Who Told You That? The Serpent - What Is It? Part 1
The Serpent: What Is It?
Every Adam (male and female) will come face to face with their own personal devil. It is evident that this is to happen, because unless we do, we will be forever tempted of it. In Genesis 3:11, God ask Adam a question upon hearing the excuse he offered up as a reason for his hiding from the voice of God walking in the midst of the garden.
Adam acknowledged his nakedness as a valid reason to hide. Men today are hiding from God’s presence because of what is constantly whispered into their being day after day. The enchanting voice of the serpent consistently pushes forth its venom, causing men and women to accept a lie about them over the truth. Adam had partaken of the forbidden fruit of duality, and his eyes were opened in the carnal realm, viewing a reality that was filled with death. The serpent or (nachash [Strong’s 5175] serpent, snake), is a type of the mind in man that slithers along the ground of our fleshly existent, tasting the dust of being; constantly whispering and hissing….”has God said?”
I am confident that many of us may struggle to see the serpent in Genesis as the mind of man, yet, it is just that; and every one of us will have to deal with this serpentine area resident within us, in order to follow on to know the mind of Christ (the Brazen Serpent). Many of us have read over a very clearly written statement; and in doing so, we miss the most powerful revelation of all time: “…the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field WHICH THE LORD GOD (Elohim) MADE.” The problem we encounter with this truth is being able to comprehend that the serpent or the devil was created by God; which means that the serpent has to be something more than a literal snake or serpent, but an understanding that has to be unraveled.
Genesis, the book of origin, is so riddled with parabolic language that if one reads it and only sees an account of God revealing how the sun, the moon, the stars, the whales, and so much more came into being, the higher truth will be missed, as it has been time after time.
The serpent in Genesis is not a literal snake, but it points to the mind within man that whispers and hisses, opposing or standing opposite of the things of God. Opposition is really not a bad thing; in fact, opposition can be set forth as a revealer or a tester of the metal.
Opposition validates the ability to choose; if there is no opposition, there is no ability to understand strength and, or weakness; right and wrong, rich and poor; righteousness vs good and evil. When we can unlock the mystery and the purpose of opposition, we will undoubtedly understand the power of choice and freewill.
Jesus Christ was led in the wilderness by the Spirit of God to be tempted of the devil (the serpent, the snake, the nachash);-His devil.
The word “nachash” is a word that has its origin in the word (nachash [naw-khash] Strong’s 5172) which means to practice divination, divine, observe signs, learn by experience, diligently observe, practice fortunetelling, take as an omen. This word is a primitive root, which means TO HISS, that is WHISPER A MAGIC SPELL or to prognosticate (to foretell from signs or symptoms). It is another way of saying to hypnotize.
To be more to the point, the serpent whispers, hissing to place the unsuspecting soul in a mesmerizing state, becoming consumed by imagery (observing of signs and omens (foreshadowing). To be influenced by the serpent, is to be governed by the realm of shadows, or symbolic realities that “shadow” the truth with vagueness and obscurity.
During this time of testing in the wilderness, Jesus Christ is brought face to face with his adversary (the carnal mind), an attack that touched Christ in three realms.
All men will be tempted of the devil to bring about the right confession. Ah! The right confession, or the righteous confession that connects all believing souls with the word of the Kingdom; a word that is life changing and fills us with the ability to connect with what God says.
Remember when the devil presented Christ with his tempting manner; Christ had been fasting forty days and forty nights. His human flesh was deprived of natural food, and nourishment; as he prayed to the Father (the eternal source of life). Matthew 4:2 states that Christ was hungry; his body was in dire need of sustenance, and nutrients. It was crying out for something to fulfill the appetites, the cravings, the need to be satisfied with food; and it was at this time that the tempter came. The tempter did not show up on day one, or day five, or day 10, he showed up on day forty, the time of testing, to present Christ’s humanity with the opportunity to satisfy its need for natural fulfillment; and if the truth be told, the devil was already there in the wilderness with the Christ, for he resided within him as a mind.
