Thursdays With Oswald—Overcoming Temptation

April 18, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

Overcoming Temptation

     In the silent years Our Lord learned how to be; at His Baptism He had revealed to Him what He had to do; in the Temptation what to avoid. 

     …The word “temptation” is built on a Latin word meaning “to stretch.” … Temptation is the test by an alien power of the possession held by a personality. 

     …Every temptation of satan is perfectly wise. The wisest, shrewdest, subtlest things are said by satan, and they are accepted by everybody as the acme of human philosophy; but when the Spirit of God is at work in a man, instantly the hollow mockery at the heart of what satan is trying to do, is seen. When we understand the inwardness of the temptation we see how satan’s strategy is turned into confusion by the Spirit of God. 

From Bringing Sons Unto Glory

We must always remember that the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by satan (see Luke 4:1-2). The Spirit would only do this after Jesus was ready to successfully face satan’s subtle temptations.

We, just like Jesus, can be victorious over these temptations by doing what Jesus did. (1) He was fully submitted to His Heavenly Father, (2) He was sensitive to go where the Holy Spirit led Him, and (3) He uncovered the shrewd and subtle arguments of satan by using the Word of God.

The One who overcame satan’s temptations wants to help you overcome as well—

For because He Himself [in His humanity] has suffered in being tempted (tested and tried), He is able [immediately] to run to the cry of (assist, relieve) those who are being tempted and tested and tried [and who therefore are being exposed to suffering]. (Hebrews 2:18, Amplified Bible)

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Total Victory!!

March 11, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible. 

“People outside the Christian tradition spend their time arguing the divinity of Christ. People inside the Christian tradition spend their time arguing the humanity of Christ.” —Jesus: A Theography by Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola

Jesus came to earth fully human. This cannot be overstated, as it is crucial to how we can defeat temptation.

Our First Parents (Adam and Eve) listened to the tempting words of the devil, which caused them to sin against God. By this treachery, they handed over the dominion of earth to satan, and he has used that to keep people bound in deathly fear since that time (see Hebrews 2:14-15). But at the moment of sin—even as God was pronouncing judgment—there was an implicit promise made of the salvation Jesus would bring. God’s promise was that Eve’s offspring would crush satan under His foot (Genesis 3:15).

This is why it was so important that Jesus be totally human in His work on earth, that He share in our humanity in every way (Hebrews 2:14, 17).

The devil has three weapons he uses: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). Notice how he used these in his successful temptation of Adam and Eve—

  • The fruit was good for food = the lust of the flesh.
  • The fruit was pleasant to the eyes = the lust of the eyes.
  • The fruit was desirable to make one wise…to be like God = the pride of life.

Because this was successful for him, satan tempted the Second Adam (Jesus) using the exact same strategy—

  • Turn these stones to bread = the lust of the flesh.
  • I will give you the kingdom of the world and their glory = the lust of the eyes.
  • Cast yourself down from here and angels will protect you = the pride of life.

Jesus didn’t overcome these temptations because He was God. Jesus overcame them as a Man anointed by the Spirit of God! Jesus used the same weapons that are available to us: the Word of God and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Not only do we have these two weapons, but we also have a victorious Savior who is helping us!

Because Jesus overcame temptation as a Man, He is able to help those who are being tempted (Hebrews 2:18).

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet He did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

Therefore He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

Because Jesus overcame the temptations of satan as a man, you can too! 

To Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 24-25)

If you have missed any of the messages in this series called Who Is Jesus?, you can find them all here.

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Where Are You Looking?

March 10, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

JesusThis morning I shared this quote from Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola’s book Jesus: A Theography—

“When Jesus said to satan, ‘Get behind Me,’ He was acknowledging that we all live with the devil. We cannot escape evil on this earth. But as long as we are in front and he is behind us, we are protected. The devil ought not be in our line of vision but in our shadow.”

It reminds me of the old song:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

Look full in His wonderful face

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace

Stop looking at that loser named satan! Stop listening to the one who’s been defeated and whose fate is already sealed! Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus! Keep your ears tuned into His voice!

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)

Jesus says: I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. (Revelation 1:18)

And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (Revelation 20:10)

Check out more in our series Who Is Jesus?

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Preying Or Praying

October 1, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

I wrapped up our Ticked Off! series yesterday with a sad story. It appears right in the opening pages of the Bible, and it’s a story where one man’s anger preys on him, like a lion on a wounded animal.

Now Able kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Able brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Able and his offering, but on Cain and his offering He did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?” If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but YOU MUST MASTER IT.” (Genesis 4:2-7, emphasis added)

We’re not sure exactly why “the Lord looked with favor on Able and his offering, but not on Cain and his offering.” Except we know that the Bible says obedience is better than sacrifice. In other words, it’s not what they brought as a sacrifice, but how they brought their sacrifice. Apparently, Able’s heart was worshipful and Cain’s was begrudging.

