Angels Are On The Way

Focus Keywords: temptation, spiritual identity, Jesus in the wilderness, divine affirmation, overcoming doubt, provision, Steven Furtick, Matthew 4, power of God’s word, angels on the way

This summary and rewrite draws on the transcript excerpts from Steven Furtick’s message, “Angels Are On The Way,” focusing on Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness and the spiritual power that comes from knowing and affirming one’s divine identity in Christ. The central theme is that believers often succumb to temptation because they doubt their spiritual status, attempting to manufacture provision (turning stones into bread) when God has already declared they are His and that help is already en route.

The Two Plans: Provision vs. Temptation

The Devil operates with a short-term plan that offers temporary satisfaction, while God’s plan requires trust in Him for tomorrow, recognizing that He is already there. Jesus, being fully human and fully God, was able to be tempted yet also able to overcome.

The tempter targeted Jesus’s human need—hunger, after fasting forty days and forty nights. The temptation presented by the Devil was designed to test two things: God’s provision and Jesus’s identity.

1. Challenging Provision: The lie is, “It’s not enough. God won’t provide for you. You’ve got to turn the stone into bread”.
2. Challenging Identity: The lie is, “If you are the Son of God…”. This implies, “You’re not loved,” and suggests there is something Jesus has to do to get God to love Him.

Jesus’s Response: Word Over Willpower

Though Jesus was starving, He refused to use His divine power to meet His human need. Jesus could easily command the stone to become bread, and it would immediately be the softest, warmest loaf—even pumpernickel or rye bread. He could rain down butter and toast the bread with the sun. However, Jesus responded with the authority of Scripture: “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God'”.

Jesus demonstrates that His life is governed by “what God spoke,” forming a new internal loop that replaces the Devil’s repetitive lies.

The Absurdity of the Temptation

The temptation to turn a stone into bread is deemed absurd because Jesus already embodies what the Devil is trying to tempt Him to create.

• Jesus is the Bread: Jesus is identified as the Bread (Bread of Life), the Vine, the Resurrection, the Way, the Truth, the Life, and the Good Shepherd.
• Jesus is the Stone: Furthermore, Jesus is the Stone—the “chief cornerstone” that the builders rejected. He is the Rock that Moses drank from in the wilderness.

Since Jesus is the source of the provision, the Devil cannot give Him what is already His. This profound spiritual identity is the basis of overcoming the lie: “Devil, you can’t give me what’s already mine”.

The Pre-emptive Affirmation: “I’m His”

Jesus’s ability to resist temptation was fortified by a fresh word from God that immediately preceded the attack. Before being led into the wilderness, Jesus was baptized.

• The Voice from Heaven: As soon as Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended on Him, and a voice from heaven declared: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased”. This was the “voice from heaven” that fortified Him against the upcoming “voice from hell”.
• Identity First: This affirmation established Jesus’s identity and love before the testing began. Jesus knew, “I’m his,” and this identity meant He was called, sustained, and no man could pluck Him from God’s hand.
• Dripping with Affirmation: Jesus’s confidence in the dry place of the wilderness was rooted in being “still dripping with the water of the affirmation of my Father”.

This identity check is crucial: if a person does not believe they are loved by God, they will spend their life trying to “turn everything else in your life into loaves when he is”.