Heaven's Kiss: Out of the desert into God’s desired design

Heaven’s Kiss:

Out of the desert into God’s desired design

by Mary Ann Wray

If we are to experience the kiss of Heaven as Jesus did in Matthew 3: 17 and see God’s hand move with us as we minister in His name, we must successfully come through a period of testing.  “And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." 

The term “My beloved son”  is important to note and understand. With the Help of the Holy Spirit I will attempt to elaborate upon this. It is true that each one of us becomes a son of God through the new birth but there is a level of son ship where one must obey and submit in order to acquire. There are two Greek words used in the New Testament for son or sonship. One is teknon and the other is huios. Teknon is used to describe the status of a son.  John 1: 12 uses the word teknon when the Apostle said, “To as many as received Him to them did He give the power to become the sons of God.” It literally means a child, descendent or inhabitant. When we experience the new birth, we go from being a spiritual orphan possessed by the god of this world, to a son of God by spiritual adoption. Romans 8: 15 explains that we have not been given a spirit of bondage again to fear but through the new birth we’ve been given a spirit of adoption whereby we cry “Abba’ Father. How wonderful and marvelous this is saints, but we can’t stop or limit or growth to the initial experience of become a child of the King!

Teknon is the starting point of transformation for the child of God. From this point God now calls us His child and we call Him Father in full dependence i.e. fully (willingly) relying upon the Lord in glad submission. This prompts God to transform us into His likeness. Teknon illustrates how we must all live in utter dependence upon the Lord (moment-by-moment), drawing guidance (care, nurture) from our heavenly Father. Teknon emphasizes the childlike (not childish) attitude of heart that willingly (gladly) submits to the Father's plan. We profoundly learn this as we are receptive to Christ speaking His rhēma-word within us to impart faith!

“The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” Romans 8: 16-17

”Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ”  Romans 10: 17

Now, let’s go back to the Father’s proclamation over Jesus after He came out of the wilderness testing  by the devil for 40 days then was water baptized by John the Baptist. We must notice that the Father just didn’t refer to  him only as “son” but used a term of endearment beforehand i.e., “beloved” son. The term beloved is agapētos where we derive the word agape love from. Agapetos means beloved, esteemed, dear, favorite and worthy of love. The Father took the noun “son” and placed a descriptive adjective before it. This took the term  of sonship to a level of intimacy, favor and high esteem. But the question is why would the Father or any of us tag the term ‘beloved’ upon  a child?

To help answer this question we need to be aware of the word for son that the Father used in “beloved son”. The writer of John did not use the word teknon for son. He used the word huios.  Huios encompasses sonship by birth as teknon does but it goes further to describe the character of a son i.e., in this instance those whose character God, as a loving father, shapes by chastisements (Heb. 12:5-8). The Greek Lexicon describes hiuos further as those who revere God as their father, the pious worshippers of God, those who in character and life resemble God, those who are governed by the Spirit of God, repose the same calm and joyful trust in God which children do in their parents (Rom. 8:14, Gal. 3:26 ), and hereafter in the blessedness and glory of the life eternal will openly wear this dignity of the sons of God. This term used preeminently of Jesus Christ, as enjoying the supreme love of God, united to him in affectionate intimacy, privy to his saving councils, obedient to the Father's will in all his acts.

Huios is also used in Romans 8 referring to those children of God who reflect the Father’s character and are manifested by him to the world groaning in the travail of sorrow and sin! As we reflect the character and nature of our Father having endured his chastening, we become manifest by the same to the world!(Romans 8: 14, 19,& 29). 

Heaven kissed Jesus’ earthly ministry because He endured the most severe testing and overcame through His ultimate obedience. He obeyed God in the dessert by resisting the enemy’s temptations through using the sword of the spirit, the Word of God. He was not dependent upon His own holiness, family tree, inheritance or earthly achievements to overcome.  Jesus was solely dependent upon the Word of God to sustain Him and overtake the enemy of His soul’s attempt to waylay the plans of God for His life and ministry!

You see saints of God, God’s approval of us, in terms of ministry service (not adoption as His children) occurs after we successfully overcome a period of testing in the same three areas as Jesus: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. However, we will always be tested in these areas at some point in time, but getting the victory over them and dealing with our carnal nature by crucifying it in these areas is key to living free from their entrapments.

