Very shortly after Adam and Eve were created, their free will was tested as well. Satan twisted God’s words and put doubt of God’s goodness in Eve (Genesis 3:1). The battle started in their minds, and continues so today (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). He implied God was withholding something good from them, a lie he continues to use with good success even today.
Adam chose to believe Satan’s lie and act on it, and thus sin entered into the human race (Romans 5:12). Humans, too, used their God-given free will choice to opt for sin. Immediately there were consequences: shame (Genesis 3:7) replaces innocence (Genesis 2:25), guilt and separation from God (Genesis 3:8, 22-24), deception and lies (Genesis 3:10), blaming each other (Genesis 3:12) and continuing consequences of sin in daily life (Genesis 3:16-24).
LESSON FOR TODAY: Having gotten her to dialogue with him and having planted doubts about God’s goodness in Eve’s mind, Satan then denies the truth of God’s Word (Genesis 3:4). Eve misquoted God, saying they couldn’t even touch the fruit, when all God said was that they could not eat it (Genesis 3:3). Satan took advantage of her lack of correct understanding of the Word of God. From this we learn that knowing and believing God’s Word is totally essential for our victorious living today. We must know it completely and totally (Ephesians 4:12; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). Also, we must believe it, especially the part about God’s holiness and hatred of sin. Mistaking patience and grace for approval of sin is very wrong. God will judge sin. Sin does bring death. Satan is a liar and deceiver (John 8:44). Unless a thought lines up with God’s Word it is wrong.
LESSON FOR TODAY: Sin, and demonizing, all start in the mind, in our thoughts. Actions result from mental choices we make. The majority of demonizing consists of demons putting thoughts into a person’s mind or snatching thoughts out of a person’s mind. While they don’t have access to our minds and thoughts to the same extent that God does, the Bible makes it clear that there is some access. Jesus said this in the Parable of the Sower and the Seed: “Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown.” (Mark 4:15). David’s thought to take a census was demonic (I Chronicles 21:1ff; II Samuel 24:1ff). So was Ananias & Sapphira’s greed (Acts 5:3) and Saul’s jealousy/anger (I Samuel 16:14-23). That’s why, when talking about spiritual warfare, Paul says we are to “bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). Not only can Satan’s forces put wrong thoughts into our minds, they can snatch right thoughts out of our minds (Mark 4:15) so that we forget them.
LESSON FOR TODAY: Eve was deceived by Satan because she acted according to her feelings and emotions, putting them over the truth of what God had clearly said (Titus 2:13-15; 2 Corinthians 11:3). Feelings and emotions are fine, important and necessary. They are icing on the cake of life, adding color and enjoyment, and indeed God created them for this purpose, but He didn’t create them to be the source of our decision-making. Our feelings should depend on our rational thought. When our feelings get ahead of it or away from it then trouble comes. You know in your mind that you are an OK person, yet fear you will be a failure and rejected. When feelings aren’t founded on truth they go wrong. The truth is that you are who you are because God created you that way (Psalm 139), but your emotions reject that truth and try to do the ‘thinking’ themselves. We must let our mind explain reality to our emotions. When we place feelings over fact, we are wrong.
by Rev. Dr. Jerry Schmoyer, Christian Training Organization