40 Day Challenge

40 day challenge

Alone and in Your Wilderness

Luke Chapter 4

¹ Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, ² being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. ³ And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." ⁴ But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.' " ⁵ Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ⁶ And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. ⁷ Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours." ⁸ And Jesus answered and said to him, "Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.' " ⁹Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. ¹⁰ For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you,' ¹¹ "and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.' " ¹² And Jesus answered and said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the Lord your God.' " ¹³ Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time. ¹⁴ Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region. ¹⁵ And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.

Before you can stand against the attacks of your enemy you must be full of the Holy Spirit.

"The trees of the Lord are full of sap." Psalm 104:16

The SAP brings healing to the wounds of the tree. It is the blood of the tree and without it there cannot be life.

Without sap the tree cannot flourish or even exist.

Vitality is essential to a Christian. There must be life--a vital principle infused into us by God the Holy Ghost, or we cannot be trees of the Lord. In the Christian the divine life is always full of energy--not always in fruit-bearing, but in inward operations. The believer's graces, are not every one of them in constant motion? But his life never ceases to palpitate within. He is not always working for God, but his heart is always living upon Him. As the sap manifests itself in producing the foliage and fruit of the tree, so with a truly healthy Christian, his grace is externally manifested in his walk and conversation. If you talk with him, he cannot help speaking about Jesus. If you notice his actions you will see that he has been with Jesus. He has so much sap within, that it must fill his conduct and conversation with life.

-Charles Spurgeon

Thought -
Do you remember when you first turned your life over to Jesus and you started your new journey. Your perspective about life had changed and for the first time you felt God's amazing love and freedom. You followed God's commandment to become water baptized so to make your public profession of your new faith in the Christ as your Savior.

In Luke Chapter 3, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan and the Holy Spirit in a form of a dove descended upon Jesus and the voice of God the Father from Heaven spoke and said that Jesus was His loved Son and Jesus pleased the Him well. Chapter 4 - Full of the Holy Spirit Jesus faced His enemy through 40 days of fasting in the wilderness. You too like Jesus will face your enemy and be tempted to give up and fall to Satan’s scheme to destroy your new life and potential.

First Temptation of your enemy is an attack against your identity in Christ

Please read closely in Luke Chapter 4

¹ Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, ² being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. ³ And the devil said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." ⁴ But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.'

Have you ever felt these attacks?

If you are a son or daughter of God – then:

· Why do you still have issues?

· Where are all God’s provisions?

· Why has God forgotten you?

· Where was God in your time of need?

· Why did that happen to you?

He tempted him to distrust his Father's care of him, and to set up for himself, and shift for provision for himself in such a way as his Father had not appointed for him Luke 4:3: If thou be the Son of God, as the voice from heaven declared, command this stone to be made bread.
"I counsel thee to do it; for God, if he be thy Father, has forgotten thee, and it will be long enough ere he sends either ravens or angels to feed thee." If we begin to think of being our own carvers, and of living by our own forecast, without depending upon divine providence, of getting wealth by our might and the power of our hands, we must look upon it as a temptation of Satan's, and reject it accordingly; it is Satan's counsel to think of an independence upon God.

-Matthew Henry