WHO TOLD YOU?

Many people (Christians alike) think the Book of Genesis is about creation, well if this was so God left out many of the details. Now the Book of Genesis does talk about things created; the heavens, earth, man, and etc., but more the focus of Genesis are spiritual principles God has established in which man must operate in to be correctly aligned with and to correctly function with Him. One cannot begin at the beginning of God since He has no beginning. The first few chapters of Genesis are a revelation of God by means of what He says and does. The main attraction of Genesis is not creation, but God. In the Jews Torah it starts, “GOD in the beginning.” God is always to be the beginning of all things. God is to be in every area of man’s being and doing, but sadly the zealous and fundamental religious focus on what God did and not on God Himself. I have a good friend who asked me if I thought drinking alcohol was a sin because his denomination has deemed it a sin. He said he has two sheets of verses, from the Bible, that his denomination puts out that proclaims drinking a sin. I asked him how many sheets of paper does his denomination put out that proclaims lying a sin? Paul told the Church in Colossi, “Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. 20Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, 21(Touch not; taste not; handle not;” (Colossians 2:18-21) If we focus on God and what He says and does we then will not get all bogged down in all of these “Touch not; taste not; handle not;” fleshly earthly pursuits of trying to please God. God is not impressed with our keeping of the “ordinances,” He wants to write His commandments on our heart. In the first Chapter of Genesis we also find God provides for man’s physical needs, “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” (Genesis 1:29) Man was taken care of the only thing he lacked was his need for his spiritual development so God planted a garden eastward in Eden (Genesis 2:8) and put man in it for his spiritual maturity and development. The garden was a spiritual arrangement for man’s learning. At first man was not in the garden God planted eastward in Eden. God needed a place to get man alone so God planted this garden so that He could have a place for regular communion and fellowship with man and more important to be able to teach man (whom He created) His ways, His divine spiritual principles that would enable man to do the things God created man for, but alas we know the rest of this part of the story. After Adam’s failure God came looking for him, “And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” (Genesis 3:9-11) When God asked Adam for the “who” He was not asking Adam for information. God already knew the “who.” In the question God was teaching Adam a divine spiritual principle whereby, apart from God there is no other source of knowledge for man. The reason for failure and sin was not what Adam and Eve did not know they sinned in spite of what they knew. All that had to be done to avoid fear and death was to heed the word’s of God. Now through a tragic experience it is now learned that the charge from God, which seemed so restricting, was actually given to help man rather than to hinder him. Also in these verses we find a most critical spiritual truth we must embrace whereby God speaks to man and when man hears Him speak, man is nourished, and man’s correct response back to God means life, but for man’s incorrect response the result is death like with Adam. I do not believe God ever intended for Adam to die. Our walk with the LORD is a walk of faith; believing “God is” who He says He is, means what He says, and will do whatsoever He says He will do. Faith in God comes not by sight nor by our feelings, but by hearing, “ . . . . faith cometh by hearing” (Romans 10:17) not by sight or what we feel. Here God is teaching Adam the same lesson (also see Matthew 4:1-4) He will teach Moses and the Children of Israel in the wilderness, “And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.” (Deuteronomy 8:3) Man lives by every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth and only God’s mouth. God is the one who feeds us and no one else. If we try feeding ourselves then we will get over into strange areas that will carry us out of God. For God to be able to feed us we must open our heart and receive from God as a baby bird in a nest receives from their mother. The LORD is the source of all nourishment and He cannot feed us if we do not open our heart. Man seems to want to take things, but Jesus never took anything, but received all things from the Father. In John we read Jesus words as He was praying, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovdest me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24) God was teaching Adam to be as a little bird, to open up, and respond only to Him; we cannot claim or take anything from God we must receive all that God has for us and we will receive it when and how God wants to give it to us. Who do we think we are to think we can take from God? I hear Christians tell their brothers and sisters to take the authority? Take God’s authority? How can we take something from God? Jesus never did this and is the servant greater than the Master? My friend God never intends for His children to have all things in one day as we try to do. In Matthew we read Jesus teaching the disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11) well, this is more than just words in prayer, but was an instruction to the disciples to daily take whatsoever God has for them (and us) and also was the correct portion of manna for the Children of Israel while in the wilderness to collect. In Proverbs we read, “Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:” (Proverbs 30:8) God was teaching Adam (and us) to eat that which is good for our spiritual development. There is food for different levels of our development. If a new born in Christ tries to eat the stronger meat of the word they will starve to death because they will not (due to age) have developed the ability to understand spiritually what God is giving them. Just the opposite is true with the spiritual man. If a spiritual man takes in only the milk of the word after they have developed some teeth they too will starve death and their teeth will fall out preventing future development. “Convenient food” is based on our spiritual maturity and not on whether it tastes good, looks good, or even sounds good. God never intends to teach us everything in one sitting at the table, but has planned for a long meal with different foods as we grow in the grace and the knowledge of the LORD Jesus Christ. Sadly for Adam and all of mankind he listened to another voice and paid a great price for his disobedience. Peter answered Jesus’ question and said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68) For Adam, God alone had the words of eternal life, but sadly Adam listened to another voice. So to today there are many voices out there in the world we can listen to instead of God’s voice. The world has voices that screams at our flesh to conform itself to. How sad it is to see Christians dress like the world, get tattoos and face piercings (our body is not ours to paint up or mutate), or get hooked on all of the worldly entertainment. Christian musical entertainers today have their own award show where they give each Dove (symbol of the Holy Spirit) Awards for making millions of dollars selling DVDs and CDs like the world does. Remember if it looks like duck, walks like a duck, and sounds like duck it is not a chicken, it is a duck. Well, if it looks like the world, walks like the world, and sounds the world it is not the Gospel message it is a worldly message. Oh how the love of the world rings loud and clear in the ears (me too at times) of most Christians. How can these Christians ever grow in the grace and knowledge of the LORD if they have their sights set on becoming like the world instead of becoming like Jesus which is God’s goal in our lives? John tells us, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1 John 2:15) yet the church has adopted the ways, appearance, and heart of the world. Sadly Adam like the church of today has listened to other voices and the Father is not in them. Many Christians today listen to the many voices of denominations and religion. Sadly the focus on more people coming to church has replaced more people coming to Christ and why? People equal money and money equals power. We say we want the power of God well not so in most churches. Most churches want more money so they can build bigger barns. God is not concerned about building bigger barns (bigger churches) He is concerned about His children coming to know something about the way He functions and operates. In the last 5 or so years preaching and teaching on God’s timing has surfaced as to something that is important in our walk with the LORD. Many Christians think God has a big clock in heaven and He is waiting for a certain time to do things in the earth and in our lives, well that is so far from the truth. We hear, with every turn and twist in the Middle East, God’s second hand has moved closer to the appearing of His Son. Rubbish just rubbish. God’s timing depends not on events or circumstances in the earth, but when OUR heart is right to receive from God. God will not reveal His spiritual things to us until we are capable to understand them. Until then they will be a candle hidden under a bushel and our eyes will be blinded. It is not even about the call of God in our lives because most Christians respond more to the call of God then they do to God Himself. I have done this I know. We must not respond to God like Adam, “And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. Adam responded to God after listening to another voice. We are to love God more than His call of ministry on our lives. Who told you these things? God did. Written by David Stahl