Having Bible knowledge and understanding is great, however if the scriptures are not living and active in our lives, it is all in vain (Hebrews 4:12-13). The life application selections contain thoughts provoking, real life challenges that will prayerfully transform us to be more like Jesus in our spiritual journey. James 1:23-27 challenges us to not just merely listen or read the scriptures, it says “But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.” Do not miss your blessings my friends!
“Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.’”
The Mystery of “One of Us”
Have you ever pondered what God meant when He said, “one of Us”?
That phrase reveals the divine counsel of the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, united in perfect wisdom, holiness, and purpose.
From the beginning, God possessed full knowledge of both good and evil. Yet His knowledge was pure, holy, and untainted, because evil could never corrupt His divine nature. God knew evil only as something to judge and overcome, not something to experience.
Adam and Eve were created in the purity of God’s image to reflect His holiness. Although humanity was given free will, their souls were nourished initially by righteousness; no inclination to sin existed within them.
But Satan knew that. When God forbade eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, His warning wasn’t meant to withhold wisdom; it was meant to protect purity.
God was shielding them from a corrupted awareness that would separate them from Him.
“Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth, and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.”
Streams from Within: The Living Water of the Holy Spirit
I never cease to be amazed at how I can read a verse for years, and suddenly, one day, it hits me like a brick. It stops me in my tracks until God reveals what He wants me to see.
As I begin this new journey through the Old Testament, I realize that in this season of my life, the Holy Spirit is opening my eyes to things I have never noticed before, even though they have always been there. Genesis 2:6 is one of those passages.
“But streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.”
As I read it, my spirit whispered, “Don’t move on until you hear what God wants you to understand.”
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
The Heart: The Storehouse of the Soul
My friend, when was the last time you paused to assess the condition of your heart?
Did you know that your heart is a storage room that feeds your soul?
When Jesus says in Luke 6:45,
“A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart... for the mouth speaks what the heart is full of,” He is warning us that what we allow to be stored in our hearts will eventually become the fruit of our speech.
The heart is the storehouse of the soul, the place where truth or lies take root.
What enters the mind through our eyes, ears, and experiences shapes our belief system.
Those beliefs form our perceptions, which eventually settle in the heart and feed the soul.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
The Mind: The Battlefield of Truth
Let’s pause on the word renew.
To renew means to make new again, to restore to a fresh state, to regenerate or revive.
In Greek, the word anakainōsis (ἀνακαίνωσις) means a complete change for the better, a renovation of the heart and life.
Have you ever asked yourself why the Apostle Paul urges followers of Jesus to renew their minds?
If you know Paul’s life before he became an apostle of the Gospel, you understand that he experienced a complete transformation himself. He knew that unless our minds are renewed, reject the world’s patterns and allow the Holy Spirit to rebuild our thinking according to God’s truth, we cannot walk the narrow road that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 7:13–14 (NIV):
“You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.”
You Cannot Have Both: The Lord’s Table or the Table of Demons
Paul’s warning is clear: we cannot claim fellowship with Christ while indulging in what honors Satan. Yet this is the very deception Satan spreads—that we can have both Jesus and the world.
This week, as many celebrate Halloween, countless people will knowingly or unknowingly participate in practices rooted in darkness. Some embrace witchcraft, divination, and the worship of idols as a way of life. Others, even while teaching and preaching God’s truth, flirt with Satan’s realm in the name of fun or in an attempt to reach the lost. Their actions communicate the opposite of what God calls us to be. They imply that we must celebrate or acknowledge Satan to prove he is evil. My friend, that may sound extreme, but this is exactly what happens when we join the world in celebrating a holiday that has nothing to do with God through Jesus Christ and everything to do with Satan, the devil, and his demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.
Who Is This Jesus? Ministry, Inc. is a nonprofit organization based in North Carolina.