God led Jesus into temptation!
Before Jesus was baptized, very few people in Israel knew him. Even the devil was very little bothered as Jesus kept a low profile at his parent’s home. But the moment he was anointed with the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, everything changed. All darkness and evil began to shiver. Satan and all demons started trembling. The devil was so much afraid of the mighty power Jesus had just acquired. It is the same anointing of the Holy Spirit operating in the lives of many Christians that Satan seeks to extinguish today.
Satan never slept as he launched a campaign of false accusations against Christ before God in heaven. Some of these accusations were: “That so-called Son of yours will misuse your name and the authority you have given him” “The so-called savior will be taken up by the pleasures, treasures and the kingdom of the world” “He will put you to test”
As it was in Job’s case, God patiently listened to these accusations against Christ. He was confident that his Son would not let him down. The Father did not waste time defending his Son. This is the same confidence God has in all faithful Christians today.
Finally God granted the devil permission to find for himself where Jesus belongs. God gave Satan permission to tempt Christ! If God did not spare his best friend Job, and if he did not spare his only precious and beloved son Jesus, how about us? God may permit the devil to tempt faithful Christians today.
After God permitted Satan to tempt Jesus, we come to the most important part of this message. What happens next is very perplexing yet it is significant to the life of every Christian. Now observe this: As he prepared himself to tempt the Son of God, it was not the devil that went to Jesus. Rather it was God the Father who took Christ to the devil to be tempted! Hear what the written Word of God says:
The original Greek translation of this Scripture shows that it was the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, who led Jesus to the devil to the be tempted (Luke 4:1 confirms this). The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity. Many times when Christians feel the Holy Spirit they say they sense the presence of God. They are right. The Holy Spirit is God. It is God who led Jesus to the devil to be tempted.
Our Father does not tempt any one [James 1:13]. but rather it is the devil that tempts or entices believers. However, just as God led Jesus to the devil, our Father may lead faithful Christians to Satan to be tempted. Let all those who are known by the Name of Jesus always reflect on Matthew 4:1 and realize that it was not Jesus’ wish to go to the place of temptations in the wilderness. Rather it was our loving Father who led Jesus into the wilderness where the devil was already waiting with many temptations for him.
Our Father had reasons for leading Jesus to the devil to be tempted. By the same reason he is still leading many faithful followers, without their knowledge, into situations of temptations and trials. Below are some of the reasons why God may lead believers to the devil to be tempted:
As God had confidence in Christ, he has confidence in all faithful Christians
As God had confidence in Christ, he has confidence in all faithful Christian. When Satan presents himself in heaven with accusations against a believer, God has no way of proving to the devil that His children are blameless.
If you read the book of Job Chapter 1 and 2, you will realize that when Satan presented himself in heaven with accusations against Job, God did not waste time trying to defend his faithful servant. He simply permitted Satan to go and prove for himself who Job was. The same thing happened to Jesus. God did not waste time trying to defend Christ, because he had all the trust in his Son.
Today God has the same confidence in all Christians. He knows we can prove to the devil that we love our Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit from the bottom of our hearts.
God wants to test our obedience to him
Sometimes when God leads Christians to the devil to be tempted, he wants to test their obedience to him. This is exactly what he did with the first man on earth. Do you realize that God had all the ability to plant the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil elsewhere – far from Adam? Do you realize that in the Garden of Eden God had the ability to stop Satan from tempting Adam? God could have spoken one word and the serpent would have vanished or even perished. God permitted Satan to carry out this temptation to see if Adam would always obey his directives and remain faithful.
God may allow tempting or trying situations in your life to see if you will always remain faithful to him. This is the reason why Jesus instructed us always to plead to the Father not to lead us into hard testing.
God wants to prove for himself if the accusations against us are true or not.
Before God makes judgment he wants to find out for himself whether the accusations he has heard about us are true or not, some of these accusations may be from the devil or from our fellow human beings. As it was in the case of Job, God may permit Satan to tempt you in some of the very areas you are being accused of. Also, just as our Father used Job and Jesus to shame the devil, God may permit the temptations and trials in your life to prove to the world that you are innocent.
One important lesson we learn from the temptation of Jesus is that no matter how much anointing you have on your life, no matter how close you are to God, when the Father allows Satan to tempt you, the devil many put you into very difficult tempting situations.
When Satan is permitted to tempt you, God is not looking for your defeat or failure. God is looking to see if you would glorify his name. All this depends on you because He has given you the power to do so. When Satan succeeds in tempting you, he rejoices over God. He tells God how right he was with his accusations against you. But when you succeed to overcome temptations, glory goes to God. Satan’s accusations are proved wrong.
The moment you overcome temptations, something will happen in the supernatural:
God’s name will be glorified [Daniel 3:28-29]
God will be pleased with you [Daniel 1:8-9]
God will laugh at Satan [Isaiah 37:22, Psalm 37:13]
Jesus will be filled with joy as he intercedes for you [Hebrews 7:25]
Blessings will come your way [Prov. 3:33]
God will send his angels to protect you [Ps. 91:11]
The latter part of your life will be more blessed [Job 42:12]
Let all Christians know that when temptations come to them, it is our loving Father who has let it be. Satan may not tempt a child of God without permission from God. Know that the moment you accepted Christ, Satan started accusing you before God. Even at this moment he may be pleading to God that he sifts you as wheat.
There are no limitations to what God does. When God allows Satan to tempt believers, he wants us to rely on him for power, wisdom and guidance, instead of trusting in our human abilities.
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