This reminds me of Adam and Eve, when they walked with the Lord in the cool of the day, what a beautiful experience that must have been, walking with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. It is hard to imagine such an experience or what they talked about. One of the things they must have talked about was the tree in the middle of the garden, either God told Eve or Adam did but either way she knew that God said not to eat of its fruit or they would die. Then we hear about the viper, or snake, and how the evil one used it to his advantage and spoke through it; the result was that Eve was deceived and took of the fruit and sinned, then Adam chose to disobey God and also took of the fruit and sinned, he was not deceived it was by choice he sinned.
At one time they walked with the Lord and then they chose to dance with the devil. So from that time until this very day everyone conceived of man has danced with the devil because of our sin nature. The Word says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” It also says, “There is none righteous, no not one.”
As I was typing this Peter came to my mind. It was the time that he was walking with Jesus and Jesus was saying that He would suffer many things, be killed and be raised again on the third day, and how Peter rebuked Him saying, “Be it far from thee this shall not be unto the.” Then Jesus said, “Get thee behind me satan, thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of men.” We have to be careful because we can be walking with the Lord one minute, like Peter was, then be influenced by the evil one the next. This is what I relate to as walking in the Spirit then dancing with the devil.
Satan is always in the business of trying to get us to think on our own and not include the Lord. We need to be careful not to fall into temptation when, at times, people try to keep us from harm because most of the time it is through trials and hurtful situations that we grow in the Lord. Pain many times results in forgiveness and healing. The pain Jesus experienced resulted in bringing salvation to all who would believe, praise His name. I say this because that is what Peter was trying to do in Jesus’ case. Peter was trying to keep Jesus from suffering and if Jesus had yielded to the temptation we would all still be lost in our sins. We can be thankful that Jesus rebuked Peter instead of agreeing with Him.
This wasn’t the only time Peter walked with the Lord and then danced with the evil one. Remember the time Peter, as well as the other disciples, said that he would die with the Lord but when the time came they all scattered and Peter denied the Lord, not only once, but three times. At that time all the disciples were walking with the Lord then all of them yielded to fear and in their own way they all denied Him. But I don’t think we should be too hard on Peter or the other disciples because if the truth were known we all could say we have denied the Lord a time or two or more since we started walking with the Lord! Many times we are like Peter, we don’t think before we speak so we end up sticking our foot in our mouth, so to speak, even when we don’t intend to.
My question to you is are you walking in the Spirit or are you in the Viper’s Den, dancing with the devil? Only you know the answer to that question. If you are trying to get to heaven through any other way but Jesus you are dancing with the devil in the Viper’s Den. I know there are those who teach that you can get to God, or heaven, through different ways but Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life no man comes to the Father but by me.” There is absolutely no other way but through Jesus, God’s only begotten Son.
In Ephesians 2:8-9 it says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” So many times even Christians seem to forget that salvation is a free gift and they try to receive it through works that they perform and many religious people do the same thing. If you could work your way to heaven how would you know when you had done enough?
The Pharisees tried to get to heaven by keeping the law but they couldn’t do it. They are some of the people that wanted Jesus to suffer and be killed. At one time Jesus tried to show His disciples how He would suffer many things of the elders, chief priests and scribes and be killed. Some of these were the leaders and teachers in Jesus’ day but they didn’t even know how to be saved and get to heaven they were teaching it was through works. This same thing is going on today.
One night there was a man named Nicodemus who was a Pharisee that came to Jesus and Jesus told Him you must be born-again. This man was one of Israel’s teachers but he didn’t know these things. This is what it says in John 3:3-5, “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?’ Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’”
So if this is talking about you, stop all this silliness and just accept God’s gift of grace and thank and praise Him for it. God bless you and have a great day!
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