God has our
best interest at heart! We have a wonderful Father who wants to take care of
His children. The one thing we need to remember is that there is an enemy out
there that wants to kill, steal and destroy us. I am posting the notes from a
recent bible study that I did that looks at the natural vs the spiritual side
of things. God is always working behind
the scenes for His children. I believe that this bible study illustrates how
much God has done for us that we cannot even see. This is a great reminder that
we are in a spiritual battle and we need to remember who our enemy is.
The original
plan that God had for man was for him to have dominion or rule over the earth.
God created the earth for man, but the enemy was jealous and wanted to rule over
all so he deceived Adam and Eve in order to get the dominion that God had given
to man.
Genesis
1:28 God blessed them; and God said
to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; …
The enemy
was successful and now he was the god of this world and had dominion over it. God
cursed the serpent and gave him warning that Jesus (her Seed) would be coming
to reverse what he had done and gain back dominion over the earth.
Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between you (serpent)
and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall
bruise His heel.”
The enemy
remembered that the Seed from the woman would remove him from his position so
his obsession with finding Jesus started from that day forward. The enemy was
forced to search for the Seed from the woman by relying on information gathered
from earth because, unlike God, he cannot be everywhere at once. When we look
at these scriptures in revelation, I believe that the enemy cast one third of
the stars (angels) down to earth to help him find out all that he could to
destroy the Seed.
Revelation
12:1-2 And a great sign was seen in heaven, a woman having been clothed with
the sun, and the moon underneath
her feet, and on her head was a crown of twelve stars; and having a babe in womb …
Revelation
12:3-4 … And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so
that when she gave birth,
he might devour her child.
We can see
that the scriptures in Matthew show us what was happening here on earth as the
enemy looked for the Seed. I am sure
that the enemy thought he had Jesus right here.
Matthew
2:1-10 And he (Herod) sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully
for the Child; and when you
have found Him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him”.
In the
spirit realm, God made the way of protection and provision for Jesus where the
enemy could not find Him. We have our place of protection and provision in the
secret place of the Most High. God has already made our place of protection and
provision just like He did for Jesus.
Revelation
12:5-6 And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all nations
with a rod of iron; and her child was
caught up to God and to His throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness
(desert, solitary) where
she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished…
We can see
this play out on the earth when God sent Joseph to Egypt (a solitary place or a
desert) for a period of time. Provision for their time in the desert was made for
them by gifts brought to them from the magi.
Matthew
2:10-12 … opening their (Magi) treasuries, they presented to Him (Jesus) gifts
of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left or
their own country by
another way.
Matthew
2:13-16 …behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
“Get up! Take the Child and His
mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going
to search for the Child to
destroy Him.”
The enemy
was not successful in destroying the child, so he had to wait for Jesus to show
himself later and that time happened when Jesus was baptized and led to the
wilderness (desert or solitary place). God protected Jesus once again, He was
full of the Holy Spirit before going into the wilderness.
Luke 4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit,
returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness (desert,
solitary) for forty days, being tempted by the devil.
Luke 4:6 And the devil said to Him, “I
will give you all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give
it to whomever I wish.
I believe
that this battle between Jesus and the enemy happened in the spirit realm also. Jesus was in human form and operated as a
human while on the earth so the battle would have taken place in His mind, will
and emotions. When you think about how
the enemy attacks us today, the battle happens in our minds. Scripture says
that Jesus was tempted in every way that we are, and the mind is where
temptation starts. Also, this states that Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms
in the world in a moment. This would have to take place in the imagination, or
they would have been flying around the earth like superman (and I still think
it would take longer than a moment). What I am trying to say here is that Jesus
had to face fear, pain and heartache the exact same way that we do and that is
by relying on God. God gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth and give
us the wisdom we need in any situation. Our part in this is to look to Him in
all that we do. Full of the Holy Spirit, this does not mean that Jesus didn’t
already have the Holy Spirit, it means that He was filled up and ready to face
what He had to face. We can ask God to fill us up with the Holy Spirit so we
can be ready to face whatever it is we need to face here on earth. We need to
remember that there is a spiritual battle going on and it is not just what we
can see.
RelianceOnGrace.com
