Imagine a teacher, teaching a set of students a particular topic for a while. In order to know if the students have comprehended what was taught, tests will be conducted, thus giving the teacher an idea of how well the students understood. Likewise, with God, He uses situations, circumstances, and relationships to see if we are going to obey Him.
In the Garden of Eden, God allowed the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to be present, so Adam could prove his love for God by simply obeying His command not to touch it. However, when Eve gave the fruit to Adam he ate it. It is important to note that the scripture says that Adam was not deceived. In other words, he had the power and a sober mind to obey God but chose not to. His first emotion at that moment, when Eve was giving him the fruit, was his true spiritual disposition (selfishness) and it was enough to break fellowship with God.
Galatians 5:22-23 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
As sons of God, if in any situation, circumstance or relationship, our emotions are not in line with the fruit of the Spirit, then it means that in our heart there is some sort of disagreement with God. For instance, if a co-worker tells the manager a lie on you and your first emotion is one of offense, it reveals that you are not totally submitted to scripture. The scripture says offenses must come (Luke 17:1), nevertheless it also says, “love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matt 5:44).
Why is it that in our hearts we get offended when these things happen to us? It is because we have not allowed the word of God to become a delight to us. We are still operating based on a carnal perspective of life. For instance, the carnal view of offense is "I am being attacked, and must defend myself", whereas the righteous view that the Word portrays is, "I have been specifically chosen to glorify Christ, by showing His love in the midst of this offense - what a privilege" . Do you see the difference? When our perception of truth is reformed to that of the Word, then our emotions will follow. We will feel whatever we believe.
So what do you believe?
Last Sunrise - https://www.sunrisewithjesus.com/post/the-life-of-a-son
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