Wed.’s Devo - Adam’s Descendants

Read Gen. 5:1-23

Adam was the name of the first man and this is his geneology. Verse 2 speaks of Adam as the whole human race. Adam, the individual, lived 130 years before he had a son named Seth. If you hadn’t read the chapters before you would have thought that Seth was his first and only son. Remember what the New Testament said about Cain? He was born “after the flesh”. God chose Seth to carry Adam’s line. Adam was 120 which means in the fullness of time he brought forth a son that was separated as holy. One hundred means “fullness” and 20 means “separated and holy”. We learned yesterday that Seth means “substituted” which he was a substitute for both Cain and Abel. After Seth, Adam lived 800 more years which means he received a full reward for his holy life. He lived a total of 930 years which means the fruit of his life will bring forth a harvest of abundance. Adam and Eve had been given a command to be fruitful and multiply on the earth. His seed would grow to be a multitude of people. I can’t break down each of these people’s lives by their number of years like I did Adam’s but all the numbers mean something that summarizes their life. I will break down their names which tells the story of life back then. It goes like this: Adam, the first man was separated (Seth) unto God. He lived as a mortal man (Enos) with his own strength (Cainan). He was the praise of God (Mahalaleel) and the descendants (Jared) of many nations. He was dedicated to God (Enoch) till the final death (Methuselah). Tomorrow we will learn the significance of Enoch and Methuselah.

Lord, every person you bring forth has a purpose and a destiny. Thank you, that you personally crafted us for our destiny. May we walk in it to the praise of your great name.

Tue.s’ Devo - The Next Generations

Read Gen. 4:19-26

Lamech was the 6th generation from Adam. His name means “why is it like this with me; unto bringing low”. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me but I know that the number 6 does. On the 6th day God created man and animals so the 6th generation is the age of man. So that is what man was thinking: ‘why am I here, is it only to die and be buried?’ He married two women named Adah and Zillah (from A to Z). They were as opposite as A to Z. Adah’s name means “to ornament” and Zillah’s name means “shadiness; he wasted”. Since after the 6,000th year we will be judged this is a picture of judgment. Some will be elevated to glory and be ornamented with jewels and crowns while others will be thrown into hell because they wasted their lives. He tells his wives that he has hurt men and made enemies, but if God protected Cain when he murdered his brother, then God would protect him. He is being very presumptuous to think God had to do that for him just because he did for Cain.

Adam has great, great, great, great, great grandchildren and now he is having a son. He calls him Seth. His name means “substituted; appointed; set”. He is a substitution for both Cain and Abel. He is a substitute for a righteous Abel because he will live a righteous life. He is a substitute for an evil Cain because he will make right Adam’s blood-line. He is Adam’s 3rd son and we learned that 3 is the number that means “to conform” so this seed will conform to Adam’s seed. Seth has a son and names him Enos which means “mortal man”. This is when men began to call upon God.

Lord, may our posterity be from the seed of righteousness, appointed for the times today.

Mon.’s Devo- Cain’s Fate

Read Gen. 4:14b-18

Let’s go back to Gen 1:26 and see that God created man and woman. Adam and Eve were a separate event set up to represent mankind. But God created other people around the same time. If he hadn’t, there would have been no one for Cain to be afraid of and there would have been no one for him to marry. The Bible is a glorious mystery that I don’t pretend to understand. God also put a mark on Cain so that everyone would know he was cursed of God. They were not to kill him but if they did they would pay 7-fold. There are other places in the Bible where God marks things. He told the Israelites to mark their houses with blood so that the death angel would pass by. In Eze. 9 God told an angel to go through the streets of Jerusalem and mark the ones who were repentant. In Rev. many received the mark of the beast which sealed their fate. I wonder if this isn’t the same sign Cain received. So Cain went from God’s presence to the land of Nod which means “vagrancy”. Cain is sent to wander the earth. Cain and his mysterious, nameless wife had a son and called him Enoch. “Enoch” means “dedicated or initiated”. Cain and his wife and son built a city and named it after his son. A city was any place where they set up a guard to watch over it. He had 4 sons whose names mean

fugitive, smitten of God, they died inquiring, why is it like this for me? So Cain’s curse passed down through his children. Gal. 4:29 says of Cain and Abel: “But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.” Abel was born after the spirit and Cain was born after the flesh. Cain was born first which shows us a Biblical principle. We are born of the flesh first then we must be born of the spirit. But know for certain, that the flesh will want to kill the spirit. In Cain’s story, he won. In our lives Abel wins!!! That is why Romans tells us that we have to crucify the flesh that the spirit will live. The truth is, Cain crucified Abel’s flesh but his spirit still lived.

