How many times have you gone out of your way to find a nice, secluded spot to be one with the Lord in prayer and here comes something to interfere? The worst interference is when you get the whispers in your head of things that interfere with what you came to that spot to do.
It can be all sorts of things from “You really should check your emails”, or “You really don’t have time for this, besides it’s so hot out here”, to “you should have brought some food you are really hungry. How about going to get a sandwich then come back?” There are all sorts of little thoughts that come into your little mind…. It can be cluttered up with many things – “Look a squirrel!”
Or it could be whispers that tear you down and mock you of how unworthy you are. None of that is from God. That whispering visitor is of the devil. Rebuke it in the name of Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit to help you focus on the Lord and the purpose of why you came to talk and pray.
That being said, how then ought we be with others? We are watching many bad examples within many churches and among those who claim to be Christians who love to point out how good they are and how bad this one or that one is. There are many church going Christians that go out of their way to allegedly do God’s work by beating up the sinner with scriptures… one must ask themselves, where did Jesus ever say to do that? Did he tell his apostles to go out and condemn every sinner to their face with the scriptures? Did He say to show them how evil they are and call out their list of sins?
Or did he say to be wise as the serpent and gentle as a dove?
Who is it that goes out and condemns the sinner? Who does the scriptures say it was that went before the throne of God to condemn God’s children of all their sins?
Who did Jesus say to be like? Was it to follow Him and do as He does, or did Jesus say, “Man, that devil, sure has the best approach – just accuse them and get them mad and fearful of us. Make them hate to see us coming? Condemn the hell right out of them. Make them so mad they can’t see straight?” I didn’t read that anywhere, did you?
Who taught to judge not, lest you be judged by the same measure you judge others by?
Who loves to judge others? And sits back and laughs once the arguments begin?
What did we learn when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness? Did we not learn that the devil knows the scriptures very well and uses them to tempt people by using them out of context of his own interpretations? Yes, we learned that.
When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, He would correct the devil on every flaming scripture Satan threw at him out of context.
Matthew 4:1-12 1Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. 3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
Here we see the greatest weapon the devil uses is the scriptures and a mocking of the faith in God and twisting of His sacred Word. If you are not aware of what the word of God says, you will be easily deceived by those using scriptures out of context as a weapon. That is the devils favorite weapon and it works.
Satan enters into churches with his Bible and he has his favorite scriptures earmarked ready to use against God’s children… even casting them to hell for noncompliance of his interpretations and twisted dogma.
Satan has always entered into the sacred places of God to kill, steal and destroy. Even before he was cast out of heaven he was the most beautiful of all the angels, so the Bible tells us, and he got too big for his wonderful self that God created, not himself. He was a creation and boy did he forget that in his own pride and disgusting craving for everything. He used his own propaganda and accusations against God to manipulate angels and coherse them to follow him into usurpingGod’s throne. That did not work well for the liar now did it? It never does. They lost and were cast out forever.
After Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit, he went out into the wilderness. He was preparing for the mission ahead of Him to go up against the ruler of this world who had delight in accusing God’s people and leading as many as he could astray, even having his disembodied spirits entering into whatever body of flesh they could to do his bidding and inflict harm.
Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights in prayer and communing with His Father God. He did not do this for any sort of penance, or universe centered aligning…. He was communing with the Holy Spirit and strengthening His mission to do the will of God. I can imagine how Satan watched, listened and observed Jesus and His conversations in prayer deciding the best temptations to use against Him. Can you?
We hear of only three temptations. These dealing with food, protection and ultimate power over everything which included the wealth, fame and power of the entire world.
I imagine before he appeared before Jesus he also whispered all sorts of things to Him. Jesus resisted all the temptations and fully understood the Word of God for He was the Word… and he, in the flesh, did not allow the Satan to get Him to disobey His Father’s will, nor falter from his mission as the Lamb of God, that was testified prior to His entering the wilderness. Remember the people heard God proclaim, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 3:16-17
“16 After He was baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and [l]he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and [m]settling on Him, 17 and behold, a voice from the heavens said, “This is [n]My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Satan hated that day when John the Baptist handed over the Levitical Priesthood to the Messiah, our High Priest forever by the Heavenly Order of Melchizedek.
Satan was so used to tempting those closest to God as he tempted Job to get him to deny God but Job never did so. How much more was Satan after destroying God’s Only Begotten Son and His mission.
Jesus followed a divinely order of time set aside for God for instruction and preparation with the Holy Spirit of God’s presence and the New Covenant as the Groom for His Bride. Recall how Moses was called by God to go up to Mt. Sinai. He was there for forty days and nights in preparation for his journey for the Hebrews coming out from Egypt receiving a new covenant and the laws to guide the people then and after as they were to enter into the promised land. All a shadow of what was to come in the arrival of the Messiah. He ate nothing nor drank anything when up in the presence of God.
Exodus 34:27-28
“27 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 So he was there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.”
In this we see, Jesus went in preparation for fulfilling the New Covenant which was the purpose of His coming in the flesh.
I imagine how the devil hated watching this union and preparation but could not enter into the Holy communion between Jesus and His Father guided by the Holy Spirit.
I imagine all he could do was observe waiting with bated breath for the point that he could enter in and do his tempting full force.
That is to say if we are to take the three temptations as the only ones? In the statement that he was to be tempted 40 days and 40 nights, it appears there could have been many more temptations, but the three we have that are written in Matthew is all we have to go by for certain. Yet, those three cover a wide range of temptations and the same ones we all go through in this world. The temptation of not having food and water for nourishment, and fear of perishing without it (along with not wanting to go without any of our needs).
The temptation to command God to give us protection so no harm will come upon us when we make stupid and daring decisions on our own to do what we might desire to do. And worst of all, longing to trade our devotion to God and His plans for us by going along with all the things of the world; having those things becoming more important to receive and bowing down to the ways of the world to get them and not the ways of God. We must guard against foolishly listening to the devil’s whispers instead of building up our faith in knowing God shall provide all those things for us in the measure He sees fit for us for His purpose and edification for our faith.
Jesus’s temptations show us the example we are to follow as well as His commitment to trusting what our Father God has said and waiting on His timing to complete and finish all things for us.
As we go through the battles of the day, most importantly we must all remember not to condemn our neighbors for their shortcomings for we have all sinned and fallen short of the perfection we seem to expect others to have. Those who know the scriptures should keep this at the front of their thoughts and not judge, but pray for those we love if our love is truly from the heart, we will hate the sin and love the sinner. That is the example the Lord has set for us.
So, when you see the actions of many church heads condemning the sinners using the scriptures as a rod to chastise them with and not the sin… it is in itself a greater abomination. So, Jesus has shown us and taught the disciples as He prepared them for their mission. Judge not lest ye be judged.
Matthew 7:1-5
“1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
The one worthy to judge, judged not but prayed for the sinner to turn from their sins. I recently heard Pastor Melissa Scott say, “Did Jesus go up to the woman at the well in Samaria and say to her…”You’re a whore!” No he did not.”
That being said, let us look at how to help our neighbors and work on love and compassion rather than pointing fingers and calling out sins. Amen.
KEEP ON PRESSING INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD! PRESS, PRESS, PRESS.
Dianne
