Do you remember the last time you read a good book that had a good story line with some emotion and heart felt moment as well as touching spiritual moments? As you look back on that book or novel, you remember parts in that book that really challenged your resolve as well as your heart, to the point where there are still lingering thoughts of that story that have left an indelible mark on our soul and life. There were also nuggets of wisdom that we took from that book unknowingly. To some, a book or novel literally changes some of our lives forever. But in this day and age, people are inclined to read novels or books or listen to audio books that will keep their thoughts occupied with hatred, violence, greed, revenge and murder. Coupled with the mass media over the internet and smart TVs and our smartphones, this has lead us down the road of hopelessness, loneliness, and despair, as we put trust in a device than in one on one, bare human interactions. We drift slowly from human interaction and gravitate towards machine interaction. We try so hard to avoid human interaction to where we feel better interaction and relationship with a smart device, instead of a personal one on one. Why? The answer is this: it goes back to the Tree of Knowledge where all deception took place. Lets go to Genesis, and take a look back in the past where it all took place.

1) Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2) And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3) But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4) And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5) 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. 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, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7) And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8) And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. 9) And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10) And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11) And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12) And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13) And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14) And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15) And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Genesis 3:1-15

Did you see a blaming carrying on? God asked Adam, Adam blamed Eve, then Eve blamed the serpent. Now lets dive into the effects of the tree: As in the book of Genesis 3:1, we see that the serpent said to Eve this statement in a proposed comment observation question: “Do this, do that!” But he proposed a question. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? He just jigged her to get her to respond to something to set her up to see where her mind was at. He said to her, “you’re not suppose to eat of everything in the garden are you?” Then Eve volunteered the set guidelines of the garden. This is what we do today. Then the serpent goes on to to pick her brain to see were she was at, concerning God’s instructions and weather or not she was double minded concerning her adherence to God’s will and obedience to His words. How do we know that? He just proposed a statement that required a response. “You shall not eat of every tree in the garden,” he said. Then she wanted to explain herself. She’s telling him what they couldn’t do. He’s giving her a challenge, which we don’t realize. The statement required her to respond back with an answer. “You can’t eat of everything in this garden,” wanting her to respond back so he could set her up, wanting to know what her mind was concerning his instructions. Then she tells him the consequence of eating that of the tree. In to verse 2, she began to expound to the serpent. This is how Eve set herself up to second guess God’s word, thereby opening the door for the serpent to give his line of responses. If you’ve ever seen a court trial, they have you swear over the Bible, because they want you to hear yourself. We put ourselves in those positions because of us. She placed herself in a position dealing with a serpent. Everyone thinks the serpent did it to her, but Eve did it to herself. And as we read the following verses after, we see how those events unfold right before our eyes.

It goes something like this: A proposed comment, observation question first. Second Eve set the instruction of who said what to do or not do. She now shows the serpent that she was caught in an indecision or dilemma with the statement that God made about eating of every tree and fruit in the Garden, except the tree in the midst of the garden. In this dilemma she was questioning. Thirdly, Satan begins to set in play his formula of self-doubt, to question God’s instruction and authority. Satan had begun to understand the women very well now. The equation for Eve’s down fall goes something like this: get her to doubt herself then to question Adam, her head, and God’s authority and teaching, thereby leading her into distrusting God’s voice.

The exact same things Satan did to Eve he’s now doing to us. That is why we’re experiencing the effects of the tree. Satan didn’t say anything about the fruit on the tree, all he said was that you will know what He knows. Eve surmised from looking at the one fruit of the tree. Her mind was attached to the fruit thinking it would make her wise like the God that Adam was talking about. This is the same thing Satan does today. He hasn’t done anything, he just gives us suggestions and we run wild with it adding our own thoughts to it.

Seventh verse. The eyes of them both were opened. She shared her dilemma with her husband. What do you think happened after Eve took the fruit in her hand and didn’t die? Adam saw she didn’t die. They questioned God’s authority because they didn’t die. They could see things they never saw before. This led to two individuals falling over one incident. We have to look at it like this. Satan was gone in 3 verses, because from that point on, he had no need to say more. He didn’t force her, he didn’t trick her, he just used her mind against herself. Afterward she heard the voice of Satan saying that she wouldn’t die. This is what Satan leads us down a path of; curiosity. We want to do it, we want to do it, and Satan presents an opportunity for you to do it. He sets you up, to crucify you. As a mater of fact, he doesn’t even set you up, you set your own self up. When she allowed herself to be defeated by herself via a few words from the serpent, she opened her heart to a different frequency. Satan will give you pros and cons, he never tells you the long lasting implications.

