The Bend

Engaging with Heaven, we found ourselves walking on pavers toward a gazebo on a hill. Someone was sitting at the gazebo posed like Auguste Rodin’s statue “The Thinker.”

We turned around and Malcolm was standing with us eating an apple. He asked the question, “What do you think Adam was thinking right before he bit into the fruit?”

We had not thought of an answer to his question, so we waited for what he would say next. He said, “Wouldn't you say this is a silhouette of the picture of Adam? That was the rest of his life. That moment was forever imprinted on his mind. He thought about it day in and day out. What would have been different? What could have been the would haves and the should haves. But what was he thinking before he tasted?”

I feel compelled to go over and put my hand on the right shoulder of this statue.

Stephanie asked, “What is an inflection?”

Oxford’s Dictionary defines it as, “A change in the form of a word. Typically, the ending to express a grammatical function or attribute such as tense, mood, person, or some modulation of annotation or pitch in the voice. Okay. Can you tell me what this inflection is? Hmm. So, you are going to tell me the process of word formation in which items are added to the base form of a word to express the grammatical meaning to bend.” [1]

Stephanie queried, “Are you showing me in that moment that there was a bend towards something? As she walked around the statue, she noted the picnic tables nearby, the apple, the garden, and the statue as a representation frozen in time. Malcolm noted, “Adam's thoughts of that day were frozen forever in time in his mind. It was a constant image before him, and it was an absolute accusation against him his entire life.”

Wondering what we needed to learn about this, she heard two words: fall (like the fall of man) and sovereignty.

Now the statue became Adam, so we greeted him. She continued, “Hi Adam. I keep hearing the word inflection which has bend. Can you tell me more?”

Adam, in turn, asked, “Have you thought about the bend in my own heart and mind that solidified the moment I took the apple? What is not discussed is the bend in my heart. I would not have easily taken the apple had there not been one.”

We had never thought of it like that where there was already something going on with him. Whether it was an idolization of his wife, thoughts in his own mind, or something else.

Stephanie asked him, “Would there have been? How could there have been anything? You walked with the Father in the cool of the day? What made you take the apple?”

He said, “Therein lies the bend.”

She replied, “Well Adam, I do not pretend to know your heart in the moment, so you will have to tell us. The only thing that I could think of was that whispers had already been spoken to cause there to be something for you to mistrust or to put all your eggs in that basket that was Eve.”

Again, he said, “Therein lies the bend. Sin lied with me, not with her.” (And ‘lied’ became multiple meanings).

“Why would he eat the fruit?” Stephanie asked.

I replied, “He got into his soul.”

We surmised that even though the fall had not yet happened, Adam had a freewill. He had been hearing whispers (from the accuser who later took the form of a serpent), and these whispers became accusations. Because the Father had created Adam with a freewill, the Father was going to ensure that Adam had the ability to choose regardless of the outcome of that choice.

When he was not walking with Jesus or the Father in the cool of the day, the other times that he was there, there were whispers he was hearing. It may not have created doubt like we think of doubt now, but these whispers were things he thought about which created the bend. There had been enough of those to where when he was presented with the opportunity, he acted on it.”

Wanting confirmation that we were understanding correctly, we asked, “Are we right Adam?”

He replied, “Therein lies the bend.”

Stephanie noted that as he said that he was pointing to Eve who came from him—from inside of him.

He showed how Eve was able to step into him because she came out of him spiritually. She was like a perfect smaller version of him with longer hair. She was a piece of him and came from him. Therein lies the bend—she ate.

He said, “Upon this earth, she was all he knew in the physical and therein lies the bend.”

We asked, “Adam, is it because of your freewill in that moment? Were the whispers about losing her or fear, What was it?”

He said, “The whispers were about not governing my territory. I did not have to accept the whispers and I certainly did not have to allow them. If you have ever seen movies before where someone is walking around and they hear an audible whisper, and the sound is all around them. That is what it was like. I would just be walking, and I would hear something.”

It had to do with the word inflection because Satan would take the word and bend it. Adam did not govern to remove that. Satan would take a word and change it. He placed an inflection upon it. An inflection is a word formation in which items are added to the base form of a word to express grammatical meaning to bend.

We asked, “What do we take from this?”

We again saw the silhouette of The Thinker again, but it was not Adam, as he was standing with us beside Malcolm.

Your soul will think you into destructive action.

Adam said, “I spent the rest of my life thinking about the would haves and the should haves, and it was a burden.”

Suddenly, Adam’s first two sons Cain and Abel walked up next to him, and Adam said, “The would have and the should have,” which is how he introduced them.

Malcolm said, “This message is about the value of living spirit forward. There is no inflection of a bend except towards the Father's heart. Choose this day whom you will serve.”

When you live spirit forward, it is so much easier to serve the Father and so much easier to stay out of the thinking of the soul because it says in the Word that our thoughts would be higher—our thoughts are higher.”

Malcolm said, “That is spirit talk right there.”

We closed the engagement thanking them for helping us, then the statue of “The Thinker,” stood and walked away.

[1] https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/english/inflection