Meditation on Luke 4:1-2

"Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted[a] by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.”
If Jesus needed to be full of the Holy Spirit, how much more we. Paul says in Eph 5:18 -Stop getting drunk with wine, which leads to wild living, but keep on being filled with the Spirit (ISV). Its a continuous process, not just when we are in church or when we are praying.

Jordon was where Jesus was filled glorious with the Holy Spirit with God the Father as a witness to this wonderful experience. But the Christian life is always not in Jordon. There is a wilderness that the Holy Spirit will lead us. Note it was not the devil who brought Jesus to the wilderness but the Holy Spirit. You and I will need to go through many wilderness experiences. There are times when we get closer to God, discern His will and hear His voice.  These are times interspersed with  fasting and prayer. These are times, when we meet God “face to face”.

The wilderness experience can be different for each of us. But they share some common characteristics. 
  1. Every christian will go through and often
  2. Its usually a lonely experience
  3. It is both a spiritual and physical battle.
  4. Temptations that come when we are all alone are the most easy to fall.
  5. A christian full of the Holy Spirit, Will always overcome theses insidious temptations.
  6. Fasting and prayer becomes crucial in these experiences.

Next time if you want to know if a person is full of the Holy Spirit, ask him of his wilderness experiences. 

Jesus was desperately hungry. Anyone in that situation will do anything to eat, just like Esau. But Jesus never gave in to the temptations. He never compromised His principles.

The Word of God was part and parcel of the life of Jesus. “It is written”… Not what I think, not what I interpret but what does the scriptures say. If its so important for Jesus, it ought to be for us too.

When was the last time you fasted and prayed?
Have you met God “face to face”?
When was the last time you memorize and meditated on the Scriptures? Not someone else’s devotion but yours. 

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