3 Ways you can victoriously make the Devil flee just like Jesus did
In Matthew Chapter 4 , we see that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. This happened immediately after the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in CHapter3 , when the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and settled on him. A voice from heaven said, ‘This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy”. It was an ordained moment when the Holy Trinity showed up in a moment in time, as the Father the Son and the Holy Sprit at one place.
Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights before the start of his Ministry in this world preaching the Good News about the Kingdom of Heaven. Between the two hall mark moments there was a period of testing and temptation that was permitted by the Holy Spirit
The Bible says in Matt 4: 1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. There is place and a time in your life when the Devil tries to sift you with his lies.
1. The 1st Temptation.
This is the first strategy the enemy tried
3 During that time the devil came and said to him, “ If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread”.
4 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say,
‘People do not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” ( Deuteronomy 8:3)
First thing you say is “No” to the devil when he tempts you at a vulnerable moment. Inorder for you to say NO and refuse whatever he has to say, you need to know first it is a lie. How do you know it is a lie unless you know the Truth from the Word of God. Hence Jesus followed up his “NO” with “The Scriptures say…….” Hence it is so important for us to know the Scriptures and know the Word of the God in its entirety.
Remember the enemy knows the Scriptures as well but uses bits and pieces of it and perhaps adds a slight twist to Gods word as in the Garden of Eden in the case of Eve, to trick us. Also, note that he starts by saying “ If you are Son of God “… I am sure the devil witnessed the baptism of Jesus and the declaration from the open Heavens of what God said about Jesus as His Son. But he wanted to test if Jesus believes who He says God says He is.
God has given so many promises and declaration to each of us. He called us his sons and daughters when we repented of our sins and started believing in Jesus Christ and became born again. The Devil wants to challenge us to test if we know and remember WHO we are in Christ not when we are in our ‘Hallelujah’ moments but at our most vulnerable moments of “Where are you Lord?”. Not just know our identity but declare His words against the lies that the enemy spews on us. We don’t have to prove anything to the devil to display our identity as the Sons and daughters of the Most High God. Jesus didn’t. We only have to speak God’s Word that we have already eaten and equipped ourselves with during those vulnerable moments, when he catches us hungry for a loaf of bread.
2. The second temptation.
The 2nd way the devil tempted Jesus was by translocating him to the Holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple and said
“If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say,
‘He will order his angels to protect you.
And they will hold you up with their hands
so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’” Psalm 91: 11-12
Since Jesus got back at him with Scriptures for the 1st temptation , the devil tries the 2nd time , to get to him through his own way – by quoting Scriptures this time around. Note Jesus did not answer him about the identity issue at all when the devil brought up last time. So the devil repeats it again “If you are Son of God”. How many of us repeatedly hear such lies “ Who do you think you are?” “ You are not beautiful” “No one loves you” “ Do you think God cares about you” “You are not good at anything” “You don’t know God’s word fully, how you going to preach the Good news all over the world”……..His lies are endless and come at us repeatedly. He persists on getting his point across to check if he can shake your identity and can sneak up using Scriptures, even using the people of God or even false prophets who quote scriptures so fluently. The point is Do you know the Scriptures for yourself to identify what aligns with the Word of God or NOT.
I personally find this request from the devil very amusing. What does Jesus get out of the deal. Last temptation atleast he would have got loaves of bread if he took up the deal since he was very hungry. Jesus has to jump from a highest point to not risk getting his toes hurt by stones at the bottom of the mountain? Come on! This time around the test was to test the validity of God Word itself whether God would honor what he said since Jesus keeps defending the devil with “ The scriptures say….” The question is actually whether he trusts God enough to jump, in order to test if God’s Word will hold true.
The Devil quoted psalm 91: Specifically Only versus 11 & 12. He did not mention the pre and post scriptures which give the prerequisite and consequences for these verses.
Verse 9 & 10 say
9 If you make the Lord your refuge,
if you make the Most High your shelter,
10 no evil will conquer you;
no plague will come near your home.
God has If’s too not just the devil.
11 For he will order his angels
to protect you wherever you go. (not jump!)
12 They will hold you up with their hands
so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.
The best thing is If you do these things only, will not God send His angels to protect you. Check out what the versus that follows say
You will trample upon lions and cobras;
you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!
It says You are empowered to trample the serpent under your feet. Serpent (snake), Genesis 3:1Old Serpent, Revelation 12:9. Oh why would the Devil quote that! He picked exactly the middle verse – not what you had to do (Make your Lord your refuge and shelter) to ensure the protection from the angels and the empowerment you would get to crush the devil under your feet. He knows exactly what to highlight and steal the rest from your knowledge from memory.
Jesus himself says in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy”. Note the conjunction “And” not “OR”. It’s not either steal or kill , nor is it kill or destroy- the enemy comes to do it all!
Thief (stealer), John 10:9 He climbs over the wall doesn’t come through the gate – 10.The enemy is the Father of lies. John 8:44. He is sneaky and smart. Son of perdition (son of destruction), 2Thessalonians 2:3. Tempter (the tester, one who entices through temptation), Matthew 4:3. It is wisdom to know who your enemy is, so you have the discernment to know when he shows up and what his tactics are, so that you can catch him by his ear as you would a mischievous child!
I wondered also why the Devil brings up the Stone in two of his temptations. Stone to a loaves of bread (it could have been sand or dry leaves in the desert where Jesus was for 40 days into loaves). If Jesus jumped he could have hit against practically anything that was down there – but why stones?