Lord, may we crucify the Cain’s in our lives and live as Abel's.

Fri.’s Devo - Cain’s Punishment

Read Gen. 4:9-14a

What amazes me about the beginning of the Old Testament is the open communication man had with God. We have that through the Holy Spirit! Yesterday, Cain killed his brother and wouldn’t take responsibility for it. Instead he lied to God and gave God a rather smart-aleck answer. He told God he didn’t know where Abel was and that he was not his protector. (I guess not, he had just killed him.) I can’t fathom killing your own brother and not having any remorse. God nailed him. He said, “what have you done? the voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.” Did you know our blood can talk? I didn’t. The Bible says that life is in the blood. We can live without a leg, but we can’t do without blood. All our DNA is in our blood which determines our characteristics and everything about us. Abel’s DNA was crying out from the ground. Once again the ground gets cursed because Abel is buried there. That is the second time the earth is cursed. All of creation is alive in some way. Ps. 19 says that the heavens declare the glory of God. Romans 8:22 says, “ For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” What Adam did in the garden and what Cain did in the field affected the earth for all of us. Both men got the reward of hard work in the earth. The earth would not work with them, but against them. I can relate when I decide to do my spring gardening. It is a contest between me and the weeds. This is all a result of the curses man brought upon the earth. Cain was also cursed to be a wanderer and never feel at home anywhere on the earth. Adam was sent out of Eden to find a home in the earth, Cain would find no home in the earth. No wonder Cain said, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.”

Lord, let today’s devotion be a reminder to us that our decisions affect generations. May we leave a blessing and not a curse to our posterity.

Thurs.’s Devo - Cain and Abel

Read Gen. 4:1-9

I have studied this over the years and came up with many conclusions - none of which I am certain of. I’ll share one possibility. It says that “Adam knew Eve” once, but she brought forth 2 sons. I don’t know if they were twins or not but I think she might have carried them together. They were complete opposites. Cain was a farmer and Abel was a shepherd. They both brought a sacrifice to God from their toil. Cain brought what he farmed, but Abel brought a first-fruit of his toil which included blood. I think both of these were important to God. When Adam and Eve sinned, God killed one of the first-fruits of his creation and made a blood sacrifice to cover their sin. From this they were to learn what would cover sin. While Cain’s was a gift, God always sees the heart and God saw something in Cain’s heart that made him not pleased with his offering. Maybe Cain brought God fruit that wasn’t good to eat. I don’t know, but, God had no respect for Cain’s offering and he did for Abel’s. We see further into Cain’s heart with his conversation with God. God asked him why he was so upset, because if he had done what was right, God would have accepted him. If he doesn’t obey God, then sin is waiting to devour him. When he gives into that desire to sin, it will overtake him. Sure enough, that is what happened. One day Cain and Abel were out in the field talking and Cain killed Abel out of jealousy. The Lord immediately spoke to Cain. He asked him where Abel was. God was giving Cain the opportunity to repent but Cain exposed the evil in his heart. He tried to cover what he did with a lie. You can’t lie to an All-Knowing, All-Seeing God. Tomorrow we will see the consequence of that deed.

Lord, thank you for exposing our sins to us and giving us the chance to repent. May we choose to humble ourselves and repent.

Wed.’s Devo -The Tree of Life

Read Gen. 3:22-24

In God’s mercy, he threw them out of the garden. If they had eaten from the tree of life they would have lived forever in their fallen state. I wonder what had happened if they had eaten from the tree of life first. They might not have been tempted to eat from the other tree. That is human nature - to be drawn to the forbidden rather than the best. So Adam and Eve are taken out of their tropical Eden to a place where they had to work to make it look like Eden. To keep them from returning, he placed Cherubims with a flaming sword to guard the tree of life. Those same creatures were over the ark of the covenant that housed the presence of God. The Holy of Holies in the tabernacle and in the temple were symbolic of the Garden of Eden - the place where man met with God. In the temple it was a place where only the High Priest could meet with God. When Jesus died on the cross the veil was torn that separated the Holy of Holies from the people. Now the invitation is for us all to come into his presence. In Rev. 22:1 we see the tree of life again only this time it is not guarded by Cherubims but open for all to come and eat. The Cherubims were wielding a sword that turned every way. This sword is the Word of God which is two-edged and protects our intimacy with God.

