The method the serpent used was deception. Reading on we see, "and the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." The serpent didn't lie, he just put an extra little twist on the truth. Man did not die in the sense that he ceased to exist, but he was expelled from the Garden. His fellowship (relationship) with God was broken. It was a spiritual death. All of creation fell with man; even the very ground was cursed. Man now had to work by the sweat of his brow to coax an existence from the land that had once freely produced all he could want. All of this was the result of man exercising his free will; his power of choice. Choosing to believe that which he heard from another over the Word of the Lord. From Genesis through Revelation the entire Bible is a record of things that have been and things that are still to come. It is a record of men and women's experiences in life, and how God deals with man. God reveals what he requires to bring us back into a right standing relationship with Himself. We have record after record of fallen man's rebellion and refusal to believe and obey. Today we are no different than the people whose lives we read about in the Old Testament. We face the same struggles; we have the same opportunities offered us. And like everyone who has ever lived on this earth, we too have freewill and the power of choice.

This power of choice is indeed Godlike. We will determine what we will accept and believe; what we will hold as truth without having it dictated to us. Ultimately no one else is responsible for the choices we make but us. Adam said, "but the woman you gave to be with me gave me of the tree and I did eat;" Eve said, "the serpent beguiled (deceived, tricked) me and I did eat." We each one have our own excuses and places to try and lay the blame for our disobedience. But just as Adam and Eve learned, there are unavoidable consequences and results for disobedience (sin).

That which men most highly esteem as being advantageous to them is in reality (spiritually speaking) most detrimental. We are taught to seek to cultivate great intellect; to accumulate knowledge, power and understanding in how to succeed in this world. In our lifetimes we have made enormous technological advances. We have great universities and theological schools where we train our brightest young people to carry on the business of our governments, educational systems, religious institutions, health care, law etc. We believe ourselves to be enlightened and advanced beyond any who have gone before. We have attained these advances through the exercising of our reasoning mind. We have a set of social values, which can be altered and changed to suit society's whims. Often we tend to be quite puffed up with our own great achievements. This is all carnal, limited to this physical realm into which we have been born to live out our mortal lives. Man today has reached the apex of shirking responsibility for his own actions. It is a rare thing today to find any one who is accountable for all that they say and do.

Each age and generation has had their own struggles and hardships to overcome. We are all in a fallen condition; separated from God. The more we grow in the strength of our own reasoning mind, relying on our own perceptions and limited understanding, the further removed from God we become. Whatever you choose to believe, you can find a religion to suit your beliefs. Man has chosen to make religion cater to his whims just as he has established dominion in the other realms of this world. What has all of this to do with God? Absolutely nothing. This is just to establish the state man is in and how he got there.

It is contrary to everything in man to submit to a higher authority; especially one that he cannot see or detect with his senses. We are entirely separated and cut off from the Holy Presence of God. Man can search the world over and never find God, despite the fact that all of creation proclaims that He Is. We should understand that we will never make God do anything. We will never merit or deserve God's attention. If we ever find God, it will be because God initiated the contact. He is the potter; we are the clay. No man can come to the Father except the Father draw him. We will never dictate to God what to do or how to do it. If we ever start down a path toward becoming a spiritual being, it will only be by God's grace. Jesus Christ is the Son of God: he is the Savior of all mankind. He came to this world and lived as a man just like us. He experienced the same kind of trials and afflictions we face, yet without sin. He submitted to death on the cross, at the hands of evil men, without resisting or complaining. He gave his life for us that by believing on him we might be saved from this fallen state and reunited in a relationship with God the Father.

Acceptance of this is contrary to reason. Reason sits enthroned within each individual. If we are to know God, and grow up spiritually we shall have to learn to live and move in a new and unfamiliar realm. The realm of faith. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. As soon as we become a believer we are confronted with what will be an ongoing battle within ourselves, Reason versus Faith. Many have accepted Jesus Christ as the son of God and their personal Savior. We love to embrace that he loves us unconditionally, just as we are; that he paid the price for our sins that we might make heaven our home when we leave this mortal body. What we often fail to embrace with equal enthusiasm is that Jesus is far more than just our Savior; He is also our Judge. He set the example we are called to follow, demonstrating how to live a life that is pleasing to the Father. Jesus paid the price; set the example; and sent the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. When we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, we will have no one to blame our failures on. We will face the results (consequences) of our choices and actions just as Adam and Eve did.

