Page 33 - The Divine Unfolding of God's Plan of Redemption

behest) to ensnare a vain and gullible humanity.

We have previously pointed out that the Spirit of God speaks to man through the

spirit of man, that part of his nature which is God-conscious and through which he has
fellowship with his Creator. Through the spirit of man the Spirit of God communicates
the will of God.

Satan, on the other hand, works through external stimulations of the body and soul
of man. It is within the general function of the soul that there is the will, the motions,
the intellectual processes, the instincts. There are legitimate stimuli of all these
through the spirit of man and by the Spirit of God. But the spirit of error also has

access to these and can easily counterfeit true spiritual reactions with psychological
reflexes entirely spurious. The Spirit-taught believer should have little difficulty in
distinguishing between the true and the false. The test is in I John 4:2-3. Evil spirits
always center the attention of the individual upon himself and produce an exuberance

that begins and ends with the emotional experience itself. Herein lies the great danger
of the “experience” cults that spring up like mushrooms to counterfeit true godly
sorrow for sin and a passionate love for the Savior from sin. All true spiritual
experience is Christ-centered and produces a great hunger for the Word of God, which

speaks of Him. Satan appeals to the will through the medium of sense, stimulating to
thoughts and desires that are on a mundane or horizontal plane, and luring the mind
away from its proper subordination to that which is in the spiritual or vertical plane.
This is exactly what occurred in Gen 3:6, which records the greatest tragedy of the

ages.

Having completed his approach, the woman was ready to turn her attention to a
direct appeal from the object itself.

“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and to be desired to make one wise.” This appeal to the will made
its entrance through the sense of sight. Before there can be an act of disobedience

there must be a will to disobey. Here Satan introduced an entirely new basis of action,
a new constitution of government. The spiritual constitution under which they had
been previously carrying on was one of obedience. There had been no thought of any

course of action not in complete submission to the will of the loving Sovereign and to
His glory. Now appeared an urge to do something based upon an entirely new set of
considerations. It would gratify a physical appetite, it looked good, and it would
enhance earthly wisdom and prestige! Not one of the three is a spiritual consideration.
All three are carnal. The issue was placed before the queen and king to alter the form

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