JESUS SPEAKING
Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days he ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, he was hungry. And the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” (Luke 4: 1-4.)
INSPIRED THOUGHTS
There is currently a battle happening in the lives of every man woman and child on the face of this earth. The battle is between the Spirit and the Flesh. People who are fleshly are dominated by the desires of the body; hunger, sex, possessions, power, drugs or alcohol, feeling good, etc. The devil seeks to exploit these fleshly desires for his own end. He does not want anyone to do the will of God. God is Spirit, and when He dwells in a person’s heart, His Spirit begins to control the fleshly desires; fasting is a display of dominance of the Spirit over the desires of the body. God willed Jesus too fast for forty days in the wilderness to display His dominance. The devil sought, through pride and hunger, to make Jesus disobey His Father, saying “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus quoted an Old Testament scripture saying, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” The word of God is more important for life than the very bread that we eat. The Spirit of God is more necessary for living than the water we drink, or even the air that we breathe. Without the word and the Spirit a person begins to be consumed by their own desires, and the result is death.
Drug addicts and alcoholics are examples of victims of carnality. A person can get to a point of such great spiritual bankruptcy, that their fleshly desires have nothing to control them; they begin to retract from the world, doing drugs, stealing to support their habit, even using friends and family to continue on in a lifestyle that leads only to misery and death. Some addicts do recover; many in the church have been healed over night (not because they had a mental breakthrough) but because God’s Spirit returned to them. Their hunger for the word of God began to grow, and in turn, they had victory over their desire to get drunk and use drugs. Many today have problems in life they would desperately like to fix; but the problem isn’t the problem; they think, ‘if I can just stop drinking, or stop being promiscuous, then my life would change;’ such problems are merely symptoms of the true problem (their relationship with God is lacking.) They have refused to make God the center of their lives and, in turn, they have gone on to experience misery and death. God has to be more important than food and more of a priority than water. His word has to be the number one priority in life.
Today, standing up to the devil is the result of standing near to God. The words of God printed on the pages of every bible give life to those who read them. Anyone stuck in bondage can be set free by God’s Word. Anyone who is experiencing a problem will find the solution between the first sentence of Genesis, and the last sentence of the Book of Revelation. Did you read the word of God today? Did you feed your Spirit? You ate breakfast, probably lunch, and maybe dinner, but how much of God’s word did you take in today? The very Word of God is our lifeline in a dark place; it is our roadmap for living; it is our strength; it is our very life. Read the Word daily, and be strengthened in this battle you find yourself in. Give God His proper place in your life, and you will know a miracle, and you will have the victory you seek; and true life will eternally by yours.
“Lord Heavenly Father we lift you up as an awesome and mighty God, and come before You now in humility. Please reveal when the devil is attempting to manipulate us. Help us to see him from afar off. Give us the wisdom and the words to rebuke him; give us the truth to speak in return for his lies. Help us to understand the importance of Your Word in our lives, and give us a hunger for Your Spiritual food. Nourish us, and make us strong Father, and allow us to remain in You. We love You Lord, we praise You, and we thank You, and we ask and pray all of these things, in Jesus Christ’s name. Amen.” God bless all of you.
Jesus Speaks 