BY HUMPHREY MTANDWA
When God created Adam, He made him a care-taker and ruler over the earth (Eden). God’s plan was for him to replicate Eden and populate the world. God had entrusted him with Eden and gave him and his wife responsibility as rulers of this new domain. But they were given one commandment: not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Many of the challenges we are facing in this present world are because of the sin of Adam and Eve.
As people, we stepped out of God’s plan because the first man and woman sinned. God put two trees in the garden: one that had the ability to give life and another that had the potential to corrupt the purity of God’s creation. It seemed logical that God should have never put in the garden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But God in His wisdom allowed both trees to be in the garden.
In the garden they saw no reason to eat from the tree of life because before men were corrupted, they carried so much life that even after the corruption it took over 500 years for the effect of that sin to manifest (as physical death). When the devil when caused Adam and Eve to partake of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he mentioned the aspects of the tree that were good and caused them lust after the fruit of the tree.
When men are tempted or lured into unimaginable evil acts, they usually say God is tempting me. From scripture we understand that God is incapable of being tempted by evil so He will never be the source of temptation. Many assume when God put the tree in the garden He tempted Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the tree. They ate the tree because of their own lustful desires. They were two trees in the garden, but they chose to eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
People are only tempted because of their own lust and desires. It seems people’s thoughts are the ones that drag them into evil and lure them away into darkness. Any evil people commit has only been a manifestation of their own lust and desires. It’s easy to blame the devil as in the Eden incident, but Adam and Eve were both drawn to the tree because of their lustful desires. What were they even doing in that location? Many assume Adam was not present when his wife was tempted. He was there watching and he also ate the fruit that corrupted man. He could have rebuked the serpent, but he remained quiet.
The writer in the Book of James shows us how something as simple as lust can grow to become death. Death takes advantage of people’s sins to destroy all that they have. Something as simple as sexual sin can bring death to marriage, business or work. The devil’s agenda is to kill, steal and destroy, but he cannot destroy what he does not have access to. He gains access to your business or work, even your family through your own lust or sin. No matter how simple the sin may appear to be, it always leads to death. Don’t give in to lust because — it will bring death to your life.
God bless you .
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- Humphrey Mtandwa is an anointed minister of the gospel and teacher of the Word based in South Africa. He has written several books including The Enoch Generation, Truthfulness and Theophany. He blogs at mtandwa.blogspot.com and can be contacted via e-mail or WhatsApp on +27 610286350.
