The Power of Access
Scripture reading
Genesis 3:6
‘so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.’
The biblical account of the disobedience of Adam and Eve tells of a process. A chronological order of thoughts occurred before Eve disobeyed, and it is interesting to note that the first thing Eve did was look and see that the tree was good for food.
Beloved, the scripture says, ‘but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed’ (james 1:14) which means we often have a role to play in sin, aside being tempted.
From the account in the garden, after the serpent had suggested to Eve to eat of the fruit, Eve didn’t immediately disobey, but she went through a thought process where she assessed the fruit and acclaimed it good for herself. We as believers, subconsciously have granted access to some ideologies and practices in the world such that they compete with God’s word because in our hearts, we find them good.
An example for me is secular movies. The Holy Spirit whispered to me one day that by constantly feeding on movies which did not promote Godly principles like purity, I was subconsciously feeding my mind that concepts like indecent dressing, lying, revenge, fornication among others were normal and accepted, since they were being repeated in almost every movie.
Beloved, we must come to the realization that we become what we constantly see and do not have control of what will seep into our subconscious minds once we open the gates. We must not play hide and seek with certain ideologies which may not look outrightly sinful, but will not also edify us in our righteous walk. We must learn to be led by the Holy Spirit and deny access to all lusts of the eyes and flesh. Rather, we must learn to created a Godly environment around us, where we can fix our eyes on Godly things, so we can think on them.
When you set your gaze on God, you reconstruct your mind to look like what you are seeing. Our minds are renewed and we begin to esteem God’s word above every other lust of the eye, lust of the flesh or pride or pleasure of life. Eve was convinced the tree was good when she saw it. What are you constantly seeing, or looking at, and what is daily seeping into your subconscious mind?
Like scripture admonishes, let us reckon ourselves dead to sin, cut off all access to things that cause us to sin, and think on good things, that our minds may be renewed to accept and obey God’s word, over what we see as pleasant, or what we feel is good. May we allow God access to transform our desires and perspectives that we will begin to see that He is Good, that what He says is good, and what He wants for us is good.
As we go throughout our day, let us purpose to set our affections; our sights and senses of pleasure on things above, that we may develop holy and godly appetites which will please God. Amen.
Memory Verse: Philippians 4:8
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”