In His
teachings, Jesus spoke of abiding in Him so my question to God was, how do you
abide in Jesus?
This is what
God showed me:
John
8:31-32 So Jesus was saying to the
Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word (logos), then you are truly disciples of Mine; and
you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
John
15:4-6 Abide in Me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide
in Me.
John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words
(rhema) abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Jesus is
God’s word so when you continue (remain or stay) in it, you are His disciple (a
learner or student). When we continuously remain or stay in God’s written word,
we are reading it and thinking about it, we are abiding in Jesus. Jesus takes it one step further in John 15:7,
He is telling us that when we continuously stay or remain in His word, then He
will give us a specific word for our lives and if we believe and trust in that
specific word from God, then we will be
able to ask God for whatever we wish, as it pertains to that specific word, and
He will give it to us.
An example
would be that God has given you a specific word about His purpose for your
future, maybe that you are to go to a faraway place to share the gospel. If you
keep that specific word in front of you and ask for God’s help in making it
happen, He will answer that request. The key here is that God gave you that
specific word.
Jesus tells
us how this works in the parable of the sower. He tells of a sower, who went
out to sow seed and the different types of ground the seed fell on but then
Jesus reveals to His disciples what the parable means.
Luke 8:11-15 Now the parable is this: the seed is the
word (logos) of God….…But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word
in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.
When you
read the entire explanation that Jesus gives, you can see that three of the heart
conditions did not make the logos word of God a priority in their lives. But
what made the last heart condition honest and good was that the logos word of
God was accepted as truth and important. Then the word remained (held fast) so
that fruit was then produced with perseverance. Now we look at the word
perseverance and we may think that it’s a bad thing, but it means endurance or
constancy. If we consistently keep or abide in the word of God, we will have results,
we will hear a rhema word from God and we will have fruit in our lives.
If our minds
are soil and Jesus is telling us that planting God’s word will produce fruit in
our lives.
Will words planted
from the enemy or the world produce fruit also?
We can see
how Jesus handled the enemy’s words and did not let them take root.
We have
heard the following scriptures taught many times, but I would like you to look
at them in a new light.
Let’s look
at Luke 4:1-13
Luke 4:1 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.
The Greek
word for led is “ago”, it means to lead or to bring drive. We know that the
Holy Spirit did not physically appear to Jesus and grab him by the hand and
lead Him into the wilderness. It was a leading He felt inside.
Luke 4:5 And he (devil) led
Him (Jesus) up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment
in time.
The Greek
word for led is “anago” which means to lead up or sail away. As you can see, its origin is from the
original word we looked at in verse one.
Luke 4:9 And he (devil) led
Him (Jesus) to Jerusalem and had Him stand on a pinnacle of the temple,
…
The Greek
word for led is “ago”, the same word used in verse one for the Holy Spirit
leading Jesus.
I don’t know
about you, but when I would read these scriptures, I would visualize the devil
appearing in front of Jesus and the two of them flying off to each one of these
temptations. Which would really make it a little easier to do battle because
you can see your enemy but think about it in a different perspective.
Knowing that
the Holy Spirit leads us from within and the enemy will put thoughts into our
heads and try to lead us from within, wouldn’t it make sense that this is the
same way he led Jesus. We can see that Luke used the same or similar word to
describe Jesus being led. Also, the enemy showed Jesus all the kingdoms in a
moment of time. Now that would have to take place while flying around really
fast or it would happen in the imagination of the mind.
I believe
that this battle between Jesus and the enemy happened in the spirit realm of
the mind, remember that Jesus was in human form and operated as a human while
here. Jesus may have even willingly walked to these different places because
the enemy could not force Him, the enemy could only influence. Also, it does
not say that all of these temptations happened after the forty days were
complete or in that exact order because Matthew’s account is in a different
order than Luke’s.
With all
that being said, Jesus had to do battle with temptation the same way we do. He
had to know when the enemy was speaking to Him and depend on the Holy Spirit to
help Him through. Isn’t that what we have to deal with today? We have different
voices in our head trying to guide us and we have to purposefully keep our
focus on God.
It builds my
faith to know that Jesus went through the same thing.
God cares
about our thought life and it is important to keep your focus on God’s word. We
can see how much God cares in the following scriptures.
James
4:7-8 Submit therefore to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw
near to you….
The first
step is submitting to God and how do you do that, get into His word and learn
to trust Him. Then you can resist what the enemy says to you and cut off his
influence in your life. The promise here is awesome, when you draw near to God
(make Him first place in your life), He WILL draw near to you.
Once you
submit to God, He wants to go to work on all the lies that have been fed to you
and have taken root.
Matthew
15:13 But
He (Jesus) answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father did not
plant shall be rooted up.
When you
first read this scripture, you would think that God is rooting out bad people
but if you look at this in context, He just told a parable about how words
defile a person (Matt 15:10,18). When
you read and speak God’s word, it takes root and the more you do it, the more
those roots will take over in your heart. All the lies from the enemy and the
world have already taken root on the inside and it will take time for God’s
word to choke all of that out. It is just like the parable of the sower that we
looked at, but with the opposite effect.
God sent
Jesus to show us His nature and to heal all that were oppressed by the devil.
What does it
mean to be oppressed by the devil?
Acts
10:38 You know of Jesus of
Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and
healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
Let’s do a
little Greek word study:
Good – euergeteo – to be philanthropic,
do good.
Dictionary: Philanthropy – altruistic
concern for human welfare and advancement.
Healing – iaomai – to cure, heal, make whole
God is
concerned with your human condition and wants to make you whole by bringing you
up into His kingdom!
Oppressed – katadunasteuo – To exercise dominion against
It
comes from the word “kata” meaning down (in place or time)
And
is a derivative of the word “dunastes” meaning a ruler or officer, of great
authority
Devil – a traducer, false accuser, slanderer
The devil falsely
accuses us or lies to us in an attempt to keep us down and from being made
whole. He will try to hold us down under his false authority by feeding us lies
and hoping they will take root in our hearts. When we believe his lies, it
keeps us away from all that God wants to do in our lives. God loves you and
wants His best for you!
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