No.
Thou Shall Not.
This principle was instituted in creation. In his imminent wisdom, God understood the value of establishing the No/Thou shall not in a perfect world yet undefiled by sin.
”And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
And the Lord God 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 thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Genesis 2:8 & 9, 16 & 17
Before the question was asked, he gave them the answer. NO
He gave them limits on his yes / you shall.
One of the greatest gifts parents will give their children is the gift of No.
We see this in the perfect world, from God himself to His two children.
In a perfect world, a limitation was required.
Why? It goes to the principle of division. He divided the light from the darkness.
He divided the water from the land. He divided The water in the heavens and the water on the earth.
The principle truth is there must be a binary to all things for the value to be authentic.
Even in the creation of mankind, he made them male and female. The distinction was a part of the design. In that distinction was wisdom illustrated.
Pastors and Leaders who lack the intestinal fortitude to teach the No’s of God are a curse. We must be as bold in declaring God’s blessings promised as well as declaring those things God will curse. Because No is a gift from God. If it’s in the Word of God, we must embrace His Yes and His No.
We see an attempt to erase all forms of distinction and the principle of No, Thou Shall Not from people’s minds. In Christianity.
However, this foolishness and the evil it spawns is illustrated in Genesis chapter three.
What happened when they believed that the distinction, the no, had no power?
First, let’s just put to rest the lie, “God will not judge you for ignoring His No / Thou shall not’s.” God did judge them.
God still judges us based on what we do in disobedience or ignorance.
Today, we still suffer from that original sin of ignoring, dismissing, and disagreeing with God’s demand for distinction and prohibition. This propensity to resist God is hard-wired.
Every bad thing in our world today is a product of that original sin and the error in our code when we are born to ignore and minimize the no of God.
One of the first steps out of the darkness is when we recognize the logical conclusion: we are not God, we cannot be God, and we are morally broken and inferior. This acknowledgment brings us to the understanding of how deeply we need God.
All of God. Not just all of the good things he provides, but to acknowledge and understand what God in His Word forbids and has placed off limits.
It’s not enough to eat every good thing in the garden AND the forbidden fruit. That is what Adam and Eve did, and on that day they did the forbidden thing: chaos, confusion, and ultimately death began to work.
From then and there, we see fear, anxiety, insecurity, scarcity, struggle, and necessity become a part of the human experience.
The consequence of sin on the human mind is seen in Genesis chapter three.
Shame, trying to cover the shame, hiding from the voice of God, and blaming someone else.
Deception and disobedience have the same consequence.
The way out of the shame, chaos, insecurity, scarcity, and necessity is to acknowledge, respect, and honor God.
In a word, “Fear God.”
”The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.” Psalm 111:10
One of the greatest decisions you will ever make in your life is to embrace the things prohibitions God has given you in His word. Why? Because those prohibitions are not arbitrary, but rather than are forbidden because of the moral wreckage and anarchy they cause.
Some live in sin because of ignorance. They have not been taught and, therefore lack the knowledge/understanding of what sin is. Therefore, they have no hunger and thirst for righteousness. Yet.
When one does conclude, “I am doing life wrong. I want to find a better way.” That awakening will bring them to a place of repentance and quest to know God and learn, grow, and live in a way that shows they believe in and honor God.
From that moment, it God’s will that all would progress in the following way that is explained in such a beautiful way.
Read this and recognize the progression. Focus on each step in the sequence and you will see, that each one builds on the other.
“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:4-11
I’ll say YES to the Lord! I will say yes to His Will. I will say Yes to His Word!
Everything he has said NO! to I will embrace the No! I will embrace and obey those things God has forbidden, discouraged, warned, and designated as shameful or sinful.
In Him, By Him, Through Him,
Scott A. Phillips
Pastor
Springridge Pentecostal Church
3453 Springridge Road – Raymond, Ms 39056
P.S.
The Wisdom of Job
“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.”
Read it for yourself and see the progression.
Genesis 3
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.