The Three Temptations - Part 11
The first Adam fell, along with his wife, when they deviated from what God had directed them to do, and decided to go their own way, convincing themselves that they knew better than God about what was best for them.
**“**And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was delightful to look at, and a tree to be desired in order to make one wise and insightful, she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.”—Genesis 3:6 (AMP)
Jamie Lash has said that all willful sin is the result of a belief that there is something good for us outside of God’s will. Of course, that is not true, as the first Adam found out soon enough.
Jesus (the last Adam) was able to overcome the second temptation because He was not living for Himself. He lived to serve the will of His Father.
“Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come To do Your will, O God—[To fulfill] what is written of Me in the scroll of the book.’”—Hebrews 10:7 (AMP)
“Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to completely finish His work.’”—John 4:34 (AMP)
Having No Reputation
Jesus was not swayed by what people thought of Him and His ministry. He did not allow the words or actions of others to move Him from God’s will even to the slightest degree, no matter how much they pressured Him.
“At daybreak he appeared again in the Temple, and all the people came to him. So he sat down and began to teach them. But the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery. After setting her before them, they told him, ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in the very act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women to death. What do you say?’ They said this to test him, so that they might have a charge against him. But Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.
“When they persisted in questioning him, he straightened up and told them, ‘Let the person among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Then he bent down again and continued writing on the ground.”—John 8:2-8 (ISV)
He always did what His Father wanted Him to do, even if it might look foolish or shameful to others.
At the height of ministry successes, he often sent people home, disbanding meetings just as they seemed to reach their peak attendance. Modern-day ministers might think that this is exactly the wrong thing to do if you want to build a successful ministry. But Jesus often did this to keep His appointments with His Father, spending nights alone with His Father in intimate times of prayer.
Jesus had the most successful ministry in the history of the world, but He didn’t care about building a big ministry. He didn’t care about building a big name for Himself. Jesus didn’t care about preserving His reputation because He had no reputation to protect. He chose to lay down His reputation and make Himself of *no *reputation in order to do the will of His Father.
In order to overcome the second temptation, we also need to lay down our reputations and be willing to do whatever God leads us to do—or *not *to do—as we wait on God’s timing.
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”—Philippians 2:5-11 (NKJV)
Lay Down Your Life as a Bondservant to God
Those who will overcome the second temptation will not jump ahead of God’s timing. They will not go their own way. They will have the mind of Christ as described in Philippians 2:5-11. Like Jesus, they will humble themselves and become obedient, even to the point of death.
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”—Revelation 12:11 (KJV)
In his book, The Final Quest, Rick Joyner describes his encounter with a man named Angelo who had been homeless, deaf, and poor in his life on earth, and yet was seated on one of the highest thrones in Heaven among the Overcomers.
God told Rick that Angelo had been a martyr. Rick questioned God about that, wondering how this homeless man could have become a martyr for Christ, living on the streets of an American city.
The Lord answered, “He froze to death trying to keep alive an old wino who had passed out in the cold.”
But the Lord continued, “Angelo was a martyr every day that he lived. He would only do enough for himself to stay alive, and he gladly sacrificed his life to save a needy friend. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, even if you give your body to be burned, but do not have love, it counts as nothing. But when you give yourself with love, it counts for much.
“Angelo died every day, because he did not live for himself, but for others. Even though he always considered himself the least of the saints, he was truly one of the greatest. As you have already learned, many of those who consider themselves the greatest, and are considered by others to be the greatest, end up being the least here. Angelo did not die for a doctrine, or even for his testimony, but he did die for Me.” (Joyner)
“There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”—John 15:13 (NLT)
Jesus “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant” **(**Philippians 2:7 NKJV).
To overcome the second temptation, we also must follow Jesus in taking upon ourselves the commitment of a bondservant daily, as Paul did.
“[I assure you] by the pride which I have in you in [your fellowship and union with] Christ Jesus our Lord, that I die daily [I face death every day and die to self].”—1 Corinthians 15:31 (AMPC)
The bondservant commitment is the highest form of commitment to the Lord Jesus, and it is the one with the greatest rewards. It is first described in Exodus 21:5-7:
“However, if the slave clearly states, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children, and I don’t want to go free,’ then his master will bring him before God. He will bring him to the door or the doorpost. There his master will pierce his ear with a pointed tool, and he will serve him as his slave for life.” (CEB)
A person who made a bondservant commitment to his master no longer had any rights to his own life. He belonged totally to his master. A bondservant served his master for love, not money. He was usually not paid. He usually owned nothing, but everything he needed was provided by his master. He had no rights to any free time for himself. He had no rights to a personal life and no plans for a future outside of his life with the master. His personal fulfillment in life came from serving his master from a heart of love.
