God's original language was not (is not) English. Human languages by this time in the world's history probably have very little in common to the original ways of communicating God gave in the beginning - except, perhaps, that they are still attempting to communicate. For those of us who have read the Biblical account of 'His Story' (history) we have been given clues as to where some of these communication challenges were accelerated.
When God created 'man' He gave Adam and Eve the gift of speech as one form of communication. He also gave them body language as another form of communication. And according to rather recent scientific research, when two minds come into harmony and are synchronized together they can communicate directly - mind to mind - on a non-verbal level as well as through body language and spoken words.
Adam and Eve changed their allegiance from the Creator God to Satan by obeying Satan's suggestions to disobey a directive given by God to them. From then on one of Satan's 'weapons' or modalities to control his 'subjects', his slaves, has been to cause confusion - which fits well with three other aspects of his form of 'government' as exposed in Genesis 3. After Adam and Eve chose Satan's 'rule' they also became 'afraid', 'ashamed' and began to 'blame' - conditions that do not lead to real peace.
I have often used the following words to describe the devil's counterfeit forms of operation:
Fear, False and Force. These are counterfeits (and they can be very powerful) but rest assured that Satan doesn't counterfeit 'junk'. Therefore these counterfeits must have something that is genuine from which they were 'twisted' from to make them counterfeit.
Consider the following for God's genuine basis for His government to counteract the counterfeit.
1 John 4:18,19 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us.
Psalm 119:31 I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame.
(God's testimonies include His Word - which is always true, never false.)
Proverbs 3:35 The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.
(God's character is His glory and as we choose God's will He makes us like Him)
Proverbs 11:2 [When] pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly [is] wisdom. (Wisdom is also a name for the Spirit of God.)
God has offered a remedy as a replacement for Satan's shame.
Revelation 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Genuine: Love (other - centered from God)
Counterfeit : Fear (brought about by self-centeredness)
Genuine: Authority (given to someone because of other-centered love)
Counterfeit: Force (attempting to make others 'do' against their will)
Genuine: Truth, (God as the source)
Counterfeit: False, fake, lies - anything not completely true.
By ourselves we humans could not become free from Satan's despotic rule after Adam and Eve chose to give him their allegiance. But Jesus came to this earth - as the Bible calls Him - the second Adam(see I Corinthians 15:45), and 'rescued' the whole human race from slavery under Satan's tyrannical dictatorship.
One very important act of Jesus was to give back to human beings the power to choose. Once humans were under Satan's control the devil had no plans for them to ever change their allegiance again. But because of God's wonderful plan of redemption man is given once again the power to choose whom he will be loyal too. And since God will not force anyone against their own free will that also means that God will allow a person to say 'no' to being loyal to God as well as choosing to be loyal to their Creator.
After about two thousand years of Satan's exhibiting what his government was capable of 'doing' and 'being', God saw that the thoughts of human beings were so corrupted and messed up they would self destruct before long. Since there is more to history than a mere record of what has happened in the past, the Biblical account reveals how God has been involved here on planet earth since He created it in the first place. After Satan claimed rulership of this earth, things got pretty bad. Human life meant little and strife and bloodshed became 'common'. The Bible record gives a very brief description of God's conclusion of the condition of the earth in Genesis 6:5 "And God saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually. " God chose to 'cut short' a generation hell bent on 'self destruction' - which would have been far worse then the results of the earth getting washed by a flood of water (see verse 6,7).
God may have decided to do a 'clean up' job, but He also offered so 'rescue' anyone who was willing to accept life on God's terms - go into the ark which Noah had built according to God's directions. The people of that day had 120 years to decide what they would do but in the end only 8 people chose that option - go into a big boat and save their lives.
After the flood was 'history', the majority of people again chose to ignore the evidence that God was truly interested in them and loved them. Instead they chose to make alliances and accept counterfeits. The Bible calls the place where another great 'choosing' happened as 'Babel'. It is interesting that the root of that word even today still means 'confusion' and/or unintelligent communications. When God saw the attempts to blatantly defy Him and/or deny His existence, He simply 'confused' their languages - their forms of communications.
From then until now the continuous and ever increasing challenges to engage in harmonious, peaceful, love based communications between minds have loomed large on the horizon of human history.
God did not leave human beings without a solution to their communication problems, however. When a person chooses to belong to God and be part of His 'family', God immediately sets in operation ways and means of restoring peace based, joy filled communications not only between God and that person but also between that person and all others who are choosing God as their Sovereign Lord and Father.
In quite a number of situations I have been seeing that scenario being played out in my life. I was just talking with a friend this morning who counseled me how to communicate with someone else in such a way that at least would offer them the opportunity not to become angry, defensive, blaming or other negative response. But since communication -to be genuine - has to be two sided, I also have to continually keep in mind that I can only offer to communicate in peace but I cannot control how the other mind will respond - so long as I am in God's family.
It has been quite a learning experience for me and I keep asking God to 'grow me up' to be like Him not only in how I look and think but how I communicate with others.
In closing here are a few communication guidelines for those of us who are 'growing up' in Jesus' way of life.
