Originally posted April 12, 2016
This weekend, as our pastor used the very first failure in history to teach us about marriage, the story of the fall of man jumped out at me in a brand new way.
Genesis 3:1-11 (NIV)
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?
He (Adam)answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
And He (God) said, “Who told you that you were naked?”
The enemy came with a lie and manipulated Eve, Eve agreed with the lie, deciding that it was truth, and disobeyed what God had commanded. She then convinced Adam that the lie was in fact truth, and that what God had said was not truth. Then, suddenly their nakedness, which had never been anything but normal for them, became shameful and embarrassing. God, who was not ignorant to what was going on, stepped in, beckoning them. What God asked Adam next nearly made me fall out of my chair.
“Who told you?” He asked. Up until this point, their nakedness had been normal. So normal that they hadn’t even known there was another way to live, and then with one act, suddenly what was a way of life for them became shameful, and God wanted to know why.
The way all of this unfolded is exactly the way lies, wounds, and healing take place in our lives today.
First, the enemy comes with a lie, and the evidence to back it up, usually in someone’s words or actions against us. Then, we decide to agree with the lie, and that gives the enemy the permission to make that lie look like the truth. We also begin to personify that lie, making other people believe it about us too. For example if the lie is, “I’m not good enough,” then the enemy will present you with all kinds of areas where you are failing: parenting, creating, cleaning, driving, loving, friendships . . . from major things to benign things. The more evidence you see, the more you agree with the lie, and the more you begin to live that lie. From that point on, any attempt at vulnerability in the Father’s presence includes a mantle of shame because what you’re living verses what God says about you are not in alignment.
Shame is what the enemy uses keeps us from experiencing the Lord’s embrace, so when we feel the Lord’s presence beckoning us, instead of entering into His presence, we hide, or resist Him.
Thankfully, the Lord doesn’t abandon us to shame, Romans 8 tells us that there is no condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus. There is no more “not good enough.” We have been set free because of Jesus death and resurrection. So this begs the question:
Who told you that you weren’t good enough?
Stop. Look at it again.
WHO. TOLD. YOU?
Who told you that you are unlovable? Who told you that you aren’t good enough? That you aren’t valuable? Who told you that who you are is in direct opposition to who God created you to be? Who has been lying to you for all of these years? Answering this question will be one of the most important steps in your recovery process.
There is always an offender, but let’s be honest, sometimes the offenders are innocents caught in the enemy’s crossfire. A lot of the time they have no idea what kind of wounds they are inflicting in the moment. There are more serious cases where people are lashing out and well aware of their failures in the moment, but except for a small handful of situations, most of the things I have had to recover from were not intentional wounds, but simply people acting out of their own brokenness and unknowingly causing a wound in my heart.
We all have these wounds. We all have these lies in our lives that we have bowed to and even worn like badges of honor on our sleeves because they seem so true, and there is so much evidence to back them up. But they’re not true. That evidence is either circumstantial or fabricated, and if you let Him, the Holy Spirit will prove it to you with evidence that can not be disproven.
Who told you?
When we get to the root of the lie, then we will see that the source of that lie is not a credible one, in fact, he is called the ‘father of lies’. Is that who we want to agree with? Or do we want to agree with the Father of Creation? The Father of lights. Our good, good father.
This passage hit me so hard on Sunday and I want it to hit you, too. I want you to get it. That you do not have to listen to the enemy anymore, and even though his lies have brought a death of some sort in your life, just like God sacrificed an animal in order to cover Adam and Eve (Gen 3:21), He also sacrificed His Son in order to cover you and I.
So, whatever “I am” phrase is running through your mind, I beg you to stop right now and hear the Father ask, “Who told you that?” and ask Him to walk you through your healing from that lie, and listen to who God says that you are.
