When Things Fall Apart

Humankind carries a lot of spiritual baggage. I’m not just talking in terms of our individual selves but as progenies of Adam and Eve, “the original sin” Of course we know the story of Adam and Eve, but have we really examined it and applied it to our existence in this realm. Of course we can blame Eve for all or hold Adam as the co-signer, but we cannot leave it at that. We really have to look at the story and understand that it is so much larger than that.

Adam and Eve’s fall from grace sets the stage for humankind’s step into sin and gives us the term “original sin” (spiritual baggage). For us to get on point we must also understand that Genesis not only gives us an important lesson on the repercussions of not following God’s words but also how Satan tricked Adam and Eve. Most importantly we need to look at their fall from grace as an illustration of how the enemy still operates against us. His game has not changed.

Before we go into Genesis, we have to first understand that Lucifer hated Adam and in turn hates his descendants (us). Lucifer resented Adam’s creation and his relationship with God. Remember Adam was made in God’s imaged (as were the angels) and was gifted with the free-will (as were the angels). Lucifer in a sense had an extremely twisted case of sibling rivalry. After his fall from grace, his next step was to destroy mankind, remember misery loves company. Thank God, (literally) Adam & Eve (as well as us) was offered life and God’s favor. Let’s take a look into how it all began.

Places Everybody

”Gen 3:2 “But of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” Right here we can see that Eve had a clear understanding of God’s word, as do we. We often times know what we shouldn’t do but we allow the enemy to convince us otherwise.

Rule #1

What ever goes in direct opposition of what God has instructed, don’t even entertain it.

If you can debate a notion w/ biblical base, don’t deal with it. How many times has an idea popped in your head that you knew was not of God. Now, how many times have you gone ahead with it, knowing it was wrong? Can you say the result has been good? I’ll go one better, since you have established a relationship with God, has he not responded firmer than ever when you have gone against his will? New Agers try to call it karma; it is what I like to call divine correction. What that means is that since you are conscious of his existence and his power, he has to remind you of who HE is. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible quality-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. That is why it is imperative that when you fall short, you run to the Son and repent .His role is to intercede on your behalf to the Father. He paid the price, respect him.

After the enemy poses an ungodly idea in your head his next move is to lie …

Gen 3:4: “And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not die:”

Now what did Eve just tell him…. She said God told her that she should die. Not maybe die or be uncomfortable in your existence but die … point blank. We are familiar of the biblical quote, then when lust is conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin when it is finished, brings forth death (Jam 1:15).

I am using this verse in the context of sex but lust can be manifested in other areas of lives in the form of the worldly paradigm of materialism. Lust is often applied to sex but it is an intense desire for things that can overtake you. How many times have you looked at a new car that just came on the market with an “I want it”, I’ve got to have it!!” mentality? Have you become obsessed with how it looks, how it feels? You may have dressed it up in new shiny rims or a spoiler kit. You then begin to imagine how you’d look in it. You’ve got to have it! At all cost, regardless of income or deposit request. That is how lust works: via the tangible and intangible desires of your wants. While in Ephesus, John writes in 1 John these prophetic words “because everything in the world desire –the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of ones means of life –does not originate with the Father but with the world”

In this day, the repercussions of the desire for physical gratification can be taken on two very important levels. With the rise in HIV, and no cure in sight it can be evident that physical indulgences can lead to physical death. Now that is not to say that all the HIV cases are from illicit sex acts but we can not ignore that there is steady rise in Aids cases in the heterosexual population, especially in African American women. This rise is not based on nationality, education, or economic levels. In most instances rises are based on poor choices, and not necessarily choices made by you or I.

We already know that sex before marriage is a no-no but we are in love and the enemy convinces us to pose the question “why not” .Let me set the scene.

You know for a fact that neither of you has been with anyone for the past 6 months or longer. You go ahead and decide to become physically intimate. As you both feel more comfortable a decision is then made to no longer use a condom. Your sweetheart may be the most faithful and loving person in this whole wide world. Unless he or she is a virgin; (as are you); can you honestly vouch for the moral integrity of other person(s) you or your new love may have slept with? Now extend the question Can you say this of your past partner’s ex lovers? And so on. The horrifying truth is that even though you may have only slept with one or two people, you may have in essence slept with 100+ other people via this one person. The enemy will not tell you the truth, ever. The enemy will make everything he presents to you look good and seem reasonable. Be assured if its not ordained by God, it is a lie.

