Matthew 4:1-3 states, “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.”
Charles Finney, the great evangelist of the early 1800s, was 29 years old when he got saved and almost immediately filled with the Holy Spirit. He was a young lawyer, working for Judge Wright. On Sunday evening, October 7, 1821, Finney made up his mind to settle the question of his soul’s salvation at once. Monday and Tuesday the law office was not busy. He struggled with the Lord, reviewing his sins and dealing with conviction. Wednesday morning he rose early and headed to the office. He knew he needed to accept Christ. A voice came to him saying, “Will you accept it now, today?” He entered into a wooded area. It was as if “The Spirit drove him into the wilderness to pray.” It was there, and later that day in the back room of the law office that all was settled. He later said, “My sense of guilt was gone; my sins were gone…I felt justified by faith…I was in a state in which I did not sin. My heart was so full of love that it ran over.” (Taken from “Charles G. Finney, He prayed down Revival,” by Basil Miller.)
Jesus did not go into the wilderness to see how long He could do without food, neither did the Spirit drop Him off and leave Him. In Matthew 3:16 it says that John saw “…the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him (Jesus).” I don’t believe the Spirit ever left Him. The forty days were a wonderful time of prayer and fasting. How could He ever forget that voice who said, “…This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).
Perhaps you can remember the day you made peace with God. What a wonderful thing to be born again into the family of God. I like the way Haldor Lillenas put it in his hymn, “Glorious Freedom.” “Once I was bound by sin’s galling fetters; Chained like a slave, I struggled in vain. But I received a glorious freedom When Jesus broke my fetters in twain. Glorious freedom! Wonderful freedom! No more in chains of sin I repine! Jesus, the glorious Emancipator—Now and forever He shall be mine.”
I can tell you right now, Satan doesn’t like that hymn. He doesn’t like the day you became a Christian. After Jesus heard the glorious voice declaring His Sonship, and prayed and fasted for forty days and nights with the Holy Spirit, the devil still had the audacity to say, “IF thou be the Son of God.” He said it twice. In Luke 4:13 we see that the devil then left Jesus for a season. He no doubt planned to come back to Jesus. Finally on the cross the devil spoke through one of the thieves, “… if thou be the Christ….”
All through your Christian walk don’t listen to the devil’s line, “IF YOU’RE A CHRISTIAN!”
