“Now the serpent was more subtle and crafty than any living creature which the LORD God had made. And he [Satan] said to the woman, ‘Can it really be that God has said, You shall not eat from every tree of the garden?’”    Genesis 3:1

Before you read today’s article let me invite you to find a Bible and also read Genesis 1:28, 2:15, 19-20, 3:2-10 if you would like a more complete background. These verses recount the biggest decision any person has ever had to make. They also reveal, among other things, the source of one of the most common conditions that continues to cripple the human race. We have all experienced both the paralyzing effects of INDECISION and the painful disappointments associated with wrong decisions. So, in order to make better decisions in life, let’s learn to identify and avoid the same kinds of mistakes Adam and Eve made.

Like a master technician, Satan used a subtle process of manipulation to strip Eve of her confidence in the place and position God had given her beside Adam in His creation. Piece by piece, he removed each pillar of Truth in the foundation that their relationship with God stood upon, until he was able to deceive them into the ultimate wrong choice. His aim with them, as it is with us, was to bring them to a place of complete vulnerability in the spiritual arena and then expose them to its darker realities.

I want you to particularly notice how that before he usurped their authority and replaced their dominion in this world with his own, he first systematically destroyed their decisiveness. Satan did far more than simply give them all the wrong answers; rather he enticed them to question all the right ones! Instead of standing firm in who they already were in God and what they possessed because of His love for them, they began to speculate about alternative possibilities.

The process of stripping a person of divine destiny begins with an attack on their human reasoning. Adam and Eve fell because they did not answer the 7 Basic Questions of Life properly. They became confused about: 1. WHO they trusted, 2. WHAT they knew, 3. WHEN they would benefit, 4. WHERE they stood, 5. WHY it really mattered, 6. HOW wrong information affected them, and 7. WHAT THEN would be the outcome. These same questions are always the difference between good decisions and bad ones in our lives. Now it becomes our responsibility to answer them appropriately if we want to avoid the trap Adam and Eve fell into. If we can, we will become ‘spiritually decisive’ and go further with God and man.