Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,  but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" "You will not certainly die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. (Gen. 3:1-7-NIV)

 

Each of us are familiar with the above scriptures and most likely have some revelation concerning them.  However, I have some questions for us to ponder. The serpent asked Eve - Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"(Gen. 3:1-NIV) In other words are you truly and genuinely sure of what you heard?  He comes to us the same way. His job is to distort what God said because from the time the words leave the mouth of the speaker and before it gets to our ears, the enemy has come in and distorted how we process the words and given them a different meaning.   Eve did answer the serpent, by saying that they could eat from the garden but not from a particular tree, and, if they did, they would die,  however, did her answer actually relay what God really said?  I tend to think not, simply because they did not experience a physical death, but a spiritual one.

The serpent convinced Eve to eat, she in turn influenced her husband to eat and then, the most fatal of all – they both died a Spiritual death which also caused a ripple effect on all of humanity which in turn God had to re-create himself in the womb of a woman so that would receive eternal life and be brought back to Him without sin.  All of which could have been avoided if Eve had really listened to what God said.

Some of our circumstances could be avoided as well if you learn to listen to what God is saying and not read more into it or take something away from it. I will always believe that listening is an art that each of us should practice daily. Our minds are ofttimes thinking of a response when someone else is speaking. To listen means for us to pay attention to be in that moment and hang on to every word that is being spoken. How many of us can truthfully say today – right now we have put listening into practice? Beloved we must value the people that the Father allows to speak into our lives and then go to the Holy Spirit and inquire of Him -What did God really say?

Sometimes because of our humanness we tend to shut out the voice of who God sends for many different reasons. We may think that the person speaking is beneath us, has no right to speak into our lives, we may even have an unrecognized or denial of an aught in our heart against that person. Regardless of what it is, it is our responsibility to try the Spirit by the Spirit and resist the tactics of the enemy.  Let us strive to be more like Jesus on a daily basis and ask the question continually God what are you really saying to me? When we do, we will not regret having asked the question and waiting for an answer.