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Other Voices
I gave my life to Jesus in 1979. I spent many years in a traditional holiness church, and since 1994, I have been busy building this ministry. Throughout all of that time, I have noticed one factor that is consistent among Christians. And that is they talk a good line, but they don’t do hardly any of it. They listen to the preaching, the teaching and the singing. They run, shout, speak in tongues and testify in a spectacular display of showmanship. But when it’s all over, they experience no transformation. To this day, I continue to be baffled by this. The nation of Israel had that same problem. God gave them outstanding leadership in Moses, Joshua, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and many others. They knew and understood what God’s will was, but they just didn’t bother with compliance. Unfortunately, their stubborn rebellion resulted in a tremendous amount of pain, hurt, suffering and death. These same features became apparent in the first couple that God created. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Genesis 2: 15-17. The Garden of Eden was a perfect environment. The instructions necessary to maintain life there was as clear as the blue sky. This paradise belonged to them; provided especially for their pleasure and enjoyment. All they had to do was take care of it. The voice of God informed them of only one restriction. There was only one tree that was so dangerous, it couldn’t be touched. And the fruit that grew on it could not be eaten. Along with the privileges came a tremendous responsibility; one could not be embraced without the other. The message in my opinion was to stay away from that section of the garden. Don’t even use the tree for shade. There was no need to even venture close to the edge; their provision was already taken care of. There was no way for Adam and Eve to mistake what God said. They understood beyond any doubt, otherwise there could be no judgment. But the very thing that they knew they couldn’t have was the very thing that Satan used to tempt them. When God tells us not to do something, that’s God’s promise and provision for protecting us. Eve did what God commanded her not to do; and Adam, having even more spiritual insight, did the same thing. Man has been dying ever since. It is the same way today. We can listen to the voice of God and obey, or we can listen to other voices to our hurt. God is always looking out for our best interest. It’s difficult to tell exactly what our motives are sometimes. You see, our flesh can never be satisfied. It just wants and wants and wants some more. God is not preventing us from enjoying life; He is keeping us from destroying ourselves. If we don’t listen to God, we will listen to the wrong voice. We are not like Adam and Eve, because there was no sin until they let it in. But sin is all around us. Satan is not trying so much to tempt us to sin. Even the most noble saint hasn’t forgotten. He wants us to doubt the voice of God. If we doubt God, the actions will follow. There are other voices trying to get our attention. The primary goal is to destroy us. One of the most tragic acts that anyone can do is to turn a deaf ear to the voice of God, and listen to Satan or some other voice. If we are promised the whole world, it is no profit if we die and end up in eternal darkness. Many times we actually know what God wants us to do. But if we don’t obey, other voices can lead us away from the will of God; away from His purpose for our lives. When we listen to other voices, we are more susceptible to being deceived. Eve was doing fine until she started listening to the devil and conversing with him. After a while the serpent made God’s Word sound untrue. Eve got so out of balance, she no longer knew God’s voice. The things of God weren’t as clear to her anymore. Therefore, she rebelled in order to be her own God. Well, it didn’t work. Whenever we listen to the devil, we are headed for failure. Satan appeals to the flesh. The more we listen, the less we hear God. The less we hear God, the more rational the devil’s words sound. We start to rationalize and tolerate attitudes and actions that we know are wrong. When we don’t listen to the voice of God, we are saying, "I can make it on my own." Satan didn’t tell Eve that she would regret the day she ever learned about evil. He didn’t tell her that her decision would create chaos in her life. He told her what she wanted to hear. We are that way today; we hear what we want to hear. We want someone to agree with our side so that we feel better about upholding our selfishness. No matter how much we try to be independent of God and handle things all by ourselves, life without God is a bad choice. We’ll never know better than God knows. He is Almighty God. Before the thought comes to our mind or a word is formed on our lips, He knows it. We can’t out think Him, and we can’t second-guess Him. So many youth today are lured into sin because friends say, "You’ll never know until you try." I’ve learned some things in life I would have been a lot better off not knowing. I should have listened to God, but I listened to other voices. When we don’t listen to God, we make excuses to justify ourselves. This is a defense mechanism because we understand deep within our being that we should listen to God’s voice. We want to feel better when we rebel. When God came, Adam couldn’t meet Him. He was busy experiencing a new emotion called "fear". His flesh had him going. He was naked and trying to get himself covered up. And with all the work of dressing the garden, which he may have gotten behind on, Adam was strung out. Adam attempted to blame Eve, but he had no excuse. We can’t blame someone else when we turn a deaf ear to God. We can’t say we didn’t understand. God already knows the capacity we have to listen and obey. He won’t tell us more than we can deal with at the time. We cannot say that we are too young. Jeremiah tried that. We cannot say that we are not smart enough. Moses tried that. We are responsible for the voice we obey. God told Adam and Eve the consequences of disobeying Him. I can imagine how horrible they felt. God threw them out of garden never to return. Their home was gone and getting another one would not be so easy. Although God did not desert them, they lost a great deal. All evil and suffering can be traced back to the garden. Before we disobey God, we should think about the impact our decision may have on other people; particularly those closest to us. I have personally seen people suffer because they refused to listen to the voice of God. Husbands have made bad financial decisions because they wouldn’t listen to their wives. Teens are in prison because they wouldn’t listen to their parents. Many women are marrying the wrong man, or otherwise forced to grow-up way too soon. We refuse to listen to God and suffer for it. We also hurt others. Husbands hurt wives. Children hurt parents. Leaders hurt nations. Pastors hurt their congregation. Adam and Eve hurt the human race. All because we listen to other voices. We miss God’s best by ignoring God’s voice. Eden was God’s best for Adam and Eve. But they missed inheriting it in the full.. The Promised Land was God’s best for the children of Israel. But they couldn’t maintain it. We cannot afford to be careless and insensitive to the voice of God. His voice is the key to success and victory in this life. He alone can reveal what no other voice can. Let’s listen and obey. Edmund Brown |