Zechariah 8:16 These [are] the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates:
Ephesians 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, [even] Christ:
23 - 25 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
May the God of Peace be with you.
Bringer of Peace
When God created 'man' He gave Adam and Eve the gift of speech as one form of communication. He also gave them body language as another form of communication. And according to rather recent scientific research, when two minds come into harmony and are synchronized together they can communicate directly - mind to mind - on a non-verbal level as well as through body language and spoken words.
Adam and Eve changed their allegiance from the Creator God to Satan by obeying Satan's suggestions to disobey a directive given by God to them. From then on one of Satan's 'weapons' or modalities to control his 'subjects', his slaves, has been to cause confusion - which fits well with three other aspects of his form of 'government' as exposed in Genesis 3. After Adam and Eve chose Satan's 'rule' they also became 'afraid', 'ashamed' and began to 'blame' - conditions that do not lead to real peace.
I have often used the following words to describe the devil's counterfeit forms of operation:
Fear, False and Force. These are counterfeits (and they can be very powerful) but rest assured that Satan doesn't counterfeit 'junk'. Therefore these counterfeits must have something that is genuine from which they were 'twisted' from to make them counterfeit.
Consider the following for God's genuine basis for His government to counteract the counterfeit.
1 John 4:18,19 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us.
Psalm 119:31 I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me not to shame.
(God's testimonies include His Word - which is always true, never false.)
Proverbs 3:35 The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools.
(God's character is His glory and as we choose God's will He makes us like Him)
Proverbs 11:2 [When] pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly [is] wisdom. (Wisdom is also a name for the Spirit of God.)
God has offered a remedy as a replacement for Satan's shame.
Revelation 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Genuine: Love (other - centered from God)
Counterfeit : Fear (brought about by self-centeredness)
Genuine: Authority (given to someone because of other-centered love)
Counterfeit: Force (attempting to make others 'do' against their will)
Genuine: Truth, (God as the source)
Counterfeit: False, fake, lies - anything not completely true.
By ourselves we humans could not become free from Satan's despotic rule after Adam and Eve chose to give him their allegiance. But Jesus came to this earth - as the Bible calls Him - the second Adam(see I Corinthians 15:45), and 'rescued' the whole human race from slavery under Satan's tyrannical dictatorship.
One very important act of Jesus was to give back to human beings the power to choose. Once humans were under Satan's control the devil had no plans for them to ever change their allegiance again. But because of God's wonderful plan of redemption man is given once again the power to choose whom he will be loyal too. And since God will not force anyone against their own free will that also means that God will allow a person to say 'no' to being loyal to God as well as choosing to be loyal to their Creator.
After about two thousand years of Satan's exhibiting what his government was capable of 'doing' and 'being', God saw that the thoughts of human beings were so corrupted and messed up they would self destruct before long. Since there is more to history than a mere record of what has happened in the past, the Biblical account reveals how God has been involved here on planet earth since He created it in the first place. After Satan claimed rulership of this earth, things got pretty bad. Human life meant little and strife and bloodshed became 'common'. The Bible record gives a very brief description of God's conclusion of the condition of the earth in Genesis 6:5 "And God saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually. " God chose to 'cut short' a generation hell bent on 'self destruction' - which would have been far worse then the results of the earth getting washed by a flood of water (see verse 6,7).
God may have decided to do a 'clean up' job, but He also offered so 'rescue' anyone who was willing to accept life on God's terms - go into the ark which Noah had built according to God's directions. The people of that day had 120 years to decide what they would do but in the end only 8 people chose that option - go into a big boat and save their lives.
After the flood was 'history', the majority of people again chose to ignore the evidence that God was truly interested in them and loved them. Instead they chose to make alliances and accept counterfeits. The Bible calls the place where another great 'choosing' happened as 'Babel'. It is interesting that the root of that word even today still means 'confusion' and/or unintelligent communications. When God saw the attempts to blatantly defy Him and/or deny His existence, He simply 'confused' their languages - their forms of communications.
From then until now the continuous and ever increasing challenges to engage in harmonious, peaceful, love based communications between minds have loomed large on the horizon of human history.
God did not leave human beings without a solution to their communication problems, however. When a person chooses to belong to God and be part of His 'family', God immediately sets in operation ways and means of restoring peace based, joy filled communications not only between God and that person but also between that person and all others who are choosing God as their Sovereign Lord and Father.
In quite a number of situations I have been seeing that scenario being played out in my life. I was just talking with a friend this morning who counseled me how to communicate with someone else in such a way that at least would offer them the opportunity not to become angry, defensive, blaming or other negative response. But since communication -to be genuine - has to be two sided, I also have to continually keep in mind that I can only offer to communicate in peace but I cannot control how the other mind will respond - so long as I am in God's family.
It has been quite a learning experience for me and I keep asking God to 'grow me up' to be like Him not only in how I look and think but how I communicate with others.
In closing here are a few communication guidelines for those of us who are 'growing up' in Jesus' way of life.
Zechariah 8:16 These [are] the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates:
Ephesians 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, [even] Christ:
23 - 25 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
May the God of Peace be with you.
Bringer of Peace
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