Tag Archives: led by the Spirit

JESUS, THE GOD-MAN – 5

Bible Study, ,

THE GOD-MAN, TESTED

One more test to pass before the God-man could step onto the public stage. Already equipped with the Father’s blessing after a peerless thirty years, Jesus had to decide His strategy… under whose authority would the God-man carry out His mission?

Would the Father, who loved His Son, choose to set the test? Not Himself or the Holy Spirit! None other than the devil, His most formidable opponent! Why the devil? Why not the religious leaders…those who would be in His face to the full extent of His endurance? The devil it was who masterminded Jesus’ opposition, challenging, like he did Job, not only His actions but the very core of His relationship with the Father. Was is not the same gauntlet he threw down before the first Adam…”You don’t need God. You can be God!”

“If you are the Son of God…!”

Where would He take the test? In the most inaccessible terrain, the wilderness of Judea, deserted and in total isolation! No food, no water, no creature comforts, no shelter, no human company, no support system, no cellphone, no Wifi, no 911, no possibility of calling for help… just utter desolation and silence!

And so He waited…day after day…and nothing happened! Ten days…nothing, silence! Twenty days…nothing, silence, not even a bird call to break the monotony! Thirty days…still nothing, still silence! Forty days…empty stomach writhing in pain, lips cracked and bleeding from thirst! Then, like a caged animal released, the devil burst on the scene! Had he been waiting in the shadows, straining at the leash, watching his opponent grow weaker by the day? Visible? We don’t know, but real, yes, horribly real! Why now, when Jesus was drained to the dregs? Why not forty days ago when He was fresh and up to the challenge?

Who was the referee in this struggle for position…power… authority…ultimately Lordship, in this monumental battle?

Matthew 4:1 NIV
[1] “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”

The Holy Spirit was there, all the time, keeping score, silent, invisible, uninvolved but vigilant. This was Jesus’ fight. He could not intervene.

What was the issue? What was the prize?

The devil had once challenged God for the highest position in heaven… and lost.

Isaiah 14:12-14 NLT
[12] “How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world. [13] For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. [14] I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’

Since he had already lost to God, the same devil challenged the first Adam, and won. The only obstacle between him and the coveted prize was the last Adam. He still wanted the title, office, and role of Lord of the universe. Beat Him, and the title and role was his! He saw his opportunity through God’s offspring, this “Adam”, this righteous but untested God-man, now weak and vulnerable.

To gain the throne from Jesus Himself, the last Adam, Satan would need to win it by cunning and stealth.

It was showdown time. Step by step, Satan went for the jugular, the God-man’s unity with the Father through the Spirit. To prise Him loose from His union with the Father, he tried a sneak attack…act by your own power. “You don’t need God. You are God.”

The devil knew he could not attack His deity, so he tried Jesus’ vulnerable humanity through the front door…extreme physical hunger! Jesus refused to take the bait. As hungry as He was, He still left the choice, the initiative to the Father. His strategy unveiled, little by little, as the tests were hurled at Him. Point one…

Matthew 4:4 NIV
[4] “Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

God’s Word would always be His modus operandi, His guiding light, His method of attack and defence, His weapon of choice. Obedience to God’s Word would be His supreme and only way to go.

Round one: Jesus – 1, Satan – 0.

John 8:29 NIV
[29] “The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”

“Okay, if that’s your strategy, Jesus, how are you going to apply it?”

The devil’s tactic became more subtle. If you are choosing to live only by God’s Word, use it to get what you are after! What do you can to get what you want, Jesus, you God-man? You want what I want…supreme authority over your people, your world…to be, once and for all, Lord! Show your people your power by defying gravity in public! Jump from the highest point on the temple so that everyone can see you. God’s angels will catch you. He won’t let you fall. That’s His Word! That will convince the people who you are!

Jesus gave the devil a withering look. “You fool! Do you think I don’t know the truth? Do you think I’m stupid enough to fall for your scheme?”

Matthew 4:7 NIV
[7] Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Score: Jesus – 2, Satan – 0

Angry and raging, not willing to give up, the devil strips off his cover and fires his final round with guns blazing. “It’s so easy! Worship me, and I’ll give you everything you want. You want the world? I’ll give it to you if you just give me what I want…to be Lord!”

Matthew 4:8-9 NIV
[8] “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. [9] “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

How subtle was that!

Jesus slapped him down with one final strike! “First, devil, they are not yours to give.”

