Knowing The Problem Is Half The Battle: Part Two

I separate this blog in particular into two parts for (conveniently enough), two reasons. For one, it may seem a bit long to some to read both at once, although this one is considerably shorter than the first; and the second reason being that reading both at once is likely to make even more feel as if I'm going off on an entirely different tangent. That is mainly because, I am. It is simply preferable to know the information in part one before moving on to part two. I begin with the same sentence from which I left off:

When the mind supersedes the spirit, we blind ourselves to the things of God. Without the spirit, there is no faith; and without faith, the word and scripture of God will have no power in your life. To achieve true faith is not only essential, but a daily struggle.

Throughout the bible, over the course of Jesus' life on earth, even the twelve disciples struggle with faith on multiple occasions. To say, "O ye of little faith" to them becomes somewhat of Jesus' catch phrase. If the Son of Man was healing the blind, sick, and dead before their eyes, one would think that having enough faith wouldn't be as much of an issue: but it was.

Today, I believe the struggle is even more difficult than before. We are raised in such a way as to put the temporal world (the 'temporal' being the 'temporary') above the supernatural realm. In doing so, we are prone to, in a way, forget God; and when we do remember him, we put him in a box.

"Not being able to understand God is frustrating, but it is ridiculous for us to think we have the right to limit God to something we are capable of comprehending... If my mind is the size of a soda can and God is the size of all the oceans, it would be stupid for me to say He is only the small amount of water I can scoop into my little can."

- Francis Chan, author of Crazy Love

In essence, we have forgotten that God is God of the impossible, and that he can do the impossible through us.

Knowing The Problem Is Half The Battle: Part One

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

God created mankind in his own image... male and female, he created them.

Genesis 1:27

And the Lord God commanded the man saying, "You shall surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

Genesis 2:16&17

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.' "

But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Genesis 3:1-6

I quote those specific scriptures to show a basic progression of the fall in a way that is directly from the Bible. Most people are already aware of the story of the event in history we know as The Fall, but I invite you to take a look at it in a way that, perhaps, you have never explored it before. Not all things are what they seem.

Allow me to cut to the quick.

I believe that the entry of sin into the world took place at the very moment Adam and Eve (although not in that order) took the bite out of the forbidden fruit. However, sin wasn't caused by the fruit: it was caused by the defiance of eating the fruit that God specifically told them not to even touch, let alone eat (it might even be assumed that the same effect would have taken place had Adam and Eve simply touched, but not eaten, the fruit according to Genesis 3:3).

The fruit of the tree itself (opposed to the defiance), however, did indeed have an effect on Adam and Eve. But before I explain that, I must first bring something else to your attention.

God is triune. This means, that God has three different forms, but all three are one and the same: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost. Think of it as H2O: although water can be either vapor, ice, or a liquid, all three have the same chemical makeup.

Likewise, man is also triune. We have a body, a soul (our mind, will, and emotions), and a spirit.

When mankind was initially created, everything we did and were was actualized through the spirit. Because our spirit was the primary, we could walk and talk with God, presumably, in all of his glory (since before The Fall, there was no such thing as death, except for the concept of it). At this point, you may want to review Genesis 3:5, namely the phrase "...knowing good and evil." Based on that verse, we have come to know of the tree of "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil".

Knowing and knowledge are things of the mind.

The forbidden fruit of that tree was, if you will, a trigger that caused the soul to supersede the spirit. When the mind supersedes the spirit, we blind ourselves to the things of God.