The Spiritual Journey 2024 - Day 9: The enemy will make multiple attempts to get you to dishonor God by aligning with his (Satan’s) will.

”Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ” Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ” Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.“

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Many of you may be familiar with the fact that Moses was not allowed to go into the Promised Land because he failed to “sanctify God” before the people.

”And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”“

‭‭Numbers‬ ‭20‬:‭10‬-‭12‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Utter exasperation with the people’s ongoing complaining and accusations, provoked Moses to strike the rock, rather than speaking to it, as the Lord had commanded. It’s interesting to note that the Lord allowed the water to flow from the rock anyway. In this case, God honored Moses in front of the people, even though Moses had not honored Him in front of the people. However, the lapse did not go unpunished.

Yesterday we discussed how the forces of darkness will pose as sources of light to try to get you to accept help which is not from the Lord. Ultimately, as we have pointed out before, whatever the devil uses is based on a system of deception, and is meant to move you from the word of God by accepting or aligning yourself with his way of being and doing. But understand, if one ploy won’t suck you in, the devil will try something else.

Indeed, the devil will use whatever advantage he can find in order to get you to turn from what God has said to what he is saying. In the case of Moses, it was his frustration and anger that caused him to disobey a direct order from the Lord, and it would cost him dearly.

In our opening scripture, we see the account of the temptation of Jesus Christ. As you read this account, notice how the devil switches from one thing to another as he tries to get Jesus to follow his instruction.

Satan first appeals to Jesus’ hunger to try to provoke Him to use His power to get something to eat. Then Satan tries to use God‘s word to get Jesus to act presumptuously by jumping off a high place to show that He could do so without getting hurt. Finally, Satan brought out the “big guns” by offering Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, if only He would bow down to him.

At each point of the temptation, Jesus, when presented with an offer from Satan, properly used the word of God to indicate that He knew these offers were not for His benefit, but rather to cause Him to dishonor the Word of God.

As I have shared with you, over the course of what I have referenced as the waking visions in my spiritual journey, several entities would come offering me relief. They all were meant to move me away from what God has said. And, each of these deceitful minions of Satan would flee when I recognized that they were not sent from the Lord and rejected their input.

We’ll talk more about this tomorrow.

Peace to you.

Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!

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