Quarantine has a Spiritual Purpose!

There is a spiritual purpose behind this time of being quarantined: Have you ever wondered why Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days (His time of being quarantined)? Here He is, the son of God, sent to save the world, having only a short time in which to fulfill His earthly ministry. Yet God saw fit that His son should spend 40 days and 40 nights away from civilization, away from any opportunity to help or bless people. Why? (I have known and felt since I was a 18 that God has placed me on this earth to be an end time of minister, and I feel once this quarantine is lifted, doors will be open for me to preach and teach what thus saith the Lord with a boldness, confidence, and greater anointing that He can only give me, for He is preparing me for such a time as this.)

Before we can understand why Jesus went into the wilderness, it is necessary to understand the event which immediately preceded it, and its significance. The event which immediately preceded Jesus’ journey in the wilderness was that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, at which time heaven opened unto Him.

And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. And immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him. And there came a voice from heaven, saying, You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Mark 1:9-11)

The heavens being opened unto Jesus means that He saw spiritually for the first time. Until that time, though He was born of the spirit of God, His only approach to His Father was via the (Old Testament) Scriptures. In this He was just like any other man who lived at that time. His baptism by John fully represented what happens to us when we are baptized by the Spirit. He went in a physical being, limited by His mind and understanding, but He came out “reborn” as a spiritual being, with the heavens (the spiritual realm) opened to Him, with direct access to His Father, God.

So far, only Jesus has seen the Spirit of God descending like a dove (it doesn’t say the spirit looked like a dove, but rather descended like a dove) upon Him. But in John we learn that John the Baptist also saw what Jesus saw, and we learn why.

And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not (as being the Messiah); but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I saw, and bare record that this is the son of God. (John 1:32-34)

John did not look at Jesus and know that He was the son of God. Seeing by the spirit the Holy Spirit of God descending upon Jesus, that was the proof, the spiritual experience, the knowing in his heart that Jesus was the son of God, because God had told him that would be the proof. The first thing God ever told His son directly was that He was His beloved son, and that He was well pleased in him (another way of translating this is “This is my son, the beloved, in whom I have found delight.”). The first things God confirmed to Jesus, upon achieving the ability to directly communicate with Him, was that 1) He was His son; 2) He was beloved by Him, and 3) in Him (that is, inside Him) He was delighted.

Now we can address the reason Jesus went into the wilderness.

Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted (being tempted) of the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward hungry. (Matthew 4:1)

And immediately the Spirit drives Him (to cast out, with the idea of force) into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto Him. (Mark 1:12, 13)

And Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days He did eat nothing; and when they were ended, He afterward hungered. (Luke 4:1, 2)

This was not Jesus’ idea to go into the wilderness (a time of quartine will you), it was His Father’s. It was the spirit of God which “led” Him or even “drives” Him into the wilderness.

In all of these records it is indicated that the spirit of God was with Jesus every moment of every one of those forty days and nights. At no time did His Father every desert Him or leave Him alone.  God was always with His son, and Jesus always walked, from the time of his baptism by John the Baptist, in the spiritual awareness of his Father’s love and delight in Him.

In Mark we see an immediacy and an intensity not seen in the other two records. This was something that God wanted to happen in His son’s life right away. What was that? To be alone with Him, and to be tempted by the devil. The second thing Jesus needed to experience (after learning of his Father’s love for and delight in Him) was how His enemy works. Jesus needed to learn to recognize the voice and the methods of His (and His Father’s) enemy.

Why forty days? The number forty (40) is seen a number of times in the Bible as a period of trial, of a testing in order to be cleansed or refined and perfected; like products are tested and their flaws corrected in order to ensure their capability and durability. In Noah’s time it rained 40 days and 40 nights. In Moses’ time, after thinking he could save Israel his way, Moses fled to and lived in Midian for 40 years, returning to deliver Israel God’s way. Also, after rejecting the idea that the Promised Land was theirs for the taking, Israel wandered in the wilderness 40 years, until all those who did not believe died, after which Israel entered into the Promised Land. After Jesus was raised from the dead, He remained on the earth for 40 days before he ascended off it.

In the case of Jesus, the ability to access heaven and His Father directly also meant the ability to recognize and deal with the devil and all the devil’s spirits directly. Before beginning His earthly ministry, Jesus had to be tested by His spiritual enemy. It was in the wilderness, AWAY FROM THE PEOPLE, that Jesus not only powerfully drew close to His Father, but also stood against the devil and defeated him, so that this seasoned ability would be completely at His disposal as He fulfilled His responsibilities as the Christ.

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested (which began at His baptism by John when He was manifested to John as being the son of God), that He might destroy the works of the devil (the doing of which began in the wilderness immediately afterward). (I John 3:8b)

The ministry of Jesus as the Christ could not begin until Jesus, as God’s manifested spiritual son had been successfully tested by (and thus had learned to clearly recognize and defeat) Satan (the devil and all his spiritual host of devil spirits).

Only after His successful stand against the devil in the wilderness, Jesus having manifestly acquired and operated power over the evil one, was He anointed to be and began his earthly ministry as the Christ.

And Jesus returned (from the wilderness) in the power of the Spirit into Galilee …And He came to Nazareth… And there was delivered unto Him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the scroll, He found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me (verb form of “Christ”) to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he began to say unto them, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. (Luke 4:14a, 16a, 17-19, 21)

In too many church bodies today, those that seem to represent the things of God, by teaching and preaching and exerting authority over others, have not been successfully tested by the devil. Though they have been taught the Bible and how to teach it and how to administer the things of their denomination, heaven has not been opened unto them so that they are able to learn to recognize the voice of their enemy and to stand against him. And so the devil’s ways get mixed with God’s ways. Every man and woman who desires to serve the living God by the spirit must of necessity, at some point in their spiritual education and according to God’s timetable, go through a period of testing by the devilish principalities and powers of the heavenly realm and come away cleansed and strengthened by God on the other side. When they do, the service to the body which Christ works in their heart and life can be carried out successfully and powerfully, free from the deceit of the enemy of God. There is a spiritual purpose for this time of quarantine.

My 3.21.2020 and 3.22.2020 word from the throne room of God. I'm journaling about these days.