Today, many Christian leaders insist on titles, however, when the leaders of the early Church wrote their epistles, the most common title they used for themselves was bondservant of Jesus Christ. Whatever their functions were in the Church, when they introduced themselves, they often introduced themselves first as Christ’s bondservants.
“Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God”—Romans 1:1 (NKJV)
“Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons”—Philippians 1:1 (NKJV)
“Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”—Colossians 4:12 (NKJV)
“Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ …”—Titus 1:1 (NKJV)
“James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ …”— James 1:1 (NKJV)
**“**Simon Peter, **a bondservant **and apostle of Jesus Christ …”— 2 Peter 1:1 (NKJV)
**“**Jude, **a bondservant of Jesus Christ, **and brother of James …”— Jude 1:1 (NKJV)
The bondservants of Jesus are the most highly esteemed group of believers in the Kingdom of God. They hold the highest rank, and they are the ones who receive the greatest eternal rewards.
The bondservants of Jesus are sometimes called by other names in Scripture. In the book of Revelation, they are often referred to as the Overcomers. This group receives the highest rewards in the Kingdom of God.
“To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”—Revelation 2:7 (NKJV)
“He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”—Revelation 2:11 (NKJV)
“To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.”—Revelation 2:17 (NKJV)
“And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—
‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’—
as I also have received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.”—Revelation 2:26-28 (NKJV)
“He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”—Revelation 3:5 (NKJV)
“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.”—Revelation 3:12 (NKJV)
“To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”—Revelation 3:21 (NKJV)
“He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.”—Revelation 21:7 (NKJV)
In fact, without a bondservant commitment to Jesus Christ, you will not be able to fully understand the book of Revelation. The mysteries of that book are only given to the bondservants of Jesus to understand.
“[This is] the revelation of Jesus Christ [His unveiling of the divine mysteries]. God gave it to Him to disclose and make known to His bond servants certain things which must shortly and speedily come to pass in their entirety. And He sent and communicated it through His angel (messenger) to His bond servant John”—Revelation 1:1 (AMPC)
“Then he said to me, ‘These words are faithful and true.’ And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent His angel [as a representative] to show His bond-servants the things that must soon take place.”—Revelation 22:6 (AMP)
The bondservants are also called the Bride of Christ. It is error to believe that the entire Church will be the Bride of Christ. Thorough reading of Jesus’ teaching easily disproves that false belief.
For example, in Matthew chapter 25, there are ten virgins. They are all waiting for the Bridegroom, but only five of them are allowed into the wedding feast. The others are turned away with the Bridegroom’s rejection, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, I do not know you [we have no relationship]” (Matthew 25:12 AMP).
How can these five foolish virgins be part of the Bride of Christ when they are not even allowed into the wedding feast? That would be ridiculous.
There are many other passages in Scripture that completely disprove the false belief that every believer will be a part of the Bride of Christ. It is delusional to believe that Jesus would join Himself in marriage to believers who have never pursued a loving relationship with Him and have made no effort to become compatible with Him by being transformed through the renewing of their minds (as Paul described in Romans 12:2) to be conformed to the image of Christ (as Paul described in Romans 8:29).
Salvation is free, but those who obtain the highest ranks and rewards in the Kingdom of God go beyond the salvation experience and pay the price to die daily to themselves by committing themselves as bondservants to Jesus Christ.
It would be worthwhile to establish a simple, daily ceremony of personal commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. As a prophetic act, you could place your ear against the doorpost of your own home, offering it to the Lord as an act of love and devotion to receive His mark of ownership, laying down your life and your reputation to forevermore live as a bondservant of Jesus Christ.
“Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.** **For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.’”—Luke 9:23-24 (NKJV)
“You were made for God, not vice versa, and life is about letting God use you for his purposes, not your using him for your own purpose.” (Warren, p.18)
References:
Joyner, R. The Final Quest (The Final Quest Series Book 1) (p. 82). MorningStar Publications. Kindle Edition.
Warren, R. (2002). The Purpose Driven Life. Zondervan.
