Man's Seed and the Image of God ('Comforter' Reflection)

Marriage, Sex and the Snares of Satan

In these last days of this world’s history, the evil seeds that have been planted are now bearing fruit. We now can see it for what it is – absolute death – and therefore with good reason turn away from all things that defile our bodies (spiritual and physical). I believe that we can all agree that the pervasiveness of sex and sensuality is in everything around us, and I would argue that it is ‘designed’ that way. By whom you would ask? By the arch deceiver and enemy to God and His precious children.

As human beings, we are both spiritual and physical beings. In order to be fruitful, we need our spirits to be blessed by God so as to produce the fruit God intended. Therefore, the relationship between man and wife must be spiritually fertile.

I would like to share some key ideas and principles that are found in the Bible, the Spirit of Prophecy and the publications by Pastor Adrian Ebens, particularly Identity Wars and Comforter.

Image of God

If we consider that God made man in His image, the question arises where sexual activities and procreation fit in with the character of God. Why did God create the ‘gift’ of sexual procreation to be within the bond of marriage, as opposed to an activity to be utilized without any consideration to its consequences? (which is an attitude more prevalent due to the discovery of modern birth control in the 1960s)

There are none left ‘unharmed’ by the pervasive and now common sexualization of everything we see, hear, smell etc. – our senses are bombarded moment by moment by this onslaught. Is this what God intended His beloved children to be obsessed about? 

Those who have studied the life of Jesus understand that if we have seen Jesus, then we have seen the Father: tender, gentle, loving, completely selfless, and NEVER ‘taking’ something for Himself. We see the life of Jesus as chaste and pure, yet tempted in all things as we are – for He came in our same fallen flesh (Luke 4:1-11).

Yet, in this fallen flesh He was able to deny the lusts of the flesh and have His daily victories over all aspects of His body. We witness Him in the wilderness, 40 days without physical food – to manifest to us our ability to say NO to the things that would defile our body and our soul. His life was for us an example of purity, and this was reflected in His ability to openly traverse the region healing, blessing and teaching the people of the true reason they were created and what they were actual made for.

All the people that God has created were designed for ‘life’ and that life was to be filled with happiness, joy, peace and thanksgiving. None were designed to die, suffer disease or separation from loved ones; nor to be oppressed by any other man; or used, abused and discarded by another. All this is simply the out-workings of the seed of sin… the one that Satan implanted.

The Nobility of Mankind

Notice how Adam turned to the woman for comfort after God informs him of the effect of Adam’s decision to eat the fruit, Genesis 3:17-20

And unto Adam He [God] 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.”

And Adam called his wife's name Eve [life, lifegiver]; because she was the mother of all living.

I asked myself the question: why would Adam call his wife the life giver when Christ is the true-life giver? The book Comforter helped me understand the deeper significance of Adam calling his wife the life giver when God had called her helper. It is to make her his Saviour.

Adam chose the woman as his primary helper, confidant, and now lifegiver over God. I came to the full realization as to why many of us feel the weight of loneliness. This happens when we have not made Christ our Primary Comforter, and as well we haven’t fully submitted our lives to God to make us complete. The satisfying comfort that we need is from God through Christ, embracing the divine pattern structure in our identity as spoken by our Heavenly Father during Christ’s baptism (Mathew 3;17): “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Jesus values this statement more than anything in the world, and so should we as children of an amazingly loving God. Yet we dismiss it, and instead value more the statement from our spouse: “you are my beloved spouse, in whom I am well pleased,” thinking that we can generate life out of our human relationship. It is good we value our spouse and it is true that we can find fulfilment in our marriage, but that sense of fulfilment comes from marriage being a channel for the love of God, whether we know it or not, for it is only through the Spirit of God that the marriage has its fruit. (See Identity Wars Study Guide 2)

As the world rejects God more and more, we find that we seem to be having less satisfaction and purpose in our marriages than our forefathers, and there is ever more divorce and unhappiness. We wonder why that is, not realizing it has to do with our lack of submission to the Spirit of Christ; instead we think that we need more and more intimate relationships, more and more sexual encounters.

