Notice it says here, that spirit power that works in the children of disobedience. That word works means to energise, so self-centred thinking is energised by demonic powers, so this is not how God designed man. We were never designed to operate that way. This is the current fallen condition of the world. Now if you go through the education system, you'll find there's a whole generation coming up now, and their whole frame of thinking is, what is in this for me? What can I get out of this? How can I use you to get ahead? I'll connect with you, you can help me, then I'll get ahead, then I'll leave you - and all of that kind of thinking is totally contrary to the principles of building a sound and successful life according to kingdom principles. It just doesn't work. What it does is, it uses people to promote ones self, and when you use people to promote yourself, you actually increase self-centredness in your life, you don't tap into the supply God had for you, and you hurt people on the way.
It's horrendous. People get hurt and used and people say I feel used, so we have to deal with that kind of stuff. So where did this culture originate? You find it's found very clearly in the Garden of Eden, so found in Genesis, Chapter 3. In fact, it actually began earlier than that, but let's just see it manifest in Genesis, Chapter 3. So you notice that Adam and Eve had everything they could want, and they were placed in a garden. They were given room and responsibility, given great privileges, they were given great opportunity, but God said I want you to respect My right to rule creation by not eating the fruit of that tree. Everything else you can have - that one you can't have. It's like saying don't touch the wall, there's something in us wants to touch it [laughs] so that was the deal.
Now you notice how the devil came. It says the devil came like a serpent. Verse 4, the serpent said to the woman hey, don't worry, you won't die if you eat that fruit. Now notice this, notice this: God knows in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, you will be like God, you'll know good and evil, and when the woman saw it was good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took it's fruit and ate, and gave to her husband with her and he ate. Then their eyes were opened. They changed. They saw things that they were never intended to see. Now I want you to notice that the devil was the originator of this whole self-centred process of thinking. It's found in Ezekiel, where he said even though I'm an archangel, I will arise, I will ascend, I will exalt my throne above the throne of God. In other words, he refused to accept his place in the kingdom of God and self interest, he sought to advance himself.
Now here he is in the garden doing the same thing, and notice the thinking. Here's the thinking in here; you can't trust God to supply your needs. If you're going to get ahead, you've got to look out for number one, you've got to look after yourself, so don't worry about what God says. Don't worry about Him talking about sin and consequences, that's a lot of nonsense. You're not going to die. Here's the deal; God is holding out. You can't trust Him with your provision for life, you need to rise up and begin to act in your own interests. You need to look after number one. This is the core of the fall, so the core of the fall is not just about sins and some bad things. It's actually about the whole self-centred way of life, rejecting God's right to rule. Instead the kingdom of self emerges; I will rule myself. Now this is where it originated. Now when you come to Christ, it doesn't mean necessarily that automatically all of that changes. In fact when people come to Christ, they've come into experience a new life, but the problem is most of the way we think and run our life and operate out relationships and everything are still shaped by the old model of thinking, paradigms we were in, so it take a while to shift, and start to understand the principles of the kingdom of God, that lead to a happy life, relationships and fulfilment.