Psalms 24:1 NIV
[1] “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it… “

Second, devil,

Matthew 4:10 NIV
[10] Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Final score: Jesus – 3, Satan – 0

Raging and beaten, the devil retreats for a season but, under his breath he fumes, “I’ll be back!”

Luke 4:13 NLT
[13] When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.

This encounter was crucial. The God-man had cemented His modus operandi, His strategy for securing what was rightfully His, the title, office, and throne as Lord. It would take years of fierce defence of His claim, lived out daily, choice by choice, decision by decision, always going the way of absolute obedience and submission to the Father, always living as a man under God’s authority, always resting under the canopy of truth, to gain the prize.

“It is written,” was His weapon of choice, unassailable truth by which He would reveal his strategy, win the war, reign as king, and vanquish His enemy forever.

To be continued…

“LORD, WHAT NOW?”

Christian Life, ,

Romans 8:14 NLT‬
[14] “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”

My thoughts, in recent days, have been repeatedly drawn to this verse. My question is, “Is it possible to be so in fellowship with the Holy Spirit that I can be led by Him in everything I say and do, every moment of my day?”

I look at Jesus, a man, yes, but a man filled and led, every moment, by the Spirit in all He said and did.

‭Luke 4:1-2 NLT‬
[1] “Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, [2] where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.”

It’s difficult to imagine that the Holy Spirit would lead Jesus straight to the wilderness. Here, Satan would be let loose on Him to test Him in the extreme circumstances and dangers of the wilderness as well as physical deprivation. Yet, that’s what the Bible says the Spirit did.

Jesus was so close to the Father and to the Holy Spirit that He literally did nothing without them. Can I live like Him?

‭Matthew 12:28 NLT‬
[28] “But if I am casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you.”

I often recognise the Holy Spirit’s leading on hindsight. Sometimes I follow a prompting and later realise, to my relief, that the Holy Spirit had protected me from a foolish decision or action. On other occasions, I have doubted a prompting, ignored it, and and found out, to my frustration, that the Holy Spirit was leading me away from a mistake or a time-wasting incident I could have avoided. Instead, I was angry with myself for not listening.

‭John 10:27 NLT‬
[27] “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

The next question I ask is, “Does the Holy Spirit lead me only in matters that relate to my spiritual safety and wellbeing? Can He also lead me in everyday decisions and activities? Can He be so intimately involved in my life that everything I say and do is Spirit-controlled and Spirit-directed?”

I believe that the Bible says “Yes, ” and that the goal should be to hear and follow the Spirit’s voice all the time. After all, it is we, not the Bible, who make the distinction between “sacred” and “secular”. In fact, the Apostle Paul urges us to glorify the Lord in everything we do.

‭1 Corinthians 10:31 NLT‬
[31] “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

Stories about King David astonish me because I read about a man who got it right most of the time. Even when he allowed his flesh to dominate him so much that he committed gross sin, David did not run from God. He ran to Him for forgiveness and restoration.

‭Psalms 51:1-4 NLT‬
[1] “Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. [2] Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. [3] For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. [4] Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just…
[10] Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. [11] Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.”

Did God respond to David’s plea? Yes, God forgave and restored him, although there were unavoidable consequences.

On many other occasions, when David was in danger or in trouble, the Lord led him out of them as he called on Him and obeyed the Holy Spirit’s directions.

Sometimes those direction came directly from God…

‭1 Samuel 30:1-2 NLT‬
[1] Three days later, when David and his men arrived home at their town of Ziklag, they found that the Amalekites had made a raid into the Negev and Ziklag; they had crushed Ziklag and burned it to the ground. [2] They had carried off the women and children and everyone else but without killing anyone….
[6] David was now in great danger because all his men were very bitter about losing their sons and daughters, and they began to talk of stoning him. But David found strength in the Lord his God….
[8] Then David asked the Lord, “Should I chase after this band of raiders? Will I catch them?” And the Lord told him, “Yes, go after them. You will surely recover everything that was taken from you.! “

… and sometimes they came through a person. For example, Abigail begged David not to kill her family because her husband, Nabal, refused to provide for David and his men in exchange for their protection.

David recognised God’s intervention and stopped the raid.

‭1 Samuel 25:32-34 NLT‬
[32] “David replied to Abigail, “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you to meet me today! [33] Thank God for your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands. [34] For I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, who has kept me from hurting you, that if you had not hurried out to meet me, not one of Nabal’s men would still be alive tomorrow morning.”

