Conquer the Devil's Temptation Just as the Lord Jesus Christ Did

The devil came and tempted the Lord, put him through these three trials. The first one was, if you are the son of God, say to these stones to be bread. And the Lord Jesus replied and said, it is not by bread only man shall live, but by every word that is uttered from the mouth of God.

That was the first temptation. Tell these stones, make these stones to be bread. Second one, the devil took him up into the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, on a high place, pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down for it is written, he shall give his angels charge over you and in their hands, they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against the stone.

Again, the Lord replies and says to the enemy, it is written again, you should not tempt the Lord your God. And again, the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, all these things I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.

Then Jesus said to him away with you Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only you shall serve. Three temptations. If you are the son of God from this, you could tell Satan was not sure if he was the son of God or not because the Lord Jesus never revealed that to him.

So if you are the son of God, make these stones turn into bread. The enemy attacked the Lord Jesus or tempted the Lord Jesus or put him through a trial in three different ways. And the enemy attacks every single Christian in the same three different ways.

One, change the stone into bread. He is attacking the intellect of the human. And when the intellect yields, it yields into materialism.

So the enemy will attack you through the intellect which leads you to materialistic things. Second, he took him up on the pinnacle of the temple and he said, cast yourself down from there on a high place. He is attacking the will.

And if he overcomes your will, he will lead you into utilitarianism, utilizing God for your own benefits. And the third one, he took him on a very high mountain, exceedingly high mountain and showed him the kingdoms of the world and their glory and said, if you bow and worship me, I'll give you all this. Said, away with you Satan.

It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and I'm only you shall serve. He is attacking your imagination and if he overcomes your imagination will lead into heathenism. So number one, attacks the intellect to lead you to materialism.

Number two, attacks the will to lead you to utilitarianism. And number three, attacks the imagination to lead you into heathenism. All three answers by the Lord Jesus came from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 8. All three answers to Satan.

All three came from Deuteronomy chapter 8. You know, sometimes people think I can't speak in big words. I can but I don't want to. Let's speak in simple terms.

So what is intellect? What is the will and what is imagination? Materialism, utilitarianism and heathenism. See, if we use our intellect only, rely on our intellect only outside of God, our intellect, the ultimate it can really do is swim in this realm. It cannot exceed this realm because the intellect cannot go outside of this realm and what is this realm? Materialistic.

What is this realm? Materialistic. So if we use our heads all the time we will end up materialistic beings, i.e. spirituality, we will kiss it goodbye. Spirituality will walk out the door and the window of our life and this is exactly what the enemy is trying to do against every human being.

The world is all about materialism. Look at the world, how it's acting, how it's behaving and how it's conducting itself. It is nothing but materialistic approach.

That is why every single human being that lives for the world is dead. Even though they walk, they breathe, they talk and they see, but they are dead. Why? Because at the end materialism will lead you into vanity of all vanities.

Nothing was yours, nothing is yours and nothing will ever be yours. I built an empire, I had a lot of fame, I became a celebrity, I was powerful, I was a king, I was a president, I was a ruler, at the end the grave is your portion. Vanity of all vanities.

Satan wants to preoccupy every human being if possible to take him away from spirituality and bring him into materialistic realm in order to lose God in the end. To lose God. The will took him up on the pinnacle of the temple and if you are the son of God, cast yourself down from here.

That is the will. The Lord said, it is written, do not tempt the Lord your God. Do not tempt him.

That is the will. Now, if you allow the enemy to use your will, he will lead you into utilitarianism. Utilitarianism meaning to utilize.

You will end up utilizing God to your own benefits. You'll make God work for you, not you working for God. You'll make God work for you.

Oh God, can you please heal me? I'm sick. Oh God, please can I marry that girl over there please, if you don't mind. God look, I'm praying, I passed the exam and if I don't pass the exam, don't expect me to come to the church and pray to you anymore.

God, I'm beginning a business, can you please bless it and it becomes a successful one? God, I need this. God, I need that. And if God doesn't come with the goods, by God no more.

Why should I pray? Why should I go to church? Why should I bother since God does not care about me? Oh, you just made God your worker. You're the boss, not him. That's the will.

He took him on a very high mountain and said, see all these kingdoms of the world and their glory? I'll give them to you if you bow and worship me. Imagination. I mean, think about it.

He took the Lord Jesus on a very high mountain and showed him the kingdoms of the world. How did he show him the kingdoms of the world? Through imagination. While he was in Jerusalem in Israel, actually in the south where Jericho is, you can't see the whole walls and the kingdoms of the world.

So through imagination you can go anywhere. You can go anywhere. There is no limit when it comes to imagination.

You can imagine about anything and you can put yourself there. If you want to imagine that you are sitting at this beautiful, you're on this beach looking at this beautiful crystal clear waters, you can imagine that and you'll be there. You want to imagine you're in another country, you can be there in a split second.

Imagination. When satan infiltrates our imagination, this will lead us into heathenism. We will end up worshipping the creation instead of the creator.

That's what imagination does. And look at people of the world. Worshipping creations, not the creator.

Because they've allowed the enemy to control their imagination and led them to creation. I'll give you the kingdoms of the world and all their glory. Let me tell you the secret.

The moment the enemy lost the Lord Jesus, he is bankrupt. He's got nothing to offer. But he's making you imagine that I will give you everything if you follow me.

But any creation that loses its creator, that creation is bankrupt. So what does satan got to offer? Nothing. You're going to give me the kingdoms of the world? Stick it on your forehead satan.

And all the glory that comes with it, stick it on your forehead if you've got one. I don't want it because at the end of the day, you are not going to make me fall into this imagination that I'm going to become someone so special, someone so powerful. Look what I'm going to do.

You begin to imagining things, yet he will get you so preoccupied with this imagination, you will end up a delusional person. Delusional. Maybe you'll have a kingdom on earth.

Maybe you'll have wealth on earth. Maybe you'll have glory on earth. But at the end, it's just an imagination, fantasy.

The moment I go into the grave, what was that all about? That life was about a dream at the awakening, as King David puts it. Gone. We need to pray and ask the Lord Jesus, Lord, let this intellect be yours.

Let this intellect be yours because I do not wish to end up a materialistic person. I do not wish to fight against my brother for a piece of land, for a property, for anything that is to do with materialism. Lord, let this intellect serve you.

Let this intellect be for you. You use it as you please, my Lord. And let this will be given unto you so that your will be done in me and not my will.

Like the Lord said it in the garden of Gethsemane. He cried out to his heavenly father and said, Father, let this bitter cup pass me by quickly, but let it be not my will, but your will. Because I did not come to earth to utilize you, Father, for my own benefits.

I came to serve you wholeheartedly. I will not ask anything of you. One thing I will ask, let your will be done in my life from A to Z because I'm here to work for you, to serve you and no one else.

So if the father wishes to break me, let it be his will. Will we thank God when we fail? Will we thank God when our business goes downhill? Will we thank God when we, instead of going right, we left, we took a left. Will we thank God when I asked for a healing and the illness became worse? Will you thank him or are you going to whinge and complain? If you are going to love God for giving you your wishes, you've come to the wrong God.

God will give you according to his will, not yours. So you may ask for a healing, but it will never take place. Thank him.

You may ask for a success, but you become a failure. Thank him. You may ask to go back and be part of the universal church, but the Lord says, no, I still want you outside.

Thank him. Thank him. What are you going to do? Walk away or say, let it be your will.