In Proverbs 14:12 it says, There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is death. It is by the use of reason that man has created the many conflicting teachings and beliefs we have in the world today. Jesus said, "I Am the Way, I Am the Truth, I Am the Life, no man cometh to the Father except by Me." Here we are faced with a choice. We must choose, either to believe every word that Jesus spoke and follow him, or to believe the sayings of men and follow our flesh and our reasoning mind. The Word of God plainly tells us what the consequences of our choice will be; everlasting life or eternal damnation. Heaven or hell. Heaven is widely accepted in all religions; hell has fallen out of fashion and is seldom mentioned today. Just because we choose to close our eyes and not believe that there is such a place of eternal punishment, isn't going to make it any less of a reality. By the time one finds out just how real hell is, it will be too late to avoid going there.

We cannot pick and choose the parts of the Bible we will accept, and disregard the parts our mind finds unpleasant or offensive. When we have become a born again child of God we no longer have a right to live our life the way we want. We are no longer to live guided by our reasoning mind, but to be led by God's spirit within and walk by faith. Jesus told us exactly what we have to do to be found acceptable and pleasing in God's sight. We must find out for ourselves what Jesus said, and do it. There is no other way. When we listen to other voices and walk in disobedience we are setting ourselves up for a fall. There is no "once saved always saved." We cannot go through the Bible and just pick out what appeals to our flesh and disregard the rest. We cannot twist the scriptures to support our own personal interpretation. Taking parts of God's Word is how men have created the many different denominations we have today. Jesus came with one Gospel. Men have found much of what Jesus said hard to accept, because to walk in it requires dying to our fleshly nature. Here are some verses that help emphasize the necessity to die to our carnal ways of living, and learn to live by the spirit of God within.

John 3:6 That which is born of flesh is flesh; and that which is born of spirit is spirit.

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Rom. 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.

Gal. 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

There are many more verses that could be shared, but these few are enough to illustrate that the flesh is opposed to the spirit. Only one can reign in our hearts and lives, and we must choose whether we will live by our flesh or by our spirit. Those things which Jesus taught; turn the other cheek; love your enemy as yourself; forgive seventy times seven; if followed will bring about death to self. First of all, we cannot do them in our own strength. Our flesh is all for self-preservation. But as we look to the Christ within, and lean on HIS strength and not our own, we discover a transformation taking place within ourselves.

What we are confronted with today is the same struggle that man has faced since time began. But we have been given the tools to overcome our flesh and the enemy. We can walk in spiritual realms while in these earthly bodies. That, which is about to begin worldwide, is the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Not according to any man's ideas or interpretations, but according to the truth of God's purposes that are expounded from Genesis through Revelation. The veil that has covered man's eyes [understanding] is about to be removed. There will be no hiding from it, and no escape. Judgment begins at the House of God, which thing we are. Because He loves us, God is going to judge us. Once again, we have the choice; to listen, obey and get our house in order now before the judgment begins or to go through being chastened of the Lord. One way or another we will learn to submit and let God be God.

There is so much that God desires to give us as his children, if we will only obey. Obedience is critical. If we will let Him, God will transform us into 'vessels of honor.' He will open our understanding and empower us to accomplish all that He desires for us to do. Rest assured, we will never reach the mark of the prize of the high calling of God by following 'reason.' We will never have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ through any other person. We must seek to know him for ourselves. As we come to know him personally, we will learn to know his voice.

We can learn from examples given in the Bible, that God often tells people to do things that go contrary to 'reason'. Noah was told to build an ark when it had never rained and men had never witnessed a flood. Reason screamed that it was crazy. But Noah was obedient and when the flood came only he and his family survived. Today there are multitudes of voices that will tell us "God wouldn't do that." We will only learn what God will and won't do by drawing close to God in an intimate relationship. As we draw close to God we will have to lay aside all of our preconceived thoughts and ideas. We will be forced to live and walk by faith; to believe God's word to us above what seems to make more sense to our natural man.

There is a way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof is death. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Casting down imaginations, and every thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

We have before us the most incredible opportunity ever given man: To usher in the Kingdom of God. The prophets of old, the saints and apostles all saw glimpses of this day, but we are living it. The only hindrance to our successful participation is not the devil, but something much closer to home; our own logic and reason, our own complacency, our own unbelief. The choice is ours. We will live with the results of our choices for all eternity. Are we walking in our own way; a way that seems right to us and we are comfortable with; or are we daily dying to self and following Christ wherever he will lead us? Jesus said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."

