"How Jesus Dealt with the Devil"
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
3…if our gospel is hidden, it is hidden to them that are lost:
4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
5For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
6For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.Matthew 4:1-11
1…Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
2And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights he was, afterward, hungry.
3And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
8Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
10Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.Three times the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, before His ministry began. In three ways he tried to appeal to Him, with three goals in mind: to kill, steal, and destroy.
He appealed to His body, His soul, and His spirit…
The body, is made of flesh, and has appetites – for basic human needs: food, sustenance, and the survival instinct; it is the animalistic part of a human being.
The soul is the aspect of the human essence that has hungers for greater aspirations – for stimulation of the mind, longs for the acceptance of others, for power, for position, for authority.
The spirit is that part of the human being which is eternal, and is comprised of the core personality of a man or a woman – it can be influenced by the flesh, by God, or by Satan. It’s like the analogy of the black and white dogs within every man, according to Native American mythology – they are at war with one another, and the dog that wins the battle is the one you feed the most.
Satan tried to appeal to Christ’s fleshly body by tempting him with the thought of food.
Satan tried to appeal to Christ’s soul by tempting him with aspirations of grandeur made with promises he could not, ultimately, fulfill.
Satan tried to appeal to Christ’s spirit by tempting him to forsake Divine instruction contained in the Word, and risking his body and, in turn, his immortal soul by going against the instruction of His Heavenly Father…
God is the Creator of the Garden, the source of Life.
Lucifer, who is the god of this world, is the destroyer of life, the defiler of truth, and the thief of all prosperity.
Where God offers pure, rich soil, Satan is the lord of rocks and stones, from which only pain and suffering come…
God’s Spirit seeks to reside in the potting soil of our soul, to take root within us, and enable us to grow and bear fruit.
Satan seeks to harden our hearts, and transform our hearts of flesh into hearts of stone and rock…
2 Corinthians 3:3
3…show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.Hebrews 4:15
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.
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