Desire’s Voice

Can good intentions and desires be from the devil?

Here’s what I’ve been thinking…

Remember in the beginning when Adam and Eve heard the voice of God face to face in the garden? Pure connection, unpolluted by sin, with our Maker. I can only imagine how satisfied they felt. No other voice, other than their own inner dialogue and with each other to hear, but God’s. Then enters the serpent’s voice, and he seemed to speak another language they hadn’t heard before, yet understood it like it was their own.

“Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’? ”
2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. 3But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ”
4“No! You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5“In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” Genesis 3:1-7

When did Adam and Eve feel dissatisfied enough to disobey God in our world that had yet been infected with the consequences of sin? What could possibly have seemed better to them than the voice of God? To have lived sin-free with God and all His goodness He provided for them and authority He gave them to rule and subdue creation, yet suddenly desiring something other than Him, all because it looked good and desirable.

Did the serpent’s voice create a desire for something good that wasn’t God, or was it already inside them? Even if the desire for something good other than God was already in Adam and Eve, would they have known it if God’s voice was the only voice they listened to? I wonder what the serpent’s voice tells us that’s good and desirable for gaining something we think is better than God.

After God gave the consequences for sin to Adam, Eve, and the serpent, we see the next disaster in humanity through Cain’s desire for what’s good and God’s warning against sin’s desire.

“In the course of time Cain presented some of the land’s produce as an offering to the Lord. ⁴ And Abel also presented an offering—some of the firstborn of his flock and their fat portions. The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, ⁵ but he did not have regard for Cain and his offering. Cain was furious, and he looked despondent. ⁶ Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you furious? And why do you look despondent? ⁷ If you do what is right, won’t you be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. ⁸ Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”^[b] And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.” Genesis 4:3-8

God was kind enough to advise Cain about the temptation that sin had been waiting to bring, but Cain listened to the serpent’s voice instead, just like his parents did in the garden. Being accepted was more desirable than obeying God’s voice and doing what was right. Instead of trusting God’s voice, humans desire what they think is good, not realizing their desire could actually be sin’s desire for them.

¹³ No one undergoing a trial should say, “I am being tempted by God,” since God is not tempted by evil, and he himself doesn’t tempt anyone. ¹⁴ But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desire. ¹⁵ Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death. James 1:13-15

God gives each of us an opportunity in moments of desire to rule over it, but we need to obey His voice to win. When we listen to desire’s voice, we experience death, whether spiritual or physical death. A test to rule over sin in Cain’s life was turned into a trap by sin’s desire for him, just like it was for his parents and just like it is for us today. This is where we can confuse temptation from our desires with tests God gives us to help rule over the sin crouching at our door.

Let’s look at an example of how desires voice disguised as goodness once again and how we can become the voice of the serpent in someone’s life:

“²¹ From then on Jesus began to point out to his disciples that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day. ²² Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “Oh no, Lord! This will never happen to you!”²³ Jesus turned and told Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns but human concerns.” Matthew 16: 21-23

Ouch! I’m like Peter when I think about the people I love suffering. You would imagine trying to prevent suffering would be loving and good, right? Jesus doesn’t. He calls our desire for what we think is good, Satan, the serpent’s voice! Peter’s good intentions seemed logical and good, right? But good intentions were desire’s trap to distort and confuse once again. If we’re not watchful in our desires, we can become the voice of the serpent trying to reduce the goodness of God for our desire for what’s good.

Peter’s desire for what was good was to avoid pain and suffering in Jesus’ life, even though Jesus said suffering was necessary. Jesus echoed the voice of God in the garden to His disciples, warning them about what was to come and how He would rule over sin, but the desire for what seemed good to Peter was another trap from the serpent’s voice. Our friends can be the serpent’s voice, we can be the serpent’s voice, all because we think what’s good is better than God.

Desire’s voice can disguise itself as compassion and goodness, trapping us in good intentions that actually harm us and others we think we’re doing right by. Recently, I’ve desired goodness for what I believed would have been “better” for my life growing up, but I felt God’s correction and rebuke in a loving way with these words; “The things you were robbed of weren’t the things I valued or wanted to give you in the first place. What’s good isn’t always what’s better.”

So maybe an easier life growing up wouldn’t have been better after all. Maybe all the suffering was the goodness of God by providing an opportunity to rule over sin in my life today that desire deceived me into believing something good was better than God all along, just like the serpent’s voice always has trapped humanity with.

² Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴ And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. James 1:2-4

God knows we won’t always see the difference between what we think is good and what He says is good, but that’s why He provides an opportunity to overcome and rule over sin through testing. Our desires influenced by the serpent’s voice can twist tests into traps, but when we remember that a test from God is an opportunity to surrender our wisdom of what’s good for His wisdom, we are gifted with becoming more like the image of God we were created in.

My prayer is that God would give me the desires of my heart, as Psalm 37:4 says, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.” This verse doesn’t mean God will give us everything we want, even when we think it’s good. It means that His desires can become our desires, and when that happens, the serpent’s voice no longer traps us with things that look good.

Remember, what’s good isn’t always what’s better.

Be careful not to become the serpent’s voice in your desire for what you think is good.

Let’s pray like Jesus showed us and ask the Father to not lead us into the test, but deliver us from evil, even when that evil is us.

⁹ “Therefore, you should pray like this:

Our Father in heaven,
your name be honored as holy.
¹⁰ Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.^[d]
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And do not bring us into^[e] temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.^[f] Matthew 6:9-13

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