Read that verse again. It did not say that if you continue in the parts of my word that are pleasing to your flesh you will be my disciple and know the truth. Jesus very specifically and emphatically stated the conditions we must meet. We must continue in His word, every word He spoke, if we will be His Disciple. We must live, dwell, abide in His word, allowing His word to change us into a new creature.

We see in 1Cor. 3:11-15 -

"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned , he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

This is the fire that is coming friend. And anything we are holding to that is not of God, it is going to be thoroughly destroyed. Here Paul was speaking to Christians about what Christians were building on the foundation of Christ. If we are using the wrong building materials, we are going to suffer loss. The people of the world are not building anything. They are going after life's pleasures. This applies to Christians today even more than it did in Paul's time. When Jesus begins to judge His house, what we believe is going to be tried by fire. Are you willing to risk that this judgment won't come in your lifetime? Are you willing to cling to some doctrine or revelation you received from someone based on it's appeal to your sense of reason? Think about it.

We are told to...

"work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is as filthy rags."

"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." And "behold I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie."

Jesus is coming back, and very soon. We do not have an unlimited amount of time to decide if we will serve him or not; to decide how much of his word we will believe. This power of choice [free will] which God has given man is a very awesome responsibility. We need to wake up and realize that there is much more at stake here than winning an argument on a point of doctrine. We are going to spend eternity reaping the results of the choices we make in this life. I can think of nothing more painful and humiliating than to have to stand before the Lord of all creation armed only with feeble excuses for why I refused to believe and obey. There is no excuse, when Jesus has already paid the price. The only reason for us to fail is that we refused to obey; we refused to lay down our self-life; we refused to take up our own cross; we refused to believe God's word above our own reasoning. Eternity is longer than we can even comprehend. God will not force himself on us. He makes the invitation: He makes the way: We make the choice. What will we choose?

There are many deceivers in the world today. They may appear as angels of light, with words that are pleasing to the ear. Beware of what you accept. If it is pleasing and satisfying to our fleshly nature a warning flag should go up. We have a responsibility, 1 John 4:1 "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."

We have a responsibility to seek to know the truth. 2 Thess. 2:10-11 "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." There is a choice man makes here. God does not send a delusion without first giving them an opportunity to know (accept) the truth. Only after refusing and rejecting the truth does the delusion come. That should be a sobering realization for all of us.

If we willfully try to make the gospel of Christ into anything other than what it is, for whatever reason, we are in danger of totally missing the mark. Death is the result of following our own thoughts and ideas, no matter how good they may sound. We need more than theology. We need more than good works. We need to seek God with all our heart and soul, till we know for certain what we believe and why we believe it. Our goal must be "till not I live, but Christ liveth in me." We must sentence to death every thought that would exalt itself against Christ. We must become a living sacrifice.

Jesus said, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth to life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheeps clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit: but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

We do not want to be confronted with this statement ourselves. We have the responsibility to "make our calling and election sure."

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.

We need to take what we believe very seriously. "Lest at any time we should let them slip" would suggest that it is possible to slip. We must make every effort to hold fast to that which we have received. If we take our eyes off Jesus, if we fall into unbelief regarding anything that Jesus said, we are placing ourselves in danger.

We need to realize that we may be guilty of casually making choices, without giving them the proper consideration they deserve. [Esau gave us his birthright for a bowl of soup, simply because at the moment he was more concerned with being hungry. Though later he repented and wept, what was done could not be undone.] We must guard our hearts. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." We must guard our hearts. This is a full-time commitment.

We see in John 12:44-50 Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

We see here that the words which Jesus spoke are what we shall be judged by. Jesus spoke what he heard the Father speak. If we fail to believe and reject the gift of God to us, we shall be judged by the very words we chose to reject. We all need to stop assuming that we know what the Gospel of Christ is. Most of us have been content to sit and listen to someone tell us what to believe. The time has come when we all need to get back into the Word of God for ourselves. Ask the Holy Spirit to open understanding. Read and reread the Gospels [Matthew, Mark, Luke & John]. Find out for yourself all that Jesus said. Don't be content with less than a full understanding of Who Jesus Is, What Jesus Did and What Jesus Expects of us as his disciples. We will need much prayer, meditation, and commitment to come to this knowledge. The Father promises us that if we seek, we will find. Just don't be surprised if some of the answers are different than you have been led to believe. May we all be pressed to seek to grow in our relationship with our Lord as never before, and may He richly bless and strengthen us for the work ahead.