Rule# 2

The enemy will lie by any means necessary.

The lie may be cloaked in the veil of love or logic. (When in doubt go back to rule #1 What ever goes in direct opposition of what God has instructed, don’t even entertain it.

Now say that the relationship fails. You may not have contracted any diseases, but what of your true essence. Your feelings are hurt and your spirit is broken. It says in Proverbs 18: 14 “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear?”. So many questions fill you head and heart. “Wasn’t I pretty enough?” “Didn’t I treat her right?” Beyond the physical, your heart is crying out, putting you through something. You feel empty and robbed. In a sense you are correct. When we let people into our intimate realms, they are bound to touch some aspect of our soul. When they leave, that’s when we realize something is missing in our life or most often we begin to believe something is wrong with us. Again, we are correct. When any woman allows a man to enter inside of her or a man places himself inside of a woman, they are one (one flesh) and their souls are intermingling and sharing energy. The purpose of a physical union between man and woman is to become one flesh. Once we become one flesh in the body we become also one in the spirit.

When people leave out of our lives we immediately identify something wrong with us. We are correct, but we allow the enemy to direct the realization to negative carnal areas that are completely false. What is actually wrong with us is that a piece of our soul is gone away with our departed lover along with the CDs and ½ the rent money. Whatever you have shared intimately with another on any level (spiritual, mental, or physical), is now being experienced by another person via your departed lover. That’s why we get fits of paranoia .We become obsessed about people knowing our business or being caught up in the “I bet she is doing #@!*!! with him” or He is probably telling her $#@@!^ about me”. We are responding carnally to a spiritual assessment that we are not spiritually matured enough to contend with. Our spirit is inherently smarter than our flesh. Our spirit does a daily check and balance, whether we realize it or not. Our spirit knows that a fragment of it is floating out there somewhere being examined and explored and quite possibly exploited by someone who has no business with it or concern for it. Rather than going through mental and emotional warfare, enduring the enemy’s attacks, we must run to Christ for healing. A joint or a pipe will not do it. A drink will not numb the pain. Satan is a liar. You must go to Christ in all your hurt and pain, knelling before him upon your faith. He knows it all; he saw it and wept with you. He already knew how it was going to end. All that is required in that you come to him. My sistah, he will say to you as he did to the woman with an issue of blood, ”Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace’. (Luke 8:48) My dear beautiful brother, contrary to popular belief, you hurt too. As Bartimaeus, the blind man in St Mark, cried out to Jesus on a lonely highway to heal him and restore his sight, so should you. Jesus heard his cry (and he hears yours) and responded “Go thy way; thy faith has made thee whole” (Mark 10: 52).

Once you have gone for healing, you have to forgive, on two levels. The 1st level is to forgive the one(s) that have hurt you. I know it is hard, but you must. Believe it our not it’s for your own spiritual well being

”For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matt 6:14).

Now once you have forgiven them, you must go to next level and forgive yourself. Through all the hurt and anger, you have beat yourself up and begun hanging negative adjectives such as stupid and dumb on your shoulders. If you have gone in sincerity to the Savior for forgiveness then you must accept his pardon completely.

John 3:19-20: “This then is how we know that we belong to truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence when ever our heart condemns us, for God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

If that doesn’t ease you, here is another one from the Savior himself that can carry you through the healing and forgiving process:

2. Corinthian 12:9: And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Now having been healed, been forgiven and you have forgave, walk out as the person the LORD has ordained you to be. Take special note that forgiving does not mean that you have to allow the person back into your space or life. Why go back? Are we not above the beasts of the earth.” As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly “ Proverbs 26:11. You’ll feel worse than you did the last time, you know it’s true and so did Peter:

For if after they have escaped the pollution of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning 2 Peter 2:20

Enough said, moving on

As we move further along, we continue to see Satan’s trickery. I hope as we go through these verses from Genesis, that you can see how the enemy is still perpetuating these strategies against us daily.

Gen 4:5:”For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil”

This is why we have so many problems coping. We were not created to endure the perils that exist in this world. Hunger, strife, pain, envy, greed and low self-esteem are all the offspring of sin. We were never meant to know of it. We cannot begin to question what God had in store for Adam and Eve. Nor can we argue why the tree was there.

Rule #3: The enemy will flatter you with ideas of eminence and grandeur.

What is Your Motivation?

