1 – Where are you dwelling?

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:

Genesis 3:14 KJV

We are all too familiar with the Story of Genesis, Adam and Eve. They were placed in Eden, the garden of God and they were asked to take care of it. They were sent out because they obeyed the serpent rather than God. There is a tendency to take this story literally, however, the book of Revelation 12:7-12 describes this serpent as a spiritual being who was cast down to the earth, the devil who accuses the brethren. Even more interesting is the curse on the man. In Genesis 3:19, God says to the man “for dust thou art and to dust thou shall return”. In essence, man became dust. If this is the case, What is dust? And how can we NOT be dust, or serpent food?

To understand this, we will go a couple of chapters back to Genesis 1. God outlined His eternal plan for man in Genesis 1:26-28. Man was created in the image and likeness of God and was to subdue and have dominion over all creation. In Genesis 2:7, we see the formation of this man. God formed clay and breathed into it His breath and this man became a living soul. However, this life he had was simply because of the Spirit (breath) of God. So, when he disobeyed God, he lost connection with God and as God warned, he died; he became a dead soul, dust.

How does this relate to us? The new man in Christ is brought back into the presence of God, Eden. We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In Him, we live, move, and have our being. God has not only breathed His Spirit into us, but we became one Spirit with Him when we were joined to Him. Isaiah 58:11 tells us that our soul shall be as a well-watered garden. This means as Adam was given the task to dress the garden, we are to ensure our mind, emotions, will, and desires are influenced by the Spirit of Life. Paul said, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace”. Thankfully, as we see in Revelation 12 and Genesis 3, the devil is confined to the earth (belly to the ground) and so as long as we dwell in the heavens, in the presence of God, we are far from the reach of the serpent.

So how do we stay in the heavens? Colossians 3 answers this well. Paul says in Colossians 3:8-10, we must put off the old man and his deeds. We cannot afford to carry around that cursed old man. He is dead and so all his deeds such as malice, lying, wickedness, envy, etc. must be buried as well. We are also to put on the new man, who is renewed in the knowledge of God. This means learning about Christ and where He is. The more we do this, and set our affections on things above, we are able to stay ascended (in the heavens). The same temptation that came to Adam comes to all of us every day: to set our affection on anything other than Christ, to come down to the earthy realm by embracing the old man. However, as we are influenced or led by the Spirit, stay vigilant and pray, we dwell in the heavens where we belong.

Final thoughts: Eagles and Serpents are enemies. An eagle on the ground does little to a serpent, however, when it mounts up with wings and switches location, the serpent is eagle food! Where are you dwelling?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, this day I wait on you and I choose to mount up with wings like eagles. Help me to set my affection and mind on things that are above and not on the earth. In You I live, in You, I move, In You, I have my being. Amen.

Scripture reading: Colossians 3:1-10.