The Word To Live By: 7-17-26
Phil Waggoner
And the tempter came and said to Him, “if You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:3,4
The Word To Live By: This is one of the greatest lessons you can learn about life and life “superabundant!” (See Ephesians 3:20 in the Amplified Translation.) It is how to overcome your feelings, pride and lust, which were the three temptations the devil put on Jesus when He was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. What I want you to see is that He handled them by speaking the Word of God directly to the devil. I personally believe that these temptations were coming from the thought process. In other words, he was putting the thoughts into Jesus’ mind, but Jesus was answering these thoughts verbally out loud. Here’s something I hadn’t seen before, the last verse in chapter 3, verse 16-17, “After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he (John the Baptist) saw the Spirit of God descended as a dove and lighting on Him (Jesus), and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” God the Father, forty days earlier, had called Jesus His Son. When you know who you are in Christ, remember it’s because of grace you are saved and it’s in Him that you live and move and have your being. My point is don’t let pride open the door to the devil to stop the blessing of God in your life. As far as feelings go, I’m sure that Jesus “felt” hungry after a forty day fast but solid food would have killed Him had He introduced it to His system immediately. Don’t let your feelings cause you to do something against the wisdom of God that will eventually open the door to the devil. Remember, he comes only to steal, kill, and destroy your superabundant life. (I love that word and work it into any sentence I can. 😊) My big thought here is, the spoken word of God will overcome any temptation of thought before you act on it. SPEAK THE WORD COUNTER TO IT! When you do that, you open the door for the angels of God to come and minister joy and peace to you. Matthew 4:11, “Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.”
Read through the Bible in a year: 1 Corinthians 5; 1 Kings 18; Amos 2:1-3:2;
Read through the New Testament and Proverbs: Proverbs 17, Matthew 9:1-19, Acts 17:
The sum of Thy Word is Truth Psalm 119:160