Did God really say?
Greetings from beautiful New Zealand! Apostle Jim and I have swapped our longest and warmest days of our very short summer season back home for short, cool, and rainy days! Even though the weather is cooler (not near as cold as our Maine winters), the people here are warm. With every trip to New Zealand, I am so blessed with meeting new people and a seeing what the Lord is doing in their lives. In spite of cultural differences (NZ is a melting pot of mixed cultures), I am amazed at how people are basically the same every where you go. We all have the same needs, to love, to be loved, and to belong. We all seem to have many of the same weaknesses as well. I suppose that should not be any surprise as the enemy is the same everywhere. Because he is unable to create anything new, he uses the same lies and same deceptions on us all.
That brings me to the very first deception that took place back in Eden. The serpent asked Eve “Did God really say?”. That sly old serpent really doesn’t do anything new for he uses that same lie on us today. A delayed dream or promise, a hurt or a wound, we hear those same nagging words, “Did God really say?” Usually this deception comes as a small subtle seed of doubt that if not noticed, grows into a thought then from a thought to a behavior, then from a behavior to a behavior pattern that is married to a stronghold in our mind. Proverbs 23:7 tells us that as a man believes, so does he become. See, Eve believed she was missing out, that God was holding out on her. There she was in Eden, (Eden means pleasure or delight) and in God’s garden that was in Eden. There they were, Adam and Eve, surrounded by all the beautiful wonder of her Father’s creation, perfectly loved, told they can have anything except one thing and before you know it, there is trouble in paradise! This very picture speaks volumes to me. This tells me that all of my life circumstances could be delightfully perfect and like Eve, there will still be something that I would find fault with. What is wrong with Eve wanting to know everything? What is wrong with her wanting to be more like God?” It seems as though she somehow forgot that she was created in His image.
We were created like Adam to walk with God in God’s garden. We are to desire to be like God, taking on His character, but we were never created to do anything apart from Him. We don’t particularly “need” Him when we think we have all the answers. Christ is the vine and the Father is the vine dresser. We are grafted into the vine. “Apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5. The enemy knows that and is more than happy planting seeds of doubt in the garden of your heart, seeds that if not dealt with, will turn into weeds that will overtake your garden making it difficult to walk with your Heavenly Father. You are attached to the vine (Christ). The weeds are like suckers that steal nutrients from you (the branch). We need to deal with the weeds and pull those sucker branches out! How do we deal with them? Here are a few steps: - First of all, protect your garden, that place where you walk with the Lord. Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23 Don’t let those seeds of doubt take root in the first place! Ephesians 4:27 says: do not give the devil a foothold. - Put off your old self, which is being corrupted by it’s deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds. Ephesians 4:22 and 23. The old sinful and carnal nature must die daily! - Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:24 Remember who you are: you are a new creation, the old had passed, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17 - And finally, when that question comes, “Did God really say?” We refute arguments and theories and reasoning and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought And purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One), 2 Corinthians 10:5
I love how the amplified version says that we lead every thought. We don’t allow our thoughts to lead us! Here it is in more modern language, The Message translation: We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.
Let’s take every doubt we have and hold it captive by the Word of the Lord. Let us not agree with the naysayers or the accuser of the brethren, or even with what our emotions tell us, but only come into agreement with what God has said! Like Jesus being tempted in the wilderness, when we find ourselves in the wilderness and even if like Eve, we are visited while in the Garden by the enemy of our soul, rather than question what we originally knew, let us hold fast, resist the, stand up, and boldly declare, “It is written!”
