Have You Ever Thought?

Have you ever thought about Jesus being led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil? Luke 4:1-13. The Holy Spirit lead Jesus, the Holy Spirit was with Jesus. Just like the Holy Spirit is with us and in us. John 14:16-17

I thought to myself, wow, Jesus, you were willing to be led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Jesus knew what and who He was going to be dealing with. Before Satan was cast out of heaven he was known as Lucifer. Lucifer was a beautiful angel who was assigned to lead the entire angelic host with the worship and service of Yahweh (Ezekiel 28:14-17), then Lucifer became prideful. He wanted to be God. He wanted to be worshiped. So Lucifer started talking to the angels and convinced 1/3 of them to follow him. So there ended up being a battle in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against Lucifer and his angels. Lucifer and his angels were cast out of heaven and this is how Satan became ruler of this world. (Isaiah 14:12-14, Revelation 12:4a, Revelation 12:7-9) When Jesus was being led by the Holy Spirit He knew he needed to spend time in prayer and fasting. He needed the Holy Spirit. He needed to know the Word of God. Jesus also knew he was not fighting against flesh and blood. (Ephesians 6:12)

Can you really comprehend this? Jesus was willing to be “tempted” to be “tested.” WHY??? Because he “knew” he had to understand and share our feelings and our weaknesses. He had to be tempted in every area as we are. (Hebrews 2:17-18, Hebrews 4:15)

Jesus spent forty days praying and fasting to be spiritually nourished for a spiritual battle. Satan‘s plan was to get Jesus to act independently of God. Satan had been watching Jesus, he knew Jesus‘ weakness…hunger, just like Satan watches us and knows our weaknesses. The Word warns us about Satan and to be on the alert 1 Peter 5:8. As we see in the gospel, Jesus used the Word, he did not use his intelligence, or reasoning, Jesus used just the Word to defeat Satan.

Luke 4:13 tells us Satan left Jesus for another opportune time, meaning he was going to tempt Jesus later. This got me to thinking…. In Matthew 6:25-34 Jesus talked to us about worrying. Jesus must have felt the temptation to “worry” because he knew how to talk to us about not to worrying. Also in Mark 7:21-23 Jesus talked about evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lawlessness, slander, ignorance and folly. I do believe Jesus was tempted in all these areas just as we could be tempted by them.

This is so amazing that Jesus was willing to leave Heaven and come to earth to be tempted in every area as we are yet He was without sin and was willing to die on the cross for our salvation. He also tells us He is our example: He prayed, He fasted, He quoted the Word and He knew He was not fighting against flesh and blood.

When you are struggling, remember you have an advocate who is sitting at the right hand of your Father interceding for you – an advocate who has faced, and been tempted in every area just like you! (Hebrews 4:15)

And He said, I have overcome the world, also in 1 John 5:4, he states…for whatsoever is “born” of God, “overcomes” the world.

Because Jesus lives, He “dwells” in each one of us thru the presence of His Holy Spirit, who are His disciples He promised never to leave us or forsake us, Heb 13:5 and my fellow brothers and sisters in this rejoice for “this” is the Victor who resides in us!!!!

Paula Mace