Thus the nobility of man is corrupted and erased when man partakes in activities or behaviors that defile that ‘image’ of God, a process outlined in Romans 1:20-32. This degradation of man is manifest whenever he allows his emotions or his flesh to rule his decisions. It is also evidenced whenever man ‘sees’ a woman (or another man, or a woman desires a man, or child, or even animal), ‘desires’ her, and then ‘takes’ her, only to discard her after his use for her is over (See Identity Wars Study Guide 1). This act defiles his own soul and unfortunately, strengthens the appetite for more defilement. For those with a moral conscience, it most certainly brings its overwhelming sense of guilt, especially when it is seen that the other is hurt and damaged. 

Yet, this of course is seen as perfectly normal within today’s society of open sexuality, and you can be expected to be ‘shamed’ if you do not partake – especially for the young adults. To be chaste and pure is absolutely scorned and mocked at. When we remember that Peter found scorn and mockery more difficult to deal with than a direct attack, we maybe should not be surprised at how effective these same techniques are at causing young men and women to sin against their flesh. We lack faith; we don’t believe Jesus has something better for us; we don’t see the spiritual work Jesus has given us to do now how we damage ourselves through such actions; and we so rarely call on Christ to help us overcome.

The Challenges of Living in an Environment where Gratifying the Flesh is the Means to Make Money

Another challenge in our society these days is the music that also constantly surrounds us. It is playing everywhere you go and even the smallest of children are flooded by it. Babies are encouraged to ‘move to the music’, and of course they eventually find the ‘beat’ that resonates with their fallen nature – this seed grows into a love for the lifestyle that comes along junk food-like music also. People think and develop in accordance to the influence of that music, causing conformity, homogeneity and a lack of independent reasoning as a whole generation learns to think alike.  

And what is the main message of modern music? “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16) We find that music has descended into a sensuality that is designed to encourage emotion over reason (this gratifies the flesh and also gratifies big business, who blare the music so people will shop more); it flatters the youth that they are grown up; and its earworm lyrics and insistent beat ‘call’ to have our bodies ‘respond’ with movement and to act now, not later – definitely not to take it to the Lord in prayer first.

Many claim this experience to be freeing and joyful; hence the dance halls and nightclubs filled with bodies shaking and moving to the beat.  Little girls are taught to dance suggestively, and they realize it gets attention and likes, they are far more adept to slip into ungodly lifestyles as men lust after them.

We have not even begun to discuss dress, or television, or TikTok, or cell phones, or junk food, or schools, grading, competition, etc. that all in various ways encourage the lust of the flesh and eyes and the pride of life. What are we to do? Are to rage against these things? Many do. A search of the evils of cell phones and tv and TikTok and pop music will find millions of results, many of which are not by religious people – even scientists are getting involved in moral/ethical critiques of modern society.

But what is our answer? It is so easy these days to be indoctrinated into the sensuality of this world, as we are literally ‘raised’ in it, and it is little use for a fish to rail against the filthiness of the water of the aquarium he lives in. We need Christ to help us and our youth see these things as empty and have eyes to see something higher. We are to live in an atmosphere above the degradation of the world around us; to bring Heaven down and thus cause the things of the world to lose their hold on us. For those seeking to escape its certain snares, there needs to be an awareness of its root within us, and plead for the grace of Jesus to keep us from falling. Victory is promised and assured to all who would earnestly desire it.

Seed Principle – Seed of Man

When the Gospel message is well understood, we see that God created all things within the seed principle. Nature speaks of this - and there is great opportunity for us to understand God better by learning the lessons still visible within nature.

It is the man who has the seed (sperm) within him (not the woman).  There is plenty of Bible counsel about man and his seed and its proper use. To be sure, we can trust that God gave man all ‘good things’ and, because of His great love for man, He also counselled man against the ‘bad’ things.

Unfortunately, as witnessed in Eden, we see the first couple that God created doubted Him and believed that He was actually with-holding something that was good (Genesis 3:5) …. but sadly, they discovered that they were lied to.

Today, of course, God’s counsel is deemed as foolishness by the world, which tends to agree with Satan that God is with-holding something that is ‘good’. Isn’t that what we are all educated to believe when it comes to sex? There is plenty of worldly reasoning out there to entice the innocent that they are missing out on fun, popularity, satisfaction and true success – if you’re not actively engaging in some sort of sexual appetites. In fact, it is on of the secrets of the occult and of freemasonry that the sexual experience is how we experience the divine.