Time and again, David sought God’s help. God rescued him, won great military battles, and ruled over the kingdom of Israel through him, expanding the territory to its greatest extent during his reign.

If this was possible through a man who lived under the Old Covenant, how much more we, who have the Holy Spirit within us, have the potential to live daily under the Spirit’s leading.

God promised, through Solomon, to make a straight path, uncomplicate our lives, if we acknowledge Him in everything we do. If this is His promise, then He will do it when we fulfil the condition.

‭Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT‬
[5] “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. [6] Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”

Trouble is that we so often go our own way first, get into trouble, and then seek the Lord to get us out of the mess we have created. How much better to seek the Lord’s way and let Him lead us before we get into trouble!

So, my desire is to cultivate such a God-awareness that He is my first recourse before I make any decisions. Then I will become more sensitive to His leading in the ordinary things.

I know He wants to be intimately involved in my life because He even plants ideas in my mind when I am working on my hobby! When I ask Him, He is quick to show me new and better ways to achieve my goal.

“Lord, what now ?” will get a response because it is God who desires intimacy with us but it is we who initiate the process.

‭James 4:8 NLT‬
[8]” Come close to God, and God will come close to you….”

I need to stop waiting for the Holy Spirit to act. I need to expect and anticipate His involvement with me in the normal flow of my life as I live “in Christ” and He lives “in me”.

THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS

Bible Study, ,

THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS

“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them He was hungry.” Luke 4:1,2.

The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert where there was no supply of food or water. He did not have to enter a dialogue with Satan to engineer the testing. All He had to do was to set it up by moving Jesus into a place of solitude and extreme hunger and the devil would be there to do exactly what God wanted him to do.

What was the purpose of this test? To strip Jesus of every human provision He could rely on so that He would rely completely on God. It was the expression of God’s love – because God knew the bigger picture. It was Jesus’ first “Gethsemane” – being “pressed” by His physical surroundings to have no-one but God. He was exposed to extreme heat, cold, dangerous creatures, hazardous terrain, and inward testing by the devil. He had to KNOW that God was with Him before He could announce it to the world.

Since the devil is not omnipresent and since Jesus was his chief prize, was he lurking somewhere when Jesus was baptised? Did he hear the voice of God and see the Spirit descend on Jesus? Did he follow Him into the wilderness and hover nearby, waiting for Jesus to be sapped of His physical strength through His prolonged fast? It was quite within his character to hit Jesus when He was down. How prepared was Jesus for this moment? Did He know that Satan was there all the time?

Most of Jesus’ tests came through people, as they come to us as human beings, but this one was a frontal attack – a contest between the kings of darkness and light. This battle was to set the rules of the game from here on. Satan was trying to lure Jesus into taking him on by sheer supernatural power. Why? If he could get Jesus, as representative man, to take him on as God, using divine power to overcome him, it would be declared an unfair contest and Jesus would be disqualified from representing human beings. Satan’s accusation that God is unjust would have been upheld.

This was not a test of will power but of trust. Temptation did not build trust – it tested the trust already built up over 30 years of soaking in the Word of God.

These tests resembled Satan’s modus operandi in the Garden of Eden. Adam fell for the first one – Satan didn’t have to go any further. Failure to trust affects our faith, our family, and our future. Falling for Satan’s lies brings consequences that are far wider than ourselves; they affect all of those who are closest to us, and repercussions that affect our future and future of those we love.

NEED DRIVEN OR SPIRIT LED?

Christian Life, ,

NEED DRIVEN OR SPIRIT LED?

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. Romans 8:14

Today I have a word for Christian leaders.

One of the buzzwords among pastors today is the word “burnout” because many of them seem to be teetering on the brink. There may be many reasons for burnout but perhaps one of them is simply the difficulty of differentiating between the urgent and the important. In other words, how do we move from being need driven to being Spirit led?

Have you ever taken time to walk with Jesus through the Gospels? They may not provide a biography, but they are a treasure store of glimpses into an amazing man!

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for Him and, when they found Him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” So, He travelled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.” (Mark 1:35-39, NIV).

This incident happened at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and reveals His strategy from its inception. How did He know how to balance work and rest, busyness and timeout, the clamouring demands of the crowd and the times apart with His disciples? How could He walk away from the pressing needs of sick and tormented people and not feel guilty?

