Jesus answered, “The Scriptures say:
Bread alone will not satisfy,
But true life is found in every word
That constantly goes forth from God’s mouth.”
Matthew 4:4 TPT
Greg and I have been part of CSC for 20 years now. That is a long time! One thing I really appreciate about CSC is all of the opportunities it’s offered for me to grow as a follower of Jesus. Over the years, many ministries and communities within CSC have been hugely influential. In particular, God has used Women of Heart, Vantage Point 3, Deeper, and 3DM to teach me about who He created me to be and how to develop and put into practice the strengths and gifts He’s given me to build up the Body. It’s been awesome.
Recently, I’ve been learning a lot about imitating Jesus’ life. I’ve learned to read Scripture looking for how Jesus did life so that I can seek to live the same way. As I’ve looked at Jesus’ life, I’ve seen again and again that the most dominant characteristic of His life was His radical dependence on His Father. Jesus let Himself receive His identity from His Father (e.g. Mk 1:10-11). He lived rooted in that Source. He spent lots of time in the presence of His Father (e.g. Mk 1:35). He delighted in His connection with His Father (e.g. Jn 17). He constantly listened to His Father. He did and said only what His Father instructed (e.g. Jn 8:28). This truly is a radical dependence.
In reading through Matthew 4 a while ago, I noticed something new to me about Jesus’ temptations. I was struck by a recurring theme. It seems to me that the devil’s whole attack strategy was to get Jesus to move away from that radical dependence on God and call the shots Himself instead.
As a member of the Trinity, Jesus had every right to call those shots Himself. But He became fully human and chose to give up those rights and be totally dependent on God all the time (Phil 2:5-8). Because He did that, we have a model we can relate to and imitate! In His temptations, I see Jesus saying to the devil, in effect,
1. “I feed on God’s word. Listening to Him is more important even than eating.” (See Mt 4:4)
2. “I can’t put Him to the test. I yield to Him. I wait for Him.” (See Mt 4:7)
3. “It is God whom I love, not my role as king. I do what He says.” (See Mt 4:10)
These are powerful examples for us to imitate. Additionally, the fact that the devil tried this strategy on Jesus Himself helps to explain why living this way is so hard for us regular humans. The devil uses this strategy on us all the time too! If he can get us to stop depending on, loving and trusting God and can get us to take control of things ourselves at any given time, he renders us useless in God’s kingdom for that time. I’m reminded of Jesus’ words in John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me, you will bear much fruit. Apart from Me you can do nothing.”
This is really hard. We want control, to put it mildly. However, I have glimpses of the revolutionary change that can happen when we live like Jesus in this way. I’ve seen it in Greg’s life over the past few years, and I’ve seen it in mine. We are living more freely, with more joy, more emotional capacity and more spiritual authority. We both have more love and capacity for God, for each other, for our loved ones, and for our neighbours and others who don’t know Him yet. An example of this is that we now have ongoing, growing friendships with several neighbours. We used to have no margin or energy for that. But God changed us! We continue to pray for (and trust in) God’s leading in these relationships.
My trust in God has increased exponentially as I allow myself to listen to Him daily in order to receive His perspective of me and of my life. It’s always great news! He is healing deeper layers of my past and redeeming them. God is also empowering Greg and me to equip other leaders to disciple and equip others (often together, which is really fun). And we are seeing Spirit-fruit in ourselves and in others like never before. It’s tremendously exciting. And there is so much more for us to learn, experience, and give out.
Don’t get me wrong. Life is still hard and messy and exhausting, often. But this way of living is so much lighter and joyful than before that we would never, ever go back. We hunger for more of Him because there’s always more to be had!
I could go on. We are never too seasoned as believers to be radically changed by imitating Jesus in these ways. I am convinced that imitating Jesus’ radical intimacy with and dependence on the Father is the Source from which all other Spirit-fruit flows. We are all invited to this. What a marvelous invitation!
Jesus prayed,
“I have revealed to them who You are
And will continue to make You even more real to them,
So that they may experience the same endless love
That You have for me,
For Your love will now live in them,
Even as I live in them!”
John 17:26 TPT