Part 2, Our animalistic nature and temptation

I finished the last post with these words:

And the Lord God had said, that in the day that you"eatest thereof ( of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) thou shalt surely die."  Whenever I, by choice, whether knowingly or unknowingly, follow desire or lust I have chosen to respond to something externally  based on how it will "make me feel, make me wise., etc.  rather than  to choose to drink of the internal life of God which fills me by Holy Spirit.  I cannot use my will to "make myself feel good" and drink of the water of Life in Christ Jesus at the same time. 

Our language of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil comes in many expressions.  And when we understand this we will understand Genesis 3:16 more fully.  And I will save this for yet another time of musing. 

When the serpent tempted woman in the Garden, he appealed to her "desire" or what some of us might call our "lust." We women can especially identify with this when it comes to some handsome young man who comes into our life and suddenly we feel that great sense of warmth, an actual physical feeling. I can still remember sitting in my boyfriend Bill's Studebaker in front of my mom's house at about age 16, and Bill reached over and held my hand. I still remember that warm feeling that filled my body.  The men reading this will probably identify with the stimulating feeling in the genital area of your body when you see a sexy woman go by.  That is "desire." That is "lust."   It is neither good nor bad in and of itself because it is an operation of our human being just as it is of the rest of the animal kingdom.  The difference between us as humans and the rats and dogs and the cats is that we have the ability to recognize that "desire" or "lust" and choose whether or not we will respond to it or whether we will choose to address that desire or lust with other choices, other thinking, stirring up other feelings.  One way of describing such a process is the "renewing of our minds."  It is a process and doesn't happen without some kind of intervention and invitation to make a choice.  Sometimes many of us "delayed" gratification of that lust because we "thought it was wrong" and stuffed it down only to find that it wasn't something that disappeared and often then it  was gratified  "sideways."

The result of woman being "deceived" by all that "stirred her" externally as the animal aspect of our human nature was stirred by the invitation to feel good (which invitation itself stirs the desire and creates a state of feeling already which then we have choice to deal with if we are aware) was that she made the choice unwittingly  to invite the deception of the pull of her own animalistic desire to separate herself from the Source of Life itself. Her relationship in and by the Spirit of God was broken as she yielded to an external source which had made her "feel good."

The ultimate result found in Genesis 3:16 (please note the similarity to John 3:16 which is the redemption from Genesis 3:16) ...that woman's DESIRE would be for her husband and he would rule over her.

How often have I heard people refer to Geneisis 3:16 as the basis of male and female relationships as Christians in their own sense of deception and ignorance?  Of course I can talk about "them" knowing that I spent most of my adult LIVING in that sense of deception and error, in that place of desire and lust.  My language of those years and sometimes even now  tells the tale.   He makes me feel good. He makes me happy.  He upsets me  Even as parents how often are we deceived in our understanding as we say things like: My child frustrated me. My child made me angry. You made me feel good. You made me mad.  

These are all the language of deception come from our animalistic nature which was fed by the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
If I am dependent on you to make me feel good, to make me happy, then what am I without you?   Therefore, I will continue to "desire you" because I need you and am dependent upon you to make me feel good. (my dopamine delivery system working at its best.) 

When we look at the other side of the "fall of man", what we see is the difference between woman's deception and man's knowing choice.
Woman's fall came out of the deception of "feeling" and "desire" which overwhelmed her ability to make a decision. She was deceived into thinking that that "feel good state" was something that her relationship with God had kept her from having.  You know something....it was true. That isn't how we function when we are in Christ. It isn't about my feelings.  Joy isn't about "feeling joy."  Being blessed isn't about "being happy".  Being at Peace, isn't about feeling peaceful.  It is a state of being that comes from relationship IN Peace Himself, in the Beloved, being in the Joy Giver.  Yet, how often do we still talk about "how good it felt to be in church!!" How good it felt to be in the presence of God!!    yikkes....that cuts some of us to the core of our "spirituality" doesn't it!! 

So what was the story of Adam's sin?   If you read the scriptures it says, "The woman you gave me to be with me,, she gave me of the tree and I did eat "(KJV).  Earlier it is said: "She took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat." The big difference between the two actions of woman and man, is that she was deceived or "beguiled" as KJV puts it.  She also said of the situation: "The serpent beguiled me and I did eat."  We are able to understand now that her "eyes were opened" and she saw the consequences of her actions, that she had indeed been "beguiled or deceived."  If one wants to interpret this to say she "blamed the serpent", I personally think that that is not within the context of this scripture. It would, on the other hand, appear to be "an eye opener," to see that indeed she had been deceived, fooled and that she had responded to that state by eating of it.    Is that blame?  

