After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. Then I saw another angel coming up from the east having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea. “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” Revelation 7: 1-3, NIV (Emphasis provided).
Dear God, today we will continue listening to Your voice. We ask that your mercy and kindness will never depart from us. We need You at every step in our lives, that we might make the right decisions, the best decision, to serve, and worship, only You! Please speak to our hearts in this quiet hour. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
When Lucifer was cast out of heaven because of His rebellion against God, he continued this struggle upon the earth. From that point onward, he would no longer be known as the “morning star,” or Lucifer. For the purpose of our study, we will be referring to him as the Adversary, or any other title that describes his activities. Today we will continue where we left off yesterday. We ended on the note that, the supreme objective of the Adversary, is to be worshipped, in place of God. In other words, he wants for himself, the worship that is due only to God! And he will try to obtain it, at whatever cost to the human family!
When he spoke to Mother Eve, the manner of his conversation was intentional. He chose to subtly, ask her a question about a very clear and precise command that God had given the couple, “…Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’ ” (Genesis 3: 1, NIV, Emphasis provided)? He knew what God had said. He was simply soliciting an entrance to the mind of the woman! It is a question; therefore, she must unlock, or put to work several areas of the brain to process it, and then come up with an answer. He had gained entrance to her mind. Now, he could begin to plant seeds of doubt! He had opened the door to question God’s authority!
I believe that one of the most valuable lessons we can learn in order to guard the entrance to our minds, is, 1) Do not engage in conversation with the Adversary! You and I have no business talking to the Adversary. We have an Advocate, Jesus Christ the Righteous! Anything that needs to be said, should be said, to our Lawyer. Remember, “Anything you say can be used against you…!” In today’s Christian circle, I hear too many of us talking about the enemy of our souls as if we were equals. We are not! So anything that needs to be said, let Jesus say it on our behalf. Jesus is superior to the enemy! He has already conquered the enemy! He is the only match for the enemy!
2) Remember that God sees the bigger picture; we do not! God had already spoken very clearly to Adam, “…You may freely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Genesis 2: 16, 17). From the book, Patriarchs and Prophets, we read the following words, “The angels had cautioned Eve to beware of separating herself from her husband while occupied in their daily labor in the garden; with him she would be in less danger from temptation than if she were alone” (53). They had both been warned!
Tomorrow we will continue with this conversation!