Transform you thinking, Transform your life 6. (way of Cain)

Transform your thinking

Transform your life

Way of Cain

The BLESSING (Gen 1 : 28)

Matthew 15 : 3_9

He answered and said to them, Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? 4 For God commanded, saying, Honor your father and your mother; and, He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death. 5 But you say, Whoever says to his father or mother, Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God6 then he need not honor his father or mother. Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition. 7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:8 These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

God tells us to choose life or death, choose the way we are going to live. God will not force Himself or what He desires on us, we have a free choice.

Deut 30 : 19

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

Is there a chance that someone could choose something other than life? Choose something other than to live in the blessing of God? Can we actually be making choices that we think are right yet they be wrong and are hindering what God wants to do for us? My responsibility is make sure I give you the ability and knowledge to make right choices, blessing and life.

Through ignorance of God’s word and ways we can make wrong choices and yet there are times when we choose to do what we want to despite having a knowledge of God's word.

Jer 17 : 5_8. Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord.6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited.7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord.8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear (see) when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

2 different men, two different choices, two different outcomes.

Sometimes we can come to church looking for a word from God, hear and not receive it, why? It’s the Way of Cain. Blessings, curses, life, death flow around us everyday, what do we choose?

Jude 11_12 11 Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. 12 These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots;

“Way” in Greek is; Hodos; journey, path, natural road, course of conduct, way of thinking. Way of Cain is a course of spiritual conduct based on wrong thinking. It is redefining the Word of God from what is acceptable to God. The source of Cain’s thought process is deception. The way of Cain is a spiritual attitude that allows Cain to become self-deceived. How can this happen?

Everything in the Kingdom of God operates on seedtime and harvest.

Mark 4 : 26_29.

26 And He said, The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, 27 and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. 28 For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.

Seeds take time to grow. Cain did not get up one morning and decide to think and act wrongly, it was a process.

John 10 : 10 shows us that progress.

The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).

1/ Steals. 2/ Kills. 3/ Destroys.

He steals the Word thereby killing your faith, hope, confidence with God and destroying the BLESSING that is on you. So he comes to steal, kill. Kill = THUO; offer or sacrifice firstfruits to a God.

1 Cor 5 : 7, For indeed Christ, our Passover was sacrificed for us. Jesus was our firstfruit offering to God.

The devil wants to come and steal your firstfruits. Using John 10 : 10 satan comes to steal the Word of God and kill, the sacrifice of firstfruits therein destroying the blessing in your life.

AMP :- IN ORDER to steal, kill and destroy.

To get a true picture of this we need to look to Adam and see what his sin really was.

God puts them into the garden to tend and keep it.

He told them eat of all the trees except the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil.

This fruit was to be for food. So they were to cultivate and take care of the garden and harvest the fruit for food. Need to see this, Adam was in the garden to tend, care for and harvest ALL the trees, including the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They just could not eat of it. Everything in the Kingdom works on seedtime and harvest, God was teaching man how to operate by this way.

Gen 2 : 9, 15 _ 17. V9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

We get the idea that they could not touch it from what the serpent says. Gen 3 : 3. but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. Eve is deceived. How can you tend, cultivate and harvest a tree if you can not touch it? God is showing them how the Kingdom of God operates, seedtime and harvest. All the trees were for them except one, it was to be a seed firstfruit offering to God.

God provides seed to the sower (2Cor 9:10) God provides a firstfruit offering to Adam to sacrifice. Why? So they can begin operating in seedtime and harvest on earth. They are learning to operate in natural seedtime (tilling the ground) and harvest (eating the fruit) as well as spiritual seedtime (firstfruit offerings to God) and harvest (blessings that flow). God wants to bless them. There were no offerings before this as God needed a man to sow seed and reap a harvest. The tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is a firstfruits offering to God. He does not need the fruit. He designed it for the purpose of firstfruits offering. Adam and Eve ate their seed. What was designed to bring the BLESSING was eaten and stolen. In order, steal and then their confidence and hope in God was killed, destroying the blessing. How important is the BLESSING? Gal 3 : 13 _ 14. 13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree ),14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

The sin of Adam was stealing.

