As redeemed people, the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God. The devil tries with all his might to rattle that belief and security that we have in Jesus.

When the dove from heaven came down to Jesus during His baptism, it was the physical symbol that the Holy Spirit was with Him. Then a voice was heard. God the Father affirmed the Sonship of Jesus. This is one of the rare passages of the Bible where the Holy Trinity were all present in one particular scene.

Few verses later, Jesus was led by the Spirit to the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. You know Satan’s first bullet? “If you are the Son of God… I dare you to prove it!”

Dirty old trickster. After the glowing affirmation and display of the Triune God, Satan had the gall to question Jesus’ deity. [Read more...]

John Calvin on Jacob’s wrestling with the Angel of the Lord:

It was God himself [who tested Jacob]. This teaches us that our faith is tried by God, and whenever we are tested, he descends into the arena to try our strength.

At least it is God who tests our faith. At least it is God who tries the strength of our character. If we are to struggle, at least we struggle in the hands of a gracious and kind God because in His hands, there is mercy when we fail and sustaining power when we falter.

A practicing swordsman is better off training with his master than be cast off into the hands of a ruthless enemy in a real combat. In his master’s hands he can learn the art of fighting. In enemy’s hands, he can be destroyed.

The best thing about Jacob’s wrestling with God is that it was God who tried him, not Satan. God means to strengthen us while Satan seeks to destroy us.

If you want to grow in your spiritual life and rise above your circumstances today, follow the unusual path of Jesus. Die to self first. Be willing to fall to the ground. Shed off your old self. Mortify the body of sin. Be buried.

Only then can you rise above the pit of destruction. Only then can you be resurrected to new life. Only then can you be made new. Only then can you really grow to become the new person God created you to be.

Many Christians don’t grow much NOT because of lack of spiritual nurturing or unfriendly spiritual environment but because of their unwillingness to die first.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” John 12:24