And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit..." Luke 4:14"There are certain laws that govern the realm of the Spirit and we must know how to exercise our spiritual senses and grow the spiritual muscles that will enable us operate in the power of the Spirit.
Before every season of manifestation in the power of the Spirit there must always be the season of temptation. Fasting and prayer doesn't keep the devil away. Infact I want to believe it gives the devil the opportunity to test and see how true we are to what we waited on God for.
Unfortunately it is always at this juncture that most christians give up.
Jesus after going without food for 40days was hungry and satan the tempter came visiting. If you studied the temptation of Jesus Christ very well you will realized that the same trick the devil used to deceive Eve was the same way he came to tempt Jesus. It was food that the devil used to entice Eve. It was the same food that the devil tried to used to get Jesus when satan said Jesus should turn stones to bread.
Satan will never tempt you in your area of strength. Satan will always tempt you in that place of your vulnerability or weaknesses. For Jesus was hungry, satan came to tempt him to turn stone to bread. I meditated long and hard on why satan chooses to come against Jesus this way only to realize that satan already knew who Jesus was and what He was capable of doing. He knew Jesus was God manifested in flesh. So the reason why he came hard on Christ to turn stone to bread was to make Jesus operate in the realm of God instead of in the realm of man.
There is nothing bad in Jesus turning stone to bread but if Jesus had fallen for that temptation, the salvation agenda would have been terminated for Jesus would need to overcome temptation by operating as the son of man and not as a God to save humanity.
No wonder the bible says "He was tempted and touched by the feeling of our infirmities yet was without sin. Jesus suffered hunger same way you and I suffered hunger yet he was not intoxicated by the love of power to turn stones to bread.
Next the devil took Jesus on a sight seeing adventure and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said all this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore will worship me, all shall be thine.
I used to think the devil must be such a dummy to think Jesus would fall for such lie. However we need to be aware of what the book of James told about temptation to understand what Jesus went through. James 1:13-14 says "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
So will I be permitted to say that satan tried to captivate Jesus Christ by the glory shown to Him yet He didn't cave in. Already what the devil was trying to make Jesus do was to bow to pressure and deliver the Isrealites from the threshold of the Roman empire. The Jews were waiting for the messiah. They thought He would come and deliver them from the iron clad rule of the Romans the same way Moses did in Egypt. Satan must have sensed this and that was why he suggested that idea to Jesus. He wanted to give Jesus political power thus defeating the purpose of his calling.
If Jesus had bow to satan, He would have the political power but it will never be possible for Christ to die on the cross. But Jesus didn't bulge. He replied by quoting the scriptures. The word of God was the weapon Jesus used to overcome the tempter.
The third temptation was to make Jesus fly like a superman from the pinnacle of the temple. This time around the devil changed the trick of operation by quoting Psalm 91:11 which says "For He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
However, he edited the original version as quoted in verse 11 of Psalm 91 and added his own. This is what he said in Luke 4:10-11 " For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
It was never recorded anywhere that "in their hand they shall bear thee up". It was satan that added that to persuade Jesus. But Jesus didn't argue or debate on the authenticity of that statement. The only thing Jesus said was "it is said "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Before you can operate in the power of the Spirit, the devil will tempt you with the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. If you can overcome temptation in these three phases, you will enter into the fulness of the power of the Spirit.
God permitted the devil to tempt Jesus to show us that though Jesus was in the flesh, He wasn't fleshly controlled but Spirit controlled. He didn't allow the weakness of His flesh to rule over His Spirit. Jesus denied self.
It was in the wilderness that Jesus won the battle over flesh. He was attacked with lust of the flesh when he was hungry but he chose to suffer the flesh to enable the food of the Spirit which is the word of God nourish his body. Jesus was enticed by the lust of the eyes in that instance when He was shown all the kingdoms of the world and their glory but Jesus didn't obey the flesh. Yet again when He was lifted up on the High top of the temple to cast himself down, the devil was buffeting him with pride of life. He wanted Jesus to display supernatural power by working against the law of gravity, yet Jesus chose to walk in the Spirit by replying with the relevant word of God for that situation.
Jesus showed us by His lifestyle that victory over temptation comes from responding with the relevant scriptures to every challenges satan throw at us.
Study to show yourself approved a good workman that need not be ashamed but rightly dividing the word of truth. This is the way to operating in the power of the Spirit.
Kindly share.
Moses Abiola
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