Supernatural Transformation: Change Your Heart Into God’s Heart (23 page)

We know that Satan, or the devil, rebelled against God first. Rebellion is his nature, and the
“old man”
is his
“seed,”
or “child.” Rebellion is nothing more than disobedience, which occurs when a person decides to separate himself from God in order to pursue his own will, to satisfy himself, and to govern himself—to act independently of the heavenly Father. This decision inevitably results in an alignment with another
“father,”
the devil, who does not obey the truth and is the “father” of lies. Jesus told some leaders who considered themselves religious,
“
You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it”
(John 8:44).

Every born-again believer must be careful not to be deceived by Satan into committing disobedience.
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith”
(1 Peter 5:8–9). We must all be alert to Satan’s schemes. Obedience to God is not just a matter of believing in Jesus or of having good conduct. Our heart needs to be continuously transformed if we are to remain obedient to God. Let us explore the process by which Adam and Eve disobeyed God, so that we can recognize the devil’s schemes in our own life.

The only power the enemy has is that which we give him when we are not under God’s authority.

The Original Process by Which the Human Heart Became Disobedient

1. Adam and Eve Were Attracted to Satan’s Lies Through Their Physical Senses and by Their Desire for Wisdom and Power Independent of God

The serpent tempted the first human beings through the physical senses. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil appeared to Adam and Eve to be
“
good for food,…pleasant to the eyes
”
(Genesis 3:6). Satan also made it sound attractive to become as wise as God (see Genesis 3:5–6), which may have seemed to Adam and Eve like a pathway to greater spiritual enlightenment. As a result, they were presented with a temptation they found very difficult to resist. Just like Adam and Eve, we struggle with temptations based on our physical senses and ambitions that push us to disobey God.

2. Adam and Eve’s Misplaced/Wrong Desires Led to Their Being Enticed to Sin

The Scriptures say, “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin” (James 1:14–15). Rebellious desires are perversions of God’s will. Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, even though God had warned them not to. Perhaps they believed it would be all right to do it “just once.” However, that one act generated lust in their nature. Sin came to stay, giving birth to additional sin and establishing a perpetual pattern of disobedience. Human beings were unable to get rid of sin or the curse it released. Satan’s goal was not just to make human beings sin once but for them to
practice
sin
continuously in a sinful state
. In this way, he could gain entrance into their lives to control and oppress them.

If you are a believer, I warn you: You cannot play with sin. You must repent of all sin and turn your back on it, because it is a mortal trap. It is an endless downward spiral; once it begins, it continues to produce evil unless it is renounced, forgiven through Jesus Christ, and forsaken.

3. Adam and Eve’s Sin Produced Death for Them—and for All Humanity

“Sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death
”
(James 1:15). The entrance of sin into the world produced spiritual death in humanity—separation from God—as well as physical death. Satan’s purpose in tempting us to sin is to separate us—permanently, if possible—from our heavenly Father.

When we understand the above truths, we recognize the fact that each time we act according to the sinful nature, we essentially repeat the process by which the first humans fell. That is why the apostle Paul urged us,
“Put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man
[
“old self”
niv, nasb]
which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts”
(Ephesians 4:22). We must decide daily to
“put off…the old man”
—to reject sin and to obey God—so that we may escape death and receive His abundant life.

The corruption of the
“old man”
can lead an individual to think that death is his only option, and that he should end his own life. During a spiritual retreat at King Jesus Ministry, five women were delivered from the spirit of suicide. One of them, named Flor, had felt very depressed and empty because her daughter had died two year earlier. Flor had decided to end her own life, so she took more than a hundred sleeping pills, but her suicide attempt failed. Two weeks later, she again planned to kill herself, but someone invited her to the retreat. While she was there, she experienced the presence of God and received the love of the Father, so that she no longer had a desire to die. She was set free from the spirits of grief and suicide.

Another woman, Catalina, had started to take drugs and to drink alcohol at the age of thirteen because she felt rejected by her mother and because she felt deeply the absence of her father from their home. By age eighteen, she didn’t want to live anymore, but she attended the retreat. There, the fatherhood of God embraced her and made her feel worthy and loved. She realized that God was her Father and that she had a purpose, and she left her addictions and suicidal thoughts behind. Today, she is a new person!

Milena was a young married woman with precious children, but she wanted to commit suicide because she felt very guilty and unworthy. She was quick to become angry, and she was extremely aggressive with her husband and children. Milena felt so guilty over her behavior that she just wanted to disappear from this world, so she wrote out her last will and testament, intending to end her life. However, to God’s glory, Milena decided to attend the retreat, and it was there that she was set free from the spirits of manipulation, guilt, and suicide. Now, she is learning to be a good wife and mother.

Cesia and Sarah are sisters who were abandoned by their mother when they were very young. Their father was an alcoholic, a drug addict, a drug dealer, and a murderer. He never took care of them or their younger brother, so the girls practically raised themselves, as well as their brother. When the girls were sixteen and twelve years old, respectively, they, too, began to use drugs and to drink alcohol. Shortly thereafter, they were introduced to the lesbian lifestyle.