We can never be GOD. We can try to emulate God through living a life likened unto Christ but we cannot be omnipotent nor do we have divine will, only free will. And we all know that free will is fallible. Case in point: The enemy will incline us to think that if we go ahead and do it our way we can be able to have what ever we want. If we sleep with him, we will be able to get our hair done on a regular or get goodies like Coach bags and Via Spigas. If you get her whipped you can get her to do what ever you want,

However you want, wherever you want. Taking away the material and physical aspects, we really feel like they are going to love and cherish us because we gave of ourselves. We take on a possessive air. I am not merely speaking in the obsessive sense of stalking but we stake claim on them. We feel we are justified because they have a piece of our souls housed within them, every minute of every day.

Satan is the original liar. We begin to equate our self worth on how another responds to us. We cross that line with a quickness right after we cross over into the physical aspects of a relationship. It becomes very personal and we hold that person accountable. Can we really hold them accountable? Our emotions tell us that we should but we can’t because they are not our husbands or wives. Now many argue the point that marriage is consummated with the act of sexual union, regardless of ceremony. Not entirely so. If you and the other party have not made a covenant agreement between the both of you and GOD, the marriage is false.

As the physical aspect of the relationship begins to pick up steam, we start placing request upon our lovers; this is a natural spiritual response. Again this is because they have a part of us and we respond in a spiritual reflex move. We begin to hold them as accountable as we do ourselves. The jolting reality is that we have no claim to him /her in this world nor in the sight of God. They are not wed unto you. That is where the frustrations come in. We have entered into a bond without seriously taking into account God’s ordinances for our lives. The desires of the flesh, even when stimulated by the most sincere of affections, will get us in trouble.

1. Gen 3: 6: “And when woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”

When we allow ourselves to entertain the enemy’s ideas and flattery, we will view the lie that has been presented to us as truth, still knowing in the back of our minds, it isn’t right but hoping that this time it will be different. Wrong! Eve responded on very physical level as we often do. “He looks good” “She looks good” “He or she can take me places” Delusions that have nothing to do with the spirit. While we do have to answer for ourselves as individuals before God, we also are responsible for one another in the sense that we shouldn’t lead another astray. When we go against God’s instructions in this type of circumstance, we are also taking another down with us. We are in a sense offering the apple to our own “Adam” or “Eve”

Okay, you didn’t heed the yellow lights; you drove right past the stop sign and are now on a dark scary road. You did the thang.

Step Into The Bedroom

Gen 3:7 “ And the eyes of them both where opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons”

And their eyes of them both where opened, take this first statement. After you cross over to the physical it is no surprise that now all the insecurities you thought were gone now resurface with a vengeance. Better yet, issues you never knew you had appeared. Your first instinct is to reach for a bed sheet. You immediately become aware of the stretch marks across your stomach or hair on your back. You begin to worry if they notice too. Once you take your eyes off God you seem to see things that you didn’t notice before. Minuet things that once didn’t matter in the larger scheme of things seem to now take center stage. By sharing your self intimately, you have exposed yourself physically, emotionally and mentally and thus feel naked.

Can you image how wonderful it must have been for Adam and Eve. They had what was deemed a “bright nature”. And had no concept of worldly things or one another in the physical sense. Because they had their eyes focused on God, they were filled with grace and related to one another in the spirit. And not the flesh, in the testament and the eyes of them both where opened, simply means their eyes became flesh and thus they ceased seeing in the spirit and began seeing in the physical. This same thing happens to us when we take our eyes off God and look elsewhere. We have to make sure that we have established a sound relationship with GOD so that we can hear him and meet our mates on a true spiritual plane that is pleasing to not only us but most importantly to GOD.

Gen 3:8 “ And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden

Why is it that when we know we have sinned we run from GOD? We begin to hide behind work, school, hobbies or worse yet depression when we have gone against God’s- will. The most hilarious thing is that we can’t hide from him. He is everywhere. Paul makes it plain in Hebrews “And there is no creation that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and openly exposed to the eyes of him with whom we have an accounting.” Most importantly, he saw you when you did it. We are again fitting right into the enemy’s plan, alienating ourselves from GOD.

Rule # 4 Never let the enemy break down your relationship with God.

Since Satan is separated from the throne he wants us to be separated as well. He hasn’t a morsel of compassion for you. Most importantly, it hurts God. He loves us.

