Ecclesiastes 4:12 Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

We can easily overpower a spirit. But when this spirit cooperates with another one, they can withstand us. When three spirits work together, they are like a threefold cord. Such kind of spiritual strongholds that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God cannot be quickly broken.

Genesis 3:8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where [are] you?” 10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you [were] naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”

Adam feared; that was the first time that “fear” manifested in the Garden. Adam felt shame; that was the first time that “shame” manifested in the Garden.
Adam hid himself; why? It was because he felt that God had rejected him and so he wanted to avoid meeting with Him. The sensation of being rejected causes the “need” to hide in order to avoid meeting with the one(s) that we feel rejected by. That was the first time that “rejection” manifested in the Garden.

God never created any of those “sentiments” (feelings, or sensations) in the Garden. Adam (which means, the one made of the dust of the earth), created them through his own feelings. These “feelings”, or “sentiments” which were created for the first time through Adam in the Garden, were the first manifestation of Iniquity, and became the root (like a threefold cord) from which more manifestations came forth, such as:

When Adam accused Eve (the spirit of accusation)
When Cain murdered Abel (the brother-slaying spirit, which is murder)

Perhaps the greatest manifestation of Iniquity that became manifest through this threefold cord which is the root of Iniquity, was the manifestation of Darkness in the Garden. Darkness is the absence of Light. Darkness is the “place’ when the Presence of the Lord cannot be.

In the Garden everything is “naked” and nothing can be hidden by the Lord, who is transcends everything; His Spirit is in all and by His breath everything is sustained. How could Adam hide himself from God? Where did he hide? Perhaps behind a tree, or a rock?

Then, which direction was God coming from, so that he could hide on the other side? God’s Presence is like the lightning and the thunder in the sky, transcending the skies through and through. How and where can a man hide from God’s Spirit that is in everything, through everything, and everything is in Him, everything is laid bare before Him?

So, how could Adam hide himself in such a way that God could not see him, so that He asked “Adam, where are you?” Adam gave birth to Darkness in the Garden, a “place” where God cannot see and cannot be.

To say it again differently, Darkness manifested in the Garden through Adam who sinned. And so the root of Iniquity introduced Darkness to the Garden, where Adam could retreat to hide himself from God’s Presence.

Adam’s need to hide himself from God’s Presence created Darkness, because Adam was possessed by the feelings of fear, shame, rejection.

The problem here is that these “feelings” are not just mere sentiments, they are persons. Where such persons manifest, the Person of God cannot be present, cannot manifest at the same time. The person who takes over and makes itself manifest, is the person whose voice we heed.

Every human who heeds the voice of his own sentiments, especially those of fear, shame and rejection, is unable to receive the Voice of the Lord, or to taste His Presence, because this human has been overcome by the Darkness of his own soul, which eats him up from within.

May the Lord grant us to be able to comprehend the secret things so that we may be able to overcome them!