Then Jesus Was Led By The Spirit Into The Wilderness To Be Tempted By The Devil

MATHEW 4:1-4
“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.’ ”
”‭‭Matthew‬ ‭4:1-4‬ ‭NKJV‬
‬https://bible.com/bible/114/mat.4.1-4.NKJ

V

The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted; maybe to show people how to deal with temptation in our lives today. For it is through our trials and testings that we grow in Christ.
Just like children at school, we must be periodically tested before we can rise to the next level, which is why James said, “count it all joy when you fall into various trials”, not if, but when. Furthermore, as we pass through the trials and testing set before us, our faith shall rise as our patience/ perseverance is developed, and we grow in Christ to the point that we become perfect and complete, lacking nothing (JAMES 1:2).
After forty days and nights of fasting, Jesus was hungry, but regardless of His supernatural abilities and power, He chose to not use His divine privilege to satisfy His hunger; if He had He would of broken His word, for He claimed He would not use His divine privileges as something to cling to (PHILIPPIANS 2:5-8).
His time in the wilderness was to fast for forty days; to go without food as a sacrifice to God; but after forty days of fasting, the devil knew Jesus was hungry and weak and saw opportunity to cause Him to back track on His word, and therefore brought temptations.
But Jesus rebuked the devil’s words of temptation with the word of God and sent the devil packing.
Jesus needed food, but the timing was wrong.
He had given up His divine powers in order to experience humanity fully, and He needed to wait for the right time to eat when food had become correctly available for Him.
If He had done as the devil planned, He would of fallen from holiness and could not of paid our debt of sin.
The devil is never far away; he is the accuser and is always looking for opportunity to accuse you (JOB 1:6-11).
We all face temptation of satisfying the desires of our flesh; they are usually perfectly normal desires, but in the wrong way or at the wrong time.
If we indulge in sexual relations outside of marriage, or cheat or lie for provision, we are trying to satisfy God-given desires at the wrong time or in wrong ways.
Many of our natural desires are normal and good, but God wants you to satisfy them in the right way and at the right time.
Jesus was solid in rejecting temptation, because not only did He know the Scripture, but He lived and obeyed it.
God’s word is a spiritual sword to use in combating the devil (EPHESIANS 6:17).
knowledge of the Scriptures is an important step in standing firm against the devil’s attack, but without putting God’s word into practice and living it, it will prophet you nothing.
The devil knows the bible well, and He uses it to try to fool Jesus into making a mistake, but Jesus, even after 40 days and nights of fasting remembered the Scripture-“It is written man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,” and rejected his body’s plea for food.
Knowing, understanding, and walking in obedience to God’s Word, helps us to follow God’s desires rather than the devil’s.
Who is in control, you or your body? Are you going to submit to the cravings of your flesh, or to God?
Good food, sexual relations, desires of success are all good desires, but are only good for us when we indulge in God’s plan at the right time and in the right way.
Unfortunately, because we have inherited a sinful nature, we cannot overcome temptation in our own strength. We have a deceitful heart (JEREMIAH 17:9) that is determined to please the flesh and is very good at justifying sin.
But however, we believers are truly blessed, for God sent His Holy Spirit to be with us, indeed, in us to lead us in His righteousness. He is an advocate, the help we need to live right (JOHN 14:15-18).
But our flesh has had its way all our lives, and we receive the Holy Spirit a battle starts within because one’s flesh is being challenged.
That deceitful heart comes up with every trick in the book to justify sin and satisfy the flesh, while the Holy Spirit gives a righteous way forward.
But He does not take away one’s free will, so cooperation and determination is needed. It is encouraging to know that God not only gives us the desire to do what is pleasing to Him, He also gives us the power to do it (PHILIPPIANS 2:13), all you need do is ask.
It helps to understand we humans are made up of three parts: spirit, that is who we really are, created by God before we was in our mother’s whomp (JEREMIAH 1:5), made in the image of God (GENESIS 1:27).
