James 1:12 says, “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” The life of faith reveals to us a divine dichotomy — the opposing things that we find in the word “blessed” and “temptation.” “Blessed” here echoes the Sermon on the Mount. When we take on a “poor in spirit,” a humble mentality, we recognize how far we fail. It motivates us to “hunger and thirst for righteousness.” And you can just work your way through the eight blessings in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5. We like the word “blessing.” We don’t like the word “temptation.” It illustrates a point for us. There’s no crown without a cross. There’s no power without purification. There’s no growth without going through the struggle.
I’d like to give you a little illustration. The Lord Jesus came to John the Baptist in Luke chapter three to be baptized. You remember that John the Baptist was aghast at the thought. Jesus said, let’s do it, that we may “fulfill all righteousness,” carrying out essentially what they did in the Old Testament, where the King had to be anointed by the prophet. The anointing here was with water because John had a ministry of baptism, calling the people to repentance, and Jesus was identifying with those people’s need of repentance as the answer. He’s baptized. You remember, as He comes up out of the water, the Spirit of God descends on Him in the form of a dove. That’s all preparation.
Now for Luke chapter four. In Luke chapter four it says, “Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit….” By the way, something you and I are commanded to do was led by the spirit into the wilderness. The word “led” there is actually a much stronger word. It means Jesus was “driven” by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted in the wilderness. He’s tempted by the devil — temptations that would never affect you and I. Because if I was hungry and the devil came to me and said, “turn these stones to bread,” no temptation to me, because I couldn’t do it. It was a temptation to Jesus; He could have done it. But, He defeats the devil in all the temptations.
And then Luke tells us along about verse 14, “Jesus returned” from the wilderness “in the power of the Holy Spirit.” Do you see the connection? First the descent of the Holy Spirit, then the filling of the Holy Spirit, then being led by the Holy Spirit. And then after the victory, the power. See, we want it the other way around. We say, God, I have a great test coming. “Please give me power. Please strengthen me.” And God says, “If you go through this test in faith, in trust, in reliance on Me, on the other side of it, you are going to have power.” No crown without a cross. Power follows the victory.
And the reason for this, my friends, is because the victory has to be won in your soul, before it can be won in the circumstance. It’s always internal first and then external. The path of blessing leads to the path to spiritual reward.
The full video is here:
https://youtu.be/RYnaYj_WoBg
More on the Holy Spirit work in our life:
https://basictraining.org/five-works-of-the-holy-spirit/
Learn about “The Simplicity of Salvation” here:
https://basictraining.org/simplicity-of-salvation/