Now Satan has planted a seed of disagreement. Now here is Satan waiting to put in the final nail in the coffin. He is doing the same thing today with the body of baptized believers, taking them to the point of mistrusting and questioning their God like he did. As soon as you receive the Word of God, and have got the full understanding of that word, Satan will propose a question to you that will shake your very foundation in God only to make you doubt yourself and your foundational teaching of how to be just a child. The only way to keep you bound to that Eve mentality is to keep you ever learning. Today we see people are so in the pursuit of getting an education of higher learning to the point that some have become professional students. For ever learning but still not come to the truth, Timothy 3:1-7. Satan is constantly pushing us to pursue higher learning no matter what it takes under the same pretense he told Eve you will know like God knows. Satan is trying to keep you from the mind of Christ. You have to fight the signal of Satan, so you can hear God’s signal. Have you ever been praying and suddenly every thought in your mind comes? Satan is drowning you with his signal so you’ll not receive God’s signal. This has been the whole trial from Adam until now, giving you the negative alternative, that sort of mentality that rises up against leadership. You can’t see what God can do for you because you’re listening to what Satan is saying he can do to you. Why do you think people can’t stay faithful and consistent in Church? First of all they come in with a mind of confusion. They don’t know if they should be here or there. Because the signals of Satan are directing them to doing this and that, ever learning, never coming to the truth.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.² For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,³ Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,⁴ Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;⁵ Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.⁶ For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,⁷ Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1 Timothy 3:1-7

In our walk in Christ, He’s giving us options. Its a chess game. We’re able to move our own selves. This is what we do in our lives. The Lord says if you listen to Me and do what I say, then these things will happen. Satan says if you listen to me and do what I say, these things will happen. Christ offers you something in the future, not now. Satan tried the same approach when Christ came on scene. Are you hungry? Satan tried the Eve thing on Christ. Whisked Him away. “I’ll give you all of this.” For sin to take place in your life, there isn’t a lot of talk. You either do it or not. Eve didn’t waste any time, and we’re doing the same thing over again. She ate and went about her business. She’d already decided in her heart what she was going to do. A lot of times when we go to do something, Satan says he needs to give us a good conducive atmosphere to do it. It was already in Eve’s heart to do that, because why was she by the tree? Satan didn’t summon her.We look at the Adam and Eve story totally different. It was her who decided to sin, that is why the Lord punished her, because He knew the sin before she bit of the tree. When He came in the cool of the evening what happened? He didn’t say hey Eve, but He said hey Adam. So Adam was guilty by being in charge. He allowed that to take place in his garden. You had that authority, but you couldn’t keep the woman under subjection.

Verse 10, Adam said he heard His voice. He said he was afraid because he was naked. God never asked who made him afraid. That means that was something Adam wasn’t to know. He realized he’d let himself and his companion down. He allowed them to be in sin under his authority. He was afraid because he was naked. The Lord says who told you you were naked? Adam hid himself from God. He hid his nakedness from God. “Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” He hid his sin from God because he knew God would be disappointed in him. Did he tell Eve this or did he address Adam on this? Adam was afraid because he was naked. What is the concept of naked? For you to understand that means that a whole lot of other things have come into your mind. Adam knew better and knew he should have kept his wife under control. He should have taken authority of the serpent. Think of the concept of nudity in their minds. Adam had a baby’s mind; the mind of a child, and so did Eve. She had another mind, it was to do what she desired to do, because she said she saw it looked good.

The race is on for mankind to know like God knows. But that before Adam had a one to one relationship with God he was in tune to God’s frequency so when God would call to Adam, he would answer God quickly and as long as he was in tune with God he was able to be one with all things. Every thing was in harmony. But now Eve began to open herself to another sound which was Satan’s frequency. The frequency of Satan is sometimes a lot stronger because of education because you’re being taught to question everyone and everything and you can’t prove it through the science education then it doesn’t exist. Sometimes knowing is not always a good thing. Knowing may cause some of us to accept the world’s understanding over God’s will.

But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

1 Corinthians 1:27

And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

Daniel 12:1-4

Knowledge shall be increased. We’re doing things in technology never before seen in history. We don’t want to be caught not doing the Will of God. The effects of the tree of knowledge are in full effect every day of our lives. The Bible says you can’t live in 2 different worlds; not in the world and the Church at the same time. You have to choose whom you will serve. If you’ll not serve God, serve Satan. You don’t have to hobo your way to hell, just go to hell. We’re getting swayed by the things of this world and life, almost fully persuaded because living for Christ is too stringent, thinking we can’t go out and have a good time. If the ministry doesn’t have anything that would make me feel excited about myself, then I can’t be apart of that. What will you say on the last day?