Nevertheless it is a fact that the nations did forget God; and Rom. 1:22-32 is an accurate description of their condition in consequence. The truthfulness of this description is attested by the heathen themselves. They deified the most profligate men and women, and worshiped vice instead of virtue. Their gods were male and female, and mythology, i. e., The history of the gods, is little else than a record of licentiousness. The Baal and Ashtoreth of the Canaanites, were the Jupiter and Venus of the Romans and Greeks, and every heathen nation had gods corresponding to them. The temples erected to them were magnificent brothels, and their priestesses were prostitutes. Licentiousness was not simply allowed, but it was commanded as an act of religion. Among the Babylonians it is said that, "once at least in her life, every woman was obliged to prostitute herself in the temple of Bel."--American Cyclopedia, art. Babylon. Heathenism "had made lust into a religion, and the worship of its gods a school of vice, penetrating all classes of society."  p. 10, Para. 2, [EJ Waggoner, Fathers of the Catholic Church].

We remember that Eve was tempted to find value outside of God, in an object that would make her Godlike, and Adam convinced himself that it was possible against his own better judgment. So the fundamental confusion humans have is where to find value, and it is interesting from ancient times until today human nature finds value in this area of sexual desire and attractiveness. Once we get in the trap of thinking this way, we need to have a successful boyfriend or a beautiful girlfriend to feel like we are someone, and this type of thinking will always need more and more to be satisfied – our boyfriend and girlfriend should be more beautiful, more successful, more educated, more popular. And similarly to the prostitutes as priestesses, so to do we idolize pornographic celebrities.

Let us not be deceived. We are not working our way to heaven through all the seed we spill in our quests of lust. The seed within every man contains his character, and his attributes when it is discharged from his body, and that spilled seed was intended to give life. Man was designed to be a channel of being a ‘life giver’ in very simplistic terms, not a life dissipator. There are consequences to this discharge of seed to the lusts of the flesh, and this is being understood by secular science such as in the ‘your brain on porn’ and ‘nofap’ movements (seeing you are not alone in facing this difficulty and peoples' testimonies of overcoming are powerfully helpfully).

Furthermore, when a man is engaging in sex with another, his emotional state is manifested in his spilled seed. Should that seed fertilize the egg inside a woman, that ‘emotion’ during conception is now transferred to mark that unborn child. Now we can consider the consequences. Was that child conceived in a state of selfishness, anger, frustration, worthlessness – seeking to be wanted, needed etc.? Then the curse is passed on to the next generation. That ‘seed’, and its woeful results are the responsibility of the man who ‘spilled’ it and the woman who received it. Whatever we sow, we shall reap (Galatians 6:7).

This seed is casted upon the ground and a parallel can be drawn when two people commit fornication with no intent to have children, as its just for lust and a moment of physical pleasure – both leave the experience feeling ashamed, worthless and generally without respect for the other. This is ‘dead’ seed… it was spilled, and now it brings forth death to both parties as their own sense of worth is diminished and if they look to the face of God, they only feel their shame and nakedness. If by chance the women gets pregnant, there is no happiness for the new life, there is more a desire to abort the fruit of the union. There is the "solitary vice" and there is the self-abuse between two; it would be worthy to take time and read counsels from the Spirit of prophecy too on the same. Any fleeting moments of pleasure are just that, fleeting and unfulfilled.

So what is the correct pattern to form a stable model of relationships for life, where value flows down from God to us and we need not seek empty satisfaction in the lust of the flesh? It is seen in this:

But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. (1 Corinthians 11:3)

The comfort of our heavenly Father is breathed upon His Son, who then breathes this upon the man, who then breathes this upon his wife. The woman can also receive direct blessings through Christ from the Father and these blessings are amplified down to the children. This flow of peace, blessing, and protection is essential for the institutional stability of the family and thus has a wider impact on the community. Through good families a proper model of authority is given, and thus other institutions are influenced: police and citizens learn how to relate to each other, teachers and students, pastor and members, theologians and pastors, older kids and younger kids, bigger nations and smaller nations.

Women Magnify the Desires of the Fallen Hearts of Men

If a man looks upon a woman and sees that she is presenting herself in an ‘open’ way that advertises and exaggerates her feminine attributes – and he finds himself desiring her, he can be sure it is because its images like this that reveal the lust in his own heart. We are revealed of what we are thinking.

