Devotions

Power to not yield to temptation does not come from stuffing our minds with scripture verses, making vows, spending hours in prayer, fasting or even giving ourselves over to a great spiritual cause. These things are all commendable and normal for Christian growth, but that is not where our victory lies.

The simple secret of bearing up under any temptation is to break the fear of Satan’s power. Fear is the only power over man Satan has. God does not give us the spirit of fear, but man is afraid of the devil, frightened of demons. We are afraid of failure, afraid our appetites and habits can’t be altered, that they will erupt and control our lives.

Man is afraid that he can’t quit his sin. He credits Satan with power he doesn’t have. Man cries out, “I’m hooked and can’t stop. I’m spellbound and in the devil’s power. The devil makes me do it!”

Fear is a torment. As long as you are afraid of the devil, you can never break the power of temptation. Satan thrives on fear, and Christians who are afraid of the devil have little or no power to resist. It’s all based on the lie that Satan has power to break down Christians under pressure. Not so! Jesus came to destroy all the power of the devil over blood-washed children of God. I have often wondered why God allows spiritual people to be so tempted. Scripture says, “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13, NKJV). Why doesn’t God remove all temptations instead?

The answer is simple. Once you learn how powerless Satan is, that he can’t make you do anything, that God has all power to keep you from falling—from then on, you can “bear up” under anything Satan throws at you. You can go through it without fearing you will fall.

We are not delivered from temptation but from the fear of the devil to make us yield to it. We will keep on being tempted until we come to the place of “rest” in our faith. That rest is the unshakeable confidence that God has defeated Satan, that Satan has no right or claim on us and that we will come forth as gold tried in the fire.

Temptation is an invitation or an enticement to commit an immoral act. Right now, Satan is raging over the earth as a roaring lion trying to devour Christians through powerful enticements toward immorality. No one is immune. In fact, the closer you get to God, the more Satan will desire to sift you.

Sinners cannot be tempted. Rain cannot touch a body already under water. Sinners are already drowned in perdition; and as children of Satan, they do as he dictates. They do not have to be tempted or enticed because they are already immoral. As slaves, they are not free to choose. They simply go from dead to twice dead “to being plucked up by the roots.” Sinners can be teased by the devil but not tempted. Satan teases his own children into deeper and darker pits of immorality, but they are already dead in their trespasses and cannot fight the battles of the living. That’s why our Lord tells us to rejoice when we come against diverse temptations. We are experiencing something unique only to maturing Christians.

For believers, temptation is “training under combat conditions.” God limits it to the point of being “bearable.” He wants combat-seasoned warriors who can testify, “I was under fire. I’ve been in the battle. The enemy was all around me, shooting at me, trying to kill me, but God showed me how to take it and not be afraid. I have experience, so the next time I’ll not fear.”

Temptation is not a sign of weakness or a leaning toward the world. Rather, it is a graduation, a sign that God trusts us. The Spirit led Jesus into the arena of temptation in the wilderness. Actually, God was saying to Jesus, “Son, I have given you the Spirit without measure. I have confirmed you before the world. Now I am going to permit Satan to throw every device he has at you that you may go forth preaching that Satan is defeated, that he cannot snatch anyone I give to you out of our hand.”

That is why Christians are tempted today. Temptation is allowed in the saintliest of lives to teach us the limitation of Satan, to expose his weakness and to reveal Satan as a scarecrow.

I have a special word for all who face impossibilities: A recovery of faith depends on a fuller revelation of the love of our heavenly Father toward us.

“The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17, NKJV). Here is a glorious revelation of the steadfastness of God’s love for his people. Scripture tells us he rests and rejoices in his love for us!

The Hebrew word for “quiet” here means God hasn’t a single question concerning his love for us. In other words, he has fixed or settled his love for us, and he will never take it away. In fact, we’re told God is so satisfied in his love for us that he sings about it. Can you imagine this? Here is a manifestation in heaven of God’s delight over you. John Owen interprets the passage this way: “God leaps as overcome with joy.”

