In Matthew 4, we are told the story of the time when the Holy Spirit took Jesus out into the desert to be tempted by Satan. I would encourage you to take a moment and read Matthew 4:1-11 before reading further here.
This passage is wonderfully helpful for us in our battle to walk in righteousness because in it we see Jesus’ example of what it looks like to fight against the lies of the enemy. You will notice that Jesus is tempted here three times. The temptations each relate to a different desire humans may have. The first relates to physical hunger. The second relates to the desire to be proven before others. The third relates to the desire for control, power, and authority.
It is natural to be hungry, especially if one has not eaten for some time. Jesus had been fasting for weeks and practicing reliance upon His Father in heaven. Satan’s temptation was for Jesus to take His hunger into His own hands rather than to trust and wait upon the Father to care for Him. To be sure, Jesus had the power but if He had used it here, it would have been out of turn and He knew it. We face similar temptations daily, to take into our own hands what God has told us to wait on Him for. Like Jesus, we must resist.
It is also natural for men to want to be shown as proven before others. Satan’s statement, “if you are the Son of God” was an attempt to cast doubt upon Christ’s heart regarding who He was and God’s love for Him. It was an attempt to get Him to doubt His true identity in the Father and to force God to act on His behalf. Again, the Father had promised to protect the Son but that did not mean that the Son would face no pain or suffering. In fact, Christ knew that the Father’s promise was ultimate and trustworthy, but that temporary suffering was the only way to accomplish the Father’s will for His life and for ours. Had Christ satiated the Devil’s appetite for God to jump through hoops and put on a show, it would have been out of turn. To be sure, the Father would soon do many signs to show that Jesus was His son, but for it to be righteous Jesus had to walk in the timing of the Father rather than attempting to force His hand. Like with the last temptation, we are daily faced with the temptation to doubt who we are in God and to force Him to prove Himself to us. Like Jesus, we must resist.
Lastly, it is natural for people in Adam to want to control our own path and destiny. Because of sin, it has become natural for us to doubt God. A fruit of doubting God is that we try to rend control of our own lives for ourselves at nearly any cost. This costs us everything, leaving us bankrupt in every way. Adam and Eve had everything set before them in God and all they had to do was to be patient and wait on Him to bring them into mature wisdom, knowledge, and authority in His timing. Satan only has authority on earth because he stole it from Adam through deception. This authority was Adam’s, but he lost it through his own efforts to control what God was giving him as a gift in time. Like the prodigal son, Adam demanded his inheritance out of season and squandered it because he wasn’t mature enough for it yet. Christ knew that all of the authority Satan offered Him was already His in the Father. If He took Satan’s offer He might avoid the pain, but that ultimately that shortcut would lead to all being lost for himself and for the world. It would be taking His authority out of turn. Daily we face this temptation too, but like Jesus we must resist. We must not attempt to take for ourselves through a backdoor what is only God’s to give.
With each temptation, Jesus quoted Scripture to battle the lies of Satan. This is an important principle for us as followers of Jesus. How do we fight our battles against sin, against demonoc intrusive thoughts, and against every onslaught of the enemy against us? We fight with Scripture because that is how Jesus fought. The best and most effective weapon we have against Satan is the Bible. The Bible is God’s written word which was breathed out by God and written down by the Apostles and Prophets of old (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Satan hates the Bible and yet he is bound by it because though a rebel against The Lord, he is still a servant of The Lord and is forced to obey Him.
One of the great tragedies of the modern church is that we have Bibles everywhere, but most Christians don’t know the Bible deeply. Most of us have only a rudimentary knowledge of Scripture at best. The Lord wants so much for us than this. I believe that He wants every Christian to be a dedicated student of Scripture. How do I know this? Because of Jesus’ example and because we are all called to be like Him. “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). A fully trained disciple will be a person who is dedicated to growing in his or her knowledge of the word and through this growth, we become stronger at resisting the attacks of Satan. There is no shortcut to knowing God’s word. We must engage it. We must dedicate ourselves to studying it both academically and devotionally. I also know that when we choose to go down a road which the Lord desires for us to travel, He will empower us, nourish us, and travel with us. It may seem like a daunting task to dedicate ourselves to be students of the word, but there is grace for us if we will choose His way. He will meet us as we take our steps towards this path.
When we Christians do not make Scripture a priority in our lives along with prayer, participation in the local church, and dependence upon the Holy Spirit, we make ourselves an easy target for Satan. My encouragement to you is this; do not allow anything to stand between you and knowing the Scriptures as deeply and as thoroughly as you possibly can. We are all theologians and Bible scholars in Christ, called to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). Through studying and putting His word into practice, we grow in wisdom and skill regarding the knowledge of how to fight Satan, overcoming Him by Christ’s blood and the word of our testimony (Revelation 12). We also grow more skilled at fighting for one another. When I know the Bible well, I am also more able and ready to speak freeing truth in love over my brother or sister who is battling Satan as I am. A church which knows the Bible is a church much more equipped to battle the enemy together, to depend on the Holy Spirit, and to walk in victory rather than in defeat.
One of our 8 core convictions as a church is that we are canonical. This means that we are a Word people. May we throw ourselves into growing in our knowledge of the Bible and may the Holy Spirit empower us to use His word as a sword against Satan’s attacks on us.
You are so right! So much truth here. Without Gods word daily in our life and not following the Holy Spirit, we are so weak, no wonder we feel defeated sometimes! I’ve been spending more time in the word and I feel Gods strength, Joy & peace more and more daily! Ty Nick!
Great and needed blog! Psalm 119:11 “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sit against you.”
Study of the Word, prayer, and meditation & memorization are essential in fighting sin and building a strong relationship with Christ. I learned this late in my Christian walk, but it has transformed my life and I’ve learned it’s never too late with God.