Matthew 4:1; “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”
Luke 4:1; “And Jesus full (“continually full” would be the proper translation) of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was continually carried by the Spirit in the wilderness.”
In the Luke 4:1 passage, I used the phrase “was continually carried” instead of the word “led” because “continually carried” better conveys the grammatical and spiritual meaning of this verse.
I want you to notice the difference between the Matthew passage and the Luke passage, because the Holy Spirit is trying to convey something significant to us through these differences. The Matthew passage, which comes first, says that the Holy Spirit carried Jesus into the wilderness TO BE TEMPTED by the devil. The short account in the Gospel of Mark actually conveys the idea that Jesus was thrown into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil.
The Luke passage tells us that while Jesus was in the wilderness, He was victorious because He was continually carried by the Holy Spirit while being tempted for 40 days. The enemy wasn’t defeated because Jesus quoted Scripture. The enemy was not given a place to gain a victory in Christ because Jesus was continually filled with the Holy Spirit and was being continually carried around by the Holy Spirit throughout the whole wilderness experience. There was no place for the enemy to breach. Every step Jesus took was a supernatural step because He, as the Son of Man, was being carried around by the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures He quoted were simply manifestations and decorations of the victory He was walking in.
I was telling the Lord this morning that there were issues I was having to deal with that were way beyond my realm of expertise. They were practical things, such as roofing, insurance adjusters, and general contractors, as well as electronic issues that weren’t working right. Actually, I said to the Lord, ‘Why are all these things coming at me that are so out of my wheelhouse?’ Very clearly, the Lord spoke to me, “Because I’m wanting to expand your wheelhouse.” The Lord wasn’t telling me that he wanted me to learn how to do certain things with the new earthly skill set. He was telling me that He was expanding my capacity to trust Him and to experience His all-sufficient grace. He was using these circumstances that felt so overwhelming to teach me how to allow myself to restfully, in faith, be carried by the Holy Spirit in an expanded way. He was giving me an opportunity to grow in my life of abiding in Christ. The harvest down the road will probably be immeasurable. It is stated in Luke 2:52 that Jesus “kept increasing in favor with God and men.” Jesus did not receive more grace, which is what the word “favor” actually means, than He always already had. He simply had His capacity to steward more grace expanded in an increasing way.
If that is true about Jesus, then of course, how much more is it true about us? When you are born again, you receive all the grace that is in Christ, but we must learn how to steward that grace. God uses times of testing that seem overwhelming to increase our capacity to steward more of the grace that has already been deposited in us in Christ.
When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was going to give birth as a virgin to the Messiah, she asked, “HOW,” in light of the fact that she was a virgin. This was undoubtedly out of Mary’s wheelhouse. It was beyond her natural capacity to perform, but the angel assured her by saying, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Do you ever feel overwhelmed? Do you ever feel like so much is coming at you at one time that it is out of your wheelhouse? If so, remember that even though the devil is part of the story, constantly tempting us into unbelief and independent self-effort, it is God who has thrust you by the Spirit into this OPPORTUNITY to learn how to live supernaturally at an expanded level. Yes, it is bigger than you. That’s the whole point that God wants you to see. He wants you to learn at a new level that it is not greater or bigger than the Holy Spirit’s ability to carry you through the whole thing. God loves to show off and to show out, and therefore we have this treasure, the very life of Christ in us by the indwelling Holy Spirit, in earthen vessels so that the greatness of the power may be of God and not ourselves. If you find yourself, like I did this morning, feeling overwhelmed, then welcome to the school of Christ, where every test given has the same correct answer: JESUS.