Mysteries of DARKNESS! Part 3

The WAY of DARKNESS - DIVISION!

From the beginning (Gen. 1:1), God’s ultimate desire was to be a father and have a family to pour His love upon. But scripture reveals that something catastrophic happened between the first and second verse of Genesis 1, in which darkness was able to circumvent with evil, God’s plan for good. I picture an entire world like Sodom and Gomorrah in which the flame of rigorousness was being snuffed out, and evil had become so entrenched in the hearts of the people, the Lord knew they would never repent. Then our first thought concerning this is likely, “Why would God allow this to happen?” Or “Why didn’t He make them repent?” The simplest answer in two words is—FREE WILL! You see, God never wanted robots that He could control. He wanted children like Himself, who could feel love and give love freely and willingly. Free will can be wonderful, but also dangerous. Because the angels were created with free will, darkness was able to deceive one third of the angels (Rev. 12:3-4). Yet, because of free will, two-thirds resisted and remain loyal and serve our Lord to this day. Without free will, we could not choose love or resist darkness!

God gave us a glimpse into His heart when He said, “It is not good that man should be alone (Gen. 2:18),” because He knew firsthand it is not good for God to be alone! Even though He is surrounded by trillions of angels, have you ever been in a large crowd and felt very much alone? I suspect our God experienced that long before we did. So, what was He to do? He brought forth a son (and a daughter) in His own image and likeness that He could love and in turn would love and share their life with Him in an incredibly special place He created that He called the Garden of Eden, which means pleasure.

But can you imagine the hurt He must have felt when darkness in the form of a serpent entered the Garden and beguiled His children? Here is the Biblical account with my notations:

Genesis 3:1–6 1 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 (he was cunningly building rapport with her through a question), ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat 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 has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” (Here is our first indication of how LAW working through the FLESH becomes increasingly restrictive. That’s why later when God gave 10 Commandments, flesh expanded it to 613!). 4 Then the serpent said to the woman (here come the lies), “You will not surely die (LIE 1–God is not trustworthy! “God lied! So, how can you trust anything He says or trust His motives for saying it?”). 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it (“in the day you disobey your Father”) your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God (LIE 2–When you disobey God you are being/becoming like Him! God wants to keep you ignorant, beneath, and inferior to Him, by keeping you from that forbidden tree.) knowing good and evil (LIE 3–Knowledge is power. “When you know what God knows, ‘you will be like God’.” The ultimate plan of darkness is to shift God’s children from being like their Father from Heaven to being like the devil—their counterfeit father from hell. 6 So 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 (LIE 4–Wisdom comes from following a METHOD (I.e. eating fruit), rather than partaking of and following [opening your heart fully to receive] a PERSON. That’s why Jesus said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no LIFE [That other tree] in you (John 6:53)”) she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her (Notice, Adam must have been present and heard the entire dialogue with the serpent), and he ate (Obviously, without objection, she and he believed and literally “swallowed” everything the serpent said).

Did you ever wonder what became of that tree, since the Bible never mentions it again after Genesis 3? The answer is profound. When Adam ingested the forbidden fruit, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil moved supernaturally from being a physical tree in the Garden to becoming a spiritual “tree” living within the heart of Adam, and then within every child born from Adam’s bloodline (that’s us). Today we call this inward spiritual knowledge “conscience,” but knowing good without knowing God by inviting Him to live in one’s heart, can produce a sinful sense of independence—of being not only equal with God, but superior to Him. This manifests as self-righteousness, along with a critical and judgmental spirit, not only of ourselves and others, but against God. Multiplied millions are living in darkness with offense, harsh judgments, and even hatred toward God, while believing they are more righteous than He by following their conscience—what they think and feel—what seems right to them, rather than what God says. And there are those who darkness has convinced that God doesn’t speak anymore, or only through the Bible. How sad!

In Proverbs, Solomon wrote: “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death (Prov. 14:12);” “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But he who heeds counsel is wise (Prov. 12:15),”

Building on the ROCK vs. SAND

This means the entire human race who follows and obeys their conscience, rather than what God says, have become the FOOLISH MAN who Jesus said built his house on SAND—human thoughts and feelings, which are easily shifted by the winds and floods of life, rather than the WISE MAN who built his life on the ROCK—the unshakable Word of God—what God is speaking! (Mat.7:24-27; Lk. 6:47-49).

Jesus spoke another time about the importance of building on the ROCK. He opened this discourse with a question, “Who do MEN say that I, the son of man, am?” Every answer was wrong because they were based on human thoughts and feelings, which like SAND, can shift and change in a second. Then Jesus asked the big question, “But who do YOU say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” This answer was correct because it was not influenced by the weakness of human thoughts and feelings (conscience) but spoken directly to Simon’s heart by God the Father. And the ROCK, the revelation of who Jesus is, is so strong and unshakable, it is the only foundation worthy of Christ building His worldwide Church upon.

When Simon released this revelation, Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you (this is not from a human thought or feeling), but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter (PETROS—the LITTLE ROCK), and on this rock (PETRA—the BIG ROCK) I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:17–18).”

Upon receiving the revelation of who Jesus is and making it PETRA (the foundational bedrock) of his new life, “Simon,” the (Matthew 7/Luke 6) FOOLISH MAN became “Peter,” the WISE MAN. Do you realize Simon was the first son of Adam to be “born again” and be blessed with a new identity, which includes a new name and a new Father. When he was “born again,” Simon Bar-Jonah became Peter Bar-Jesus. Since Adam, every human being has carried his old fallen sin nature. But now since Christ (the Second Adam), every human has the opportunity to be reborn and receive the new redeemed nature of Christ and become a son of God!

The WAY of LIGHT – Unity/ONEness!

There exists an extreme contrast between what God is doing in the earth and what the devil is doing. Bottom line, do you know what it is? Our God is about ONEness--making TWO into ONE, while darkness is about DIVISION--making ONE into TWO!

The Lord speaks to us even through the tiniest part of His creation. He has given us the technology to split an atom, but not the ability to put it back together again. Only God can do that. When atoms are split, they release energy which can never be restored to them. From a human perspective, we could conclude that it's much easier to remain separated than to reconnect. Darkness certainly understands this principle and uses it against us regularly. But from a spiritual viewpoint, when we realize making two into one is not only what God CAN do, it is exactly what He WANTS to do, and that He receives the greatest glory from doing so, then we can release our FAITH and move from the realm of DARKNESS, filled with FEAR and IMPOSSIBILITY, into the realm of LIGHT, filled with LOVE and POSSIBILITY.

From the beginning, as soon as God made Adam and Eve ONE as a couple and ONE with Himself, the serpent slithered into the garden to bring division, and he succeeded once they received a conscience and began operating in their human thoughts and feelings, rather than what God said.

Jesus prayed for us as His disciples,” that they all may be ONE, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be ONE in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me (John 17:20–21).”

Paul explained how Jesus defeated DARKNESS concerning the DIVISION between the Jewish people and us, His Church, “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both ONE, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity (the DIVISION), that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself ONE new man from the TWO, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in ONE body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity (the DIVISION between us) (Eph. 2:14–16).”

Conclusion: DARKNESS is defeated by being ONE IN CHRIST and ONE with His people! Hallelujah!