Lord, we look forward with eager expectation to eat of your tree of life and live with you forever.

Tues.’s Devo - Adam’s Curse

Read Gen. 3:17-21

Yesterday we watched as the serpent and the woman got their punishment and today we will see God pass out judgment to Adam and the land. Four things were cursed in the garden and we need to redeem 3 of them. Adam got disciplined for listening to his wife over what God had told him. As a wife, that is a heavy reminder. Because he ate the fruit the ground, it was cursed also. Before the land produced plants in abundance and all Adam did was to watch over it. Now, Adam was going to have to work the land and fight the weeds and thorns. He was to eat the grass of the field and through much toil he was to grow grain and produce bread. It makes me wonder if before this they ate the same manna that the Israelites ate that just came down from heaven. Notice that Adam was not told to eat meat till after the flood. Man came from the ground and his food would come from there also. Then he would die and be buried in the ground and the circle would be complete.

The Bible doesn’t tell us the reaction of Adam, Eve, or the serpent, to God’s rebuke but the next thing recorded is Eve’s new name. Before Adam called her Woman. Now he calls her Eve which means “life giver”. She is the life of all living which means that all mankind came from her. Then God covered their nakedness with the skins of animals which means he had to kill the animals. This was the first sacrifice to atone for sin. Through it, he taught Adam and Eve how to cover sin. The sacrifices of the Old Testament did just that - they covered the sin. The blood of Jesus is the only sacrifice that can take away our sin and our guilt.

Lord, thank you that the blood of Jesus takes away our sin and our guilt and allows us to live a fruitful life.

Mon.’s Devo - Facing God

Read Gen. 3:8-16

Adam and Eve are wearing fig leaves when God shows up to take Adam for his daily stroll through the garden. Adam and Eve are wrapped in guilt and sin so they hide from all-seeing, all-knowing God. God calls to Adam to come out and Adam explains to God that he is naked and afraid to approach God. How things have changed. That pure, sweet, fellowship was severed by one act. God immediately wants to know who was responsible for telling them they were naked and he wants to know if they had eaten from the tree. God knows the answer, but wants to know Adam’s heart. Adam blames Eve, Eve blames the serpent, and the serpent doesn’t get an opportunity to blame anyone. God starts handing out punishment. The serpent is thrown to the ground to slither on his belly the rest of his life and eat dust. Man came from dust and the devil has been devouring people ever since. He puts hatred between the snake and the woman and his seed (demons) and her seed (humans). But one day satan might bruise man’s heel, but man will bruise his head. Bruise means to overwhelm or break. Jesus did this on the cross. His heels were literally bruised from pushing up to gasp for breath but in his death, sin was broken and satan was defeated! He also curses woman with pain in childbirth and she is made subservient to man. Thanks, Eve! Eve stands for the Church. We birth new Christians into the kingdom through prayer and intercession and obeying God’s voice. We are made to be a servant of Jesus, our husband. None of this is a curse but a blessing because Jesus turned the curse into a blessing.

Lord, may we birth many souls into your kingdom.

Fri.’s Devo - One Bite Was All It Took

Read Gen. 3:6-7

Eve used carnal reasoning to justify her decision. How many times do we resort to that when we want to do something that we know deep down might not be the right thing? She looked on this forbidden fruit and observed that the fruit looked tasty and to eat it would make her wise, but, she somehow chose to forget that God had told them not to eat it. She not only ate herself but turned to Adam and gave him some too. Somehow it makes us feel better if we can get someone else to approve of what we are doing, or better yet, participate with us in it. The New Testament calls this “causing your brother to stumble”. (Matt. 17:27) Notice that Adam was right there with her and didn’t try to stop her. As a type of Jesus, Adam let Eve make her own decision. If he had not eaten the fruit, then Eve would have died and he would have been separated from her forever. Eve was deceived by the serpent but Adam chose to sin. (1 Tim. 2:14) Sin entered through the first Adam and only the last Adam, Jesus could take it away. (I Co. 15:45) They both died a spiritual death that day that has affected mankind forever. True to what the devil said, their eyes were opened and they immediately knew they were naked. Now they were aware of sin - their sin, and were ashamed. How we feel inside manifests outside. If we feel out of control in our lives we might become OCD just to feel like we can control something… anything. Adam and Eve felt exposed when they had knowledge of sin and wanted to do something to cover their sin so they sewed together fig leaves. I guess they thought God wouldn’t notice! Sounds silly, but we do things that are just as silly to try to hide our guilt. We do this in vain when all we really need to do is expose it to God and ask him to forgive us. He has already provided the covering - the blood of Jesus.

