Our relationship with the Father grows cold and we don’t want to recognize what caused it because we enjoy pleasure too much.  We yield ourselves to evil instead of yielding ourselves to God.

Why are so many Christians unhappy, frustrated, depressed, sick, making bad decisions and in general reaping the results of sin?  Jesus came to set us free from all that.  We are supposed to be the healed, delivered, joyful body of Christ, bringing all these things to those who don't have it.  It is supposed to be our privilege to tell the lost that Jesus is here to save them.  We are supposed to lay hands on the sick and see them recover: open blind eyes, raise the dead, straighten crooked legs and set free those in bondage to harmful habits and life styles.  Instead we often make excuses for our lack of power by blaming others, being lazy or just ignoring what God said in the Bible.  We are willing to take any excuse to cover our disobedience.  Some people even blame God, saying miracles were just for the time of Christ or that it wasn't God's will to heal that person.  In actuality, the fault lies in that we don't spend enough time with God.  He is the same.  He never changes.  If there is a problem it will always be with us.

Well, we have a choice in the matter, just as Adam and Eve did, but we also have the assurance of God that the Holy Spirit will help us to make wise decisions and teach us to walk like Jesus.  Jesus paid a high price to redeem us from the natural course of life and death in the world.  We don't have to be afraid of dying because we will live forever.  Jesus did this.  It is there for us.  All we have to do is come into agreement with God, presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice for Him to do with as He chooses.  We can't even begin to hear God tell us the answer to things that are not in the Bible until we start doing what he has revealed in his word for us to do, like loving each other, being kind and forgiving, refusing to point the finger at others, speaking words of life instead of death, blessing others instead of cursing them.

We have the power of life and death in our mouth.  Are the words we speak bringing life, peace, healing and forgiveness or are we pouring gasoline on hot coals.  We need to speak and do what is right regardless of what others say and do.  God wants us to be peacemakers.  He wants our words to minister to people not bring condemnation and guilt.  We should be using the Bible in a positive way, not tearing people up with it. 

Life can come out of our mouths by the words we speak.  Death can come out of our mouths by the words we speak.  These two are the same as good and evil, love and hate, hope and despair.  They should never come out together.  We can not tell people that God loves them just the way they are and then turn around and tell them they are an abomination to God.  This is life and death in the same message.  God has chosen through our new covenant, you know the one based on better promises, that whosoever comes to Jesus will be accepted, regardless of their past or what they are doing at the time of salvation.  We are to draw them with the pure message of the gospel of Christ, not try to force them to do things our way by making them feel guilty.  Once people are saved the Holy Spirit will lead them, convincing them of sin in their lives and helping them to be just like Jesus.

God told Peter to never call what God has cleansed common or unclean.  The Bible says that we are changed immediately.  That means in God's sight we are perfect and complete in Christ Jesus.  In actuality we find that to be like driving a car.  We can read the manual over and over again and technically "know" how to drive a car but we actually don't know how to drive until we get behind the wheel and put the car in gear.  The same thing is true about the word of God.  We have promises for deliverance, healing, purity, love and power and it is ours.  Right now, it is ours!  Just like right now we know how to drive, even though we have never done it. We are set on a course that brings us closer and closer to God through the sweet teaching of the Holy Spirit.  We have to keep practicing until we learn to drive a car, physically as well as mentally and we must do the same with the things of God.  We have to believe Hebrews 11:6, which says

• It is impossible to please God without faith.  Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that there is a God and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him.

We must begin to spread the gospel on a daily basis with those we come in contact with.  If we believe that God is real we will not hesitate to tell others about Him.  We must also speak to them in love, watching out for a spirit of superiority.  We all come from the same background.  Maybe you never abused drugs, sex or alcohol but you were every bit as much a sinner as the ones who do.  God has forgiven the world and called them to be heirs of salvation.  They might not accept Jesus as their savior but that doesn't mean we can speak evil of them.   If we tell someone that they are bad or a sinful abomination to God, we have not told them the truth.  We have told them our opinion.  God says that He loved us while we were yet sinners so why would we want to deprive others of the love that was there for us.  Jesus died for that person and we should be telling them.   If we are not speaking right in the sight of God, we have judged ourselves as unworthy to receive forgiveness, not only for ourselves but also for the people we speak to.  We have to talk like Jesus and if we don't we have accepted unrighteousness as our portion in the kingdom of God. 

We are to speak of those things that be not as though the were.  When we look at that new Christian we should be telling them about all Jesus did for them and what a great journey they have started.  We tell them they are children of God, accepted and pleasing to God, yielded and obedient to the Holy Spirit.   We don't want to find ourselves in a position of discouraging the tender little ones that Jesus died for.  As Christians we need to remember where we came from and stop holding ourselves up as an example for babies to follow.  Jesus is our example and we keep saying the positive word of God to first ourselves, and then others, until Christ is formed in each of us.  You see, we are all just a work in progress.  We all come from the same place, which is death, and we are all on our way to heaven, that great city of life.

We plant the seed of the word and the Holy Spirit waters it through encouragement and love.  If each one of us could just get hold of this it would change the course of many other lives.   As we grow in the spirit and get stronger and stronger, the things of the flesh loose their power over us. The word says we have been delivered from the powers of darkness. Just like Adam, all we have to do is continue in the things of God and refuse to dwell on anything that will take us away from him.   It is true that we may do things that we know are wrong but you know, we couldn't change ourselves before we got saved and we can't live a holy life on our on either.  We ask God to forgive us and let the Holy Spirit mend our way.  It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to become a Christian and it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to live a holy life.  We shouldn't even be aware of our shortcomings much less trying to fix them.  If we have our eyes on Jesus we are not looking at the shortcomings of ourselves, or others. 

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