TEMPTATION AND THE WORD 3

I suggest that you read today's post carefully and prayerfully. God is set to bless your heart. Amen.

 I particularly find this second temptation very interesting. The devil came prepared.

It's his boldness to quote the Word for me. How dare you recite scripture you disregard?

The devil should not be underestimated at all. That's why we need to be more prepared so we are not caught unaware. He had learned from the first temptation and decided to show Jesus that he knew scriptures, too. 

The drama:

Satan: Let's try out one of the promises in the Bible.

Since you're God's son, try to jump down from this highest point at the pinnacle. For the scripture says, "God will command His angels to protect and carry you, so you won't even bruise your foot against hard places.''

At that point, Jesus could have kept mute because the devil supported his prompt with the scripture, but Jesus quoted another scripture and further silenced him.

Jesus responded with "Nice try, but the scripture also say never should you try to tempt the Lord your God, never!"

LESSONS.

-There are some people, who like the devil, are very cunning— they either are backslidden or know too many scriptures— and are ever prepared to lure you into their traps. 

They quote scripture to support sin or ungodly acts, they use the scripture based on their preference.

I'm sure you may have them around you. If you don't know the Word and rely on the Holy Spirit, you may fall into their trap.

- The devil is always prepared, but as a child of God, you should be more prepared. The preparation of the devil no matter how hot shouldn't take you by surprise as a child of God.

As believers, we can prepare in the place of prayers. A revered man of God said "prayer is giving God an opportunity to be in your space". If you invite Jehovah Sabaoth (The Lord of hosts), you'd always win the battle against the enemy. I talked more on this in Strong Man PT 1.

-My Dad would often say, "no witch knows anything about you unless you spill the gist yourself." 

The devil wants to know our strength level when he tempts us so he can know our weakness(es) and supply temptation in those areas.

What is he trying to achieve with this? To pull you down and take you far from God's saving grace.

We may never be totally free from having weak points, but as long as you and I continually submit those tendencies and weak points to the Holy Spirit, He'll supply His grace so we can live a victorious christian life.

-If you're surprised the devil knows scripture, it is because he once lived with the Most High, but now, he is a proud fallen angel. 

If the devil who's a fallen angel knows the scripture, there's no excuse for you as a believer who's serious about victorious living not to know the scripture.

This is a plea that you must know God for yourself. Know the scripture and let it dwell in your heart.

Stop eating the crumbs that comes from the altar every Sunday only, stop relying on the memory verses you learnt when you were in children class, stop feasting on spiritual social media posts alone, and also, stop living only on the daily verses that Bible apps share. 

Go deeper and study the Word! You'll be amazed at how much you know about God in a short while.

-Not every scripture you get is from God, not every scripture you receive is good, test all scriptures through the Holy Spirit. The devil can drop scriptures within your heart, too. He also has men in handy to mislead you. You must be discerning!

-There is a need to re-emphasize that you can't handle the least of temptations on your own. You need the Holy spirit to succeed at every level of temptation.

There are so many verses of the scriptures and many verses can work for a particular situation.

You must rely on the Holy Spirit to help you answer to any temptation correctly.

When Satan supported his temptation with a scripture, Jesus could quote the right scripture because He relied on the Holy Spirit to answer, not what He knew could be suitable to shut down the devil. If we say we live by the spirit, let us also walk by the spirit, Galatians 5:25.

- Jesus replied Satan with "never tempt the Lord your God". I believe His response meant two things: to not tempt and to not test God.

1. You must never deliberately put God in a situation where He's forced to show Himself. It is abominable and may bring a bad consequence.

I once heard the story of a pastor whose name was Daniel. He decided to go to a university zoo reserve in Nigeria and asked for access into the lion's cage. He claimed that if God could save Daniel from hungry lions in the den, he would walk out of the zoo's cage alive.

Sadly, he was eaten up alive. That lion had a good time feasting on his flesh.

Dear believer, never tempt God with your actions and inactions. Don't ever do it. 

2. The devil had the audacity to quote the scripture. The scripture is literally God speaking to anyone who reads it. How dare the devil say any word from it?

So many people are in this category. They joke with God, His name, His ability to perform e.t.c.  

Jesus' response was also a warning to the Devil.

God is a consuming fire. He's also a Lion. If a person fears physical fire and He doesn't fear God, I'm indeed not sorry for that person. 

If you can run from an untamed lion yet joke with anything related to God, you'd have yourself to blame.

I've heard people say things about the Bible. About how the Bible is a journal, how it was written based on people's perception and how it contains only stories e.t.c.

If you're in this category, like Jesus warned the devil, I'm passing this warning to you, "never tempt God to show you who He is". 

Pharaoh did, he said, "Who is God to tell me to release the Israelites?" He ended up in the Red sea.

If you don't believe in God, avoid saying terrible things about Him. If you don't believe His works, avoid condemning the signs and wonders He does in people's lives.

In every way, avoid testing God. You will live to regret it if you do.

3. Samson in his lifetime tested God for too long. He overlooked the sacredness of his assignment and destiny. The instruction was clear enough, but he decided to put God in a test to see if he will withdraw His anointing by going against His will.

God was silent and he walked into his doom. Read more here. 

Dear Believer, I plead with you to not test God.

* Sitting comfortably in an area that triggers a temptation you're struggling with amounts to testing God.

* Boasting about what God did not say and shouting about what God has said that you don't believe amounts to testing Him. You'll get mocked.

* Using the scriptures as a cover-up for sin, bad character or a bad habit is also testing God.

I close with this. God is not mocked, He's never a fool. Don't play games with Him, don't ever try it. Galatians 6:7

These are a few lessons from the second temptation of Jesus and we will live a victorious christian life if we apply them.

I believe you're blessed from this study already. Kindly share the top lessons you learnt from this episode.

If you have more lessons to share that are not here, kindly put them in the comments for others to be blessed by it.

Again, it may be easier said than done to do these things, but there is grace and much grace available for you, the believer, to do them. Cheers. 

Pray with me: That the Lord will give you strength to live life with the help of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Suggested activity: Read Matthew 4:5-7

RELATED POSTS:

Temptation and the Word 1

Temptation and the Word 2

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