Mark 1:12-13 “At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, 13 and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.”
From the moment that we encounter the Holy Spirit descending upon our lives in power we enter an entirely different realm of surrender and directed living. Jesus experiences the Holy Spirit coming upon his life and the Spirit of God wastes no time in beginning to take Jesus to a new level. Most people do not think of the maturing developmental process of Jesus’ life but we must remember that Jesus was both human and divine. He was not only God in the form of man. He was man! The scriptures tell us that he learned obedience, that he was tempted just as we are, that he became angry at hypocrisy and unbelief, that he experienced sorrow and was attacked by stressful, distracting thoughts as he wrestled with his decision to go to the cross that moved him so deeply in prayer that he sweat great drops of blood. Through all of this he still lived without sin.
When he experienced the descent of the Holy Spirit on that day to remain with him he entered a new measure of expression. When He told the disciples to tarry until they would receive power from on high, he had already experienced this process. Jesus encountered the Holy Spirit in the waters of the Jordan river and was directed immediately into new dimensions of spiritual warfare and conflict. He is led into the desert for a forty day period of prayer and fasting that was also accompanied by spiritual encounter. Mark 1:12-13 describes the demonic pressure that Satan applied to tempt him. Luke chapter four describes not only an ongoing forty day conflict but also three very specific challenges that assaulted Jesus’ mind and Spirit. Satan sought to use Jesus’ natural impulses and desires to tempt him and even sought to distort Jesus’ interpretation of scripture to turn Jesus from his commitment to holiness.
The good news is that God did not leave him to struggle alone. Mark 1:13 tells us that angels attended to him also. 1 Cor 10:13 teaches us a powerful truth about temptation as Paul writes, “and God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” Jesus was not only the pattern of a sinless life, he was the pattern of a life that has overcome the temptations that have come against it.
The strength of Jesus’ public ministry was the baptism of the Holy Spirit that fell upon him in the water that day. It was this new Spirit empowerment that directed him into the desert. It was there, under the Holy Spirit’s direction, that Jesus was brought to victory over Satan and his voice of influence. Every time that Jesus encountered Satan and his fruits in the lives of people throughout the course of his ministry the deliverance, healing and transformations that followed all flowed out of this victory that was won in the desert. The Spirit of God directed Jesus on a journey of private triumph and public victory. It is this process that is God’s work in each one of us as well. God desires to train and prepare his people through the mentoring of the Holy Spirit. If we have been touched by his descent upon our lives, we will also certainly be led into conflict with demonic powers on both a personal level and in regard to the lives of people around us. Gain personal victory through the discipleship of the Holy Spirit and you will come out of this place in the power of the Spirit to set others free.
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