Get Out

Matthew 4:1-11:

At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.

Blog:

Many folks are intimidated by the devil.  Like he has some mysterious power over all of us.  That’s just not true – in fact, the only power that satan has over us is the power that we give to him.  While we can give him that power over us directly, of course, we usually give it to him indirectly by surrendering like Eve did in the Garden to his temptations.  If we simply-tell satan to “get out”, he literally has to leave us.  If you don’t believe that, see what Jesus, the Son of God, did in the desert during his 40 days of fasting and temptation.  He tells satan, “Get away” and then “the devil left him” and He was Ministered to by Angels from Heaven.  So, if we’re feeling we need to rid ourselves of satan and his diabolical temptations designed to send us eternally to hell, let’s do our best to follow Jesus’ example.  For if we resist the devil via Jesus Christ’s Promise, the devil will flee from us (see James 4:7).