Now as the drama unfolds, the LORD begins speaking to you. I truly believe that in intimate circumstances the LORD speaks to the man first as he did Adam, “And Jehovah God kept calling to the man and saying to him “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). After the act has been committed the man’s mind begins to click, the LORD speaks to him and asks him what is he doing? Then the dialogue begins, much in like verses 3:9 –11.Even the most seemingly callous brother has an after thought when he has crossed the line. It may not appear spiritual on the surface but it is your spiritual sense mingling with your common sense.

As the man rolls over, his mind says, “I am not dealing with this. It was just a moment, it was just sex. I wanted it. She wanted it. It wasn’t like I forced her. Both our needs were met.” Then you rationalize it by replaying the evening…what she had on, how she flirted, all the signals she gave.

Why would you get a fear that she is going to get serious? You’re both grown, right? Well, your spirit man has acknowledged that a union has taken place and a responsibility has been placed upon you. I cannot stress enough that you spirit self is far more intelligent than your carnal self. You spirit cannot ignore that a covenant has been made. You mind dismisses the notion because it has a closer relationship with your body. Your carnal understanding has no room to agree with your spirit. The flesh is very selfish and is only concerned with its satisfaction. When it is satisfied, it will not cause you pain or trauma. When your mind and spirit start to work as a team, your flesh turns on you; it is almost like an addicts plight. You see, when you start seeking God’s face; when you start trying to walk in Christ, your mind and flesh begin to interact like two old friends that have out grown each other. They only get along when one (flesh) is getting benefited. As your mind begins to elevate (through more spiritual interaction), your flesh attempts to destroy and manipulate your mind because your flesh is both insecure and vain. Insecure in the fact that it knows beauty will fade which in turn feeds your vain tendencies in that instance that it (flesh) can never get enough chances for false nuances of love and validation. The flesh is never satisfied because it is defined and confined by the physical. The spirit is everlasting with Christ. (Because he who is sowing with a view to his flesh will reap corruption from his flesh, but he who is sowing with a view to the spirit will reap everlasting life from spirit.” (Galatians 6:8). When Adam and Eve ate from the tree, they had no idea how far reaching the repercussions would resonate. Paul sums it up in Romans 5:12

“ That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the earth and death through sin, and thus sin spread to all men because they all had sinned.”

Adam and Eve were to have eternal life in paradise on earth. All that was required of them was to commune with GOD, take care of the earth and each other. Having partaken from the tree of good and evil, they now knew death was certain. One can only imagine that prior to going against God’s word they had no feelings of fear, anxiety, or mortality. We also see the first instance of “The Blame Game”

“And the man went on to say: “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me (fruit) from the tree and so I ate” Genesis 3:12

I think part of the issues men and women have stem from a spiritual scarring that occurred in Eden that day. At that moment the trust between Adam (man) and Eve (woman) was broken and his good standing with God was taken away. Now sistahs please don’t get mad but that’s part of it. Some women feel an almost innate drive to get love and acceptance from men, whether it’s you boyfriend, your father, your brother or your husband. We have spiritual baggage. You see prior to this moment, Adam (man) had no reason to question Eve’s (woman’s) motive. Whatever Eve had to offer, Adam never had question what price was attached. I am going to go deeper into this a little later. Let’s get back to the bedroom.

With that Jehovah God said to the woman: “What is this you have done?” To this the woman replied “: The serpent he deceived me and so I ate.” Genesis 3: 13

Now on the other side of the bed, God is most definitely talking to the woman. Now I know a lot of sistah’s are going to puff up and start that whole womanistic thing, “ I just wanted my needs met. I wasn’t trying to fall in love.” Stop!!! You give because you want to receive. You know your body and the sensuality you possess is powerful that is why you bargained it. No matter how careless the circumstance, you felt that the investment you placed on the table would gain an ever-larger return. The return for some may equate to infallible love while to others a free trip to Cancun. For some, promotions at work, while to another a bill getting paid. But for most, quite simply a moment in time where they feel they are the center of the universe. Your idea of love is relative to where you are spiritually at that moment in time... No matter what your motivation is at that moment, the result you seek is a feeling of love. When Eve offered Adam the apple she had no ill intent, she only wanted to share. Sharing is a very basic expression of love. And when you share, you often times look for reciprocation of some sort.

