Positively I AM with You

Chapter 6
I AM Hates Divorce
Divorce comes from sorrow and death, which is why God hates divorce (Malachi 2:16 NKJV). A divorce is a violent act despite some claiming to have an amicable separation. Those who claim that their divorce ended amicably are not honest. Despite some divorces being expressed as friendly at best, there is psychological and spiritual violence within the minds of the divorcees that plays out in some form of personal and social facade of acceptability. At worst, one or all parties impacted by divorce feel the meaning and purpose of their lives irreparably altered or destroyed.
The loss of love causes the divorcees to question themselves and others, creating skepticism toward themselves and others. When a relationship ends in an allegedly amicable divorce, the harm and violence are not immediately detectable.
The decision of Adam and Eve to eat from the forbidden tree meant divorcing themselves from God—a separation resulting in certain death.
Divorce is usually sought after when the will seems to be suppressed or kept from achieving or expressed. When Adam and Eve sinned against God, they were not seeking a divorce; unlike Lucifer, they had no complaints about the character of God or the teachings of the Creator. All they desired was true love. But they listened to the lie of Satan and acted upon it, which caused them to separate from God. However, they were not wholly divorced because they did not know what they had done (Luke 23:34 NIV). Although they knew enough not to sin, their sin was not irreconcilable as Satan’s, who openly rebelled and convinced himself that the Creator could not be trusted or obeyed.
Adam believed in God’s justice and chose not to live without Eve. Eve believed in God’s compassion and desired to be more like God more than anything, and therefore she decided to believe God would create situations to test created intelligent beings’ readiness to become more like their Creator. Although they did not oppose God, their willful transgression caused a rift between them and the Creator. Discord replaced harmony, and competition replaced compassion. Sorrow and remorse relaced joy and confidence. This rift, created by deceitful manipulations, conceived and carried out by the devil, caused confusion and death.
It is the time of God’s grace providing opportunities for humanity to maintain its oneness with the Creator. The mystery of godliness justifies humankind in the person of God and man—Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19 NIV). God became a man to keep humanity through all eternity within the oneness of communion with the Creator while vindicating the character of the Creator and redeeming and restoring fallen humanity attests to I AM’s hatred of divorce (1 Timothy 4:16 NIV; John 1:1–5, 11–14 NIV).
It is at the cross, through the mediation of Christ, who died for our sins, that we see and understand what Creator means when He says, “Behold, the man has become as one of us.” God can no more separate from the Divine Self and live than humanity can live apart from God. Evil separates. We are held together by God, not simply by ourselves. Our identity is bound with the Creator, and so are our relationships with others. The Creator’s identity binds all things together.
Sin separates us from God (Isaiah 7:14; 59:2 NKJV; Matthew 1:23 NIV). Apart from God, there is nothing but darkness and death. However, being a part of and with God is wholeness, light, and eternal life. On the cross, justice and mercy kissed each other. In Christ, humanity submits entirely to the Creator in birth, life, crucifixion, death, and the resurrection. Jesus was enabled to live above His circumstances and walk the winepress alone; He lived in true love (Psalm 22:2 NKJV; Matthew 27:45–50 NIV).
The will of the Creator consists of and is primarily governed by God’s infinite knowledge of the complementary principle—cause and effect, the Divine Self, better known as God’s word and God’s love to the children of God.
As long as Adam and Eve held God’s word in their minds and hearts as the foundation for their existence, they possessed a will governed by an ever-growing knowledge of the infinite complementary principles of life. So likewise, as God thrives on being God, humans will thrive on being human.
However, once Adam and Eve took from God’s tree, they were no longer content with living within their means as humans. Through the art of deception, the serpent sought to convince them that they were as God to govern their own lives without external control to choose their boundaries. According to Satan, God granted to all created beings with intelligence a will that even the Creator must respect and not force compliance onto. To decide what is right for oneself cannot be refuted, even if the decision is contrary to the will of God. Satan reasoned that a decision contrary to the Creator might be necessary to establish identity, but not death. Satan claims God is harsh and threatens death for anyone who dares to live apart from total submission to God.