Lord, remind us of this when we feel condemned and want to hide under a fig leaf. Your blood is so much more effective… and not so obvious

Thurs.’s Devo - The Crafty Serpent

Read Gen. 3:1-5

God placed man in a garden with a serpent in it. Jesus sent his disciples out into the world in John 17 and prayed that they would stay clean. God has never been afraid of the devil and we shouldn’t either. We were put here to have dominion over him and put him under our feet. The Devil is the great deceiver which is why he chose the serpent to use. The serpent was more subtle than any other creature God had created. It was sly and crafty by nature. In Rev. 12:9 the serpent is identified as Satan himself. He went to the woman because she was the weaker and youngest. She didn’t have the relationship with God that Adam did. Adam walked with God every evening in the garden. We don’t know what Eve was doing during this time but she isn’t mentioned being on these walks. Satan’s goal was Adam but he knew he could only get Adam through Eve. He starts with a trick question: “Hath God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” He is trying to make God look like an ogre. Eve explains that there is only one tree they can’t eat of and they can’t even touch it or they will die. (Now Eve is exaggerating.) Interestingly, she had the concept of death even though nothing had died yet. Satan argued with her that the fruit from that tree would not kill her but open her eyes to understand, like the gods, what good and evil is. (Who wouldn’t want to be “like the gods”?) So Satan tempted her with the power of being able to decide for herself what was best for her. He won that battle, but Jesus won it back for us on the cross!

Lord, make us wise to the antics of the devil and help us not to be deceived by his lies.

Wed.’s Devo- Walk in Faith

Read Gen. 2:23-25

Interesting… the Bible tells the man to leave his parents and cling to his wife, but it doesn’t tell the wife to leave her family and cleave to him. It does say that they will become one flesh. Being the mother of sons I can see this play out. This verse helps me understand that as a woman, we always have that connection with our family, where the husband needs to leave to become the leader and provider for his new wife and future family. A wise woman will make his husband feel like he is number one until she feels it in her heart. Marriage is a walk of faith. Sometimes we don’t feel all ooey-gooey over our husbands but if we act like we do, it is an act of faith. God can use that faith to put the real feelings in our heart. We love our spouses because we love God, not because they just did something nice for us. Our commitment to marriage is a contract that we have vowed to keep and with God’s grace, it can be one of the best decisions we have ever made. God promises us trials, but he also promises us that if we are steadfastly trusting in Him, he will help us through them.

The last verse says that they were naked and unashamed. This is grace personified. We are naked which means that God sees straight through us . He sees our sinful nature, our selfish thoughts, and our unrighteous actions, but because of his blood, we can be unashamed. We don’t have the license to sin, we have the privilege of repentance. Through repentance and turning away from our sin, we can stand before God both naked and unashamed.

Lord, help us to walk in faith and love to our spouses and you. May we be quick to repent and trust in You.