The stage was thus set:

And I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in his heel. To the woman he said: “I shall greatly increase the pain of your pregnancy; in birth pangs you will bring forth children, and your cravings will be for your husband, and he will dominate you. And to Adam he said: Because you have listened to your wife’s voice and took to eating from the tree concerning which I gave you this command, “You must not eat from it” cursed in the ground your account. In pain you will eat its produce all the days of your life

Genesis 3:15 -17

Okay from one “error in judgment” all the children of Adam & Eve (us) will constantly be in a battle with Satan, A joyful moment of bring forth life will be painful. Wives will desire their husbands and no longer will wives be partners but subordinates in the household. This strained relationship will be exacerbated because the husbands will be tired from working hard all day. I know a lot of women are angry right about now but it is in the word. Don’t get mad, get glad! This revelation should give some clarity. This revelation should motivate men and women to take a more aggressive approach to defeating the devil. He is not only “Father of Lies” but also the “Original Home Wrecker”. This is partially why most women desire marriage and commitment, while most men run from the two. To go even further, that is why some women question the idea of marriage and some men feel the desire to marry. Spiritually, each woman and each man in these variables instinctively wants to either right the wrong that occurred in Eden or avoid the consequences all together.

Rewriting the Script

In the new millennium, how do we as believes break the generational curse? The LORD has given me three basic things for all of us to work from:

Listen and obey the voice of GOD,

Realize who you are in Christ and

Accept truths.

The first one, listen and obey the voice of GOD, is ironically a simple yet complex two-part course of action. Simple in the instance that it makes perfect sense. Ecclesiastes puts it plainly in chapter 12, verse 13:

The conclusion of the matter, everything been heard, is “Fear the true God and keep his commandments. For this is the whole obligation of man…

In keeping this verse in mind, we often times know when God has spoken to us but we chose to disobey. The number one factor that determines whether you obey or disobey is your flesh. The mind is the fickle faculty of our existence. Our spirit and flesh war against one another for dominion over the mind. Even though sin is manifested in the flesh, it germinates in the mind. In the “Three In One Concise Bible Reference Companion” the mind is described as having seven faculties: perception, remembrance, reasoning, feelings, desire, imagination, and purpose. In its degenerate (or corrupt) state it is alienated, despiteful, reprobate (perverted), blinded, hostile, and defiled. That is why Paul told the people in Philippi

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”.

Our mind is the gateway to sin. It all begins with a thought, a notion. Our flesh will manipulate our mind through desire. This is where it becomes tricky. You see our spirit is the center of our emotions, our will and our passions. When your spirit is in union with GOD its characteristics are holy. When clouds of carnal issues he enter our mind they in turn try to invade the center of our being (our spirit). Your whole being begins to go astray. Let me give you an example.

You see a woman or a man that peeks your interest (flesh motivation). Your mind begins to speculate all the possibilities (if she/he single? wonder if they would like to go out to dinner, wonder what would happen if I gave them my numberà mental motivation). I would enjoy spending time with a significant other. I would like to share my thoughts and feeling with an appreciative partner (spiritual motivation). Thus your soul craves a touch. Unless we have put our flesh under submission (which means allowing your mind to be in allegiance with a spirit inside of you that is connected to GOD), the lines of communication that are open to listen and obey the word of GOD will become disrupted. If we allow the carnal issues that are outgrowths of flesh motivations, meaning going from he/she is attractive to he/she has a nice body to he/she looks like they can go to work, we have officially crossed over to being temporarily disconnected. This mental process can happen in a blink of an eye. Not just at the supermarket or Laundromat but right up in the sanctuary. At this moment, decisions are being made. The choice is yours. Are you going to usher in pre-meditated sin or are you going to attempt to step towards getting to know another in the spirit?

Are you going to go headfirst in warfare?

“For the flesh is against the spirit in its desire, and the spirit is against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, so that the very things that YOU would like to do YOU do not do”

Or are you going to honor the Father and the spirit self?

For this very reason, make very effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness knowledge; and to knowledge self control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love.

By listening and obeying the voice of GOD we will get what we most desire … love. Seek the spirit before you savor the flesh.

By ascribing to the first point, you are more available to acknowledging who you are in Christ, which is our 2nd point. This is so important in all phases of our lives whether it is affairs of the heart or affairs in the world. In accepting the divine grace that has been placed upon you, you identify the value of you.