Moreover, Paul told us everything that is out of divine order, all that is of unbelief and confusion, is changed by the appearance of God’s love. “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us” (Titus 3:4-5).

In the preceding verse, Paul said, “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived…” (Titus 3:3). In other words, “Everything was out of order when we once lived in sin; but the kindness and love of God appeared, which the Father shed on us abundantly through Christ, and he redeemed us.”

When Paul says the love of God “appeared,” he uses a word from a Greek root meaning “superimposed.” In short, the Lord looked down on us poor, struggling souls, full of fear and questioning, and he superimposed this revelation: “My love will deliver you. Rest and delight in my love for you.”

I thank God for the day his love “appeared” to me. There is no faith that can stand against impossibilities unless every problem and affliction is committed into the loving care of our Father.

When I was in Bible school, one of my classes was a survey of the New Testament. It was an elderly British pastor who was trying to teach us the theology of the Trinity. It almost went like “Okay, there's Father, Son, Holy Spirit. They're three; they're one; they're like a shamrock; they're like a light bulb.” Most of what I walked away with that day was "God's like a…shamrock? I don't know if that makes me want to worship him.”

A similar confusion and ambivalence about the Trinity seems to hang over the church today. A common understanding of the Trinity is that they’re three persons. Somehow they're also one, but we don't know how. We don't really want to explore that too much in depth either, so there's this disconnect from who God really is.

In my early days, when I would read John where Jesus said, “The Father and I are one,” I would think, “Wow, they're really close. They're good friends. They're really intimate.” However, that’s not necessarily understanding Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit’s relationship. It’s not a friendship or relationship in the sense that I'm one with my wife. Jesus was talking about essence and substance.

Understanding this — truly getting it — is so important! If you just saw Jesus as sort of an independent figure but not a complete part of the Godhead, he wouldn't have the power to save because he's not God. At that point, he's just a good teacher. If we've never sat down and studied the doctrine of the Trinity, we're going to run across it in scripture and think something along the lines of "Okay, the Father did this thing in my life, and then the Holy Spirit separately did this other thing."

If you deny them as Trinity, though, you're going to find yourself falling short. You can't really know God or anything really deep about him unless you see him beginning to reveal himself in this form of three persons and one essence.

We have to dig deeper, take more time, be more patient, maybe a little more humble. We have to understand that we really don't know God like we think we know him. As we truly seek him, though, our entire walk with him will transform.

In the days of the early church, some of the Greeks started complaining about how the Jewish believers weren’t helping Greek widows the same as their own. The apostles gathered and made arrangements for how the church would care for the widows. They clearly stated, though, “But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’” (Acts 6:1-4, ESV). They knew an important truth that we need to grasp.

If I don't spend time with God, how will God use me? You don't have to have elaborate notes or studies; you just have to be with God. There is no instant anointing.

If we want to see God move today, we need to say to him, “We want to build your church, your way, through your means. Your power is for your glory. It's your church.” Why don't we take our hands off our churches? We should have the courage to say, “Jesus, they belong to you. You build the church. Just show me what the tools are I should use and what goal I should have.”

Father God, we give you our churches today. We give you our ministries and work. We humble ourselves as we read in your word, which says, ‘humble yourselves under the presence of God, and he will exalt you.’ He will lift you. Forgive us for building our church instead of yours. Forgive us for building a church with different models and goals than what you laid out in your Word. Forgive us for ignoring your Word. Forgive us for following the spirit of this world rather than the Spirit of Christ. Forgive us for using fleshly methods instead of those that are tried and true through the centuries.

God, we want to be Christians who give you honor and glory by the way we live. It's getting darker around us, but your light is still shining brightest of all. In this darkness, God, bring out a remnant of people who really know and love you. Use us, whether it's for a month or a year. We don't know when you're coming; but God, from now to the finish line, let abundant grace be upon us all. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen.

^{Jim Cymbala began the Brooklyn Tabernacle with less than twenty members in a small, rundown building in a difficult part of the city. A native of Brooklyn, he is a longtime friend of both David and Gary Wilkerson.}