Daily Devotional April 29 - Don't Believe Everything You Hear

"And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die: 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." Genesis 3:4-5

The serpent is the person , the devil, disguised in this case as a beautiful serpent. "The (devil, satan) said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die." It doesn't matter if the serpent said to the woman or to the man. Too much speculation has been made about why the serpent went to the woman instead of the man. satan is a liar. He simply wanted to assuage Eve to do something that Eve knew in her heart was not right. He simply wanted her to disobey God. But the devil could not get Eve to disobey God unless he lied to her about the outcome of the event.
satan is using that same tactic today. satan says that if you do this or that, the consequences will be positive, wonderful, great; you will be happy, fulfilled, satisfied. satan is a liar. Anything that steers you from perfection drives you to ruin.

Too many people, Christians as well, have bought the lie, hook, line and sinker. They/you have read the Word, heard sensible intelligent and anointed preaching, read many books that were enlightening and in many cases even taught the truth by a loving father or mother and yet they/you believe the words of the devil. When you do not heed the Word of God, (despite what form it was delivered in), you start to create a religion of your own. As this religion develops you eventually become your own god. "then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods." You shall be as gods, but not God.

You were designed in the image and likeness of God. And in this image and likeness, along with all the power and self-reliance that you were endowed with, also comes the need to connect with God. Every human needs to connect with God in order to activate the spiritual DNA (so to speak) that opens up the channel between God and man. That is being born again. Once you are born again, you have within you the Holy Spirit of God to direct you and keep you from following the messages of satan. As a Christian, if you are dabbling with the world and living outside of what you know is the will of God, you have heard the message of satan and condescended. You have made a conscious choice to believe his lies. Have you ever considered the outcome of making such a decision? Little by little as you accept the lies of the devil, you will move further and further away from the blessings and comfort and voice of God.

The further you get away the harder it is to come back. Because along the way satan will have told you so many lies you won't be able to recognize the truth. Usually it will take calamity or tragedy, utter devastation, shame and loss to bring someone back after years of playing god. There is a better way. Believe God and turn away from the lies of satan and whatever you go through, you will go through with God carrying you through it. Isn't that what you really want?