Intimacy and obedience are inseparable, and they are both essential for a thriving and growing relationship with God. If we are obedient without intimacy, we become dry and religious. If we are intimate without obedience, we are subject to deception by the enemy and the pitfalls of sin. In this backsliding state, we may think we are still intimate with the Lord, but we will begin to confuse our desires with God’s voice. This is a dangerous position to be for a believer.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:1-4
The devil tried to tempt Jesus by suggesting that He should turn stones into bread to satisfy His hunger. Jesus used the word of God (Bible text in Deuteronomy) to combat the enemy. His statement was profound in regards to obedience and intimacy.
First, Jesus obeyed God by withstanding the temptation to satisfy His hunger apart from God’s will. Second, He showed that it is more important to live on each word that proceeds from the mouth of God than to satisfy fleshly desires apart from the will of God. If we were faced with a similar temptation would you have assumed that it is the will of God to turn the stones into bread? Would you have considered the miracle of stones turned into bread a blessing from God!?
The definition of the “word” in the above scripture is as follows:
Word: Strong’s 4487 (rhema): that which is or has been uttered by the living voice, thing spoken, word, speech, discourse, utterance.
Jesus was basically stating that it is was more important for Him to hear the voice of God and remain intimate with the voice of the Holy Spirit than to disobey God. Jesus clearly demonstrated the importance of obedience and intimacy in this scripture. We are called to follow His pattern by abiding in Him and staying connected in the right relationship with the Lord.
While Jesus had the power and the authority to turn the stone into bread, He chose to refrain from it because He desired the approval of God more than satisfying His hunger. He chose not to be presumptuous in His relationship to the Lord and trusted Him with His needs. Interestingly, this was the opposite of how Adam and Eve behaved when they chose to eat from the fruit of the tree of the good and evil. The scripture does not tell us that they were even hungry. Their curiosity and distrust caused them to lose their relationship to the Lord.
Do you have intimacy with the Lord? Do you allow the Lord to correct and direct you? Do you try to obey the Lord in every aspect of your life? The combination of intimacy and obedience is the secret to a fulfilling life of faith!
