Luke 4:1-2 “Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, (2) being tempted for forty days by the devil.”
In the above account in scripture Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to go into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Obviously the Holy Spirit led Jesus according to the will of God the Father. And so if Jesus already knew exactly what the will of the Father was for His life every moment of His life, then there would have been no need for the Holy Spirit to lead Him into the wilderness, for Jesus would have just gone into the wilderness on His own accord. But because Jesus did not know the will of the Father for His life every moment of His life, He had to be led by the Holy Spirit, just as you and I do.
Mark 1:35-38 “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. (36) And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. (37) When they found Him, they said to Him, "Everyone is looking for You." (38) But He said to them, "Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.”
In the above quoted account our Lord Jesus had been preaching the gospel in the town of Capernaum for a couple of days and healing many in that town. We pick up the account when we see Jesus going off on His own to pray to the Father. It was during His time of prayer that the Holy Spirit revealed to Jesus that it was time to leave that town and go on to other towns to preach the gospel. In Luke’s account of this incident he tells us that the people tried to persuade Jesus to stay, but Jesus had heard the will of the Father and so He obeyed.
John 5:19-20 “Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. (20) For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.”
In the next account that we will look at, Jesus had healed the man at the pool at Bethesda and the Jews were persecuting Him because He had healed the man on the Sabbath. We pick up the account quoted above as Jesus is responding to them. In this account, Jesus told the Jews that all that He did was as a result of the leading of the Holy Spirit. He then went on to say that God had not yet shown Him all the things that He wanted Jesus to do, for He said, “and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel”. Clearly Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit in His daily walk on this earth, just as God our Father expects us to be led.
Michael E.B. Maher
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