Listening to the Wrong Voices

Genesis 3: 1 - 5, Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'"Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." NKJV

Adam and Eve were doing very well in life until Satan decided to show up dressed like a serpent and deceive Eve. We know the serpent deceived Eve because Paul confirms it as truth in 1 Timothy 2: 14. Satan could mislead Eve because she didn't know God, or her identity as a daughter of God. Had she known the truth, Eve wouldn't have fallen prey to Satan's lie, which caused her to sin in order to become like God. It is imperative for new believers to become disciples of Jesus, so that they learn their spiritual identity and are not robbed by Satan's deceptive schemes.

Because of Eve's spiritual ignorance, Satan could cast doubt in her heart about God and His command to refrain from eating the Tree of Knowledge. Like I stated earlier, Adam and Eve were tremendously blessed until Satan came into the story. After the serpent engaged Eve into a conversation, he began to feed her another opinion about the consequences of sin; and he sounded believable.

Satan used doubt to rob Adam and Eve of their spiritual inheritance and blessings from the Lord. As a result of their sin, they were driven out of the garden of provision, where God had supplied their every need; now, they had to work in order to eat. When we entertain a voice of doubt that offers another opinion or option to what God has told us to do, then we are playing around with something that is going to be used to rob us of our spiritual blessings from God.

Doubt occurs when we vacillate between two opinions because we may not like or agree with what God has said to us concerning something in our hearts or in our lives. Obviously, Eve wasn't exactly pleased with God's instruction not to eat of the forbidden fruit, or she wouldn't have listened to another opinion. There was something in Eve's heart that opened her up to consider Satan's lies as a viable option to God's point-of-view. Therefore, since we are descendants of Eve, we, too, must guard our hearts, so that we don't receive ANY REPORT that contradicts God's Word as our final authority. If we allow another opinion, other than what God's Word declares, then we are opening the door for Satan, the thief, to rob us. 

If you are struggling with doubt, and you're in need of a touch from God, then begin looking at anything that may be adversely influencing you to believe something that goes against God's Word as being truth. Once the Holy Spirit reveals the doubt, begin separating yourself from the cause of it...through prayer. Now, you can stand on God's Word as your final authority and see the salvation of the Lord. The One who called you is faithful to His Word.

Oh, How I Love Jesus,
Pastor Asa Dockery