Today I was preaching in my house church Mosaik on Luke 4, and I’d like to share with you the unique relationship between the Holy Spirit and satan that is presented there. Not relationship in the sense that light has anything to do with darkness, but in the sense that when you are baptised in the Holy Spirit, He may take you to where satan lives to beat him up:

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’ ”   

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.”   Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” 

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully;   they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ ”   Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’  ”    When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

(Luke 4:1-13)

In prior to this, Jesus was baptised by John in the Jordan river, and at the same time He was baptised in the Holy Spirit by God the Father, who spoke in an audible voice and called Him His beloved Son. And note that Jesus was then led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where He fasted for forty days until He finally got hungry, and was tempted by the devil. The Spirit sent Jesus to satan.

You see, to be filled with the Spirit isn’t free. It requires sacrifice, fasting and resistance to temptation. Jesus’ baptism was a dramatic turning point in His life, but He didn’t go out to heal the sick immediately. First, He had to give everything up and fast in the desert.

I think that many times we want the baptism in the Holy Spirit, but we’re not willing to fast in the desert. We want the cookies from God without making sacrifices. But you have to die from yourself if you want God to create a new man in you. Only those who take up their cross and follow Him can be His disciples, according to what He said in Luke 14:27.

So Spiritual baptism requires sacrifice, and with sacrifice follows temptation. The devil will without exception attack everyone who are filled with the Spirit. The more you seek God the more dangerous you will be for satan. The devil tried three temptations on the Son of God: turning stones to bread to break His fast, become a Satanist and earn all earthly power there is, and make a suicide attempt to be rescued by angels.

Jesus refused to obey satan by showing that his temptations contradicted the Word of God. He chose to follow the Spirit instead, and He did indeed do bread miracles, meet angels and He was given “all the power” (Mt 28:18). The Spirit still wanted to test if His trinitarian buddy was loyal to the Father, how much then won’t the Spirit test our loyalty? Deserts will come when we walk with Good, they’re part of the package, but we can be confident in that God always is with us in the desert, and He will not let us go through harder trials than what we are able to manage (1 Cor 10:13).