Tue.’s Devo Adam/Jesus

Read Gen. 2:16-23

God gives his first commandment: don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The consequence of doing this was death. Notice that it is the “knowledge” of good and evil. This is our thirst for gossip and dirt which is why “People” magazine and reality shows are so popular. Then the Lord said that it is not good for man to live alone so he wanted to make a helper for him. Notice what he made: animals. Adam was to meet each animal and name it. The whole time he is searching for his helper that would compliment him. When he didn’t find one, God put him in a trance and did surgery on him. He took out his rib and from his rib, he formed a woman. When he brought her to Adam he named her Woman because she came out of him. (The only time in history where a man reproduces.) I believe this is a picture of what heaven was like before creation. Jesus in heaven didn’t have a match so God created Earth to bring forth a bride for him. Adam gave his new counterpart the name Woman but later he gave her a new name: Eve. When we get to heaven we will be called the Bride and we will also individually get new names. Scripture is always comparing Jesus to Adam. It makes me wonder if they weren’t the same. Luke 3:38 gives us the genealogy of Joseph and it ends with “which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.” Here we see that Adam was the son of God just like Jesus was. Romans 5:14 says: “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.” Here we see that Adam was a type of Jesus. 1 Co. 15: 22 say: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” And in 1 Co. 15:45-49 it says: “ And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” This is a principle of God - he does the natural first to demonstrate the spiritual. Lord, your ways are so much higher than our ways and your thoughts than our thoughts so help us to understand you and your Word. Breath on us your Holy Spirit.

Mon.’s Devo - From Grace to Fruitfulness

Read Gen. 2:13-15

The name of the second river in Eden is Gihon which means breaking forth. It encircles Ethiopia which mean black. It is a hedge to the darkness. That is what we are suppose to be on this earth - a hedge to hold back the evil. The third river is Hiddekel which means the riddle of light which goes toward the east of Assyria. East means grace and Assyria means a step. So it looks like God might be saying: to know the riddle of light which is Jesus in us, we look to grace which is the step up. This is the level where we come to understand spiritual things. God’s ways are always higher than our ways. The fourth river is the Euphrates which means fruitfulness. If this is a progressive walk in the spirit then the last result will be to bear fruit. That is our ultimate goal in our life. John 15:8 says, “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”

Then God took Adam and put him in this garden and put him in charge of dressing (working) it and keeping it (keeping the thorns out). Thorns stand for curses. Adam’s job was to make sure the curse didn’t enter. We will see that he did not do a good job of this.

God has given us ground that we are to take and cleanse. One way we do this is to remove the curses that have been spoken or passed down. We do this by rebuking the curses and commanding a blessing instead. This is called binding and loosening. We bind up the devil’s work and loose the blessings of God. You do not want to do one without the other, or you will not keep your ground.

Lord, help us to see the curses in our own lives and drive them out and replace them with the blessings in your Word.

Mon.’s Devo - The Refuge of the Ark

Read Gen. 7:6-17

Noah, whose name means “rest,” was 600 years old when the flood came. The earth will be 6000 years old when Jesus comes and leads us into rest. Noah and his family were saved from judgment poured out on the world. In verse 11 it says that the fountains of the deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. The flood rose up and came down. This is where we get plate tectonics. The earth burst forth and formed seams that we now call plates. Water burst forth from these seams at such power and magnitude that they burst holes in the canopy that had covered our atmosphere. Scientists now call that the ozone layer. In the Garden of Eden the atmosphere was mostly oxygen so man could live longer and run faster and do much greater things. After the flood this canopy was burst and we lost this perfect rain forest atmosphere. There had been a mist that went up from the earth and watered the garden. Now there would be no mist and the earth would be watered by rain which came in proportion to the obedience on the earth to God. The sky before was a pale pink which is the most soothing color according to scientists and they could hear the stars singing (Job 38:7). In the Garden, man used 100% of his brain which is how Adam could name all the animals in short amount of time. Man had open communication and communion with God.

The rain was on the earth 40 days and 40 nights which is usually God’s time table for judgement. During this time the ark was lifted up above the storm and Noah and all his family were safe.

Lord, thank you for this beautiful picture of deliverance. When we go through storms you lift us up above the storm and you carry us safely through.

Fri.’s Devo - The Garden

Read Gen 2:7-12

Now we get the details of what happened on day 6 when God created man. Since plants were created on the 3rd day and they needed to be watered, God created a mist that came out of the earth like our underground sprinkler systems. It watered the whole earth. (I wouldn’t want to pay that water bill!) This went on till the flood which was the first rain. Mist in the Hebrew means an enveloping fog. So they walked around in a fog! (I can relate.) When God made man he made him from the dust which is defined clay, mud, ashes, ground, mortar, rubbish. From this heap of mud he breathed into his nose God’s breath of life and from God’s breath man became alive. How powerful is God’s breath; his divine inspiration! Then the Lord planted a garden eastward in Eden. Eden means delight. In the midst of delight God placed his most prized possession - man. He placed man in his garden which was full of trees God had planted for food and two special trees in the middle. One was the tree life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There was a river that flowed out of Eden from there it branched off in 4 streams. The first stream was Pison which means increase. It is in the land of Havilah which means anguish