Malachi 3 : 6 I DO NOT CHANGE. For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.

V 7. Yet from the days of your fathers You have gone away from My ordinances And have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you, Says the Lord of hosts. But you said, In what way shall we return? Return to God and He will return to you. Return the firstfruit offerings to God and He will return the blessing to you. Return them, why? They are God’s.

V 8 – 11 Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, In what way have we robbed You? In tithes and offerings.9 You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation.10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try (prove) Me now in this, Says the Lord of hosts, If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour (empty) out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it. 11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, So that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, Says the Lord of hosts; V 10 Pour (empty) out for you BLESSING. I’ll open the windows of heaven and empty out the BLESSING to you. Return it to you. Because your attitude is right, God will rebuke the devourer on your behalf and he will not steal any of your harvest.

Why do many struggle with this? Way of Cain. THAT WHICH CAUSES US TO REDEFINE WHAT IS ACCEPTABLE TO GOD IS THE WAY OF CAIN.

Mal 3 : 13 _ 15. Your words have been harsh against Me, Says the Lord, Yet you say, What have we spoken against You? 14 You have said, It is useless to serve God; What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, And that we have walked as mourners Before the Lord of hosts?15 So now we call the proud blessed, For those who do wickedness are raised up; They even tempt God and go free. They call the wicked blessed, they try to justify their behavior by saying things like, “God blesses me even thought I don’t offer firstfruits.” They look at the ungodly and say they don’t offer firstfruits and they are doing OK.” They redefine what God says to do and then try to justify what they are doing, The Way of Cain. Trying to get their own blessing instead of God’s blessing. Self made man. I want to be a God made man.

The sin of Cain was the same as Adam’s sin. Gen 4 : 1_5. Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, I have acquired a man from the Lord.2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.

3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.

Some translations read, “when it was time for the harvest.” Cain brought an offering. V4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering,5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

Abel brought the firstborn. Firstborn is a firstfruit. Cain just brought an offering, no mention of firstfruits. Could it be he has already eaten of his firstfruits and only brought God what’s left. Eaten his seed. the old Jewish Rabbi's firmly believed that Cain's offering was about the 3rd harvest. (the Chumash). It had nothing to do with blood sacrifice. Blood sacrifice was not introduced for man to be involved in until the Levitical priesthood. It’s not the blood it’s the firstfruit offering. God gave His best in Jesus and we are to give God our best. God had no respect for Cain’s offering, why? It was not his best, it was not firstfruit. It was simply what was left after I consumed it on myself. I believe Adam would have taught both sons about his failure before God and instructed them on how to bring the offering. God is no respecter of person’s. Cain chooses to offer something beside firstfruits thinking that will do, “God is a loving, compassionate caring God who understands?” Yes He is and that is why He puts into place His ways of living because they are the best and that’s what His blessing is on. The bible is God’s manual on living. A manual means one who puts down his thinking. Cain disrespects God by giving Him an unacceptable offering. Cain is deceived into thinking God will just accept any old offering. His heart attitude is to redefine what is acceptable to God and expect God to bless him. He steals from God, destroying his hope and relationship with God and stops the BLESSING flowing in his life. God said in Malachi He changes not, return the tithe and firstfruit to Him and He will empty out the BLESSING on you.

Believing we can steal from God and then redefine what is acceptable to God is the way of Cain. How far can this go in our lives? Some don’t want to go to a church and think it’s still alright. Heb 10 : 25. not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. Who said you could redefine what God says?

Hold unforgiveness because, well you don’t know what they did to me. Mark 11 : 25 And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.

Everything we do MUST be from a basis of what does the Word say about this. God wants to richly bless us in every area of your life that is why He has give us this manual, the blueprint to life. Having and enjoying life in abundance, to the full, till it overflows.

What do I do?

1. Acknowledge that you are doing the wrong thing.

2. Repent, change you thinking.

3. Break the spirit from the Way of Cain.

4. Make a quality decision to live God’s way.

This is not a message for the purpose of gaining tithes and offerings; it’s a message to bring you back to your rightful place of THE BLESSING. Empowered by God to prosper and succeed.