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Matthew 4:2-4 – 2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “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 ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’ “
The devil highlights God’s claim from Matthew 3:17 of Jesus’ relationship to God. More importantly, Satan wants to cause doubt in the mind of Jesus regarding His Sonship. Simply by using the word “if”, he is seeking Jesus to doubt His relationship with the Father in heaven.
Now factor in the environment as well. Satan feeds in to the fact that Jesus is hungry. Doesn’t the Father know that His Son is hungry? If He was Jesus’ father, certainly He would have fed His Son by now. But if He is the Son of God, He doesn’t have to wait on the Father for food… He has the power to make His own food.
You can see how tempting Satan’s reasoning is. It worked against Adam and Eve. Satan got them to doubt and lose faith in what they were told by the Lord. That is Satan’s goal for Christians today. He wants us to lose faith in the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
Jesus responds with Scripture directly from the wilderness temptation.
Deuteronomy 8:3 – “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.
Jesus uses scripture from another test that occurred in the Old Testament – Israel in the wilderness. They were grumbling because God and Moses brought them out to the desert and there was no food there. All of the nation of Israel 20 years old and older (except Joshua and Caleb) ended up dying in the wilderness (and not entering the land promised to them) because of a lack of faith in the Lord. They failed the test. But take note - none of them died because of hunger.
The strongest of all human instincts is survival, and yet Christian faith calls upon us to “die to self” and to “mortify the flesh.” Satan tried to play into the human will to survive, but Jesus remained faithful to God.
Do you have Scripture ready in your mind when the test comes? When Satan seeks to sift you like wheat, how will you respond? Our goal is to remain faithful to God, even if our flesh suffers.
When the devil and demons come around and speak to my spirit Jesus has the ears of God here where I can hear the demons talk and curse against here , So Jesus Spirit has here pray the authority of the believer by the blood of Jesus and Jesus Holy Spirit takes the demons and fallen angels out away from the tent of Christ Here every time Freeing here up , as the devil can test but God rips them out bringing His life ...........See the more Christians pray the authority of the believer the stronger Jesus Holy angels get around them , and the more they pray to bring relief for others the more Jesus will help them .............Still demons cannot see God on Christians , so they will blunder their way with Christians in their attempt to take authority ....... Best to learn the art of Christ and Jesus cannot take demons out without Christians participation in Prayer , so plead the Blood of Jesus and learn to bind them up and caste them down to over come the world , and give God the Glory ..... , as Jesus needs to have His children free indeed
Matthew 4:2-4 – 2 And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, “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 ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.’ “
The devil highlights God’s claim from Matthew 3:17 of Jesus’ relationship to God. More importantly, Satan wants to cause doubt in the mind of Jesus regarding His Sonship. Simply by using the word “if”, he is seeking Jesus to doubt His relationship with the Father in heaven.
Now factor in the environment as well. Satan feeds in to the fact that Jesus is hungry. Doesn’t the Father know that His Son is hungry? If He was Jesus’ father, certainly He would have fed His Son by now. But if He is the Son of God, He doesn’t have to wait on the Father for food… He has the power to make His own food.
You can see how tempting Satan’s reasoning is. It worked against Adam and Eve. Satan got them to doubt and lose faith in what they were told by the Lord. That is Satan’s goal for Christians today. He wants us to lose faith in the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
Jesus responds with Scripture directly from the wilderness temptation.
Deuteronomy 8:3 – “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.
Jesus uses scripture from another test that occurred in the Old Testament – Israel in the wilderness. They were grumbling because God and Moses brought them out to the desert and there was no food there. All of the nation of Israel 20 years old and older (except Joshua and Caleb) ended up dying in the wilderness (and not entering the land promised to them) because of a lack of faith in the Lord. They failed the test. But take note - none of them died because of hunger.
The strongest of all human instincts is survival, and yet Christian faith calls upon us to “die to self” and to “mortify the flesh.” Satan tried to play into the human will to survive, but Jesus remained faithful to God.
Do you have Scripture ready in your mind when the test comes? When Satan seeks to sift you like wheat, how will you respond? Our goal is to remain faithful to God, even if our flesh suffers.
Exactly how many "tests" did the thief on the cross have to endure?
ZERO! That's right, he had ZERO tests and was welcomed into paradise...
hmmm..so there are TWO places that have many mansions? I know it can't be different spheres, right?
My God tells me they are one and the same.
Jesus told the thief on the cross next to Him that He'd see Him that day in Paradise (unless you take the JWs view that this isn't what He was telling him at all). Three days later, when the resurrected Christ first saw Mary, He told her not to touch Him since He had not yet returned to His Father in Heaven. I'm unaware of any passages of scripture that mention Paradise as having many mansions, but maybe there are some I'm unaware of. Unless there is one, I believe Jesus had to have gone to Paradise immediately after His death, but not to Heaven at that point.
The earliest Christians, all of whom were Jewish converts, did not believe that people went directly to Heaven the moment they died. Instead they believed that people's spirits went to an intermediate realm for a period of time. (And no, they didn't believe in Purgatory.)
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