Tuesdays Together in The Word!

This past week our Bible readings have been in Luke, and I wanted to share what the Lord revealed to me as I spent time reading and studying The Word. I am reading from the Key Word Study Bible in NASB translation.

One of the first things that grabbed my attention in reading the 1st chapter of Luke was the reason that Luke wrote this letter to Theophilus. In Luke 1:4 he states "so that you might know the exact truth about the things you have been taught." The words that jumped out at me were "exact truth." Luke then proceeds to write the exact truth about the life of Jesus, "having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, " (Luke 1:3).

Do you and I know the exact truth about Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit? Do we derive that truth from the Word of God or from other sources? Do we rely on what others say they get from the Word, what others have written in books or on the internet, or do we sit down, dig in and study the Word of God for ourselves? Do we rightly divide the scriptures? I encourage you to test everything you hear and read against the scriptures, if it is contrary to what the Bible teaches and states it is not the "exact truth".

The Lord also spoke to me through chapter 4 of Luke. I am very familiar with this chapter and have studied it in depth before, but the Lord revealed something new and a little deeper to me this time! This passage is about when Jesus is in the desert for 40 days and nights and is tempted by Satan. Luke 4:1 states "And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led about by the Spirit in the wilderness." Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, and He was led about by that Spirit...

When you and I are full of the Holy Spirit we will be led about by the Spirit - and sometimes the Spirit leads us to the wilderness... we do not just end up there by an accident.

We all are probably familiar with the way that Jesus overcomes Satan's temptations, with the Word of God, the Sword of the Spirit. We have to know God's Word for ourselves... for even Satan knows and uses God's Word. The following is what I had never really noticed before - the 1st 2 times that Satan tempted Jesus he tempted Him using his own words, but the 3rd time, after Jesus had already resisted the temptations using the Word of God, Satan also decided to use the Word of God to sway Him to give in to temptation (he also did this with Eve in Genesis). That is often how Satan works, he takes the Word of God and distorts it, adds to it, or takes away from it... he changes it and uses it to make it fit his purpose and agenda. If we do not know the Word of God, if we do not know the exact truth, we can easily fall prey to his tactics. How I praise God that Jesus knows the Word of God inside out, after all He is the Living Word, and He did not fall prey to Satan's tactics.

I think it is interesting that these temptations occurred before Jesus started His public ministry - and as stated in Luke 4:14, "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit." The power of the Spirit which enabled Him to preach the gospel with authority - the power needed to fulfill the purpose for which He was sent, which was to preach the kingdom of God. (Luke 4:18-19)

Do you and I know God's Word as we should? Can we recognize improper use of it, the use of it for selfish gains or motives, as Jesus did? And can we use the Word of God as our double-edged sword to fight against the enemy of our souls and our families? In order to do this we must spend time reading, studying, and digging into the Word. The Word should be as honey to our mouth. Through spending time in the Word and with the Living Word in prayer, we also will be filled with the Spirit. And I believe that as we step out in faith and act on the Word in obedience to the promptings of the Spirit, we too will be given power through the Spirit to be able to successfully fulfill the purpose for which He has us here.

Father God, Thank You so much for the precious gifts of Your Word and Your Holy Spirit. Help us to not take them for granted, but to make full use of them. Help us to partake fully of the divine resources You have blessed us with. Give us a deeper understanding of Your Word, help us to apply it, and to be obedient to it and to the promptings of Your Spirit. Please fill us completely with Your Spirit, and empower us through Your Spirit to fulfill Your purpose for our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen.


To join others in Tuesdays Together in The Word and to get your own copy of our reading plan through Psalms, Proverbs, and the New Testament, visit DeeDee.