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For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes. Hebrews 12:6
I never want to be out of fellowship with the Lord. I must have Him to get through every single day of my life.
That’s why I’m so grateful for the conviction of the Holy Spirit. He lets me know if I’m doing something that grieves God or interferes with our fellowship. He convicts and convinces me of what is right.
God loves us even more than we love our own children, and in His love, He disciplines us. He tells us again and again when we’re on the wrong path. He may tell us fifteen different ways, trying to get our attention.
His message of convicting love is everywhere. He wants us to listen to Him because He loves us. But if we persist in our ways, He’ll withhold privileges and blessing from us because He wants us to grow up.
Remember, if you yield to conviction, it will lift you up and out of sin and lead you back to the heart of God. Let conviction lift you to a new level in God. Don’t resist it; receive it!
the good news is found in 1 john 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Every single day of our lives we need forgiveness. The Holy Spirit sets off the alarm in our spirits to recognize sin, and He gives us the power of the blood of Jesus to continuously cleanse us from sin and keep us in right standing with Him.
But if we are overcome with condemnation, we can be certain it is not from God. He sent Jesus to die for us, to pay the price for our sins. Jesus bore our sin and condemnation on the cross (see Isaiah 53).
When God breaks the yoke of sin from us, He removes the guilt too. He is faithful and just to forgive all our sins and to continually cleanse us from all unrighteousness (see 1 John 1:9).
The devil knows that condemnation and shame keep us from approaching God in prayer so we can receive forgiveness and enjoy intimate fellowship with Him.
Feeling bad about ourselves or believing that God is angry with us only separates us from His presence. He will never leave you, so don’t withdraw from Him because of condemnation. Receive His forgiveness and walk with Him.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. Matthew 4:1-11
Temptation Comes To Us
- For Test: Sincerity, faith, love, patience, are put to proof.
- For Growth: It develops and increases our graces.
- For Usefulness: We’re able to comfort and warn others.
- For Victory: How glorious it is to overcome the enemy!
- For God’s Glory: He vanquishes Satan by feeble men.
We read in Hebrews 4:15 that Jesus was TEMPTED, but that He overcame the temptation and did not compromise or choose to give in to it.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Hebrews 4:15
So what are the lessons we can learn from Jesus’ example of overcoming temptation?
The devil slyly begins, "If you are the Son of God…." He’s basically saying to Jesus, "You may not be the Son of God at all. Prove it to me by doing this minor miracle." He was also pushing Jesus’ flesh buttons knowing that Jesus had been fasting and praying for 40 days in the wilderness – the enemy was tempting Jesus to satisfy the needs and wants of His flesh in ways that were disobedient to God. The second temptation is about authority and worldly glory. The devil leads Jesus up to a high place and shows Him the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. Again, Jesus resists. Satan tries a third time. He brought Jesus to Jerusalem and took Him up to the highest part of the temple and told Him to jump off. He said that angels would come and lift Him up so that he wouldn’t be hurt. The devil even starts quoting scripture now, quoting from Psalm 91, "For He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone." (Satan left out the part about ‘to keep you in all your ways’.) Jesus answered him, "It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God’."
Satan came to tempt Jesus and question his sonship. Satan began the whole series of his temptations by casting a doubt upon Jesus’ sonship. Has the enemy tried this with you? Has he tried to cast doubt on your salvation or your status as son or daughter of God? Satan does not come with point-blank denial for that would be too startling; doubt and deception serve Satan’s purposes better than heresy. He opens with an "If" making the doubt look like holy anxiety concerning divine sonship. Yet, Jesus’ sonship is made clear in scripture (Ps. 2:7) and the Father had just pronounced him as his beloved Son (Mt. 3:17). Satan tries to make us doubt what God has told us is true. Resurgence
We see His temptation here and also in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:39-46). In both instances, Jesus chooses His Father’s will over the temptation to pursue an easier path. But notice that He has no extraordinary weapons in his temptation; He used the same tools we have — the Spirit and the Word.
An important lesson for us is this: temptation is not sin. The enemy may tempt us by putting evil thoughts into our mind, but we can push them right out again with God’s help and our choice. Martin Luther says "You can’t help it if a bird flies over your head, but you don’t need to let him make a nest in your hair." Temptation is not sin. It is that thing that stirs within us that desire to do something we know is wrong and not pleasing to God, something that compromises the lifestyle of holiness that we live as children of God.
"Temptation is inevitable. You have to decide whether or not it’s going to connect with a lust or vulnerability on the inside of you." -Casey Doss
"For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want" (Galatians 5:17). The battle is both inevitable and necessary for you to begin to experience spiritual freedom in your life.
Note: God may test His children, a process designed to purify and strengthen them, but He does not lead them into sin. Without exception, sin results when temptation strikes a sympathetic chord in the human heart, and man has no one to blame but himself.
But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed His steps; I have kept to His way without turning aside. I have not departed from the commands of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread. Job 23:10-12
Notice how Jesus responded to temptation. The devil brought truths mixed with half truths to deceive and entice Jesus. Jesus answered with the Word. Even when the devil misquoted the Bible to Jesus, Jesus answered back with the Scripture He knew.
Jesus teaches us this: answer temptation with God’s Word. We need to know Scripture well enough to answer our doubts and fears and temptations with it. The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17), and as we learn to apply the Word to every circumstance of our lives, we too can emerge victorious from fierce temptations.
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11
Jesus trusts the Father and overcomes the temptation. He does not give in, and he never gave in or gave up on his way to Calvary to pay for our sins and the times when we give in. When tempted, we must trust the Father’s words and promises as Jesus did when he was tempted. Satan only questions truth for he is the father of lies (John 8:44). Therefore let us stand strong in the truth that we are sons and daughters of God not because of our work, but because of Jesus’ finished work on the cross. Resurgence
i love seeing God move and touch peoples lives
this week i’ve been priv’d to see one person set free from stuff that was holding them back and holding them prisoner as we prayed for her, and then loved hearing her share at housegroup about how completely different she feels
and 2 people in housegroup got healed of obvious injuries
and 1 person got healed in our mums group of major tooth pain as we prayed
and then someone texted me about sleep issues and we prayed and she had the best sleep for a long time last night
and a new christian had a word of knowledge without even knowing what they are!
God meeting people’s needs and hearts, changing lives
this is why we are alive
thanks God!
so rejoicing in what is going on! happy dancing with joy!
“I have come to know a God who has a soft spot for rebels, who recruits people like the adulterer David, the whiner Jeremiah, the traitor Peter, and the human-rights abuser Saul of Tarsus. I have come to know a God whose Son made prodigals the heroes of his stories and the trophies of his ministry.” ― Philip Yancey
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