Every Circumstance In Life Is a Spiritual One

Do not allow temptation to fracture your thinking.

Anytime we begin a thought with, “Well, it’s only natural,” we need to take pause and consider if we haven’t already set our course on a vector of thinking that will lead us away from “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). Just because we have access to the Truth doesn’t always mean we take advantage of this God-given right. In fact, our flesh would prefer that we hold fast to a worldly scale of values and the wisdom that precipitates from it. We must be vigilant against such folly for it is easy to be lulled into darkness, if only for a time, even for believers.

A perfect example of this is something I brought up from my pulpit recently. The principle set before my congregation was, “Every circumstance in life is a spiritual one.” I speak mainly to believers in this blog because it is they who experience the most damaging effects when misunderstanding this basic truth. My guess is that the vast majority of believers still don’t understand what I’m conveying here. There are myriad reasons why; for example, the vestiges of religion. As much as we’d like to immediately shed all remnants of our former religious ways, it simply doesn’t happen overnight. Sanctification takes time. New wisdom must displace the old, and to the degree this occurs, to that same degree we will find peace through deliverance.

Every circumstance in life is a spiritual one. Let that sink in…

Consider Jesus. Was He ever not filled with the Spirit, perfectly? No. Even under the most terrific stress, He never faltered, never lost His bearings, never compromised His integrity to Truth. Even when Satan tempted Him to think fleshly, He didn’t.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
This passage is incredibly edifying for us believers because we see the representative “heads of state” in combat - Satan versus Jesus. We see the very best that Christ’s enemy pitted against Him. The key point for the sake of this blog is to observe what Satan attempts to do to Jesus. All three temptations shared a single goal, to divide His thinking.

First, he knew that Jesus had been fasting for forty days and was surely physically hungry. Jesus was spiritually aligned with His Father, but Satan wanted Him to separate, mentally, to focus on earthly hunger. Jesus’ magnificent response was essentially, “No, I shall remain spiritually focused.” What if Jesus had done what many believers do and said, “OK, let me put aside my spiritual priorities and tend to this thing outside of my Father’s will”? That fracture would’ve been the opening Satan was looking for and would’ve proven Jesus a farce by His own account, based on words spoken later to His disciples, “Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work’” (John 4:34).

The second trial Jesus was tempted with was to put His Father’s perfect will to the test. In other words, Satan tempted Jesus to perform a vulgar display of power. Jesus knew His position in the Kingdom of Heaven but He wasn’t looking for reassurance. He is power, He knew it, so He had no reason to prove it. The flesh demands tangible proof, but spiritual wisdom is an issue of faith. “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:22-24). Had Jesus failed to maintain a consistent, spiritual mindset, His thinking would’ve been fractured and He would’ve failed the test.

The third, and final, trial Satan afflicted Jesus with concerned the pride of life. “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:16-17). Satan was, in effect, trying to destroy Jesus’ impeccability by tearing Him from spiritual purity (e.g., perfect obedience to His Father). Pride is often called the “original sin” for good reason. It’s the baseline for all other sin and likely why Satan’s last-ditch temptation focused on it. Have you ever had a good day going, passing this or that test, and then, BAM, you fail the test of pride? I have, countless times. It’s the whopper that we’ll never really ever completely conquer in this lifetime (only Jesus is flawless).

Some might argue that Jesus isn’t a fair example for one to consider, since He is God. That, though, is merely the human flesh’s attempt to deflect personal responsibility. The fact is, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus Christ’s humility included His renouncing of His godly privileges in multiple ways (Philippians 2:7-8). Based on Holy Scripture, we rightly conclude that Jesus was, indeed, temptable; yet, He never sinned. His allegiance to spiritual purity never cracked.

The “secret” to Jesus’ success was that He never allowed Himself to become “double-minded” or “double-souled” (ala James 1:8). He never allowed the Truth to escape His grasp. He was unflappable, “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14b). He accomplished this by never allowing Himself to be anything but spiritual. This is tantamount to saying that every circumstance in Jesus’ life was a spiritual one, whether tempted by physical needs, worry, or pride. He is the very anchor of our faith and the proof point of its effectiveness in this life. We are encouraged to follow His lead by living one life (aka holding one perspective), not two (one worldly, one spiritual). The mind of Christ is our single base of operations.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
When our thinking becomes more and more like Jesus’, we call this sanctification. It’s sort of like recovering from double-vision in the sense that as time goes on, instead of having two viewpoints, the spiritual overcomes the worldly, resulting in a single, freeing perspective akin to the one Jesus has in its purest form. When faced with trials, the objective is to pass them by maintaining this singular perspective throughout, that is, “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). This stable mindedness gives us peace, no matter the circumstances.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 
Every circumstance in life is a spiritual one. Do not allow temptation to fracture your thinking.

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins