Matt 4:44

“But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭4:4‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Jesus was hungry and famished after 40 days and nights of fasting and seeking the face of God. He was spiritually full yet physically deficient. This is a common place we can find ourselves as Christians; where spiritually we overflowing, we have sought the face of God, we have heard and meditated on His word; we believe that word – yet the physical manifestation tarries. Depending on how long we stay in this state, disbelief can begin to creep in and as hope is deferred we become even more disappointed.

Looking back on what happened to Jesus; the devil came to tempt him while he was in this state of physical deficiency.

“And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭4:3‬ ‭

Let’s think about it – the devil wasn’t asking Jesus to do anything particularly wrong – like going to cheat someone for the food, or lying to get the food. He simply asked him to prove himself in this power that he would have been full of from spending all that time in the presence of God. Oh it is no different from that voice that tells you that you can walk into your bosses office after a sunday sermon on authority to demand that promotion that you deserve after years of sacrifice.

Jesus was hungry – his answer as commonly mistaken wasn’t that he did not need physical food but was satisfied with God’s word – that will be inhuman and a lie. Infact – scratch that – he would have died if he did not eat – because the human body cannot go without food.

Rather his response was getting him the food he needed – he reaffirmed the potency of the word of God as the source to anything in life. He used the opportunity of a temptation – to give voice to the word of God.

Inherent in God’s Word is the power to make happen what it says or demands. Jesus spoke words in that scripture what was written in Deut 8:3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

He spoke this knowing that the promise in that word was that God will provide food for him. Jesus recognised that nothing produces results more accurately than the word of God. There is no probability to it – it is not an 80% chance of the word of God working – His word will never fall to the ground without accomplishing that which He has sent it to do. Your own ability can be great but most things are beyond your ability, God favour is great – but not sustainable – what is sustainable is trusting the word of God and speaking it – without a shadow of a doubt – it will come to pass. That is a covenant that God made with us in Isaiah 55.

“Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭4:11‬ ‭

After the tempter left; the angels came and ministered unto him just as they did the Israelites in their time of hunger as eluded to in the scripture Jesus choose to trust in and confess.

This same power that dwells in Christ dwells in you – trust in the potency of God’s word – you are not here to prove anything else to the tempter nor those that cannot understand why things haven’t worked out for you as a Christian – in-fact you have no power of your own to make anything happen for sure; but one of the delegated powers you do have is the Word of God that framed the universe; Give Voice to it.