Here’s where the problem starts. The sin that Adam and Eve committed was not from being disobedient by eating from the tree, but from what happened to them by eating from it. A new equation of life was added to their make up that God never intended. Their carnal or fleshly eyes were open and for the first time they began to think in right and wrong concepts. God no longer was able to conform them with His thoughts, because the relationship had been broken. They had started to control their moral reasoning with a contaminated conscience controlled by the Devil. God never wanted man to reason with his fleshly mind in deciding what was right or wrong in his own reasoning.

We are not to judge our behavior or anyone else’s. Only God is the judge because He is the one to make the evaluations of our hearts and since He created us, only He knows how to repair any areas in us that are broken. The first thing they did after their eyes were open was to shift the blame. They did not take responsibility for their actions. They hid in the darkness and focused on their shame. They didn’t want to come clean and trust God’s forgiving grace and love. You will also notice that God asked Adam "(who told you, you were naked.)” I hope we realize where condemnation and accusations come from. It comes from the Devil.

In 1Tim 4:1-7, Paul the Apostle has some revealing insights for Timothy when he becomes prophetic and talks about how and why we function with contaminated consciences. I will paraphrase it. Paul’s says that the Holy Spirit has told him that in the latter times meaning now, some Christians will depart from their hungering and seeking of the Lord because they will be seduced by demonic teachings with doctrines contrary to the true interpretation of God’s word. This in turn is why their consciences have become seared or cauterized. When this happens, our spiritual ears become closed and we cannot hear the Holy Spirit talking and giving us God’s wisdom.

The word seared in the Greek is kauteriazo: meaning, to brand, to render insensitive, or be consumed. Paul goes on to say that, the reason why this happens was because, they were listening to people who were teaching rules and regulations and they believed that they had to live by these rules to be accepted by God and stay saved. I call them, conditional love themes. They were teaching things like, it wasn’t right for some people to get married and that; there were certain kinds of foods that they had to abstain from eating.

He went on to say that, they had departed from understanding that God created everything for good and we should throw nothing away but receive everything with a thankful heart. He goes on to say that, God’s plan is for us to continually live with the understanding that God sees us as blameless in His sight. This is the relationship Adam had with God before he ate from the tree. For this to stay in effect in our lives, Paul says in verse seven that, "we should refuse and avoid degrading and impure godless fiction, grandmother’s tales and silly myths and we should express a disapproval of these types of doctrines of man."

In the book of Genesis, chapter 3:1-5, it tells us of the first person to spread false doctrine and that was the Devil when he came and lied to Eve to make her doubt God. Satan said to her, "did God really say that you could not eat from all the trees in the garden." Her reply was, "we can eat from all the trees of the garden but, the tree in the middle of the garden we cannot eat. If we eat from it, we will surely die." The serpents reply was, "you won’t die because God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be open and you will start to know the difference between right and wrong."

Now to the outward appearance our rational mind tells us that, having the knowledge of knowing right from wrong sounds like an important attribute to have. But let me point out that the first thing Adam and Eve did after eating, was not to allow God to weave His Spirit in them and have perfect fellowship and communication but, he began reasoning in his own mind and hid from God and made fig leaf aprons to cover up his disobedient act. He began to reason with his contaminated insensitive conscience that had been seared by the Devil.

It should be obvious that the Devil hasn’t changed his tactics since the Garden of Eden. He is still lying in the ears of people who are ignorant of God’s word. Because we have this distorted concept of reasoning, he still is getting people to eat from this Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Now, I can understand this going on in the lives of people who have not made Jesus their Savior. Why? They don’t have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of them and they are easily deceived. In turn, they cannot rightly interpret God’s word. However, for this to be going on in born again believers, it has become a dis-grace. This meaning, they are living by rules and regulations and not trusting in Jesus finished work at the cross-alone.

Paul the Apostle in 11Cor.3:6 states, “our salvation only comes through Jesus Christ. Not through some regimented code of conduct.” ”

We who are born again believers live by the prodding’s and pleadings of the Holy Spirit on the inside of us. However, if we continue to be deceived and filter truth through a contaminated and crippled conscience we will die. He says that, this type of reasoning kills or separates us from experiencing a whirlwind relationship that God wants to have with us as He had with Adam in the garden.

We said earlier that our conscience was contaminated when this new equation of life entered our being, when we were first born. God intention is to restore mankind and deliver him from a shame-based nature that Adam got after he ate from the tree. When Adam’s eyes were open to reason in his own attitudes of right and wrong, it became God’s plan to send Jesus do die on a cross and sacrifice Himself to deliver and heal us of this condition. The Apostle Paul told the church at Ephesus, in chapter 5:26-27 that, “Jesus sets us apart and cleanses His church or His body by the washing of water by the word so that, we might present ourselves in His service as a glorious church not having any spot or wrinkle spot or wrinkle being holy and without blemish.”

This process can only happen as we listen daily to the Holy Spirit as He purifies our thinking through our thought life and affirming to us the great love He has for us. This is the only way our conscience can stay healthy and uncontaminated.

