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This posting and several others that proceed it are designed to demonstrate how the actions and words of Jesus prove that He is the fulfillment of the Golden Altar of Incense that resides in the Tabernacles Holy Place. If you have not had the opportunity to review our prior postings on this subject you can catch up by reading the following summary: Jesus-Is-The-Golden-Altar-Of-Incense. With that out of the way we can now dig into, “Jesus Resits the Devil’s Temptation.”
Jesus Resists the Devil’s Temptation
The devils temptation of Jesus in the wilderness is a classical example of spiritual warfare.
The devils goal was to persuade Jesus to renounce His identity as the Fathers beloved Son as proclaimed by the Father at the baptism of John. The consequence of this would be that Jesus would have also renounced His purpose as well, which is the salvation of all mankind.
There are remarkable lessons in this story because the devils temptation has not ended and he will attempt to achieve the same end result with each and every one of us. He will attempt to get us to give up on the reality that we are sons of the living God, and he will try to convince us that we are born without an exceptional purpose.
To start with lets drill down into some supporting material for the statements we have made above. Let’s start by presenting the scripture documenting the spiritual battle between Jesus and Satan in the wilderness:
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’“
Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’“ Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’“
Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’“ Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him. (Matthew 3:16 – 4:11)
So, What Does This Scripture Teach Us?
Some very important point must be noted here. The spiritual warfare commenced immediately after Jesus was baptized in the Holy Spirit and just prior to His entering into ministry. Also, Jesus initiated the attack as He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness for the purpose of testing his ability to resist the devil and all the glamors of the world. In addition, His leading by the Holy Spirit suggests that victory over the devil is necessary for proceeding into ministry, and that it is an integral part of ministry. It also suggests that entering into spiritual warfare should only be done at the leading of God’s spirit. Another key point is that the attack came when Jesus was at His weakest from fasting.
So, all who take up the cross of Jesus can expect that the Holy Spirit will lead us into spiritual warfare and that they must be victorious in order to proceed into ministry. This is because this warfare is a form of testing. We must overcome all temptation and the desires of this world, just like Jesus did. Our intelligence, hard work, capability and desire are not enough and do not offset any lust for the world or the things in it. The weapons of this world, be they the power of persuasion or military might, are useless in spiritual battles. We must demonstrate the ability to resist the temptations of the world prior to moving on to addressing our mission.
The spiritual warfare initiated by Jesus characterized His entire ministry right up to His ultimate victory over Satan on the cross. We should expect our ministry to be the same.
In our next posting we will present even more examples of how Jesus is our Golden Alter of Incense. Until then, may God bless every one of you.
SEEKING JESUS 