LIT VERSE: Luke 4:1-4

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan river and was led about by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days’ and when the days were up, he became hungry. And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone.” …. Reference to the scripture that says “He shall live on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

This means war! Jesus was finalizing His warfare readiness. Now that I think about it, this is exactly what God was trying to teach me in the early days of being full of the Holy Spirit. I was charged and alive, full of life like never before when the attack came. I remember not knowing how to handle it. It was like my mind was taken over and assaulted, and I had no power to refute the lies that were in my head. God taught me that night early in my Spirit journey that there was a battle raging around me, and I had to be ready for it.

To be ready for war, you have to train. Jesus’ basic training was being led into a desolate place where he was all alone. He didn’t eat, so his body was weak. In the wilderness, and in his weakness, the devil brought the tests. The word tempt and test are similar in the bible. To be ready for war you have to know how to handle temptation in your weakness. You must be a tried and true warrior to make it through the challenges of your calling. The first thing the Devil does is attack Jesus’ identity by saying, “If you really are the Son of God.” Jesus knew He was, but the devil wanted to cause Him to question His calling. What was even sneakier is that he used the words of scripture to raise questions in Jesus’ mind. Jesus’ answers were classic in that He used scripture to refute the lies of the enemy.

The warfare training the Spirit put Jesus through looked something like this:

Here’s the deal. The battle wasn’t over but Jesus’ basic training was. The Spirit ensured Jesus was war ready before He allowed Him to take the next step of His calling. You have to be ready for war, because the devil is going to fight you when you step into your God-Given calling.

If you want to step fully into your calling, you have to be ready for war. If you don’t know how to handle the enemy, then you are set up for failure. It’s mission critical that you Train for War. This training involves trials that will test your character, competency, and calling. In order to live out your mission, you must go through the trials, learn to depend on the Spirit and the weapons of warfare that are not of this world. When you learn these things, you are battle ready and usable. At this point you can be put into service, because you have been taught to stand firm in who you were created to be. The demons will flee when you depend on heavenly resources to overcome your obstacles.

Today I will lean into my God-Given calling and identity and use heavenly weapons to battle hellish problems. I will continue to train for war by drawing near to the Spirit and I will begin to help others get War Ready.

I AM GRATEFUL FOR… the training I have walked in. That means I am grateful for the trials that lead to my active service.