Our soul, which is also of three parts—the mind, the will, and the emotion. This is clearly and definitely proved by the Word of God. Proverbs 2:10 gives us the spiritual foundation to prove that the mind is a part of the soul. This verse says, “Wisdom will enter your heart, And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.” Because knowledge is a matter of the mind, this proves that the mind is a part of the soul. Proverbs 19:21 and 24:14 also indicate that knowledge and wisdom are related to the soul. In addition, Psalm 139:14 says, “My soul knows it well.” Since to know is a matter of the mind, this also proves that the mind must be a part of the soul. Psalm 13:2 speaks of bearing concern in the soul. This concern must be something considered in the mind. Lamentations 3:20 says, “My soul remembers them well,” indicating that the soul can remember things. By these verses we can be clear that the mind as the organ to know, to consider, and to remember is a part of the soul.
The second part of the soul is the will. Job 7:15 says, “My soul would choose,” and 6:7 says, “My soul refuses.” To choose and to refuse are both decisions and functions of the will. These passages prove that the will must be a part of the soul. First Chronicles 22:19 says, “Now set your heart and your soul to seek after Jehovah your God.” Just as we set our mind to think, this verse says that we set our soul to seek. This is, of course, to make a decision. That the soul makes a decision also proves that the will is a part of the soul. Numbers 30:2 says, “When a man vows a vow to Jehovah or swears an oath to bind himself by pledge...” The term to bind oneself, which occurs eleven times in this chapter, literally means “to bind one’s soul.” To bind the soul is to make a decision. This chapter in Numbers deals with vows made to the Lord. Since we must make a decision to bind our soul to vow to the Lord, this also proves that the will must be a part of the soul. It would be good for the brothers and sisters, especially the young ones, to remember all these verses. They should pick up the burden to learn this.
The emotion comprises many things, including love, hatred, joy, and grief. Song of Songs 1:7 and Psalm 42:1 show us that to love is a function of the soul. This proves that within the soul there is the organ, the function, of the emotion. Second Samuel 5:8, Psalm 107:18, and Ezekiel 36:5 show us that hating, loathing, and despising are also in the soul. Despising in the soul is the hatred of the soul. Since these are emotions, this also proves that the emotion must be a part of the soul.
Joy is a great part of the emotion. Isaiah 61:10 and Psalm 86:4 tell us that joy is in the soul. This again proves that the emotion is a part of the soul. Deuteronomy 14:26 and Jeremiah 22:27 tell us that the soul desires. According to the better translations and Strong’s or Young’s concordances, desire in Jeremiah 44:14 and set their heart in Ezekiel 24:25 are literally lift up the soul. These verses tell us that the desire of the emotion is something in our soul. In addition, 1 Samuel 30:6, Judges 10:16, and Job 30:25 speak of bitterness, misery, and grief in the soul.
The verses of the Scriptures above are the ground to say that within the soul there are three parts—the mind as the leading part with the will and the emotion. These are the best verses to prove this, but they are not the only ones. If we study the entire Scriptures, it is hard to find anything other than these three parts in the soul. These three parts comprise all the functions of the soul.
Our flesh, the body we stand in that we can operate in this physical world.
As a spiritual being, we couldn’t pick up a pencil without a physical hand. Therefore, our bodies are simply a vehicle for us humans to live a physical life.
When we receive the Holy Spirit, He joins our spirit, and
“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,“
‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭16‬ NKJV
Furthermore, He will guide us in all truth (JOHN 16:13).
It is at this time that the battle begins in our soul, where we make our decisions, for the flesh battles against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for the flesh is not happy to let go of old sinful habits and have controls put on it cravings and lust.
But for the spirit to rise, we must literally kill the passions of the flesh.
Fasting, disciplines the flesh into acceptance of its position to become slave to the Spirit. At the same time, the soul becomes obedient to serve the Spirit to walk in righteousness, rather than the flesh that walks in sin.
Therefore, our spirit becomes king with the king of kings, our soul becomes servant to the king, and our flesh becomes slave to the spirit who should be king. But who is king in your life, you or your flesh?
God doesn’t take away our choices, if He did, we would be like robots, therefore we have free will to choose our path.
“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5:16-26‬ ‭NKJV‬‬
All glory to God forever and ever! Amen.