YOU WILL BE TESTED
By Bishop Mike Okonkwo
Friday 13th September 2024
“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” Matthew 4:1 (KJV)
The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. The wilderness is where you don’t see anything or anybody around. You are all alone in the wilderness. The wilderness is usually not a comfortable experience. It is a situation where everything is dry. That was where Jesus was led to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward hungered.
Let me emphasise this: There is no graduation from fasting. Never think that you will not feel hungry anytime you fast. There’s nothing like you see; I’m a specialist in fasting unless you didn’t call it a fast.
You cannot call something a temptation if there is no occasion and possibility of you doing the thing you are saying ‘no’ to; in fasting, this is food. Until there is a possibility that you can do it, but somehow, because of the grace of God, you say no, you can’t call it temptation. Temptation is something coming against you, and there is this tendency to fall for it. Jesus was faced with the possibility of falling. Why? Because he was hungry! He had completed his fast, so the next thing to do naturally was eat. The devil said this is my time and the right moment to hit this man. “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 KJV)
But Jesus held unto the word. He said it is written: “… Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4 KJV). That is how to overcome temptation by standing on what is written. This scripture had already been in existence before Jesus came. And it became a weapon that He deployed when the enemy came against Him. Jesus was tested to determine whether He would live by the word of God or the devil’s words. You will also be tested.
Further Reading: Matthew 4:1-11
Daily Bible Reading: Morning- Proverbs 16-18; Evening- 2 Corinthians 6