Now it comes to Adam.  We know that Adam had been told as we see in Gen: 3 11, that he had been "commanded" not to eat.  Back to Genesis 2: 17. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good nad evil, though shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest therefore thou shalt surely die."    But that is not the end of the Lord God's conversation with Adam.  He also said  BEFORE WOMAN WAS CREATED....at the time the commandment to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that It is  not good that man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him."  Scripture goes on to say that when woman was brought to man  Adam said, This is now bone of my bons, and flesh of my flesh; she sall be called Woman, because she was taken out of an.  Therefore shall aman leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And they were  both naked, the man and hiw wife and they were not ashamed.

Prior to Adam partaking of the fruit that woman was to give him, he lived in relationship to her in a state of "fellowship."  He saw in her some "parts of himself" that previously had been a part of his own being....now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.  She shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man."

Now the commandment had been given to man and he was not deceived or beguiled.    The serpent hadn't worked that animalistic type of "desire" on man as he had with woman whereby she made the decision to eat of the fruit out of what we might call an "altered state of being."  I am kind of laughing at this as I look back at my own life and realize how often I made decisions out of an "altered state of being."  Something or someone had "made me feel" a certain way and I unwittingly responded to the situation or person out of that altered state of being. We understand today from the research that has opened up our understanding and given us knowledge even as God has spoken saying that in the last days knowledge will abound, that this is all about our "dopamine pathways".  We understand this when it comes to pornography, that there is a physical change in the structure of the brain when people continue to get sexual stimulation from looking at sexually stimulating pictures.  And that stimulation creates a "demand" in the brain each time the brain visualizes anything like it for more and more of that stimulation. The same with gambling.  The more thrill you get "from" gambling, the more desire a person will have that draws them back to gambling.  The same is with extreme sports, sometimes with exercise, often with food, and even work!  

So where was Adam at the time that woman handed him the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?  Unlike woman (she had not yet been named Eve)  who was in a state of deception due to whatever animalistic desire had been activated in her brain and had overpowered her ability to make a --for lack of a better word, a rational decision based on what God had told Adam.  Adam had full control of his decision making process. And what did he know?  He knew that God had told him not to eat of it if he wanted to live.  He also knew that since woman had eaten of it and was now separated from him, that God had also said : It is not good for man to be alone."  He knew that this woman he was now separated and he chose to receive the fruit rather than be separated from that was "bone of his bones, flesh of his flesh."    He was not in the "heat of desire."  He was not under the influence of a Satanic  deception.  Adam sinned knowingly, choosing separation from God rather than separation from "bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh."    

In the business that I have been in for 12 years and from my life experience, I can still say that while the male species does succumb to "desire and lust" as do all of us human beings since "sin entered into the human lifestyle and children were begat out of desire rather than conceived by and in the prescence of God as before the Fall" I continue to see men make horrendous decision just because they don't want to be "alone, without a woman."

Alone even for many of us females seems like a death sentence in itself. AH, sounds a little like "original sin?"   

I have to say that I can identify with that. There were times in my life I did not have faith and trust that the Lord God  could keep me if I didn't have the husband I had there to meet my needs.  And I certainly didn't know how to trust in the Lord to meet my needs when I had a husband who "didn't meet all my needs and expectations."

The end result of this sin of Adam and woman:   Besides saying that he would "greatly multiply thy sorrow and they conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;   He says....and thy desire shall be  to they husband, and he shall rule over thee. "


The quickest way to give another person power over you is to "expect them to make you happy."  We use this kind of language all the time, sometimes expressed in the positive. "You make me happy."   or in the negative  "You make me sad."   THIS is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Our original sin, as some call it, is relying on something outside of ourselves to affect our feelings instead of taking responsibility for our own feelings and realizing they come from our experiences and are there to "give us choices to act with our will."  So when I am angry, I accept that those are my feelings, based on my experiences that were stirred up by the way I think about something that has happened.   This is the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus. To make choices based on who we are, how we feel and then to be able to be "renewed in the spirit of our minds" according to the Mind of God as stirred in us by the Holy Spirit....to as many who have received the Spirit by faith in Jesus Christ.

When I look to you and say you make me happy, that "feeling" is now controlling me and I WILL expect you to be the agent to affect my emotions again and again. And if you don't.....I will feel violated, and I will blame you for "making me angry" and put the responsibility on you to change you, instead of seeing the whole situation with my feelings and my happiness and my anger as something that comes from and out of my relationship with the Holy Spirit with whom I am connected spirit to Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ, when I became a "new creature" in Christ Jesus, instead of the old man after my animalistic nature acquired through the first Adam when he knowingly separated himself from Life in God.

