In the Story of Redemption by Ellen White, she wrote of Satan having a conversation with Jesus after he was cast out from heaven. In the conversation, Satan said he "repented of his sins and wished to be readmitted into heaven, into the presence of God." "Jesus wept at Satan's woe, but tell him as the mind of God, he, Satan could never be readmitted into heaven because the seeds of rebellion 🥑 were still in him." I have been puzzled by that quote, " the seed of rebellion." So God allowed the devil and his angels to live so that their true characters can be revealed to all . Satan had been very deceptive in heaven and even the true angel could not understand his character, time was given.
The issue of character and its development is an interesting one to me. What is a seed of character 🥑? How do we get such seeds, how is character developed and how is it revealed? We will be touching upon these points today. Character is who you are. Character is the make up of your whole being, emotions, thoughts, actions etc..Your character is basically who you truly are as a person. Character development began when God created intelligent beings. God gave holy being righteous seeds to develop righteous characters, but Satan introduce evil thoughts to his own minds, evil seeds in the universe. Evil emotions, evil thoughts allow for development of evil characters.
The fall of Adam and Eve, introduced evil seeds into the human race. Now each person would have an individual struggle to either develop righteous seeds from God or evil seeds from the devil. How do we get the seeds? We get many of our character seeds from birth 🤱🏽. We inherited a lot of traits from our parents. We inherited our parents' sinful nature, we may inherit their anger, their tendencies etc.. As we grow in age, we acquire more seeds for character development watching how our parents behave in the home, the things our society teach and thoughts we foster in our minds. As we get older, we may not even know it , but we are making decisions on a daily basis, developing our characters.
Character development! 1.Thoughts and feelings lead to actions. 2. Repeated actions lead to habits. 3. Habits lead to character. 4. Character leads to destiny in this life and the life to come. Each person is accountable before God for the character they develop. No one can blame another person for their own character. Each person's character is developed based on their unique circumstances in life and each of us even if we are born in the same household experience life differently and develop different characters. The types of thoughts you entertain will lead to the types of actions you take in life, which then lead to the type of character you develop. Character development takes time .
You can try to deceive others concerning who you truly are, but circumstances will arise that will test you and reveal your true character. A man may claim to be loving ❤, but his character is revealed based on how he react when someone wrongs him. A woman may claim to be patient, but her character is revealed when traffic is moving slowly. A man may claim to love God but how we react in difficult times, in the fiery trials of temptations will reveal his true character. Trials reveal character, the inner person. Trials reveal what is really in the heart, what is really valued . How you treat others, especially those under your power and influence reveal your true character.
Lucifer in heaven began to foster seeds 🥑 of jealousy, envy, self exaltation and hatred in his heart. But publicly he professed to be looking for the good of others, the good of the universe. Lucifer in his heart wanted to rule over others, be worshipped by others, but publicly he professed to be seeking for their freedom. Lucifer in his heart knew he was lying against God and His government. But publicly he professed to only be seeking for the truth, only be a promoter of righteousness. Time was to be given to demonstrate his true character and over time he is revealed to be a liar, a tyrant and murderer. Likewise time is given to us by God to reveal our true character.
We can profess all sorts of things to other people but sooner or later God will allow testing situations to reveal our true character. God allow trials to come upon us so we can see the evil seeds that have been festering in our hearts and bring it to Him so that He may uproot them from the soil of our hearts and put in its place righteous seeds. But many of us make excuses for the evil character traits that we have and refuse to bring them to Jesus so He can help us develop righteous and perfect characters. All who are continuing to water evil seeds, think on evil thoughts and excuse evil deeds are developing their character in partnership with Satan and evil angels .
According to a quote," True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure- the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature." "If you want to get a glimpse into a person's true character, pay attention to the way they react under pressure. Their character is also revealed by how they treat others and promises they keep. The character of a person is made up of individual experiences and learned behavior. Charater cannot be transferred to another. The only thing we are taking with us to heaven is our character if we are saved and only those who have allow God to develop righteous characters are saved.
In conclusion, God gave us our nature. We didn't choose this sinful nature and we didn't choose our parents and many of life's circumstances, but the way we develop our characters is our sole responsibility. God gave Lucifer a perfect nature, put him in a perfect place, with perfect character seeds and Lucifer developed an evil character of his own choices. The same way being in this sinful world, having sinful tendencies and finding ourselves in tough situations is no excuses to develop righteous character. We can with the help of God develop righteous characters by asking for His help in every decision in life, small or great.
Character development starts with the thoughts and emotions. 1. Begin your day with right thoughts by spending time in God's word. 2. Bring all your thoughts emotions to God in prayer, bring them in captivity to Christ.4. Thoughts and emotions lead to actions . 5.Ask the Lord for the Holy Spirit to help you make right decisions daily. 6. As you make right decisions daily you will begin to form a character in the image of Christ. 7.Ask God to seal you in righteousness. Sooner or later we all become fixed in our characters and our fate is sealed. Ask God to fix your character in righteous and your destiny will be eternal life. You will be a child of God forever.
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