Him Only Thou Shalt Serve…

Him Only Thou Shalt Serve…

When do we knowingly put ourselves in a position of temptation? When was the last time we awakened and said to ourselves, “Today I should go to the wilderness and be tempted by the devil!” Do we ever do that?

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. ~ Matthew 4:1 KJB

We may not speak into existence, but we do seem to find ourselves in situations where the devil is waiting for us. We do seem to find ways to turn our back to God and come face-to-face with the devil – who just happens to have a shiny new trinket for us.

Just before Jesus went to the wilderness God, His Father, had just identified Him and placed the dove of the Holy Spirit on the shoulder of Jesus Christ. God identified His Son in community, in front of several people. The other interesting part is that Jesus was beginning His ministry, Jesus was not a new born child, He was, in fact, a grown man – somewhere between the ages of 27-30. Jesus has just been born again and touched by the Holy Spirit and is now being led into the wilderness to be tempted. The devil doesn’t waste time, he immediately goes for the one thing that makes us all to fall – our identity in God.

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. ~ Matthew 4:3 KJB

Doesn’t waste one second on attacking Jesus’ morality, no the devil goes straight to the one thing that trips-us-up and makes us to fall – our identity in Christ Jesus. Once we call ourselves a “moron” or a “drug-addict” or a “terrible person (brother/sister/husband/wife/etc)” well, the devil has successfully moved us off our identity and is able to cast his spell upon us. We are no longer identifying as belonging to Jesus Christ which makes us vulnerable to becoming whatever the devil calls us.

It’s a simple fix to regain our identity in Christ – we simply call upon Him and renounce the devil. These are to be done verbally, audibly so that both Jesus and the devil can hear what is being said.

Then 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. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. ~ Matthew 4:10-11 KJB

We worship Jesus Christ, find our identity in Him and in Him alone and we call upon His wisdom, His love and His strength to replace our weakness.

Either the Scripture is the divine Word of God teaching us how to live and how to be a reflection of God, or it’s nothing more than a historical account of events.