Adam and the woman willingly disobeyed God by eating of the forbidden fruit. Once they had eaten, God's warning that "when you eat of it you will surely die" took effect on all of creation. The eyes of Adam and the woman were opened and they now possessed the knowledge of good and evil. Seeing that they were naked they attempted to cover themselves with fig leaves and feeling shame they hid themselves when they heard God walking in the Garden to commune with them.
9 But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
Notice that both Adam and the woman would not take responsibility for their sin. Adam passed blame on his wife and the woman passed blame on the serpent. Don't we do the same thing today. Nearly every sin and addiction that comes down the pike is passed off on some genetic defect. When the real fact is that sin and the sinful nature has been passed off on all of creation since the garden. Look at what God's response is to Adam's and the woman's actions.
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,
"Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel."
16 To the woman he said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."
17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."
And so it is to this day my friends.
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
Adam and Eve's banishment from God's presence is the result of spiritual death, separation from God. All who are born of Adam are separated from God because of sin. Physical death also became a result of sin; "to dust you will return." The Bible states it this way: "the wages (what we earn) of sin is death." We all earn spiritual and physical death because of our sin.
Ezekiel 18
The Soul Who Sins Will Die
1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel:
" 'The fathers eat sour grapes,
and the children's teeth are set on edge'?
3 "As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. 4 For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son—both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die.
You and I are in a seemingly hopeless situation. However, since God is love, he doesn't want us to die in our sins. God's promise in the garden that the seed of the woman would crush your head, was fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus the promised seed, the Messiah, the Hope of Israel, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah,would crush the head of Satan at Calvary. All who place faith in Christ's blood would be reconciled to God.
It is a decision that both Joe and I have made almost 20 years ago. If you have never considered a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, won't you consider it today. It is appointed for man to die and then face the judgment.
Coming back full circle now to my earlier post. These supposed ghost sightings are not what they seem. When man dies he faces the judgment of God. There is no inter dimensional world where spirits go and roam the earth. These sightings and hauntings are the work of deception perpetuated by Satan and his demons. These demons seek out invitations to destroy peoples lives. Only a blood bought saint of God has power and authority over these spirits in the name of Jesus.