Able’s heart was focused on God; Cain’s heart was focused on himself. That’s why Cain became so selfishly angry, because he wasn’t getting what he thought he deserved!

This anger was setting up Cain for disaster. Anger itself is not a sin, but unaddressed anger can put us on a slippery slope toward sin!

Notice God told Cain, “YOU must master it.” God can’t help us until we stop trying to help ourselves. God wants to help us defeat the crouching lion of sin, but we have to ask him to help us.

Sadly, there is no biblical record of Cain asking God for His help. Instead in the next verses Cain—so consumed by his anger that he cannot think straight—murders his own brother. Cain was preyed upon by anger because Cain didn’t pray about his anger.

The devil is looking for any opening at all where he can pounce on you. And Ephesians 4:26-27 says that unaddressed anger is just such an opening. Don’t let your anger defeat you as it did Cain. Confess your anger to God (Psalm 32:1-5) and let God help you defeat the crouching lion of anger.

Sin is PREYing. You must be PRAYing.

If you want to check out the other messages in our series called Ticked Off! you may click here.

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Taunting

August 6, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Coaches and parents especially don’t encourage those under their care to taunt their opponents. But the Bible does!

Seriously!

As a part of our P119 Spiritual Workout series, we looked at the section called Waw yesterday—

May Your unfailing love come to me, O Lord, Your salvation according to Your promise; then I will answer the one who taunts me, for I trust in Your Word. (Psalm 119:41-42)

“I will answer the one who taunts me.” How exactly do you answer the taunter? The word for answer here in Hebrew comes from the idea of “singing tunefully.”

You know how it feels when you have that perfect zinger—that great one-liner as a comeback to someone who’s tweaked you?

And you know how you don’t just say that zinger, but you add a musical note to it as well, just to add a little emphasis?

Well, this is what Christians can do to the devil when he taunts them! The book of Revelation tells us that satan is the accuser (the taunter) of the Christians, and that we overcome him by the blood of Jesus and the word of our testimony. But the psalmist says it’s not just plain old words, but the lilting sing-song, tuneful reply to his taunt.

We reply to our enemy’s taunts with a Scriptural-based tweak of our own. We can remind him of our total forgiveness in Christ. We can tell him how God loves us, and sent His Son to die for our sins, and how the Holy Spirit has been given to us as a deposit guaranteeing that we are now in Christ. We can use the Bible to tunefully taunt the taunter with the truth of God’s Word.

Don’t just silently take it when the enemy accuses you. Don’t get mad. But shut him up by answering him with a song right from God’s Word!

If you have missed any of the messages in our P119 series, you can access them all by clicking here.

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Thursdays With Oswald—Me, Me, Me

May 10, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

Me, Me, Me

     The greatest peril is the peril within, which men never think of as a peril. My right to myself, self-pity, self-conceit, consideration for my progress, my ways of looking at things, those things are the satanic perils which will keep us in perfect sympathy with satan…. 

     In all probability satan is as much upset as the Holy Spirit is when men fall in external sin, but for a different reason. When men go into external sin and upset their lives, satan knows perfectly well that they will want another Ruler, a Savior and Deliverer; as long as satan can keep men in peace and unity and harmony apart from God, he will do so (see Luke 11:21-22). Remember, then, satan’s sin is dethroning God. 

From Biblical Psychology

My natural bent is to internalize. In other words, I want to ponder my circumstances, think about solutions myself, and reach my own conclusion. This, Oswald Chambers says, is dangerous.

When I’m thinking subjectively, everything runs through the filter of me, me, me. But when I verbalize—when I get my thoughts out in the open—the Holy Spirit can use God’s Word to help me think objectively.

I need an objective, external standard to keep me on the right path. If I keep it all inside, my natural subjective bent (that all of us humans have) will lead me down the path of quietly dethroning God and enthroning myself.

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Victory!

May 2, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Twice in Romans 7, the Apostle Paul uses the phrase “but sin, seizing the opportunity” (vv. 8, 11).

Sin always seizes any opportunity it gets. The devil always prowls around looking for an opportunity to tempt and destroy. And my flesh is always only too eager to give in to the pull of sin and the devil (v. 25).

If we want victory over sin and the devil, we have to be AWARE and be PREPARED.

“When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left Jesus until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13).

The devil will bide his time.

“…satan has asked to sift you as wheat…” (Luke 22:31).

It’s not always the big shakings that will cause us to sin, but the little siftings can wear us down.

“Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith…” (1 Peter 5:8-9).

“Keep awake and watch and pray constantly, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38).

If you haven’t been tempted lately, or if you’ve recently overcome a temptation, stay humble. “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

And then stay ready: “Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11).

A warrior in a combat zone never has a single day he is without his armor.

There’s a time to take a stand against the devil: “So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

And there’s a time to run toward something else: “Shun youthful lusts and flee from them, and aim at and pursue righteousness…” (2 Timothy 2:22).

