Spiritual Warfare

Those words are typically not spoken in the Methodist church. Why? Jesus dealt with Satan on a regular basis. Even before people knew what amazing power Jesus possessed, he went into the desert where he fasted for 40 days. After fasting He was tempted by satan. We can read about the situation in Luke 4:1-13, Mark 1:12-13, & Matt. 4:1-11.

First off, Jesus was lead by the Holy Spirit to the desert. Jesus had fasted for 40 days and he was very hungry. Satan attacks Him when he is lacking strength. Ever feel like you just can't handle any more, and then the bottom seems to fall out of your current situation? Probably that's how Jesus was feeling about this time, even though fasting usually brings deeper insight and clarity to our understanding.

Satan's attack comes in the form of testing to see if Jesus will use His God-given abilities to fulfill a selfish need (the desire to eat bread). Jesus brilliantly uses Scripture to flee the temptation. Jesus confirms that man does not live on bread (physical) alone, but on the Word of God (spiritual). This signifies that we should also realize the importance of living on the Word of God for our survival.

Satan secondly tempts Jesus to rescue Himself from bodily injure by jumping off a tall building. Satan twisted Scripture in order to get Jesus to fall into his hands, but Jesus wisely used Scripture to clarify it's meaning. By this we can learn that satan knows God's Word, and can use it for his benefit. We need to be wise about not using the Bible as our scapegoat for testing God.

And thirdly, satan attempts to get Jesus to bow down and worship him. Satan tells Jesus that he'll give Him dominion over the world if He bows down. Jesus had had enough at this point and says, "Away from me satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only'." Then satan left Him, and some angels came to uphold Him.

After reading this passage i thought about those angels which are mentioned briefly. They came after all this tempting was complete. I bet they were rejoicing all the way through this situation. Each time Jesus would open His mouth, He tore satan's pride down a little further. Not sure if Jesus could speak with the angels, but if He could, that would've been quite the conversation.

This is what Spiritual Warfare is really about: Us recognizing when satan is tempting us and our ability to wisely use Scripture to fend him off.