How many times during the fast did Christ want to satisfy the craving of his human flesh? Christ came face to face with the greatest place of battle…in the flesh of men.
It is in this place that Christ has to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.
Christ displays to us the way that all men who are “sons of God” are to go; and what the result is to be. Christ is tempted; during this most critical of moments.
Why?
Because the Spirit of God bought him to this place to be tested of the evil one, the serpent, the old dragon, leviathan, Beelzebub, the accuser of the brethren, the adversary, the fake lion; the liar…the human mind. Christ was bought to the wilderness to be either a man given to his flesh (his thoughts, his ways), or a man that could rule over it abiding in the ways and thoughts of God, that are higher.
The wilderness represents a place of barrenness, emptiness;-the lack of supply. Oh…the wonder of it all, Christ, the son of God is in the wilderness; a barren depleted place of resourcefulness, and he is hungry; gut wrenching hungry; but he demonstrates something that must ring loud in the ear of every believing soul; He possessed the ability to raise his thought life to a much higher place.
A) Man shall not live and be upheld and sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
B) On the other hand, it is written also, You shall not tempt, test thoroughly, or try exceedingly the Lord your God.
C) Be gone, Satan! For it has been written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him alone shall you serve.
The above entries are taken from the Amplified version and these represent the temptation to be worldly:
1) Lust of the flesh (6)
2) Lust of the eye (6)
3) The Pride of life (6)
I wish to turn your attention to the temptation of “The Lust of the Flesh,” and what it represents to you and I as followers of Christ.
Christ revealed a great truth when He spoke to the devil who had presented Him with the opportunity to use his “kingdom” authority to provide nourishment for his fleshly cravens. How many preachers have taken the “power of God” to be supply for their own fleshly appetites walking in the corridors of the lust of the flesh?
Christ revealed that man shall not be upheld and sustained by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. Christ responds to the devil’s temptation by stating kingdom truth; and refusing to lower himself into the consciousness of satisfying His flesh, by turning the stones of earth into natural sustenance for his physical body. Christ refused to define his strength as being in the physical body…for He acknowledged that His strength rested in God (the source of life); basically saying, that his supply resided in God the Father.
Worldliness sees supply as being something that comes from the resourcefulness of the flesh. When we go back to Cain’s occupation in the world, we find that Cain is a tiller of the ground; he works the earth to get from it what he needs to sustain himself.
Cain represents the natural man that does not savor the things that are of God, but only those things that come from men and men’s efforts. That is why when he brought his offering, he felt slighted by God, because God seemed to pay more attention to the blood sacrifice Abel set-forth with his offering, as oppose to giving homage to that which is the byproduct of self effort, therefore Cain was angered because his offering did not gain the Lord’s respect.
How many souls sit up in our churches prophetically speaking, who are upset with God, because he did not respond to their “efforts” in the flesh, killing those souls that have become committed to true worship in spirit and in truth? The efforts of going to church, memorizing scriptures, paying tithes, building temples of brick and mortar, doing all they can religiously to get to Heaven!
Precious soul, labor not for the meat that perishes; do not put your stock in titles, “Christian celebrities,” and lofty seats in the churches, but rather, humble yourself under the might hand of God; that HE might exalt you in due season-His season.
The time is come and now is that we, as a people, turn back to the voice of the Lord and hear clearly what the spirit is saying unto the church (not the building) – but unto you and I, his set apart temples.
The satanic voice seeks to keep us enslaved to “this world” being conformist rather than being transformed by the renewing of our mind.
The voice of God brings liberty; it comes to liberate our souls from the out-workings of the flesh. Adam and “the Woman” became filled with fear when they entered into disobedience, partaking of the fruit that bought pleasure to the flesh. They hid themselves from God’s presence, because they were awakened to the dread of the fleshly man and its cravings.
Rather than allow God to influence them, Adam and the Woman, were influenced by the serpent and his whisperings…”hast not God said?”
In the next section, I want to address the question that God puts to Adam and the Woman, who after the fall, became Eve (The Mother of All Living Souls – lower nature).
Next Installment: Who Told You That? Adam: A Double Minded Man