from travail. In Havilah there is gold. So, I think this is a picture God is giving us of what we can have if we abide in Him. If he followed this river the way to increase will be through much prayer and trials but the result will be wisdom. This would be a good stream to follow. It is the road to maturity. It says that the gold of this land is good. It is full of bdellium and onyx. I looked up bdellium in the Hebrew and Webster’s. The Hebrew defined it as a fragrant gum perhaps amber or pearl and Webster’s defined it as a deep red gem, a crystal, or a pearl. No matter which of these it true they all seem to point to spiritual things: red - the blood of Jesus, crystal - purity, pearl - the beauty that comes from adversity, the fragrant gum - the presence of the Holy Spirit. Onyx is an agate stone made of layers of colored stone. To me, it speaks of the layers of the knowledge of God which is revealed throughout your walk. It also speaks of maturity and patience.

Lord, may we follow that river and dwell in the land of wisdom.

Thur’s. Devo- The Seventh Day

Read Gen. 2:1-3

Yesterday we read how we were given authority over the spiritual and natural realm. Our job is to subdue the evil and take it over for the name of the Lord. When this is done we can enter into the 7th day. When God finished his work he rested, blessed all his work and sanctified the day. The meaning of the number 7 is complete. God completed his job and it was totally complete in nature… nothing missing- all man would ever need.

Second Peter 3:8 says, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” So, if one day can represent a thousand years then the first day of creation should characterize the first thousand years. I studied this out one day and found it to be true. One means beginning, so the first thousand years were the beginning of all things. Man became the first hunter, the first builder, the first artist, etc. It was a millennium of beginnings. It was the beginning of sin.

Two means divide and in the second thousand years God divided the Red Sea and made a division between Egypt which stood for Satan’s realm and God’s people. He took them over the Red Sea (the blood of Jesus) and revealed himself on Mt. Sinai. He gave them the written law that made a division between light and darkness; righteousness and sin. He gave them the blessings and the curses and told them to choose.

Three means to conform to the seed. In the third millennium God made Abraham the father of his chosen people and chose his seed to populate the earth and spread his ways to the earth.

Four means to rule and in the fourth millennium God brought forth Jesus who would forever rule. He also sent down his Holy Spirit to rule in our hearts so that we would rule with God in the heavenly places.

Five means to minister in God’s grace and in the fifth millennium the church has emerged to do the works of Christ.

Six means man and in the 6th millennium man has grown in knowledge and power, and they have forgotten the God who created them. Sin has matured, but the Bible says that where sin abounds, grace abounds even more. It is during this millennium that the Christians who know their God will take back what the devil has stolen and realize their place in this world. We are to have dominion over the natural and the spiritual and when we get this revelation deep in our beings we will be unstoppable for God.

Lord, put this deep in our spirits and may we walk out the life of Jesus.

Wed.’s Devo. The Sixth Day

Read Gen. 1:24-31

God was busy on the 6th day. He created the animals and everything that walks on the earth. The day before, he had created things that swim and things that fly which both represent spiritual beings. On this day he is making things that are earthly and he tells man to rule over them both. We live like it is the opposite; we let the powers of the devil rule us and control us when God told us to have control over both the spiritual and the earthly in verse 26. Verse 27 is a mystery to me. God created mankind, both man and woman which was a phantom of him. The word “created” here means “to cut down, like a tree; process”. When God created Adam in the next chapter he used a different word for create. It meant: to squeeze into shape like a potter. In chapter 1 we are getting the big picture of what happened on the earth and in chapter 2 we are seeing a special place where God created Adam. Man’s purpose was to be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it. The earth had been occupied by Satan’s forces and God wanted man to take it back from him. He gave man that task - one we have failed at miserably. Notice that man and animals both ate the same food. Their meat was herbs and seeds. I believe that the animals and man were friends and the animals were not afraid of them like they are instinctively now. After the flood God told man he could eat meat and he put fear in animals of man so they wouldn’t freely be caught and killed. He gave them instincts to run or fight. (Gen. 9) I think this is another spiritual principle. When you are a young Christian, you can not digest the real meat of God’s Word so you start with basic truths, then as you develop and walk that out you come to a place where you can handle the more meatier things of God’s Word. For Noah it took a total cleansing in a flood of adversity to make him ready to fight for his food and digest it.

