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ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

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THE 40 DAY FAST OF JESUS

We can learn much about the purpose of fasting by

looking at the forty-day fast Jesus went on when He

faced Satan in the wilderness and defeated him.

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness

to be tempted of the devil.

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he

was afterward an hungered.

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be

the Son of God, command that these stones be made

bread.

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not

live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth

out of the mouth of God.

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and

setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast

thyself down: for it is written,He shall give His angels

charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall

bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against

a stone.

Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not

tempt the Lord thy God.

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high

mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the

world, and the glory of them;

And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if

thou wilt fall down and worship me.Then saith Jesus

unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou

shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou

serve.

Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came

and ministered unto him.— Matthew 4:1-11

 

As I read this passage of Scripture, I wondered, What

was the reason for Jesus’ forty day fast, and why did

Satan challenge Him at the end of it?

When discussing this with others, the answer I often

heard went something like this: “The fasting reduced

Jesus to the weakest state of vulnerability. In that

weakened state, Jesus showed the supremacy of His

power over the devil by not giving in to temptation.”

But, in reality, the opposite is true. Jesus fasted forty

days in preparation for facing the devil. Why? Because

He knew that fasting shuts the flesh down and

strengthens us, not weakens us, against the devil.

Why was Jesus led by the Spirit into the wilderness to

be tempted by the devil? Because He as our Substitute

was being tempted in our place. Then after He

overcame the devil, He could turn around and give us

the perfect standing that He had obtained from

defeating Satan in the temptations of the flesh. That’s

why Jesus could later say in Luke 10:19:

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and

scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and

NOTHING shall by any means hurt you.

So then fasting has the same effect on our flesh as it

had on Jesus’ flesh: It braces us against the temptations

of the devil and helps us mortify or shut down the flesh

by enforcing the perfect standing Jesus has already

given us.

In order to understand how perfect and powerful this

standing is that Jesus has given us over the flesh, we

must learn what Jesus had to withstand to obtain it. You

see, nothing can be declared perfect unless it cannot be

improved upon. This means that the standing Jesus has

given to us over the flesh and the devil could only be

declared perfect if it had withstood Satan’s most

diabolical testings and schemes.

Jesus had to be subjected to the worst that Satan had —

the worst torments, fears, pressures, and cares, the

worst temptations of lust and riches. This was the

entire reason Jesus was led into the wilderness. He was

on a mission from God as our Substitute to obtain for us

as part of our redemption a perfect standing over the

flesh.

Now we can enter into God’s Presence, armed with the

standing of grace He has given us— not because of what

we have done but because of what Jesus has done.

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched

with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points

tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore

come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may

obtain mercy,and find grace to help in time of need.—

Hebrews 4:15,16

There before the throne of God, we can find mercy to

help in our times of need — our temptations, testings,

and trials.

In order for Jesus to deliver this kind of standing to us,

He had to face Satan on three levels: spirit, soul, and

body. This confrontation had to be carried out not in

Jesus’ deity, but in His humanity. That’s why Jesus said,

“Man (referring to His humanity) shall not live by

bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the

mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).

The pressures, the torments, the loneliness, and the

fear that Satan attempted to put on Jesus are

indescribable. They can only be described as similar to

the horrors one may see in the lower level of an insane

asylum where people reside whose spirits have been

completely taken over by demons. The demonic

opposition Jesus faced was the type that spawns such

deranged drives for power and wealth as Adolph Hitler

and the Nazis possessed, where one culture tries to

completely annihilate another in the quest for

dominance or world power.

You see, Jesus had to face the worst Satan had. He

couldn’t just win a victory over some low-level,

expendable, second-rate demon that simply afflicts or

torments. He couldn’t even deal with just a ruler of the

darkness or a principality. Jesus had to face Satan

himself! And in doing so, Jesus defeated Satan on all

three levels: spirit, soul, and body!

Number one, Jesus defeated Satan on the level of the

body. Satan challenged Him to meet the needs of His

physical body — but on Satan’s terms:

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

Satan attempted to pressure Jesus with the worst

torment of the physical body: the threat that the basic

necessities to sustain life will not be met. The attempt

failed.

Number two, Jesus defeated Satan on the level of the

soul when Satan tried to tempt Him to commit suicide.

Satan took Jesus up to a high pinnacle of the temple in

the Holy City and began to pressure Him in the

emotional realm of the soul to commit suicide by

jumping off the pinnacle:

And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast

thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels

charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall

bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against

a stone.— Matthew 4:6

Jesus knew that God had given the angels charge

concerning Him, but He wasn’t about to tempt God by

jumping off the temple just because the devil told him

to.

You see, suicide is the last step into a state of

hopelessness after a long battle with torments and

fears. In that hopeless state, the person says to life,

“You have no real answers.” In that sense, it is the worst

torment of the soul, and Jesus defeated Satan in that

very arena.

Satan may try to badger us in the soulish realm of our

emotions, but today we have access to a perfect

standing against soulish torment. That standing was

given to us by Jesus, the Prince of Peace, and will

sustain us no matter what Satan tries to do.

Number three, Jesus defeated Satan on the level of the

spirit when Satan tried to tempt Jesus to worship him.

It’s interesting to note that when Satan tested Jesus in

the physical realm, he used food,and when he tested

Him in the emotional realm of the soul, he used suicide.

But when Satan tested Jesus in the realm of the human

spirit, he used power and money by offering Him the

glory of the kingdoms of the world.

This shows us that Satan has a strategy to conquer a

man’s spirituality.

The devil knows that men will switch

their allegiance more quickly from

worshiping God to worshiping him

because of power and riches than any

other thing he has to offer.

Satan offered to make Jesus the

wealthiest, most powerful Man in the

world. All Jesus had to do was turn

Himself over spiritually to Satan and

worship him.

But, thank God, Jesus withstood Satan. Then he turned

around and gave us the standing He had attained

through His victory on all three levels. Somehow

fasting had helped prepare Jesus for that time of

temptation so that He could, as our Substitute, give us

His standing. Now when we fast, we execute Jesus’

standing over the flesh as we yield to God and

withstand the devil.

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UNTIL NEXT TIME, AND PLEASE PRAY FOR ME, AND PLEASE PRAY FOR MY DAUGHTER LEAH WHOSE HUSBAND PAST AWAY TODAY.

SERVANT LARRY