Gen 3:5 (NIV) For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. You can always find some reason to doubt God. No matter how good He has been, if you really put your mind to it, you can see Him as not being fair to you. Motives are extremely hard to read; you have trusted people in the past that seemed to be very nice people. But, later you found out WHY they were being so nice to you.

Suppose God did do all these nice things for some personal reason? What did Adam and Eve or you have before He did it? NOTHING! What have Adam and Eve or you done that makes you deserve ANY of the things God gave you? NOTHING! What have any of you done that makes you deserve even more than you have now? NOTHING! What has Satan done for Adam and Eve or you that would indicate his motives are good? NOTHING! Let the Holy Spirit search your heart. Let Him point out your flaws in your thinking. Let Him show you where you are about to misread the situation.

Two major things are being presented to Eve’s and your reasoning powers.

1. YOU can’t trust God because He is being selfish and trying to keep you down below His level.
2. YOU examine this fruit for yourself. YOU decide whether or not eating this fruit is best for you.

Satan didn’t give any proof or evidence as to why his words should be listened to rather that God’s. That’s the way the world and its people talk to you. They just speak authoritatively; they just try to say things your body wants to hear. They speak the language of your body and tell you that you deserve sin and extreme pleasure. Another thing Satan and his people do is, they present you with half truths. God did know that when they ate it their eyes would be opened. God did know they would know good and evil. The lie was; they wouldn’t be like God. God hates evil and loves good. Because of the sinful nature in your bodies, you, Adam, and Eve started loving evil and hating good.

Your body, the world, and the devil are saying that they need to be trusted. They are saying to you that they have your best interests in mind. They are telling you that they are trying to get you into benefits that God and the Bible are trying to hold back from you. Like Eve, you can be analyzing your body’s, the world’s, and the devil's words and trying to decide who is right. Like her, you can fail to analyze the different sources and fail to try to decide WHO can be trusted.

It looked to Eve like there was only one way to test the fruit and see if it had the power to open her eyes and make them like God, knowing good and evil. She thought there was only one way to find out if it would cause her to die like God said it would.

Adam and Eve allowed Satan to convice them that the only way they were going to find out the truth about this fruit was to eat it. But, they weren’t thinking clearly; it will be too late for them to change their minds. They were and you are faced with two choices. To trust and believe God and let His words be enough; or, test it yourselves and find out what kind of consequences it brought.

Like Eve, Satan is trying to get you to just LOOK at the fruit. If he can get your eyes off of whether or not you trust and believe in the honesty of God, he can trap you. If he can just get you on the fun, the pleasure, the “benefits,” and the excitement, he can get you lusting after the sin itself. If he can get you imagining how wonderful it is going to be to yield, he can get your mind off of Who created this world for you, Who gave you the beautiful sky, Who gave you the opportunity to become His child, Who died for you and all your sins, and Who has prepared eternal life for you.

Once your body, the world, and the devil get your eyes off of the issue of the blessings and God, they get you started trusting your eyes rather than God and His Bible. Like Eve, you will no longer be trying to decide whether to believe the devil or God. You will be looking at and analyzing the “fruit” for yourself.

Now, just like Eve, you will have an additional option of trust. Who do YOU trust, God, your body, the world, Satan, or YOURSELF? For you and Eve, this is a no-brainer. Like her, you can think you are the number one person for having your best interest in mind.

For most of your life, you have believed that you love you the most. You have believed you are best qualified for deciding what is best for you. You have believed you are best for deciding who you should trust for associating with. And, you have believed you are most qualified for deciding what is right and wrong for you. So, as you and Eve are standing there making the biggest decision of your life, you are judge, jury, and executioner. You have reached a place where NO ONE but YOU matter. BUT, the Holy Spirit is right there warning you.

John 16:8 (NIV) When He comes, He will CONVICT the world of GUILT in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. You will feel a check in your heart; your conscience will experience a convicting sensation that tells you that you are considering doing something wrong. If you pray, Jesus will empower you to walk away. If you just stand there and allow yourself to be the deciding factor, you will fail.

John 16:13-14 (NIV) But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to Me by taking from what is Mine and making it known to you. Like Adam and Eve, God has awesome plans for you. He will prove to you His love, His generosity, and His eternal plan. You just have to be willing to pray and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal all the great truths that are waiting for you.