Lord, this is all so unbelievable to comprehend but we believe it by faith. Help us to do what we were put here to do and to subdue the ground you have given us to take.

Tues.’s Devo - The Fifth Day

Read Gen. 1:20-23

I have a lot of questions about today - like, how did the fish and the birds come from the waters? Here is my guess: since the waters represent spirit and the birds came from the waters above the earth: they represent the spiritual heavens. So, the fish must have come forth from the waters on the earth and represent the underworld. There are birds that represent angels like the songbirds and there are birds that represent demons like the raven and the crow. Through this God is trying to show us that the demons have access to heaven too. In Job, Satan appeared before the throne of God and they conversed about Job. God gave the devil access to do everything but kill him to prove a point. (Another question I have.) The fish of the sea live in a world under the earth where we can only see it if we access it by going there. Many fish are scavengers and eat the dirt on the floor of the ocean. These represent demons who feed on death and filth. Then there are other fish like dolphins who seem to have compassion and highly-developed intelligence which would represent God’s presence in the underworld. God went to great lengths to give us pictures of his ways so we could understand them. Solomon was so wise because he observed his surroundings and learned from it. We can too.

This was the first living creatures God created just like the spiritual beings were created before we were. They were put on earth to serve us basically so the number 5 represents our service to God. The only way we can do anything good for God is by his grace so the number 5 is also associated with grace.

Lord, it is by your grace that we can even access your kingdom. Teach us your ways through the things you have put around us.

Mon.’s Devo - Day Four

Read Gen. 1:14-19

This is my favorite day. God created the sun, moon and stars. When he said let there be lights, the word lights means menorahs. The menorah is a 7-candle candlestick used all through Jewish worship. There was a huge one in the tabernacle and in the temple. It represented the 7 spirits of God- God’s illumination to man. The lights in the heavens were to set times for God’s appearings to man. Verse 14 says let them be for signs and seasons. Signs means appearings and seasons means a set time. These heavenly signs were to be luminaries in the heavens to be God’s clock. He set the feasts around the sun and the moon. The feasts were set up to identify God’s appearings to man. What God does spiritually mirrors what he does physically. There are set times for harvests on the earth. They mirror times of harvest in the church. Revivals always happen in the fall and the spring- the same time as harvest.

Verse 16 says that God gave 2 lights: one to rule the day (the sun) and the other to rule the night (the moon). Their purpose is to divide the light from the darkness. The sun represents God that rules the day. The word day means from one sunset to the next which means as long as days exist; forever - he reigns. The moon represents the church. We have no light of our own and can only shine when we reflect the light of the sun. The church only shines in this dark world when we are reflecting the light of God. The word night means a twist away of the light or a time of adversity. The church shines the brightest when the world is going through intense adversity. We are holding on to Jesus, letting our light shine. The saints of God are the stars. When Jesus appeared a new star was seen in the sky so brightly that it was visible to the naked eye. I think that is why scientists are always finding new stars, because new saints are always being born.

Lord, let us shine in the night seasons so the world can see their way to you.

Mon.’s Devo- The Sons of God

Read Gen. 6:1-4

There have been so many different ideas about this subject that until they found the Book of Enoch it was hard to understand. Enoch explains what happened. The fallen angels (sons of God) broke the natural law of spiritual beings and came down and had sexual relations with human women (daughters of men). The Bible says that it will be like the days of Noah before the Lord comes back. Luke 17:26 “And as it came to pass in the days of Noah, even so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27 They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.” These women had children, called giants, who became famous for their super-natural powers. They were half-demon/half-human beings who produced a whole line of human demons. I was watching a documentary on the History Channel the other day about portals to Hell on the earth, written from a Christian perspective. They had found places on the earth where ancient people believed they could travel down under the earth and reach hell and come back. On the wall of one of these portals were pictures of things they saw of the demonic powers they were encountering and on one was a picture of a demon biting the neck of a woman. I wonder if that is not how the demons procreated with the women of the earth. In the book of Enoch it was said that the women were not willing partners which would make sense. This would also explain why vampires are so popular now. I believe they are very real and will resurface on the earth if we are truly living in the last days. The Bible says that “life is in the blood” so in order for these demons to put their life in a human being would be an exchange of blood. I don’t claim to understand it all but I do know that there is a spiritual world out there that is more real than the one we see with our natural eyes.