Women that have not found their true identity as a daughter of God will spend their lives seeking to be loved, needed, wanted desired etc. They know that men will give them things in exchange for sexual favors. This is again Satan leading the way, grooming society to make this completely normal. A woman will barter her wares for a man’s attentions – once again both parties get cheated, as the prize is increased worthlessness and emptiness.

It is NEVER His daughters’ job to search out or pursue a husband, but that He will bring her to her husband when the time is right for both of them. It’s a matter of faith and trusting God as our Provider.

If you are a son of God, and you come across a woman with flirting eyes, suggestive speech, and her body moves in such a way as to fill your mind with forbidden desires, may you find yourself in instant prayer to our Lord; and instead look upon this woman as your sister in Christ – she is currently blinded, beguiled, and is bound in the snares of Satan, seeking to find acceptance and value through selling her ‘wares’. May you have pity and compassion, and ‘true’ love for your sister - never contribute/add to her worthlessness by responding sexually. Amen!

Marriage

God designed our bodies, and specifically our sexual organs, to ONLY be seen, touched, and expressed within a sacred and intimate relationship with one other person – our spouse – as it is only in this setting that the ‘gift’ can be realised in its fullest potential.

Every child conceived was to be brought into a family unit, to know that he/she was wanted, precious and deeply loved and cared for by a mother and father. Both mom and dad were to have a profound impact upon the development of this child – impressing upon the child their value in the eyes of God; thereby providing a safe-guard from wayward steps as the child grows and matures.

Within a Godly marriage, sex is never to be used as a negotiating or bartering tool, neither is the spouse to be a vessel to work out pent-up desires etc. This thinking is just bringing into the marriage bed the distortions that Satan would have us believe. The marriage relationship is to be a relationship in which the two have complete trust, a source of strength to face the daily struggles outside, similarly to how the relationship between Father and Son gave them the strength to endure the rejection of the world. For the marriage space and the family environment to become worldly, competitive, full of mistrust, disrespect, and miscommunication is a great tragedy. Unhappy marriages have caused many people to lose faith in the institution of marriage itself, and thus lose faith in the God who gave the sacred institution, particularly for those who are on the side of less authority – the woman.

We can all witness the rise of single parenthood and the decline of marriage in these past two generations. Satan has distorted scripture to be read as when a man and woman become married, the wife is now the property of the man, to be his chosen vessel of use and abuse.  This is not the ‘Agape’ character that is to manifested in the home – does the Father rule over His Son as His property? Yet the world has been so traumatized by painful marriages and shattered family life that it just seems safer to remain ‘free’.

Stress, Frustration, Power, Exercise

Many have the understanding that sexual activity is designed to burn off ‘steam’, relieve, stress, frustration, anger, or solve your loneliness, neediness, and worthlessness. NO – this is not the proper use of our sexual organs. By engaging in sexual relations with this type of motivation or spirit, you actively ‘blunt’ your mind and body for its intended use. It would be like watching pornography; by doing so, you train the mind and body to simply use another body as an instrument for contrived pleasure.

The ability to have a loving, tender and healthy relationship with a spouse is now thwarted once again. Never, should the marital bed be polluted with a spirit of venting one’s stress, frustrations, anger or power. Neither is it to be the place where one seeks to find their value.

Solution in Jesus

There is much healing to be done in the hearts and lives of those in this world who have given their bodies over to sensuality and indulged into sexual activity outside of their spouse. Those who come to Jesus and are willing to hear and learn what He has taught will find the healing balm for their guilt-ridden conscience.  Jesus knows that we are all deceived, and have not the wisdom or eye salve to discern the snares Satan prepared for us from our very conception.

Dwelling in the bosom of the Father and being completely nourished by Him, the Son of God is fully capable of giving us the Father’s blessing. It is the bosom of Christ that man yearns for in his spirit. The blessing of God upon the male and female relationship was one of fruitfulness – spiritual and physical.

These last days He has promised us victory over every sin. We can expect temptations, yet there will always be made a way of escape for us. We certainly have our part as well, as we daily make choices that either cause us to fall; or we make decided changes to ‘guard the avenues of our soul’. We are all free to choose, I pray that we all choose the path of life – and life more abundantly. Amen!

Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

Blessings, Allan