Let’s spend a few days talking about Jesus’s time in the wilderness.
First, it is important to remember that Jesus didn’t just come to be an example for us; he came as us. Jesus clothed himself in humanity, and as the second Adam lived a life of faith. Jesus is the Son of God and therefore 100% deity, but he is also the Son of Man and is therefore 100% humanity. While on earth, even though fully God, Jesus laid down his right to act out of his deity and lived a life of faith as Man. He was the author and the perfecter of faith that He might demonstrate to us how to live in relationship with God. He affirmed again and again that he did nothing on his own initiative. Jesus told his disciples the night before his crucifixion that it was the Father who lived in him that did all the works.
John 14:10 TPT
Don’t you believe that the Father is living in me and that I am living in the Father? Even my words are not my own but come from my Father, for he lives in me and performs his miracles of power through me.
Jesus said as the Son of Man that he was taught by the Father, and that the Father was faithful to show him all things that He ((the Father) was doing.
(John 8:26-28 AMPC)
I have much to say about you and to judge and condemn. But He Who sent Me is true (reliable), and I tell the world [only] the things that I have heard from Him. [27] They did not perceive (know, understand) that He was speaking to them about the Father. [28] So Jesus added, When you have lifted up the Son of Man [on the cross], you will realize (know, understand) that I am He [for Whom you look] and that I do nothing of Myself (of My own accord or on My own authority), but I say [exactly] what My Father has taught Me.
John 5:19-20 TPT
So Jesus said, “I speak to you timeless truth. The Son is not able to do anything from himself or through my own initiative. I only do the works that I see the Father doing, for the Son does the same works as his Father. [20] “Because the Father loves his Son so much, he always reveals to me everything that he is about to do. And you will all be amazed when he shows me even greater works than what you’ve seen so far!
What does all of this have to do with the time Jesus spent in the wilderness? It is important for us to remember that Jesus experienced the wilderness in the 40 days of p continual testing from the devil as a man filled. The Matthew account reveals something very interesting. It says in verse one of Matthew 4 that Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and the Mark account says that Jesus was “thrown” into the wilderness. In light of the fact that Jesus declared in John 5 that the Father was always revealing to Him everything He was about to do, I am convinced that Jesus knew He was being led into the wilderness with a 40 day battle awaiting Him.. I believe this is one of the reasons Jesus was fasting;He knew what He was about to face spiritually, and He wanted to be fully armed for victory. Fasting is not primarily about changing God; it’s about God changing and equipping us, not just for the battle, but for a life of perpetual breakthrough. As soon as the 40 days of testing ended Jesus began his public ministry, manifesting the supernatural power of God and signs and wonders. The 40 days in the wilderness was a transitional time between the Holy Spirit coming upon him and his beginning to move in the miraculous. If you find yourself going through a time of great testing, maybe it’s because God is doing some things in you in preparation for a mighty breakthrough in your life in Christ. Our heavenly Father will often use spiritual warfare as a time of teaching and transition in our lives into a greater manifestation of the “more.”