He knew the calling over Jesus life, the purpose for which He came to this earth. He was talking to the ‘Bread of Life’ himself! In John 6 35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
Why Stone? Why was this temptation was at highest point of the Temple in the holy city of Jerusalem?
1 Peter 2:
4 You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. The devil knew he was talking to the CORNERSTONE of GOD’s temple. The enemy will continue to tempt you and me because
you and I are also called to be living stones …. 5 And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. Yes!! You and I as believers are living stones to build God’s Temple and Kingdom on earth and hence the Devil is interested in shifting us, living stones and in our identity as followers of Christ.
Jesus is also the single stone which seven facets through which God planned to remove the sins of the land in a single day in Zechariah 3: 9 Jesus is the Only way to get to our Father!
9….you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
10 “Once you had no identity as a people;
now you are God’s people.
You see why he is sifting Jesus with identity and us with out identity – to take us away from our purpose of building God’s Kingdom.
To this ‘Jump’ request to see if God will send his angels to catch him, 7 Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.” So listen folks, we should not just know a few famous scriptures but also know what the “the Scriptures also say”. The scripture Jesus quoted was from Deuteronomy 6: 16 though the Devil was quoting from Psalm 91. We need to know the whole Bible, not the bare minimum because there is more Word that the Holy Spirit will reveal, as said in John 21: 25. If all what Jesus did were written down , I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.
3. The 3rd Temptation
Let us move on to the 3rd temptation of Jesus
8 Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.”
10 “Get out of here, Satan,” Jesus told him. “For the Scriptures say,
‘You must worship the Lord your God
and serve only him.”
The devil will show you all the enticements that he has to offer in this world and their glory. Through this statement you see the pride in Satan’s proclamation, that made him initially fall from God’s presence . “I”. “ I will give it all to you . Again there is the “IF” you will kneel down and worship ‘me’.
Deuternomy 16:14 “You must not worship any of the gods of neighboring nations, 15 for the Lord your God, who lives among you, is a jealous God. His anger will flare up against you, and he will wipe you from the face of the earth. That is what God says. According to the God, in the Scriptures above, if you are not even going to be on the face of the earth for worshiping anyone else, including the devil, what are you going to do with all the kingdoms of the earth that the devil has to offer? Duh! That would be so dumb and foolish to worship the Devil- the witches, sorcerer’s, the black magicians, etc
This is devil’s ultimate goal to turn your heart from God towards adoring him and worshipping him. God seeks worshippers who worship Him in truth and in spirit. The Devil is in competition with God for worshippers.
Remember what the Samaritan women asked Jesus at the well
20So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”
21Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. 23But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26Then Jesus told her, “I Am the Messiah!”
The Devil knew he was tempting the Messiah who was to reveal the Father to this world during his ministry that was about to unfold after he tempts him in the wilderness. All along the devil knew the identity of Jesus as the Savior of the World but still he tested him by challenging his identity. He does the same to us today.
Do you know who you are in Christ? Do you know you have the mind of Christ that supersedes the cheap tricks and lies of the enemy? Do you know the power and authority given to you as the sons and daughters of the most High God? Do you know that you are not to be distracted by the cheap glories and kingdom of the earth that the enemy offers, as he is the king the world, but focus on the eternal kingdom and life that Jesus died – so that you and I can inherit eternal life- a costly price that was fully paid by His blood.
In conclusion, to summarize
These 3 temptations reveal to us the Identity of Christ as the 1) Bread of Life, 2) The Cornerstone of God’s temple and 3) The Messiah who came to reveal the Father’s heart to a true worshiper.
Jesus said 3 things during these temptations to resist the Devil.
1. He said “No” (to his lies). The first thing is to say NO and not to accept his lies. It is a single thought by which he enters our mind. Don’t let it grow roots by saying Yes, tell me more… or dwell on it. Refuse to hear from him by saying NO.
2. Jesus said “The Scriptures say” …… know the Word! The Scriptures also say ……..know what they also say – the entire written Word of God so that you can speak the Word out loud when the enemy tempts you. If you don’t initially put them in your heart, the Holy Spirit your Helper, cannot help you to remember God’s word for that particular place and time to bang the devil on the head with God’s powerful Word. The Word is your sword against the enemy to slay him in the battle.
3. Jesus said “Get out of here!” Let the enemy know he is not welcome anywhere around you. You are the dwelling place of God. His Temple. Jesus knew His identity and His authority over the enemy to confidently say “Get out of here”. So should you and me. The only place he belongs is under your feet with you having the authority by the sacrifice on the cross, to crush the enemy!
When the enemy gets away from Jesus, the angels come in to minister unto Jesus and to us. Let us feed on God’s eternal living Word. Do know that when the enemy is pushing your buttons and getting you down, there is something big and new that is about to begin and unfold towards your calling on this earth. He wouldn’t be wasting his time messing with you otherwise. You are Jesus hands and feet on this earth. You are called to do mightier things than what Jesus did. Though you live in this world you are not of this world. You are a mighty soldier for Christ. Let your kingdom work for the Lord begin today! God bless you and be with you!
Let us pray.
Father God help us to resist the devil so that he flees away from us so that we can be all that you created us to be. We rebuke his lies and deception. The only place he belongs is beneath our feet, in Jesus name.
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