So in Genesis 3 we see that the enemy of God attacked the vision of God through lies. But Adam and Eve had a choice to make when faced with those lies. They could reject them and choose to believe God is who He says he is, and their identity was already secure. Or, they could choose to accept these lies and act out according to this new belief.
Well, we all know what they chose. But their sin, just like our sin now, was the sin of “Agreement”. The enemy is going to do his thing and lie and twist, but we sin when we say “you’re right. I agree with that.” And we act out.
Gen 3:6-7 - 6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves waist coverings.
Do you see it? Instead of saying, “Wait a minute…I know God loves us and He has provided all things and He is true and right and good, and He will give us everything we need. That is the truth!
Rather, they (hypothetically) said, “Mr. Snake – I think you’re right. God is holding back. He is denying us some great stuff. We lack something and we need more than what we have. I agree with you. Let’s do this!”
When we enter into agreement with the lies of the enemy about God or ourselves we sin and open the door for further sin and wounding. Our relationship with God and with our family gets wounded. This is what needs restoration!
I met a man named Charles at a training conference in Dallas years ago. He was a retired Christian counselor/psychologist. He had done Christian counseling for decades.
We were learning how these “agreement” work, and in a time of prayer we asked the Lord to show us a memory when an agreement with the enemy was made.
Charles had this vivid memory about when he was in elementary school a LONG time ago and he had changed schools because his family moved. The teacher of his class asked Charles to stay in during recess to go over a few things in the middle of the day.
When it came time for lunch Charles forgot to stay in class and instead ran out to the playground with his new friends to play. Not a big deal – right?
When they came back in from lunch and recess the teacher asked Charles to come to the front of the class. She asked him about staying in during recess and he apologized and said he forgot.
She asked him to hold out his hands and she wailed them with a ruler several times. He remembered feeling so embarrassed and ashamed in front of his new classmates as he screamed out in shock and pain.
That shame and rejection was so deep in that moment the enemy went to work with all kinds of lies. Like “You have a bad memory”. See, when I met Charles he probably said 3-4 times in the span of a few hours how bad his memory was. But he seemed like a pretty sharp guy. He was operating out of an agreement with the enemy.
He was also so shamed by that moment that he developed a huge fear of being in front of people. He had felt a call to ministry and to be a preacher, but his shame and fear from that moment propelled him to take a different career path and instead he spent his life with 1 or 2 people in a room as a counselor. not that counseling is a bad thing at all, but it was a result of his agreement with the enemy and not necessarily a calling from the Lord.
Do you see how things works? The Lord in that time of prayer restored Charles. Charles repented of agreeing with the enemy all those years ago and he received healing. Do want to know something super cool?
While we’re praying Charles tells me as he is seeing this memory of him 50+ years ago standing in front of the class getting his hands wailed by the teacher and screaming and crying and being embarrassed…he says “I see Jesus. He is standing next to me in my memory and he’s putting his arm around my shoulder. He’s comforting me and is so sorry that I was embarrassed like that. He says he loves me.”
In that moment the Lord was freeing Charles and bringing healing to his heart and mind and freeing him up from these lies he had operated out of for so long. We have story after story of the Lord doing that very thing over and over – restoring people who have lived in agreement with these lies from the enemy.
Check out Part 3 of this series to find out what’s next!