Wartime All The Time

Genesis 

Curtain up. Open Act 1. Enter God. Enter Holy Spirit. Enter His Word. Creation has begun and the wonder of God is expressing itself in the first and most basic character trait God gave humanity in common with Him - creation itself. He longs to produce. He longs to reproduce. He is a father, a lover, and He wants to see Himself - all of His life and perfection - passed on, carried out, and realized through children who He gave the freedom to reject it. It's beautiful. But it's tragic. The power and freedom we have been granted inevitably results in a momentous failure. And here is where I find myself fixed on this particular walk through Genesis...

I am drawn to the series of verses about Satan's temptation of Adam and Eve. I have read them a hundred times, but never quite seen them this way. In Chapter 3, verse 6, something jumped off the page. "...when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate..." 

There are so many dynamics at play in the exchange between the woman and the serpent when you read the Genesis 3 account. Satan planted a lie about the nature of God being good. He insinuated that God held something back in commanding Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Huge questions of the holiness of God, the nature and origin of sin, predestination, the point of creation, and just about every spiritual topic ensue. But I am arrested by that one verse above and what it tells me about where ground zero actually lies in this cataclysmic disaster... 

It wasn't the strength of the serpent's lie that victimized the woman and the man. It wasn't a distance they felt from God after Satan suggested God hadn't been totally honest when He said not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was her flesh that failed. Eve was made of flesh. In order to live on the Earth God had created for them, Adam and Eve had to be properly outfitted. You don't go to the moon without a space suit. You don't take your rotting body into Heaven. So its flesh (salt water + earth) that we get to house the soul and spirit.

And that's just it. Our flesh isn't heavenly. It wasn't back in The Garden either. Its just that way back then, God had placed his created son and daughter in a position where obeying and honoring God (by listening to the Spirit over the flesh) were much easier because sin hadn't yet corrupted them by killing them spiritually. They were filled and surrounded by the Spirit of God. Their spiritwas alive and had ABSOLUTE DOMINION over the flesh...But nonetheless, Adam and Eve ate. 

They had to feed their flesh. They were commissioned to "go forth and multiply" which meant they had sex and I'm betting that it felt good. The verse tell us that Eve decided to eat of the forbidden fruit when she "saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and...desirable to make one wise." Her flesh was stimulated.

Galatians 5:17 tells us that the Spirit of God living in us is in conflict with the flesh. I don't believe this is a minor skirmish. This is War. From the beginning Satan sought to use the world around us by engaging our flesh to pull us away from God; he pulls no punches. He uses the very longings of our bodies to overwhelm us and crowd out the sound of our Spirit. He did it to the woman and the man, and they walked with the presence of God daily in an Earth that hadn't yet been twisted and perverted by the decay of sin. It worked. But it worked because God allowed it to be possible in granting us free will. And again there's the key: No matter how much authority, how much anointing, how much education, experience, or how perfect you may become in your walk with God, the flesh is there.

And its calling.

But so is your Spirit.

Incline your ear. Step on the serpent. Win the War.

If the allure of an apple was enough to trigger a lust for food and beauty and power (or wisdom) that was worth dishonoring their best friend and disobeying the God of creation, then who are we to believe that a little of this or a little of that has no power over us. Yeah, whatever stupid little thing you just thought of in your life that you never address because its not that bad probably is just the kind of IED needed to destroy your whole mission. Don't worry, I've got some bombs to fall on too...