Lord, open our eyes to see your world invading ours.

Fri.’s Devo - The Third Day

Read Gen. 1:9-13

God spoke to the waters on the earth and commanded them to gather in one place and made dry land appear. The dry ground he called Earth and the waters he called Seas. On the earth God called forth grass, herbs that have seeds, and trees that yield fruit. I think God is giving us a picture of 3 types of man.

1. Grass is temporary and stands for mans life - short and fading. In 1 Peter 1:23-25 it contrasts grass to the Word of God. Grass is the corruptible seed and the Word is the incorruptible seed. Grass was food for the animals and it represents man at his most basic stage- in sin.

2. Herbs are any green plant and represent blessings of God. They include vegetables and are beneficial for man and beast although there are some herbs that are poison. The herbs represent man growing in his life with the Lord.

3. Trees that bear fruit are the mature Christians who are solidly planted in the Lord and can spread their limbs for others to pick and eat the fruit they have produced. Notice that only herbs and trees have seeds and can reproduce. The grass is temporary and carries no lasting seed to reproduce. It is only food for the animals. In the end, the wicked will be devoured by the beast of the field and the fowl of the air. (Ps. 79:2)

The meaning of the number 3 is conform. The plant will always look like the seed. If you plant seeds of forgiveness you will reap forgiveness. Jesus told us that we will reap what we sow. If we read God’s Word we will become it.

Lord, may we be like the tree in Ps. 1: firmly planted by the waters, bringing forth fruit in its season. May we plant seeds of life today.

Thurs.’s Devo - Day Two

Read Gen. 1:6-8

On the second day God created an atmosphere in the middle of the waters. He separated them and put some of the waters on earth and sent some of the waters to the heavens. He called this separation Heaven. The meaning of this word Heaven in the Hebrew is the visible arch where the clouds move as well as the higher ether where the celestial bodies revolve. The key word is “visible”. It is the sky as we see it. Waters in the Bible are a picture or symbol of spirit. When God pours down his spirit it is like rain or refreshing water. Paul talked about the spirits of this world which are different from the spirits in heaven. God always makes a distinction between his spirits, the spirits of the world, and the evil spirits of Satan. Eph. 2:2 says: “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. “ All through the Bible water is synonymous with spirit. Jesus spoke to the woman at the well asking her for a drink. When she was surprised he would talk to her as a Samaritan he told her that if she realized who she was speaking to she would be asking him for living water. Jesus was associating water with his Holy Spirit. So we see that on the second day God is separating the evil spirits from the righteous spirits. So the number 2 means divide the holy from the unholy.

Lord, every day we have to divide rightly your word of truth. Give us discernment to see beyond the veil into the realm of the spirit.

Wed.’s Devo - Day One

Read Gen. 1:2-5…again

I want to backtrack a little so I want to talk about the first day again and add a few things. In verse 2 it says that the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Moved in the Hebrew means to flutter, move, shake or brood. Scientists who have studied creation say that when God - the power of powers shook it created a magnetic field around the earth. It was like a canopy that kept the atmosphere in. Because it was sealed the atmosphere inside was very high. This would allow man to live for long periods of time and do amazing things. He could use 100% of his brain making it possible to name all the animals in one day. He could outrun horses like Elijah did when he prophesied the rain was coming. (1 Kings 18) This canopy was punctured in the flood because the water spewed up from the earth and came down from heaven. When this happened the air became thinner and man’s lifespan got shorter and shorter. He became unable to access most of his brain power and he could do less physically. Sin is a very debilitating thing.

Another thing I want to bring out is that Day One was the beginning of everything we now know so the number one means beginning. Also, what God created one the first 6 days is the thing that he destroyed during the plauges of Israel. In the beginning God moved over the waters and brought forth light. In the first plague, God moved over the waters and brought forth blood which stood for death. In the New Testament Jesus turned the water into wine and brought forth joy. Jesus ultimately gave us his blood which stood for life from death. God always brings us full circle back to Him and his goodness.

Lord, your wisdom is beyond our finding out but thank you for a glimpse into your greatness. We praise you for your ultimate plan.