When Cesia and Sarah’s father died, they moved with their brother to the United States to live with their mother, who worked in a bar and was also an alcoholic. When their mother realized that her daughters were drinking, she put them to work in the bar and joined in their drinking. However, the mother was an illegal alien, and she was soon deported by the authorities. So, the sisters and brother became homeless again. The girls had become violent and would hurt each other. They soon reached their limit, and the only thing they wanted to do was die. In fact, the older sister had already tried to take her life and had been hospitalized for a month. Then, someone invited them to the deliverance retreat, where they received the Lord and were set free from the spirits of suicide, abandonment, lesbianism, rejection, bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, and addiction. They are now starting a new life. They know what the lifestyle of the world is all about, and they never want to return to it.

The Sinful Nature Is Continually Corrupt

The sinful nature is in a constant state of decay, and it prompts people to commit one corrupt act after another. Even though the corruption is not always evident, it is always present; and, in the long run, its destructive effects will manifest. For example, today, you might see a young man or woman who is physically attractive, educated, and wealthy and who seems to “rule the world.” However, if that person follows the desires of the sinful nature, then, sometime later, you will see that the good looks and strength will have decreased, and the body will have begun to look worn out, due to physical, intellectual, and spiritual decadence, as well as the general effects of the fall.

In communities and nations across the globe, there is a constant pattern of social decay due to the corrupt sinful nature. Governments and other institutions can do little to prevent human corruption from infecting society through such evils as lies, deceit, fraud, violence, and other abuses, especially since most of the leaders who run the institutions also have a corrupt heart that asserts control over them. Satan can easily provoke rebellion in many people because, unless their heart has been transformed, they are by nature
“sons of disobedience”
:

You He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
(Ephesians 2:1–3)

There is a “rebel” in every human being that produces deceitful desires and evil thoughts that lead him to disobey God. Nothing can stop corruption or decadence in the human race except the power of Jesus Christ!

The sinful nature is rebellious, leading to spiritual, moral,
and physical corruption.

The Characteristics of Jesus’ Obedience

Jesus Christ is the supreme example of full obedience to God the Father. His life of obedience was marked by two characteristics:

1. The Surrender, or “Denial,” of His Divine Attributes

Jesus was 100 percent God and 100 percent Man. He had a sinless nature, and He never committed any sin, so He did not have to deny the “old man” or a rebellious will. However, He did have to surrender, or “deny,” His divine glory and power when He came to live on this earth as a Man.
“
[Jesus], being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6). Similarly, our obedience to God may include not only the crucifixion of “self” but also the denial of some of our human “privileges” and “rights” for the greater good God calls us to.

If Jesus set aside His divine attributes when He came to earth, how did He perform His miracles, such as healing, delivering people from demon-possession, multiplying bread and fish, and walking on water? He did so entirely as a Man, using the same resources that are available to any born-again believer today—by the exercise of faith, under submission to God the Father, and with the anointing of the Holy Spirit. If He had done any of His miracles as God, they would have been “illegal,” since Jesus came as our Representative to live a life of full obedience to God as a human being and to die on the cross as our sinless Substitute.

Note that when Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he attacked Jesus’ divine identity, saying,
“
If
You are the Son of God….”
Yet Jesus did not defend His deity to the devil or banish the enemy with His divine power. Instead, He answered each of Satan’s temptations with Scripture, as we are also able to do today under the Spirit’s guidance. (See, for example, Luke 4:1–12.)

When Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, and Peter tried to defend Him with a sword, Jesus told him,
“
Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?” (Matthew 26:53–54). As God, and as the Father’s beloved Son, Jesus could have been rescued from His persecutors by an army of angels. Yet He chose to remain obedient to the Father’s will and to die on the cross for our sake.

When Jesus was dying on that cross, He was mocked by passersby who said,
“
If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Matthew 27:40). Again, He did not attempt to prove His deity to anyone. He continued to set aside His inherent, rightful divinity in order to obey the Father and to fulfill the purpose for which He had come to earth.

As fallen—but redeemed—human beings, we must die to “self” and deny the inclinations of the sinful nature, such as selfish ambition and impure thoughts. Which do you think would be easier—Jesus giving up His divine attributes to depend totally on God the Father and the Holy Spirit to live as a Man on the earth, or our dying to “self” and denying the sinful nature? I believe it is easier for us to deny ourselves because, on the cross, Jesus provided us with the grace and the power that enable us to do so. Jesus has already conquered sin and death for us. What He did for us was not easy—it was excruciatingly hard and painful. If Jesus gave up everything for us, we should give up all for Him.

2. Continued Submission to God’s Authority

While Jesus was on earth, He continually relinquished His will to God’s will. As we have just discussed, Christ had a holy nature, not the Adamic, sinful nature. However, as a human being, He did have free will, which God has granted to all humans. Every day, Jesus denied His own will—His ability to do whatever He wanted—in order to obey the Father’s will; He lived in constant submission to God’s authority. Jesus said,
“I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me”
(John 5:30). The book of Hebrews tells us,
“T
hough [Jesus] was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8).