The Renewed Mind in the Fight

The Holy Spirit leads you into the wilderness to become weak in the flesh to destroy the devil in the authority of the Word.

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after He had fasted for forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.

Matthew 4:1-2

The Holy Spirit actually led Jesus into a place to be tempted by satan and ensured his soul was starved before it happened. God never tempts you, but he certainly leads you into the circumstances that your options are reduced to trusting him. The natural reaction in this place of testing is to run away from the devil and “go eat food”. Instead, Jesus faced the test while he was weak. It was in the weakness that the strength resided. You see, you cannot defeat satan in your strength. You defeat him in God’s Word. Jesus was demonstrating what the renewed mind is. You go into the wilderness to get your options reduced to nothing. You either trust God or you die. You go into the testing either leaning on the Word or your experience. There is no power in fighting the devil in your experiences. Only the Word. The renewed mind demonstrated is going into the fight with weakness is actually strength. Because the strength to win is not in who you are or what you have experienced. It is in the Word.