© 2024 Philip M Spence
Because sonship is the key to becoming powerful, effective people of God, the devil strongly targets our identity as sons. The Bible tells us that we should be alert and aware of the devil’s strategies and schemes which means that sons of God must guard and protect their identity. The devil’s agenda is identity theft, so a son must ensure his identity is secure (Ephesians 4:27; 6:10-18).
Jesus, the Son of God, faced a sustained attack on His identity after He had fasted for forty days in the desert and was hungry, weak and vulnerable. The devil interrupted His preparation to begin His ministry and twice questioned if He really is the Son of God (Luke 4:1-15, Matthew 4:1-11).
The testings that Jesus endured from the devil were not to see if He was strong enough to resist temptation; they were a direct attack on His identity as the Son of the Father. The devil’s strategy is clear; he tried to sabotage Jesus’ mission before He even started. He tried to abort the purposes of God and neutralise Jesus by undermining His identity as the Son of God. If Jesus had denied His identity, He would not have been able to fulfil the mandate given to Him by the Father and redemption would not have been achieved for us.
This strategy of the devil is still his primary and most effective scheme, and its purpose is to render the people of God useless to the advancement of the Kingdom of God. So many believers do not know who they are in Christ, and therefore they have a servant mentality.
However, if we believe in Jesus, and have received Him, we have the privilege and right to become sons of God. We should never let the devil, other people, circumstances, disappointments, betrayals, feelings, or anything else rob us of our identity as sons of God (Romans 8:31-39).
The devil tried a number of ways to steal Jesus' identity. He still uses the same strategy today. However, Kingdom people must not allow the devil to continue to have generational success with this strategy. We must wake up from our slumber and reinforce our identity as sons of God.
Provision
The devil’s attempt at identity theft began with an appeal to Jesus’ flesh or senses. Jesus had been without food and shelter for forty days, so he was not only hungry; He was physically weak, and psychologically and emotionally vulnerable. The devil questioned His identity as the Son of God, and suggested that He should use His power to meet His physical need. His inference was that if Jesus didn’t turn stones to bread, He didn’t have the power, which must mean He isn’t the Son of God. In fact, the devil used the word of God to try to give credibility to his approach.
The temptation was for Jesus to act in the flesh, and to preserve Himself. The test was whether He would use the power of God to look after Himself at the direction of the devil. The Son of God, secure in His identity, would not do such a thing because He knows that His Father has everything in hand and there are bigger issues that our fleshly needs (Luke 4:3-4, Matthew 4:3-4).
Sons know that their Father knows their needs before they ask Him (Matthew 6:9). Sons also know that they don’t have to worry about what they will eat, drink, or wear because they have confidence in their Father to provide. Instead, sons pursue the advancement of the Kingdom of God and His Kingdom’s order, knowing that everything they need will be provided (Matthew 6:25-33).
The devil still today attempts to erode our confidence in God, and therefore undermine our identity as sons. He will seduce us to worry about fleshly things, pursue fleshly things, and depend on fleshly things instead of being people of the Spirit whose trust is in their Heavenly Father. Sons know their identity, guard their identity, and fulfil their Kingdom mandate because of their identity.
Protection
The second part of the devil’s strategy was an appeal to Jesus’ fears. The devil again tried to sow seeds of doubt about His identity as the Son of God. He then suggested that Jesus should throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple and see if the angels would save Him. Again the devil used the Word of God to justify his approach. The question Jesus would have asked if He wasn’t secure in His identity is: If I throw myself off this pinnacle will my Father protect me and save me?
However, Jesus didn’t get to that point because He stopped listening when the devil questioned Him again about His identity. His response was that the devil should stop trying to undermine His identity. He then reminded the devil that being the Son of God meant that the devil is inferior to Him (Luke 4:9-12, Matthew 4:5-7).
Jesus gave His people authority and power over the devil and his works (Luke 9:1). As sons of God we are above the devil and his forces. We have nothing to fear from them because they have no place in the sons of God just as they had no place in Jesus, and there is no longer any place for them in heaven (John 14:30; Revelation 12:8).
Promotion
The final stage of the devil’s strategy was to launch an appeal to Jesus’ ego and entice Him to act out of pride. He took Him to a place that was high enough to see all the kingdoms of this world. From there the devil offered Jesus all of these kingdoms, along with their glory, and the authority to match being king over many kingdoms. To the natural mind this would have been a deal not to refuse.
The devil’s condition for this promotion was simply that Jesus only had to worship him. The devil was sure that in His weakened and vulnerable state, Jesus would see how good an offer this was and accept it. I’m sure he thought this one would be a slam dunk (Luke 4:5-8; Matthew 4:9-11).
However, from the perspective of being the Son of the One True God, the Creator of all things, and the Ever Existing One, it was a terrible offer. However, if Jesus had not been focused on His identity and mission, He possibly could have fallen prey to the devil’s temptation. But Jesus, knowing who He is and from whom He had come, rejected the devil’s offer by reaffirming His allegiance to His Father in heaven.
The devil was trying to appeal to Jesus by offering Him a promotion. However, only a servant would think that the kingdoms of the world would be tempting, and only someone susceptible to pride would be interested in the kind of promotion being offered by the devil. As the Son of God, Jesus had already been given the Kingdom of Heaven, possessed the authority of His Father, and had an eternal perspective.
Sons of God who walk humbly before God are focused on what they already have because of their identity. They do not overestimate themselves because they are secure in their identity (Romans 12:3). They instinctively know that their Father in Heaven will promote them in His good time for His glory (James 4:10; 1 Peter 5:5-10). They understand that the things of this world pale in comparison to what is theirs as sons of their Father in Heaven. They also know that in His grace is everything needed to fulfil their mission (Ephesians 4:7).
Power
The devil’s strategies place before us an appeal to not be Spirit filled and Spirit empowered. Sons of God are not distracted by the things of the flesh and are not cowed by the powers of darkness. Sons of God know they are approved because they are sons, and they refuse to go off on a tangent for any reason because they are focused on doing the will of the Father.
When sons of God respond to the things of this world as Jesus did, they will know the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives as Jesus did. After Jesus had rejected all the devil’s approaches, He returned in the power of the Holy Spirit from the desert where He had fasted (Luke 4:14-15). He might have been physically weak, but this was eclipsed by the evidence of the supernatural power of God upon His life.
What followed gives us a precedent regarding becoming sons. Jesus went into the synagogue and was given a scroll to do a reading. He chose to read from Isaiah 61:1-2, and when He had given the reading, He amazed all the listeners by telling them that this was His mission statement (Luke 4:16-22). Jesus announced His intention and then stepped into the function of being the Father’s Son.
Jesus told His people that He was sending them the Holy Spirit just as His Father had sent Him (John 20:21). Then He assured them that this meant that the Holy Spirit would empower them to fulfil their Kingdom mission (Acts 1:8). We know from the book of Acts that the Apostles went out preaching the gospel of the Kingdom and doing miracles. They raised spiritual sons who did likewise.
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Phil Spence is an author, speaker, mentor and musician. He leads Enlarj, a relational apostolic network influencing more than 20 nations. He oversees School of the Kingdom in many of these nations. Phil is internationally recognised as an apostle. Phil may be contacted via phil@enlarj.com
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