What Was Jesus Thinking--The Temptation

Phil 2:5--KJV--Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus

The NLT reads it this was:  You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

When I looked up the word 'let' in Strong's Concordance, part of the definitions of the original Greek word means:  to be of the same mind, and cherish the same views.

Therefore, it would be safe to say that Paul was encouraging believers to think like Jesus thought.

Let's expand that in Phil. 2:6--KJV--Who being in the form of God
Jesus was all man because he was born of a virgin, and was in the form of God because God made man in His image. See Gen. 1

Phil. 2:6--KJV--thought in not robbery to be equal with God.
Jesus didn't think that it was robbery to think about things the way that God thought about them. 

His mother Mary and his stepfather Joseph told him all of his life that He was the Son of God. He grew up being told the truth about Himself. That truth happened to be what God said about him and what the Old Testament prophets prophesied about Him. Who He was and what God had planned on doing with and for Him had been ingrained in Him all of His life. 

Let me interject this point right here. How powerful and successful could we be as born again believers if all that we thought about was what the Word of God said about us. Admit it. We, and our finite minds are our own worst enemies because we have been trained to think about ourselves only in the realm of what everybody else thinks about us and what circumstances around us dictate.

Let's go a step further. How would our children turn out if all we talked about at home was who they were in Christ Jesus and the plans that God had for them. (Health, wealth, love, joy, peace, etc.) Wouldn't that change the future quite a bit?

Back to Jesus. Remember, we want to think like Him so let's dabble a little into His thought life. He grew up knowing Who He was and what He was going to do. (Remember, thanks to Mom and Dad) When it came time, He found His cousin, John the Baptist, and offered Himself to be baptized. As He came up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended on Him like a dove. Matthew 3:17 declares--And lo, a voice from Heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased.

Jesus was raised by parents who constantly told Him Who He was and now God Himself declares to all that heard it----This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased. On top of that, He was filled the the Holy Presence of the Creator God.

Now keep in mind that there are no second or third rate Holy Spirits. There is only one Holy Spirit. Romans 8:11 reminds us that we are filled with the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. We didn't get a watered down or cheap version of the Presence of the Creator God. We got the real and only deal. The Holy Spirit doesn't age and weaken as time goes by. He is just as strong, energetic and viable today as He was long before Creation. And He will work Himself just as strong inside believers (not doubters) as He has always done. He will not fail to carry out God's Word for any believer.

Still wet with the water of the Jordan River, Matthew 4:1, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to go into the wilderness to be tempted. The Greek word 'peirazo' has a very interesting meaning. Let me quote from Strong's Concordance. "to try, to make trial of, for the purpose of ascertaining his quality, or what he thinks, or how he will behave himself." 

Jesus had lived as a man for thirty years. Now He is filled with The Creative Force. Before He started any kind of healing and deliverance ministry, He gladly followed the leading of the Holy Spirit to have a confrontation with the devil. Why? It was more important for Him to 'ascertain the quality' of this Abiding Presence than it was to revel in the glory of man's praises. It was more important for Him to test His thinking and behavioral characteristics than to preach a sermon on a mountain top to 5,000 people.

I sincerely believe that it was more important to Jesus that He personally, one-on-one, meet face-to-face with His ages long personal enemy, the devil. Just like armies used to do as described in 1 Samuel when David defeated Goliath. Armies used to line up some distance apart and yell insults at each other before they went to battle. Jesus wasn't going just to see if He could spar with the devil. Jesus knew that the devil's defeat and destruction was a forgone conclusion. He was now a human being filled with the Creative Power of Almighty God. 

While he was still alive and racing cars, Dale Earnhardt was known as The Intimidator. But, he wasn't the first one. Jesus eagerly went into the wilderness to fast for forty days and then to meet His, His Father's and the entire world's No. 1 enemy, satan himself. Jesus was going to 'ascertain the quality' of the Holy Spirit inside of Himself. He knew that satan was no match for the Creative Force that brought him into being in the first place and that kicked him out of Heaven in the second place.

Satan opened up with, "If you are the Son of God." Jesus had no doubt that He was the Son of God. Turning stones to bread and jumping off a pinnacle of the temple wasn't going to prove to anybody Who He was. Casting demons out and healing the sick would do that.

Bet you didn't realize that Jesus had a little smart aleck  streak in Him did you? When satan suggested that Jesus jump off a pinnacle of the temple, Jesus told the devil that it was wrong for him to tempt the Lord his God. With a backhanded slap in the face, Jesus continued to enforce the rules of engagement in this eternal war. Jesus thought and He spoke from the vantage point of Who God said He was and Who God made Him to be. Filled with the Creative Force of God, Jesus told the devil, "I don't bow down to you. You bow down to the God that lives inside of Me."

Jesus never thought of the devil as being the superior force that He needed to conquer. He thought of the devil as the powerless pest he really was. He never once thought that the devil  would be able to refuse a command that He made. As a matter of fact, one of the next things that Jesus said was for the devil to get away from Him. And guess what. That's exactly what the devil did.

Paul learned this by spending time in God's Holy Presence and not just from knowing the Word only. That's why he told us in Romans 12 NOT to be conformed to the way the world does things but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It would behoove all of us to spend more time in God's presence and allow the Creative Force to revitalize our thinking. Fill your mind and you thought patterns with the promises of God and be aware of what God wants to do through you. He surely sent the Holy Spirit to us for more than just a feel-goody type thing. He sent the Holy Spirit to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8

More Jesus thinking stuff to come.