Imagine… Before this world was created (and it was created), there was already established before the throne of God a value system. What God sees as precious, costly, beautiful, rich, lovely, glorious, and so forth is all included.

When He created man, He stamped His sense of value upon him, imputing, imparting, making it an indelible part of our nature that was inherited directly from Him, as we were made in His image, created to love and be loved as He loves.

But Satan, who was adorned in beauty prior to his fall, associated value with his adornment. After his fall, he took all that was valuable to God and twisted it into a perception of all that was adorned in the same likeness that he had been adorned, relegating all “worth” down to outward sparkle.

After the Fall, the value system of sparkle became the prime commodity of earth. The more “sparkle” a man had, the richer he became. The richer he became, the more esteemed he was. The more esteemed he was, the more powerful he began to be, until all that was left of true value was obscured, leaving only the outward adornment instead. The value system of God became forgotten and unimportant, and no longer mattered to most.

But the truth is that it does matter, for everything a man can adorn himself with outwardly (power, words, titles & position, appearance, possessions…) belongs to a body that perishes. The body of flesh is lost when he dies, and all that adorns it does not travel with him into eternity.

What is outward adornment? In short it could be described as anything produced by man.

What is of true value? Anything produced by the Spirit (fruit of the Spirit, gifts of the Spirit…)

Can the Spirit produce something physically tangible through a man? Of course! That doesn’t mean that thing in and of itself is considered as valuable to God. Remember, God looks on the heart.

How was Satan adorned before he fell? We learn this from Ezekiel 28:13-17a:

¹³ You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. ¹⁴ You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. ¹⁵ You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. ¹⁶ In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. ¹⁷ Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.

Why did Satan want to obscure the value system of heaven? In addition to hating all that God is and all that God has created including us, it is because he knew all he had left was his outward adornment, and even that was now tarnished. Being the narcissist that he is, he could not tolerate anything on the earth being considered more beautiful than he thought himself to be.

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Matthew 16:26

So then what is the commodity of heaven (how can we possibly purchase what God sees as eternally valuable)? Need! Matthew 5:3 tells us “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. The only way we can purchase things from God is to admit that we have NEED, and in doing so we activate Philippians 4:19, that tells us our God will meet all our needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus. As costly as salvation is, He still offers it freely to anyone who recognizes their need for Him.

What do you currently value?

What do you need from God?

Like my blogs? Check out my books!

Abundant Life

The Spirit and the Bride say, Come!