God's plan for Adam and Eve was a perfect plan, however their disobedience altered God's original plan for them. They were denied the right to the tree of life while on earth. They were also given penalties for their rebellion.

Genesis 3:16-19, "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

Genesis 3:23-24, "Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."

Satan cared nothing for the suffering that would follow after man's disobedience. All he wished to accomplish was a breakdown in the holy communion between God and His children. This was his objective then, and it is still his basic objective today. He deceives and motivates Christians to step out independently thus destroying their faith in God.

Man yields to the devil by going his own selfish way. Satan's nature is characterized by exalting "self" through fleshly will power. This is exactly what "humanism" is--man seeking to be independent of the power of God. Thus the sins of pride, lust, greed, covetousness, and all other "self" interests are part of Satan's nature. The nature of God is love. Love is characterized by giving all. (John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.")

We are taught in the Scriptures to "deny self". This means we are to disown, or refuse to acknowledge our "self will power," which seeks only for "self." We are to give all of our being to God and love Him with all of our heart, mind, body, strength, and soul. The degree to which we worship or serve "self" reflects the degree to which we are yielding to the spirit of Satan. He is a deceiver and epitomizes self-seeking.

Let us look at another aspect of his work as deceiver. After we have come to the Lord and committed our lives totally to God, we no longer wish to displease Him, so we flee from the obvious works of darkness. The devil then ceases to come to us with the usual temptations because we have learned to resist and not yield to him in those areas. He must now come in another way to get us to believe that what he proposes is God's will for us; otherwise we would rebuke him. He comes imitating the Holy Spirit, attempting to make us receive his plan instead of God's plan for our lives.

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