"God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone."

James 1:13b

This passage has always confused me, and it wasn't until a few months ago that God gave me a little clarity on it.  Now I'm finally getting around to writing about it.

So what's the confusion?  Of course, we know that God doesn't tempt anyone.  That's what Satan does.  But why include the statement that God cannot be tempted?  What about when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13)?  Wasn't God tempted then?  And isn't this passage in James talking about the temptation man experiences?  What does tempting God have to do with it?

Let's start by defining temptation.  We're familiar with the common understanding of what temptation is: a pull toward something that is immoral, unwise or, in other words, contrary to God's will.  And, in fact, that may be enough to help us understand this verse.  Because God is the One who knows and is in control of His will, nothing can convince Him to take a detour away from His own will.  It may appear in certain passages in the Bible that prayer was used to change His mind about something, but the reality is that the end result that came from prayer was actually His plan all along.  He simply tested His servants and drove them to earnest prayer by setting in their minds that His current course of action needed to be changed.  By convincing them that His plan was unlike Him, He led them to seek Him more passionately in prayer so that He would be glorified more appropriately, and thus He accomplished His will and received greater glory through His servants than He would have if He had simply gone ahead with His will without giving His servants a part in it.

Anyway, let's look at it another way.  If I say, "I'm tempted to buy this book," it can be assumed that my original plan was not to buy that book.  My original course of action was already set, but temptation came and gave me an alternate route.  Sometimes the word temptation can be misused in this case, when buying that book would be a good investment, but buying the book would still be a detour from the original plan.  So in this case, "temptation" can convince us that the new course of action is better than the original.  God, however, cannot be tempted in this way.  He can never be convinced that another way is better than His way.  Obviously.  You'd think the Creator of the universe and the Orchestrator of all things would know the best way to organize the events of history for the good of His people and for the increase of His glory.

So I think what James is trying to say here is that when God seems to give us clarity on His purposes for our lives, we must test anything that seems to take us on a different path, even if it only delays us in getting to the same destination.  God will not tell us to do something one day and the next day say, "Actually, I have a better idea."  When God makes His way known and declares His word, His word is set up as a monument of truth for eternity.

"The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever." ~ Isaiah 40:8

So what is temptation?  Let's call it "anything that tries to convince a child of God to depart, even momentarily, from the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God."

"When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.'  For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.  Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." ~ James 1:13-15

Paraphrased:

"When you have been clearly given a plan by God, do not question His way when something pops up that may give you a logical reason to take a different path.  Just because you heard God's voice in a certain way, do not immediately assume that it is His voice again when you hear it the same way again, especially if it contradicts what He first told you.  It is not God telling you to disregard His original plan; it is your own natural inclination toward reason and safety.  Any attempt to preserve your life or dignity that strays from God's will will only result in your eternal harm.  God knows what He is doing, and He will not change His mind once He has told you His plan for you.  Keep your ears open and your mind clear so that you can know when you have accurately heard the voice of the Lord; then stand firm in what He has told you."

Prayer as Prophecy

Did you know that prayer can be spoken as prophecy?  I didn't either until God told me earlier today.

If you've been following my blog for a while, you've probably noticed that I've written a few times about prayer and prophecy, sometimes individually and sometimes together.  Well, I'm going to add to that collection.

Another school year has gone by, and now I'm back at home.  My brother is finishing up his first year of college, and my parents are on their way up to Indiana now to pick him up later this week.  So it's just me and my grandma left in the house, which, even though one day isn't much to go by, has been great!  I usually don't spend a whole lot of time talking with my grandma because of the language barrier, but we worked through it with some broken Japanese on my part and some broken English on her part.  But that's not the only thing that I've gotten to enjoy since being home.  With a quiet, almost empty house, I was able to enjoy some time reading and praying.  In fact, I plan on continuing that prayer time after I finish typing.  Anyway, in the middle of reading, I couldn't stay focused on my reading because God was putting too much on my mind that He wanted me to pray for.  So I prayed then went back to my book, then got distracted again, so I prayed and went back to my book.  Eventually, I decided to just go on a prayer walk with my dog.

As I was praying, the Holy Spirit started speaking through me in a powerful way that I had never recognized or understood before.  I had felt that kind of authority in prayer before, but I had never been able to put a name to that kind of confident praying.  He had me praying for things I wouldn't normally think of to pray.  And He had me praying with such confidence and assurance of His promises that I knew that what He had me praying for would come true.  Then the Lord planted the thought of prophecy in my mind, and I understood.  The kind of strength I felt while praying earlier was the same feeling of authority that comes from prophecy and the understanding of visions.  Because the Holy Spirit is the One giving the prophecy or vision, the prophecy or vision can be trusted to be true and to be fulfilled.  In the same way, because the Holy Spirit is the One who prays for us, we can trust Him to fulfill our prayers because the Spirit only prays what the Lord wants and what He intends to fulfill.  When we pray authentic prayers guided by the Spirit, we are not merely expressing our desires; we are prophesying!  That's why Paul encourages the Corinthians to desire the gift of prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:1): he wants them to learn to be in such close contact with the Lord that His desires are deeply known to us so that we may speak them into being with His life-giving breath.  We are called to delight in the Lord so that we may want what He wants, and thus our desires, which are God's desires, would be fulfilled (Psalm 37:4).  And when we pray in the Spirit (Romans 8:26-27), we welcome and ask for the fulfillment of those desires.

This is also why God told Ezekiel to prophecy to the dry bones in the valley (Ezekiel 37).  Rather than pray that the bones would receive new life, Ezekiel was told to prophecy to the bones, implying a certain level of assurance that the words spoken will indeed become truth.

Maybe this doesn't change all that much, but it's still a cool thought.  When you're praying, instead of just rattling off a list of wants and needs and hopes and thanks (thanksgiving is essential), allow the Spirit to pray through you as if He is prophesying through you.  See what happens to your faith as a result, and what happens in actuality.