Recently, my son and a bunch of kids on his track team were giving a hard time to a brother of one of their teammates who did not run with the team.  They really had no real reason to do it other than the fact that this kid was different than them.  It reminded me of a time when a good friend of mine confronted me about always making fun of him.  I was a little taken aback but I understood, it made him feel bad and here I was a friend but made him feel like he was not good enough.  It was not my intent, but God showed me later that I did it not to make him feel bad but ultimately to make myself look or feel better about myself.  I was amazed but then He showed me parts of my past where others had done the same to me I felt a lot like my friend did.  It was like déjà vu.

So check out the originator, we call him the accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10) or Satan.  Satan has consistently tried to make us feel bad about ourselves, make us question what God has spoken to us and written about us in His Word.  An accuser according to scripture is one who makes an accusation before a judge.  I find that exceptional, the devil makes these accusations about us in the presence of The Judge, our Father (not touching that right now).  Revelations actually says of Satan “who accused them before our God day and night.”  That is what he spends the majority of his time doing accusing us.

Luke4:3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

Check out Luke 4; “If You are the Son of God,” the question itself is an accusation, that Jesus is not really who he says He is.  This simple question could cause doubt in 3 areas, 1) His relationship with God (is God really your Father), 2) the power God has given Him (Can you use His power to change things) and 3) the purpose God had given Him (reconciling the world to God with a new covenant).  His method is exactly the same toward us, he wants us to question our Position, Power and Purpose.

Position: “If You are the Son of God” We are God’s Sons/Daughters, joint heirs with Christ.  We are not God’s enemies, as a matter of fact we are no longer His servants or even disciples, because of Christ’s sacrifice we became Sons/Daughters.  Our position has changed to that of royalty and Satan hates it, because he understands what being a Son/Daughter means…We are still learning, but starting to get it!!

Power:  ”command this stone” We have power!!!  Satan saw God’s power up close and knew that a Son of God would possess the same power.  Particularly in this case, he challenged Jesus to command (to speak or say) His situation.  He had not eaten in 40 days, a piece of bread would have tasted great but there was no bread around Jesus had the power to change His situation just by speaking to His situation.  We have the power to speak life over every situation we encounter and the ability to speak directly to the giver of life thru prayer.  So there is great power in us and Satan will do all he can to have us question it.

Purpose: this stone to become bread This was exactly why Jesus came to turn our stone into bread.  Stone and bread both represent God’s word in the Scripture.  Many times the term stone is a direct reference to the Law of Moses, or the old covenant which Israel lived under for many years.  The term bread is all over the bible as a symbol of God’s word, and in the New Testament as the word that became flesh in the form of Jesus Christ our sacrificial lamb.  Jesus’ purpose was to replace the Old Testament or the Law with a new Covenant, but it was time yet.  Jesus was given specific direction from God but Satan wanted to cause doubt about the timing.  Any question about our purpose can cause doubt and Satan will do want he can to get us off task.

Jesus always speaks life and never tears us down, even when correcting us it always comes in the form of life, so when you hear otherwise know that the accuser is behind it.