Because the Father loves us, He will chasten and correct us of our inherent character flaws but the concern He has, as any parent, is that His children become too ‘grown’ to be corrected! I’ve seen successful ministers who exude great power but are some of the meanest people on the planet. They curse, yell and treat their family and friends like slaves. I’ve also seen successful ministries become more dependent upon previous patterns and paradigms yet wonder where the power is. They use manipulation and control to keep people rather than train and release them. They are afraid of loss rather than care to release sons and daughters into their destiny! The key in all of this is living dependent upon the Father 24-7 no matter who you are or how much influence you have in the Kingdom!

It is important to note that Jesus was “led” into the wilderness to be tested. Therefore, God will not lead us into something where we are not equipped by Him to handle. Yet, we will be tested (sometimes severely) to see what is in our hearts, just as the children of Israel were.  This is the purpose of the wilderness testing. It is NOT meant to be a lifetime journey, thought it takes many of us a lifetime to understand its purpose.

The tempter will appear at various times in various forms, but once we recognize the areas of our flesh that he wants to overtake us, we can overtake him by submitting ourselves to God, resisting him and he MUST flee!  James 4: 7

“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.” Deuteronomy 8: 2-4

I believe the Lord impressed upon me that these are the three areas of testing we must overcome initially in ministry and face periodically going forward in order to successfully minister the gospel of Jesus Christ with signs following.

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” 1 John 2: 15-17

Temptation #1. Dependence and sustainment (fleshly dependence: the lust of our flesh) Who will we depend on to sustain us not only in times of difficulty but in times of plenty? Do we depend upon ‘earthly’ bread, what gratifies us instantly, what is familiar and ‘dependable’ or the word of the Lord and God himself at all times? We will face times of lack. Those are the times when it is ‘natural’ or logical for us to cry out to God; but what about when things are going well? There is a temptation to rely on familiar methods and what is comfortable rather than be completely dependent upon Father for fresh daily manna. This is more dangerous to our destiny than times of lack. If the enemy can trick us into self-dependence under the garb of ‘duty’ and/ or familiar methods we’ve used in the past the anointing and power will eventually wane but we’ll believe it’s just the ‘people’s’ lack of hunger. So, we’ll go through more motions to bring the power rather than cry out to the Father for it. Watch out!

“The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’^” Matthew 4: 3-4

Temptation #2. Expecting a blessing of the work of our own hands. We put God to the test by expecting or demanding God to bless the work of our hands rather than seek Him for His will and direction (pride: the pride of life). This is a common pitfall in ministry especially after one experiences a measure of success. Ego can get in the way and before you know it, we can being to develop programs, styles and methods. Just because something worked in the past doesn’t mean God wants to breathe on it NOW. We are putting God to the test when seasons change but we don’t and can’t even discern the season change in the spirit. If we depend on familiar methods, we are putting the Lord to the test! What’s worse is that we expect Him to rescue us out of the mess we made through our own devices. A wise master builder counts the cost, seeks the counsel of the Lord, prays and waits on God before jumping!

“Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ ” 7Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”  Matthew 4: 5-7

Temptation #3. Man and self-worship (worshipping only what we can see: lust of the eyes). This is the tendency man has to follow his/ her own devices and or use our own or other’s gifts, and talents for our own advantage. Because we can ‘see’ them but not readily ‘see’ our Father through the natural senses we are tempted to live by this credence. In actuality if we fall into this trap we are worshipping the god of this world who has demanded worship from the time he fell from Heaven. This is the very seed of satan…wanting to be famous and possess his/ her own kingdom using man to run it like pawns. Our first love is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. If we seek to build our ministry and use people rather than build people so they can do the work of the ministry we are using an upside down paradigm.  If the enemy can get us to deviate from this in any measure, his hook is in place and it leads to more deception and deviation from the throne of God’s heart to the throne of our own heart. Slavery came about through this very temptation and resulted in using humans as a means for one’s own pleasure, power and prominence.

“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”  Matthew 4: 8-10

Our Father is merciful and His mercy triumphs over judgment. None of us has been perfected yet and escaped temptation perfectly 100% of the time. We are tri-part beings that are comprised of soul, spirit and body. As long as we live in this corruptible body which possesses a soul (mind, will and emotions) that have not been completely transformed but in the process of maturity, we are subject to succumb to these temptations. However, the key is complete dependence upon the Father, plain and simple. If we are too busy serving to spend time with Him daily and seek His daily rhema and manna, we will fall into a trap! If we become dependent upon past success and worship at the memorials of our success we will fall prey to the pride of life. If we depend more on gifts than character we will fall prey to self and man worship. The key to victory is “Worship the Lord in the beauty of Holiness, seek His face and have a contrite heart!” Let this be our pilgrimage and motto all the days of our life!