Jesus Christ was speaking to Simon Peter, one of his disciples, and in Luke 22:31(NKJV), he said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.” Now, if you don’t know anything about shifting wheat, then you might not understand the seriousness of what our Lord and Master is conveying to Peter. We can be sure that any time satan is involved, the most heinous and evil plots against us are his goal. We know from God’s Word that satan is incapable of mercy, and he seeks to utterly destroy. In Biblical days, shifting wheat was done to loosen the chaff or husk that surrounds the edible part, which is the grain. This is called threshing, and in those days, they’d have threshing floors that were made from stone or concrete. They’d spread the wheat onto the floor and beat it with an instrument called a flail. This was done to detach the grain from the husk. In the spiritual context, satan was asking God for permission to beat Peter unmercifully in every dastardly way possible, until Peter’s soul was peeled of all its vitality and nothing would be left of him but desolation and death. This is the evil sifting that would have placed Peter’s soul and life at risk.
Jesus Christ continued in Luke 22:32(NKJV), “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” Christ prayed for Peter to endure in faith, so that he would continue on the path the Father had set before him and would not stray. When a person moves away from the path that God has destined for their lives, it is inevitable that they will walk into satan’s trap. Peter was on a course to doing just that. He didn’t always stand on the authority of God’s Word, because he vacillated. Sometimes he’d be inspired by the Holy Spirit, but there were also times that Simon Peter would be used by the devil and speak and act according to the influence of darkness.
The record in Matthew 16:13-17 (NIV) tells us that Jesus Christ asked the disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Jesus then said, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Peter spoke the truth, and this truth was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ was very pleased with Peter’s answer and said in verse 17, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.” This was one of Peter’s high points, but again, there were some really low points, where he acted outside of the authority of God’s Word.
Continuing in Matthew 16, our Lord and Savior then went on to talk about the events of his death and explained to the disciples that he would suffer many things at the hands of Jewish priests, elders, and teachers. He told the disciples that he would be killed, and on the third day, he would be raised to life by the power of the Holy Spirit. After hearing the Word of Truth from our Master’s lips, Matthew 16:22 tells us that Simon Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked him and said, “No Jesus. Never!!! This will never happen to you!” Here, we get a sense of Peter’s impetuousness. He acted without thinking. Yes, it was extremely difficult for them to hear the news regarding the death of the Messiah, but Peter’s response was to try to rebuke the Son of the Living God. He thought himself equal to the task of preventing the Will of God from going forward. This is the attitude and mindset of satan, and its why Jesus had to straighten Peter out.
Matthew 16:23(NIV) tells us, “Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” As we see clearly, in one instance Peter spoke under the influence of the Holy Spirit and not too long thereafter, he spoke under the influence of darkness. It’s this flipflopping that got Peter into serious trouble and provided an opening for satan to petition Heavenly Father to shift Peter like wheat. James 1:8 tells us that a double-minded person is unstable in all their ways, and it is because they are not standing on the authority of God’s Word and power, but rather, this person is running hot for the Lord one day and cold the next.
Peter thought he had authority within himself. He thought he had power, and this is why he frequently acted impetuously. Many of us are like Simon Peter. We think that God will go along with our refusal to renew our minds to what He says, and instead, we attempt to live by our own opinions and assumptions about what is truthful and right. God has demonstrated through Peter that this strategy will not yield good results, but instead, it plays right into the devil’s hands. You and I can live and walk in God’s authority and power only to the extent that we live by the truth of His Word. God blesses His Word. He is faithful to keep all His promises. If God says something, whatever He says must be so. It will come to pass just as He speaks it. So, as His children, we must have faith in what God says, and trust Him wholeheartedly.
As followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, sometimes we forget what it means to follow him. It means that we are to move only as he moves. We are behind him, and we model what he does. He tells us in John 14:6 that he is the way, the truth, and the life. It’s HIS way we’re following. What is the Way of Christ? The Way of Christ is to do what God says. Jesus said in John 5:30(NLT), “I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.” Jesus Christ studied the scriptures and prayed relentlessly. He said in John 8:29, “And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.” Jesus Christ knew what pleased the Father because he knew God’s Word. Beginning as a child, he was in the synagogues being taught the scriptures and learning from the writings of God’s prophets. He was not exempt from studying and reading God’s Word, so we certainly cannot be exempt. Jesus availed himself to the study of God’s Word because our Lord and Master knew that God’s Word is the Source of our authority and power.
Chapter 4 of the Gospel of Matthew tells us that after Jesus Christ fasted for forty days and nights in the wilderness, he was very hungry, and it doesn’t take much to imagine he was vulnerable physically. It was at this time that he was tempted by satan, who wanted Jesus Christ to surrender to his, satan’s, temptations and bow to the kingdom of evil and darkness. If Jesus Christ had done this, it would have been all over for you and me. If Jesus had yielded to temptation, his authority and power would have been transferred to the devil, but our Lord and Savior did not succumb or surrender. He triumphed through the power and authority of God by meeting each temptation with “IT IS WRITTEN…”
When we move outside of the Will of the Father, we are being disobedient. The devil owns disobedience, because he was the one who started it. Therefore, we must understand that the devil has a legal right to buffet us and withhold our blessings when we are disobedient and do not earnestly repent. Sin belongs to the devil’s kingdom, and when we refuse to stand on God’s Word, we transfer ourselves out of God’s covering. James 4:7(NLT) demands, “So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” We must stand on the Word of the Father. He wants His Word to be anchored in our hearts so that we can be led by the Holy Spirit and live the more than abundant life that Christ came to make available. In John 14:10(NLT), Jesus Christ said “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me.” Like Christ, we are to speak what God speaks and to do what He instructs us to do in His Word. This is the key to walking in the power and authority of God.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Walking in the Power and Authority of God”, written for victoryinjesuschrist.life. Copyright© 2021. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Comments