![]() This emphatically does not mean snatched away, as some have tried to make the point that the spirit picked our Lord up and bodily moved Him to the desert. Christ was going from the low point of the Jordan River (just a few miles from the lowest land elevation on the planet) to the rough wilderness above. This point can be figurative, as in the case of spiritual maturity, or literal, as in this instance. The verb itself means to lead from a lower to a higher point. The constantive aorist tense summarizes the past action into one moment of time. The verb is in the passive voice, which indicates that our Lord did not produce the action of the verb but instead received it. ![]() Matthew 4:1, “Then Jesus was led up into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil.” The question is this: How did Christ know to go to the desert at that time? Here is what we do know: One of the best illustrations of the Messianic guidance which Christ received from Old Testament prophecy is His wilderness temptation. Bible verses do not provide direct guidance concerning where we should go or what we should do and there is no kind of twilight zone guidance from the pages of scripture. Events in the Bible are not types for our lives. We do not have personal prophecies about our lives as Christ did, and therefore we must avoid the Messiah syndrome with reference to divine guidance. He let the opportunities present themselves within the integrity of the way that He conducted His life, and then He fulfilled them. Christ knew that He would fulfill prophecy He did not manipulate events so that He would and thus look good. The wise decisions that Christ made in prophecy fulfillment were always kept within the constraint of His perfect character. When He determined from His store of wisdom that it was time to fulfill a certain prophecy, then He did so with full confidence. Christ knew these prophecies quite well as a part of His expertise on the Old Testament canon of scripture. The unique part of divine guidance for Christ was that the Messianic prophecies related to the first advent. If you stay with what is just for us as church age believers you will go the right way. Some believers in history have attempted to use the unique way in which Christ was led, and therefore ended up with disaster. That’s my take.Jesus Christ functioned under a system of divine guidance that was both similar to and unique from that used by church age believers. Divine guidance, on the other hand, transcends all that. They are both language driven…they just tell two different stories. This is the premise I’m now working from, rather than thinking these two things come from two different sources. So, Ego may assume the voice of love or the voice of fear. And for good measure, it can remind me that I’m not good enough, but that if I don’t get it done NOW, everything will be ruined. It might decide to be helpful and create something totally practical and achievable, bringing to mind past accomplishments that can bolster my thoughts about it all…or it may play its tricks, making me feel like it all has to be done at once, the surest road to chaos and failure. It isn’t going to expect anything from me, either.Įgo, on the other hand, can take the information from my guidance and then run with it. Now that I’ve come to the conclusion that Divine Guidance doesn’t rely on language to communicate with me, I want to tweak today’s pairing to read that it will “…take you closer to your purpose by revealing one doable step at a time toward the goal.” Divine Guidance isn’t going to hand me an outline to execute. Instead of baby steps, Ego says you have to jump off the cliff to make it happen. Instead of helping you take proactive steps, it paralyzes you in fear with an all or nothing approach. ![]() Ego causes discord and wreaks havoc on your thoughts and emotions. ĭivine Guidance will help you improve areas which will bring you peace and take you closer to your purpose by giving you doable step by step instructions, one piece at a time. An ongoing personal exploration of Divine Guidance and distinguishing between the voice of fear and the voice of love reflecting on the article, How to Distinguish Between Divine Guidance and Fear/Ego/Imagination, on Sir Froggie’s PositiveNews Network.
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