Jesus not only shows us but tells how He could maintain His serenity and sanity in the same kind of world in which we lose our way.

Firstly, what He did was always linked to His mission. His priority was not to meet every need but to announce the coming of God’s kingdom and to demonstrate how it worked by healing the sick, raising the dead and casting out demons. He always made sure that what occupied His time fitted into the bigger picture.

Secondly, He functioned in perfect tandem with the Father through the Holy Spirit. He spent so much time with the Father that He was aware of His presence and of what He was doing all the time. He could say with honesty and confidence, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can only do what He sees the Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son does also. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all He does.” (John 5:19, 20, NIV)

Since every believer has received the same Spirit that indwelt Jesus, we have the same potential to live as He did. So says the Apostle Paul, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25, NIV).

Is our frantic busyness somehow connected with the idea that we must “work for God”? God has called us into His rest so He can work through us! We are too blessed to be stressed!

Christian Life, , ,

JESUS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

Jesus and the Holy Spirit were inseparable. They were “joined at the hip”. For the thirty three years that He was on earth, Jesus was the Holy Spirit’s assignment. The Holy Spirit was there, in the secret places of Mary’s body, supervising the selection of the ovum that was to become the infant Jesus. He was there, without the agency of a human father, energising the ovum to begin its mysterious journey from a single cell to a unique, complex human being who was both God and man.

He was there, the unseen companion of the child Jesus through His growing-up years. He was there at His baptism, descending on Him in visible form and remaining on Him to accompany and empower Him on His long and tortuous road to the cross. He was there during those forty days of relentless harassment by the arch enemy of God in the wilderness, watching, listening and prompting Him with wisdom and the Word.

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. (Matt. 4: 1)

He was there when Jesus encountered every kind of suffering in the people around Him. He was there to pour power through the Son of God, releasing the captives, healing broken hearts and bodies, exchanging sorrow for joy and raising the dead to life.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. (Luke 4: 18-19)

He was there to fulfil the matchless prophecy about Messiah recorded by Isaiah:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots a branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD – and He will delight in the fear of the LORD. (Isa. 11: 1-3a)

This is another one of those chiasms which appear all over the Scriptures. Did you recognise it?

A¹ The Spirit of wisdom

B² And of understanding

C³ The Spirit of counsel

  1. (The Servant of Yahweh)

C³ The Spirit of power

B². The Spirit of knowledge

A¹. And of the fear of the Lord

The centre point in this chiasm is not stated. The ancient rabbis called the focal point – D – the Servant of Yahweh. If one turns this chiasm on its side, it resembles a menorah, the seven-branched candlestick that gave light to the Holy Place in the tabernacle. How symbolic of Messiah – filled with the oil of the Holy Spirit, the Light of the World and coming to earth as the Suffering Servant of the Lord!

The powerful work of the Holy Spirit through Jesus was the witness that the kingdom of God had come. At no time did Jesus use His divine power to do the works of God. It was the Spirit’s anointing that confronted the demonic intruders and sent them packing. The religious leaders accused Jesus of being in league with the devil. “How can that be possible?” He retorted. “A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.”

But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. (Matt. 12:28)

The Holy Spirit was there in those terrible hours when all hell broke loose against Jesus, piling on Him every vicious and heinous thing that human beings could do to an innocent man. He was there when Jesus died. It was through Him that Jesus offered Himself up to the Father as an atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world.

How much more, then, will the blood of Christ who, through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death to serve the living God. (Heb. 9: 14)

He was there in the gloom of the tomb, awaiting the moment when He would breathe life into the lifeless body of the Son of God as He did into the clay form of the first man, Adam. The blast of His breath awakened Jesus and He rose up from death, the transformed, never-to-die-again, eternal Son of God.

(He), through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 1: 4)

What made this rabbi unique?

Jesus did not ape the sages who went before Him, or His contemporaries, by simply piling His opinions on top of theirs, increasing the already top-heavy load on the common people and, as He said to the Pharisees, making them

Twice the son of hell (gehenna) as you are. (Matt. 23: 15)

Unlike any rabbi before or after Him, this rabbi not only reflected the truth and the spirit of Torah in His teaching as He received it from the Father, but He also supplied the power to His disciples to be and to do what He expected of them. He promised that the same Holy Spirit who had partnered with Him throughout His earthly life would come upon them in power and enable them to be what He was and to do what He did.

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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