Do you ever ask your selves what are the major causes of temptations? Do you ever wonder what brings the temptations to us? Do you think how temptations come and even why they come to us? Do you ever wanted to triumph over your temptation?
The Bible teaches us how to manage temptations on Matthew 4:4. According to the Bible Jesus was tempted by the devil three times. And he won his battles basically by sticking to the truth according to the word of God.
The Bible also teaches us as soon as he finished his battles with the devil in the wilderness, he came back mighty in the spirit full of the Spirit of God that all of his miracles and teaching was derived from.
Matthew 4: 4:The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the desert, so that the devil could test him.After Jesus had gone without eating for forty days and nights, he was very hungry.Then the devil came to him and said, “If you are God’s Son, tell these stones to turn into bread.”
Jesus answered,“The Scriptures say: ‘No one can live only on food. People need every word that God has spoken.’”Next, the devil took Jesus to the holy city and had him stand on the highest part of the temple. The devil said,“If you are God’s Son, jump off. The Scriptures say:‘God will give his angels orders about you. They will catch you in their arms, and you won’t hurt your feet on the stones.’”
Jesus answered, “The Scriptures also say, ‘don’t try to test the Lord your God!’”Finally, the devil took Jesus up on a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms on earth and their power.The devil said to him, “I will give all this to you, if you will bow down and worship me.”
Jesus answered,“Go away Satan! The Scriptures say: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’” Then the devil left Jesus, and angels came to help him.
Let us see the three main areas Jesus was tempted.
1. Flesh
Jesus was tempted with the power of the will of the flesh. Jesus knows that the flesh is weak when tempted and it always fights against the will of the Spirit. He knows that the flesh and the Spirit are in constant battle. What most of don’t know is that we need to make our flesh subdue to the Spirit all the time.
Matthew 26:41:Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Moreover, the devil knows this fact and he always uses the flesh to work against the Spirit. There are many ways to make the flesh slave of the Spirit and not vice versa.
In my experience and the experience of those righteous people who live to please the Lord, fasting with prayer and thanksgiving and intercession for others is the most powerful way to achieve this goal.
Fasting with purposeful prayer has the power to disintegrate the will of the flesh and equip our spirit with more spiritual strength than before.
Most of the time we fast and pray only when things look bad and we want to restore our relationship with God. Well that is not bad but we should always maintain our good relationship with God not only when we fall under the power of sin.
Preventing sin is much better than struggling to get out of the addiction of sin. That is only achieved through a daily engaged communication and relationship with God through prayer and reading the word of God.
You cannot live your life one day for yourself and one day for Christ. There is no timeouts in this battle we are in to. We don’t even know when the next
attack will come from the enemy.
In this section of Bible, we see that Jesus was very hungry in the flesh and he wanted to eat something.The devil offered him an advice. He said, “If you are the son of God, let’s see you change the stone in to bread”
p>He already guessed that Jesus would fall in to the sin of breaking his fasting way before it should end. Jesus knowing the will of the devil, refuted him by mentioning from the word of God.He said, “No one can live only on food. People need every word that God has spoken.” He is talking about our spiritual hunger from the word of God through the Spirit of God which led him to fasting in the first place.
So our first defense strategy should be the principles of the Bible. And most importantly it shouldn’t be our own thought and understanding of the circumstance. And by no means do not align yourself with the will of the devil/flesh.
And how do you know the will of the flesh? Well anything contrary to the will of God is the will of the flesh. If the word of God doesn’t allow you to get drunk, don’t be. If the word of God doesn’t allow you to take the road of lust and covetous, don’t be. If the Lord doesn’t advice you to envy sinners and their work, don’t even think about them. If the word of God tells you not to spend too much time with the things of the world and be careful about what you hear and watch, don’t spend more time watching TV rather than reading the Bible or praying.
It is always clear what we should follow and what we should do if we listen to the Lord and do what he tells us to do. It is that simple. But most of the time we found ourselves flirting with sin way too much. And then we soon found ourselves under the captivity of the enemy and spend a lot of time paying the fruits of our carless act.
But the solution to all of that is to be honest with yourself and the Spirit of God. Listen to his word and escape from sin. Don’t make yourself comfortable with sin. Sin is a killer both physically and spiritually.
The devil asked him if he was the son of God. Jesus knew who he is and doesn’t need to proof himself for the devil by falling in to his trap. Don’t bother to proof who you are to the enemy. First, he knows who you are.
Second all he wants is your death so why even bother engaging in a tiresome discussion with him for a long hour. And by the way this is a good example for those who wanted God to proof himself for them so that they can believe him – I think you call them an atheist.
God doesn’t need to proof himself of the truth since he is the truth.
You don’t ask God to do what you want. He has a will like you. And the fact that he is not revealing himself to you doesn’t mean he doesn’t exist.
Please continue reading the blog part two.