Sin is "missing the mark."  What is the mark?  RELATIONSHIP IN AND WITH GOD.   Missing the mark is not violating the Law.  When I violate the Law, I missed the mark of relationship in Jesus Christ.  Life in Christ who fulfilled the Law frees me from the consequences of violating the law which is death and separation from God.  When Adam ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he chose gratification by his own will and choice rather that ongoing Life and it's gratification in God.  Gratification by our own will always feeds more and more "desire" for more gratification. And that desire is illuminated by our understanding of what is "good and bad."   Knowledge of good and evil, says Paul, is a force working in me that is independent or separated from my conscious choice. (Rom. 6-8)  What is my salavation from such "knowing?" Life in Christ Jesus accessed through response to the gentle invitation of Holy Spirit to have faith (the measure of is given to each to believe) in the invitation and availability of His life.

Part 3 will follow some day...

 

Our Animalistic Nature and Temptation  Part 1




I started this post after getting a phone call from my dear friend Diane telling me of the death of her oldest daughter Annette last night. Annette has battled alcoholism and other addiction for many years.

 Many of you who read this  have probably come to the same conclusion that I and many of those I work with and know,  which is, that we hate alcohol and drug addiction!! We hate what it does to people and how it gets them stuck, known to many of us as bondage!!  My heart has gone out to Diane and Annette the last two years since Annette has been back in her active alcoholism,  cleaning up for a week or two and then unable for some reason to get into a program of recovery, of going back to her drinking. The back and forth of drinking and not drinking completely screws the brain up. It acclimates to the drinking, then the drinking is withheld and it tries to acclimate to no alcohol and it isn't unusual that in one of the cycles, the brain forgets how to tell the heart to beat or the lungs to breathe!   Likewise the heart muscle full of alcohol for two or three days gets used to functioning with it, and then it is gone,  works to adjust to no alcohol and it wears on the heart muscle until sometimes it just doesn't function at all.   In either of these cases, CPR often doesn't work  because the brain or the heart just isn't in the condition to work.

Even for those who know Jesus, learning to draw from His Life revealed in us by Holy Spirit, recovery from such bondage  is a learning/growing  process and  journeyg that often gets totally screwed up by the "bondage" issues we have found ourselves in.  Oh how we wish that suddenly we were all different!! Even for those of us who have been "delivered" out of bondage, it takes the process of learning to walk and exercise faith to grow in the security of His love so we don't go back again into the bondage from which we were freed!! 

 I think of a dear friend who was dealing with some serious issues in her life and she went to see a deliverance minister who gave her very wise advise.  This isn't fitting for all people but was seemingly appropriate in this situation.  The minister told her something like "I could cast out those forces that are coming against you, but because you do not have the security with which to stand against them and secure the ground so they don't come back in, the end result would probably be worse than where you are now."  She therefore recommended that the woman go home and sink her roots deep into the love of God in Christ Jesus and gave her some specific suggestions saying that as she grew on the foundational level those forces that were harassing her would increasingly lose their power.  In her situation they were not forces that kept her from her drawing out of the life of Christ but were just harassing her walk and circumstances.

I had a client just last week tell me that he had prayed what some call a first step prayer, .asking God to take away his cravings so he could move on through the learning growing process of recovery without that constant demand. He reported that they were removed to the point his brain didn't automatically tell  him to go take a drink or a drug without him having the opportunity to make a decision about it. That demand is a function of the dopamine pathway of the brain which when it is overstimulated as it often in with drugs and alcohol and other addictive behaviors such as pornography, gambling, eating disorders and sexual behaviors, it overpowers our frontal lobe inhibiting our ability to make a rational choice or judgement, but calling forth our animalistic survival mechanisms into place which we act on apart from conscious choice.

Recently I heard someone talk about the temptation of Adam and woman in the garden.  Who was the tool by which Satan deceived woman?  It was the serpent which is what???  An animal!!!  And what does the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil activate in the human being? What did it activate in woman?  Her animalistic desire, lust, need, whatever you want to call it.  If you look at the language of the serpent animal's proposition, so to speak, to woman, was that it will "make you beautiful, make you wise, and it will be good to taste."  These things like ANYTHING that we rely on to "make us feel good" activate our dopamine pathways which come out of our "survival" or "old brain" which is the same portion of brain every creature in the animal kingdom has.  The different between the human being and the rest of the animal kingdom is that our frontal lobe is more highly developed so that we have been given the "freedom" to make free choices between our thoughts, our feelings and chose our actions apart from "instinct" or programmed DNA responses.   We can choose who we have sex with while those in the animal kingdom are programmed by their DNA what choices. Maybe we'd be better off being like the geese who are programmed to mate with one mate for a life time (just joking).  Most of us can readily admit we have engaged in sex "to make ourselves feel good" and even prompted by the "desire" or "lust" or "feeling horney". To relate on such a base is to engage on the same basis as the animals engage in sexual activity. And we often hear ourselves and  other human beings say things such as "Well, I have needs."  Or "I am just doing what comes naturally."

