"LED UP BY THE SPIRIT!"

Matthew 4:1-4                           (ESV)

"1 Then JESUS was "LED UP BY THE SPIRIT" into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

3 And the tempter came and said to HIM, "If YOU are the SON of GOD, command these stones to become loaves of bread."

4 But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of GOD.'"  

JESUS "knew" WHO HE was.  HE didn't worry or waiver about "if" GOD could rescue HIM, or if GOD could defeat Satan, HE "knew" that HE was the SON of GOD and HE also "knew" who HIS enemy was!  Knowing and recognizing the enemy is a vital part of being a good soldier, as the enemy can disguise himself as a friend, while all the time being a foe!  JESUS "knew" the foe very well, because HE "knew" WHO HIS FATHER was!

JESUS was then "LED UP BY THE SPIRIT"!  Now I would be very cautious and surely would have thought I had missed the will of GOD if I were having to fast for forty days and forty nights!   But JESUS "knew" the SPIRIT, for the SPIRT has been around since Genesis 1:1-2.  HE was familiar with the SPIRIT of GOD leading HIM for HE had seen the SPIRIT in action since the foundations of the world.  Even when the SPIRIT of GOD led HIM to Golgotha HE trusted that GOD would be glorified by HIS obedience.

The tempter came to JESUS at a time when HE was physically at HIS weakest.  The enemy immediately questioned the faith of JESUS when he said "IF YOU are the SON of GOD, command these stones to become loaves of bread"!  Now don't you think that JESUS could have spoken a word and the stones would have immediately became bread?  But JESUS responded with what HE "knew".  HE responded with the Word of GOD (Deuteronomy 8:3) where Moses reminder the children of Israel 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of GOD.'  

Could it be that I don't recognize the enemy as readily as JESUS because I don't "know" GOD as intimately as HIM?  Would I be more obedient to the SPIRIT of GOD if I "knew" HIM better?  Maybe if I "knew" GOD's Word better I could apply it better when opportunities to defeat the enemy present themselves!  FATHER IN HEAVEN, I pray that my desire will be to know YOU better and that I will TRUST in YOU when I am "LED UP BY THE SPIRIT!"