I don’t know how many people are saved everyday because of the message of the gospel going out through the body of Christ in all denominations and through every media whatsoever. Scripture tells us to go out into the world and preach the gospel to every living creature. I have an unending theme that says, “Once people meet Jesus we must get them anchored in their newfound faith, so they can through practical examples and common sense, begin to touch the invisible world that they stepped into by meeting Christ and start to learn how to make Him their Lord.” I don’t believe because of what I am hearing and observing, that this is being done like sitting down and eating some good food like meat and mashed potatoes. It’s great to be saved. However, we need to make Jesus the Lord of our lives. The only why this can happen is if, we are teaching sound doctrinal concepts that can be understood by us and we can sink our teeth into them, and they take on a significant part of our internal makeup.

By filtering truth through a sick faulty conscience, there is no way to be anchored in Christ. The invisible dimension of the “Spiritual World” is something that has to be taking form and substance that, we can relate to more and more each day. I have found that the warfare of growing up in the Lord at times is intense. However, the vision and revelation of how the kingdom of God operates is becoming more real in my thought life as God gives me a higher understanding of His ways and the affection he has for me as His child.

I believe I have seen in my lifetime every endeavor by God’s kids including myself in my ignorance to counterfeit the power of God into nothing more than what Adam did when he attempted to cover his shame and immaturity by making fig leaf aprons to make him think that he was holy. How long are we going to be deceived by the Devil and stay living in a conditioned ignorance and faulty thinking.

This is what is keeping us from God’s plan for our total redemption and growth? We have to come to realize that the initial failure and core of all other failures, is our lack of hungering and thirsting after the Lord. Hungering and thirsting after the Lord is the price for us to pay to function in our inheritance that we received when we first met Him. Jesus paid the price for us at the cross already. What we now need to understand is that as we allow the Holy Spirit to weave His Spirit through us daily, this hunger for Him is maintained and increases as He works through us.

Think about this for a while. It will deliver you of a lot of legalism and laws of do’s and don’ts that you might be living under. Paul the Apostle, in Romans 9:1 defines how our conscience is supposed to work within us. He says, "I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying; my conscience is being enlightened and prompted by the Holy Spirit is being enlightened and prompted by the Holy Spirit, making me have an awareness that it’s His voice speaking within me."

I don’t know how much more persuasive I can be without saying this to you. Have you in your Christian growth been able to define the voice and witness of the Holy Spirit communicating the spiritual truth in all of your decision-making? Unless we have ears to hear the voice of God within us, we will never be sure that we are not being lied to. Remember that the Devil is the father of liars. When we are walking in this awareness of the Holy Spirits voice, then we are walking as Adam did when he was allowing God to weave His Spirit being in and out of his physical body. I hope you are realizing that we are talking about a relationship with a living entity.

The Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 2:16 says to these people, "who has known or understands the mind or counsels and purposes of the Lord, to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge. But we who are born again believers have the mind of Christ and can now know His feelings and purposes and thoughts."

In Romans 8:14-16 Paul states, “All that are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. Now the Spirit that you received when you met Christ is not a spirit of slavery to put you once more into bondage to being afraid but you have received a Spirit of being adopted in to God’s family. This Spirit produces son-ship with God, where we can in great freedom call Him Abba Father or Papa. The Holy Spirit in us testifies together with our own spirit and assures us that we are His children.” You will notice here that Paul brings out that when the Holy Spirit is communicating with us, we are not afraid. Remember when God showed up to have fellowship with Adam after he had eaten from the tree of good and evil. His comment to God was “he didn’t show up to meet Him as before because, he was afraid to see Him face to face.”

I cannot stress this any louder. When we have fear controlling our lives, this is an actual entity of demonic influence by the Devil and his main tactic is to stop us from running to the Lord for our sustenance and strength. Let’s not be naive into thinking that this encounter that Eve had with Satan in the garden was some kind of fairy tale story

If you look in the Hebrew interpretation of this encounter, it actually says that, she had a séance with Satan. We must get to the point of identifying who is influencing our thought life. Is our conscience faulty and being influenced by the Devil? On the other hand, are we spending time in hungering and thirsting after God and letting the Holy Spirit keep us from being contaminated and influenced with false doctrines of man and thinking that God loves us only as we measure up to certain conditions.

Paul, in his letter in Hebrews 9:14 sums it all up when he says that, "the blood that Jesus shed on the cross and by the power of His Eternal Spirit and divine personality. He offered Himself as an unblemished and uncontaminated sacrifice to God so that our consciences could be purified from doing dead works.

It is only Him dying and giving up His life that could ever deliver us from this contaminated and broken condition that we were in by being born with a conscience that could not function and had no power to hear the Holy Spirit

I am becoming more and more convinced that walking with the Lord is not so difficult when, we begin to really see how the Spiritual Kingdom that we entered into when, we made Jesus our own personal Savior works. We must learn to actually interact with the Holy Spirit and recognize that He wants to talk to us about our every day activities at all times. Ask the Lord to help you focus your thought life on what’s important for your wholeness and the purpose He has ordained for your life. He will (if,) you will give up and let let Him.