I am a Jesus pusher!!! I desperately want to be like Him. At one time that statement meant acting like Him, doing what He would do. It was WWJD (what would Jesus do?) I no longer want my life to be governed by that premise. I do not want to live for Him; I want Him to live through me! I want intimacy on the level of the sourcing of His person. I want Him to reproduce His life through me. At the moment of temptation, discovering “what Jesus would do” does not give me victory. I am not strong enough to accomplish it. I need Him to source me! This is how He had victory in temptation (Matthew 4:4). He lounged in the arms of the Father; He discovered the Father’s voice through the Scriptures.
In the first of the three final temptations, Jesus quoted, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,” (Matthew 4:4). He proceeds this quote by stating, “It is written,” (Matthew 4:4). Evidently the content of “It is written” is “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Jesus considered the Scriptures as the actual speaking of God. God is speaking through His Word and God is speaking His Word. In fact, He based His entire life experience upon the Scriptures. After His resurrection at the Emmaus Road encounter, He stated, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself,” (Luke 24:25-27). Following these moments, Jesus appeared to the disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem. He reminded them of what He taught them before His resurrection. He said, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me,” (Luke 24:44).
Jesus quoted the Scriptures in the moment of temptation not as a good luck charm or magical statement. He was intimate with the Father through the Scriptures. If I would know the Spirit of Christ as Jesus knew the Spirit of the Father, I must saturate in the Scriptures. As He is alive in me, so the Scriptures become alive to me. I want to hear His voice not as a command or order, but to know the tone and attitude of His life. Please source me, Jesus!!!