At one time you may have felt that because a man was nice to you and bought you dinner that you are obligated to sleep with him. Or maybe because she looks good and was offering who were you to decline. Or on a very basic level, you wanted it… so what’s so bad about it. The problem is that you flesh is being satisfied, but what of your spirit. This same routine gets tired. Your mind begins to get short circuited because it keeps getting mixed messages from your spirit and your flesh. The enemy will distract you by rising up your flesh via you mind. The enemy is pimping you through your flesh. Is Satan your pimp? Is Satan dictating your life by way of your flesh? Think about how a pimp operates. A pimp always seems to show up when his prey is in a vulnerable moment. He then systematically tells his prey all the things they want to hear and gives them a sense of love and protection. Then once he has gained their trust and has manipulated their thinking, he tosses them out into the world to do his work. Now, the pimp is getting all the profit and the glory, they belong to him. What pleasure is his “worker” getting?

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey as slaves, you are slaves to them whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death … Romans 6:16

Sure, at first the attention is great and you feel like a star. But as time prevails, you spirit is starved and you flesh is tired and no longer satisfied. Your mind begins to side with your spirit and say, “there has to be more than this.”

For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within members. Romans 7:22-23

Your pimp isn’t having it. He will degrade you. He will beat you up mentally. Leaving you to question:

What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of…Romans 6: 21

Now I ask you, as a child of GOD, do you want Satan as your pimp?

Knowing you are now fanatically proclaiming “NO!” You see he will take our fears of being alone, unlovable, and single and use it to exploit us for his pleasure. With that being said tell the Devil you are no longer his slave nor is he your pimp! Take this word and slice his head off.

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery causing fear again, but YOU received a spirit of adoption as sons (daughters) by which our spirit cries out ... “ Abba, father” Romans 8:15

We are his children, worthy of living as children of royalty, in Romans 8: 16-17, Paul goes on to say:

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit, that we are God’s children: Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…

Know that you are a child of GOD. Being a child of GOD, you do not mingle with anyone nor participate in anything that is adverse to the status of your father, remember GOD will not be mocked:

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty the Holy Spirit

Being single is challenging enough. Being single and saved is a whole lifestyle that constantly pits you against the world, its trappings and you own insecurities with each year that passes. But take this last piece to reassure who you are & whose you are. You have no idea what God has in store for you… stop trying to do things yourself:

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know when he appears; we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Now, do you know who you are?

The third point kind of brings together points one and two. Since you now can see the practical application of not just listening to the voice of God but the important component of obeying HIS voice and since you see who God says you are, you are now better equipped to accept truths.

We know that we are born into sin but we most certainly know that we not subordinate to the trappings of sin due to the salvation we received by the blood shed on Calvary by Jesus Christ. The key to this truth is belief in the power of the blood. This is paramount in your walk into victory over any obstacle that may be presented before you by the adversary. The adversary will use six little demons to shake us up.

In chapter 23 of Exodus, we find God giving the children of Israel a confirmation of his covering (our is the blood of Jesus Christ) and a sneak preview of the victory (ours is salvation) they will have when they get to the Promised Land (ours is peace). :

“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you in the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Cananites, Hivites and Jebusites and I will wipe them out.” Exodus 23: 20-23.

God’s word is true. Even though this is Old Testament is still applies to you and I. As children of the New Covenant, we have the great comforter (Holy Spirit) that will guide us and guard us as we journey in this world, bringing us to the place God has prepared for us. We must pay attention to the move of the Holy Spirit and not reject Him. (And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven Matthew 12: 31). He is a part the Father .If we are obedient to God’s words and the workings of the Holy Spirit, God will take care of what ever comes against us because we are a part of him and who ever opposes us in turn opposes him. We are able to go in this world and have dominion over fear, (Amorites), insecurity (Hittites), envy (Perizzites), jealousy (Cananites), oppression (Hivites), and doubt. (Jebusites), with God wiping them out and his children walking into .the Promised Land of courage, faith, thankfulness, humility, freedom, and assurance.

Now this is real insurance. The only premium you pay is faith, faith, in listening to God. Faith, in obeying God, faith in knowing that we are who HE says we are.

Now we will be tested, make no mistake. We must not become self righteous and judgmental nor place condemnation upon ourselves. The psalmist was correct in singing “victory is mine”… but the psalmist didn’t add the most important part “through Christ.

“ So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you do not fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

1st Corinthians 10:13:

Take these truths and live.

The victory over sin that we share with Christ, does not just incorporate the freedom from sin but the ability to bring the original family back together. The original family can be resurrected and thus love.