Page 24 - SABBATH

Yahweh.
If man had eaten of the forbidden fruit and then he had always chosen to follow that
which he determined to be good and right, he would have been just as much of a
transgressor as one who always chose to follow the course that his soul told him was evil.
It didn’t matter whether man was doing good or evil. What mattered was that man was now
finding his sense of what was good and evil in a place other than the mind of Yahweh.
This is the intent of the scripture we previously looked at from Matthew chapter 7.
Yahshua said that many will come to Him on the day of judgment saying, “Didn’t we do
many good things in Your name; we cast out demons, we prophesied, we performed
miracles” (my paraphrase), but He will respond that they are lawless and they will not enter
into the Kingdom of God.
It matters not whether we choose a path of good, or whether we dedicate ourselves
to do evil. If that which we do is based upon our own soulish sense of good and evil then it
is detestable to the Father. Only those who do the will of the Father in heaven will enter the
Kingdom of God, and we will only know the will of the Father as He reveals it by His Spirit.
We must die to that part of us which was quickened and made alive when Adam and
Eve ate of the forbidden tree. We must return to a place where “knowing good and evil” is
again only an activity of Yahweh. We must quit being “like God,” usurping His authority in
determining what is good and evil, and we must seek to always know His mind.
It is not the evil deeds of the soulish man that are such a subtle snare to the saint of
God, it is the innate and fleshly knowledge of what is good. The saint, thinking that he can
determine good himself, looks within his soul to find the path he should walk down. His
mind may see no evil in the path he has chosen. It may appear wholly decent and good, even
godlike, but this is the very peril of the fruit from which Adam and Eve ate. The serpent
spoke to Eve and said, "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be
opened, and you will be like God..." (Genesis 3:5).
When the serpent deceived Eve, he knew the temptation would be set before Adam
to choose a path of independence from Yahweh. Adam need not look to Yahweh to tell Him
what was good and what was evil. Adam need not always seek to know the mind and will
of God. Adam could determine these things within his own being. He could choose his own
path. He could follow his own righteous inclinations and think himself righteous for
following a course of his own choosing.
The saint of God does this as he sets himself to perform activities that seem good, but
which he has no specific command from the Father to do. The saint can do something that
has the appearance of righteousness, such as prophesying or casting out demons, but it is
only truly righteous if the activity was initiated by the Father.
Paul informs the readers of the book of Hebrews that the one who has entered into
the Sabbath rest of the Father is the one who has ceased from his own labors. It matters not
whether the labor is good or evil, if it did not originate with Yahweh, it is man’s labor. This
is striving. This is the fruit of eating of the forbidden tree. What the serpent actually set
before Adam was the temptation to violate the Sabbath rest of Yahweh. Man, from the fall
of Adam, has been in a state of strife for he has been willing and initiating many things that
the Father did not command.
The great tragedy today is that the body of Christ has not discerned that it is this
innate sense of good and evil that they must die to in order that they might perceive by the
Spirit what the good and perfect will of God is in their lives. Most saints have not discerned
that they must die to the habit of looking within their soul to find the path they should walk