Victory is yours IF you will be aware and be prepared. You don’t have to give in to the devil’s temptation to sin! Fight victoriously today!

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Temptation

April 3, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Have you ever thought, “Well, of course Jesus could say ‘no’ to temptation! After all, He is God.”

Yes, Jesus is fully God. But He is also fully Man. And it was as a Man that He defeated temptation.

“As a Man, without using any of His divine powers, Jesus defeated temptation in the same areas where Eve failed and where we fail. … By this He condemned sin in sinful man, that is, He showed we sin, not because we have to sin, but because we choose to sin and because we ignore the help available through the Word and the Spirit.” —Stanley Horton

We don’t have to sin, but we choose to sin.

Ouch!

“In His temptation, Jesus did not use His divine power to defeat the devil. Still identifying Himself with us as Spirit-filled human, He defeated satan by the same means that are available to us — the Word, anointed by the Spirit. Eve, tempted in exactly the same areas—the lust of the flesh (appetite), the lust of the eyes (desire), and the pride of life—failed (Genesis 3:6; 1 John 2:16). In these areas, which John says together comprise the things of the world or worldliness (1 John 2:15). Jesus won a complete victory for us. He has truly overcome the world (John 16:33). We can do the same by our faith (1 John 5:4).” —Stanley Horton

We can do the same thing. Instead of saying, “I gave in to temptation,” we can say, “I gave in to the Holy Spirit, Who helped me defeat temptation!”

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Defeating Temptation

January 18, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

In probably the best-known prayer, the one Jesus taught us to pray, there is a line I have breezed past way too many times without thinking more about it. It says, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13).

This prayer is addressed to our Heavenly Father, the One Who is all-loving and all-powerful. God loves us and He gives us His power. Even power to defeat temptation.

Sometimes we have to battle the same temptation again and again and again. Perhaps we have seen that we are overcoming that temptation more times than we’re being overcome by it; perhaps not. Sometimes it’s a totally new temptation that sneaks up on us each time. In either case, God knows what temptation we are going to face.

This line of the prayer is really saying, “God, please don’t bring me into battle with a temptation I’m not ready to face. Help me to be ready to overcome that temptation when it comes” (see 1 Corinthians 10:13; James 1:13-17).

NEWS FLASH—Instead of waiting to pray for help until I’m facing a temptation (a reactive prayer), I can pray for God’s help before I even face the temptation (a proactive prayer).

In my mind, proactive is way better than reactive!

Check out what John Bunyan learned about this—

“…I did not, when I was delivered from the temptation that went before, still pray to God to keep me from the temptations that were to come; for though, as I can say in truth, my soul was much in prayer before this trial seized me, yet then I prayed only, or at the most principally, for the removal of present troubles, and for fresh discoveries of His love in Christ, which I saw afterwards was not enough to do; I also should have prayed that the great God would keep me from the evil that was to come. … This I had not done, and therefore was thus suffered to sin and fall, according to what is written, Pray that ye enter not into temptation. And truly this very thing is to this day of such weight and awe upon me, that I dare not, when I come before the Lord, go off my knees, until I entreat Him for help and mercy against the temptations that are to come; and I do beseech thee, reader, that thou learn to beware of my negligence, by the afflictions, that for this thing I did for days, and months, and years, with sorrow undergo.”

What would happen if the next time you are facing a temptation you could say, “Hello, temptation! I’ve already prayed about you, and my Heavenly Father has already given me strength to defeat you”? Don’t you think you would be much more successful? I do!

►► Would you please prayerfully consider supporting this ministry? My Patreon supporters get behind-the-scenes access to exclusive materials. ◀︎◀︎

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Sin

December 21, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

I know in politically correct circles it’s not very chic to talk about sin. After all, we’re not supposed to impose our personal values on someone else, right?

Well, I do believe in right and wrong, and the wrong is called sin. So if you are offended by me calling something sin, it would be best for you to stop reading now.

Are you still with me? Then read this: satan…incited David to sin… (1 Chronicles 21:1).

Incited means this wasn’t a straight-up fight. Sin seldom makes a bold, in-your-face attack. Sin isn’t really an ambush. It’s sort of a whispering campaign.

  • Sin is an appeal to ego
  • Sin is a half-truth
  • Sin is an attempt to be subtle
  • Sin is so innocent looking

The Bible says satan lurks like a lion in the underbrush (1 Peter 5:8).

He waits for the perfect opportunity to strike (Luke 4:13).

satan is sneaky (Genesis 3:1).

He lies (John 8:44).

He distorts the truth (Luke 4:9-11).

That’s why I cannot give sin an inch. I have to take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5), and pull everything into the light of The Truth (John 3:20-21).

[Check out all of these verses by clicking here]

It’s not usually the blatant sin that brings down great men and women, but the subtle. So stay on your guard. Always!

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