Use Your Sword

“And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, He was hungry. The devil said to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.’ And Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”

~Luke 4:1-4

We have all been tempted at one time or another. I’m tempted every Thanksgiving to eat more pumpkin pie than I should! We talk about temptation without giving it a lot of thought but when Jesus was tempted in the desert, the entire future of mankind was at stake. But Jesus had an answer—the Word of God. No matter what the devil offered, Jesus never offered an opinion, He simply used God’s Word and defeated the devil. What might our lives look like if we approached temptation the same way Jesus did?

“And when Jesus was baptized, immediately He went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on Him; and behold, a Voice from Heaven said, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’ (Matthew 3:16-17).”

I find it interesting that it wasn’t until after Jesus was baptized in water and by the Holy Spirit, that He heard the voice of God, and only then did the devil try to divert Christ’s attention away from His God-given purpose. But no matter what the devil said, Jesus answered by using God’s Word. The Word of God is powerful. The Bible says it’s living and active, sharp enough to divide the soul and judge the heart (Hebrews 4:12). God’s Word is called the sword of the Spirit and is part of the armor of God (Ephesians 6:17), but like any weapon, we must know how to use it.

“We exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, Who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the Word of God, which is at work in you believers (1 Thessalonians 2:12-13).”

Read Hebrews 4-6

© 2018 Marie McGaha