If you would be honest with me, I dare say that you have NEVER heard any of this preached or taught before. If so, I would like to meet the person that God is dealing with like He does me. Today's lesson is no exception. You've got a lot to think about in the next several paragraphs. I trust that you will see God's Agape Love in a different light.
Everybody's heard or read the story about Adam, Eve and the devil in the garden of Eden.The devil outwitted God's two creations and stole their authority over the earth. With that authority firmly in his grasp, the devil began to wreak havoc every day since then.
Let's get this fact straight. Angels were created without a free will. Either they serve God without fail or be banished forever. That is what happened to Lucifer and his angels.
Adam and Eve were created with a free will. They could CHOOSE to do anything they wanted to. God wanted to fellowship with someone that CHOSE to fellowship with Him because of a love relationship. Along with the fellowship, God wanted someone He could take delight with. He wanted to spend time loving on His creation.
AFTER God created everything in the first week. And AFTER He made man in his image, He planted the garden of Eden. (Genesis, chapter 2) With the man watching on, God created a beautiful and bountiful place with every kind of tree that was upon the face of the earth. It was a special place for His special man.
How many of you have made or bought something special for your child because you love him. What if some kid in the neighborhood came around and tore that special prize up. That actually happened to me one. Jacob and Aaron were skateboarding with one of their friends in front of our home one day. As it is when you're trying a new trick, Jacob missed the trick, got mad and started jumping up and down on his skateboard. This other kid says, "Let me show you how to do it." I thought he was going to give Jacob a lesson on how to land the trick. Nope. He proceeded to jump up and down on Jacob's skateboard until it broke. And right in front of me, too.
I was more than hot. I was devastated that someone would destroy something that I gave to my son. I sent the dude home with a pretty vivid command.
Remembering that one event out of many, I can see how God felt. It wasn't just that the devil lied. It was more of Adam and Eve had been rooked out of something that they owned. The earth was something that God had created out of love for the man being.
God lost also. He lost a soul-to-soul relationship with His creation. God was deeply hurt by this loss. Can we grasp how He must have felt? He not only felt His tremendous loss, He felt His children's loss also. And that spurred Him to buy Adam and Eve's authority back by the blood of His Son, Jesus.
Now, in Matt. 4, it has been six thousand years since this loss. How much did that eat at God? How long had He yearned to give His present back to His children?
When the God/man, Jesus, heard in His spirit that He needed to go into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, Jesus put off His ego and the possibility of helping a few hundred people. Instead, He went to personally serve notice to the devil that his evil reign over God's prize possession was soon to be over.
No matter what your position is in the body of Christ, you need to square your shoulders back and don't be afraid to boldly face the enemy. We need to be bold enough to enforce God's Love Word against him. We need to be like Jesus. We need to be strong enough with His ability that we will smile at satan's plans and tell our foe that he can no longer work against us.
Being strong in the Lord means that you're determined to take back the stuff the enemy stole from you and your family....our neighborhood....out city....and our nation. It means praying strong prayers. And it means expecting God to show up just like He said He would.
You know, I really did start this blog series to talk about the armor of God. However, God has put me on this fantastic rabbit trail. In the next, few blogs, we're going to look at how Jesus faced the devil in the temptation in the wilderness. You'll see how strong and tough Jesus really was.
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