 Love, on the other hand,  by it's  very nature as we understand our God, our creator, our Lord and our Saviour who Is Love provides choice....free choice.  He created us with the freedom to choose to be in relationship with Him and other people by choice not by animalistic drive and/or satisfaction.

 In the Garden, the serpent (an animal) was used by Satan/Devil to stir up that instinctual part of woman to invite her to respond to that animal, lower nature of desire rather than choose to continue in total fellowship with the Lord God and Adam.  I  have wondered for years how woman was "deceived." And it was only this past week after hearing Joseph Prince preach and refer to Satan as using an "animal" to tempt woman, that some of what I am sharing here was illuminated in my understanding. This post is an effort to share with you some of what I am seeing and learning as the Lord shows me some of these things.

Most  of us can say we understand that wonderful feeling called "lust."  At least we used to call it wonderful. That warm feeling that goes all over our body when we are stirred by something or someone or when "desire" is stirred up?  It is always a desire "for something to make us feel some way."  Sounds just about the language we see in Genesis that was used with woman.  And the Lord God had said, that in the day that you partake of the "fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" you will die.   Whenever I, by choice, whether knowingly or unknowingly, follow desire or lust I have chosen to respond to something external based on how it will "make me feel, make me wise., etc.  rather than  to choose to drink of the internal life of God which fills me by Holy Spirit.  I cannot use my will to "make myself feel good" and drink of the water of Life in Christ Jesus at the same time. 

Our language of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil comes in many expressions.  And when we understand this we will understand Genesis 3:16 more fully.  And I will save this for yet another time of musing. 

Meri

Does God Slap Us?

March 5, 2013

Have you ever heard a person say something like, "God needed to slap me in the face to get my attention."  I heard this recently and actually had enough restraint to keep my mouth shut. But inside I was shouting, That isn't MY God!"   I read on a post tonight by Charles Capps that the Word says that Paul attributed his thorn in the flesh to an emissary of Satan sent to buffet him.

I have so often heard people talk about God kicking their butts and things like that.  That isn't my God who  revealed himself in Jesus Christ, who paid for my sin and who makes His power available to me to deal with any circumstance in my life.  When through my failures I reap consequences such as a Driving Under the Influence charge, it isn't God doing it. That probably isn't even the devil, but the consequences of my flesh seeking the self satisfaction that it is used to having.


Have you heard men talk about being a "good man?"  I often hear this kind of language from people and even one video that I use tells the audience "they are good." The more I thought about this kind of thinking the more I realized this kind of person often  thinks they deserve the wonderful things God does for them because they are "good". Otherwise they wouldn't think it is "bad" or God is treating them "badly" when uncomfortable and unpleasant things happen.I have a friend  who says he  is a "good man" and he calls everyone good . What is he measuring himself up against? What is his standard of good?  And often "good people" thing they deserve all the "good things" in their lives because they think they are good.

Paul says to see no man after the flesh but Jesus Christ and him crucified.    I value men because they are alive and they have worth and value because of the Life that they have that my God gave them and through which He desires to have fellowship with them.  Jesus is the only one that makes it possible for God to have fellowship with us and the only reason that I can value and honor and respect another person, not because of their works either positive or negative.

I know very ""nice men", who have great smiles and who seem to be highly functioning in terms of society and the ability to "make money" and gain acceptance in society. But they are just   "dead" good men.They may be men who live by a higher sense of morality than others. However, we know that this animalistic/flesh man in us does not ever submit 100% to any standard of "rightness." It fights against relationship with God as a result of the seed of Adam. So how often we find men that are very "moral" suddenly fall because they aren't "righteous"? How easily are we deceived even as woman was in the Garden!
 
How could we see it when we see ourselves through our own judgement of "good and bad" and as a result partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil?  We are deceived of the capacity of our own human nature and it's characteristic limitedness that needs the life of Jesus Christ in us and us in Him to have a relationship with the Father!!   And He alone is "good".
With that I will close and hopefully in  the next few days I will have to time share some musings about what constitutes "righteousness" which could be considered part two of this subject.


Meri Ford

Meri Ford
516 Park Rd
Winlock, WA 98596
360 520 4503
blog http://meriford.blogspot.com/