Looking at the life of Jesus (particularly when the Devil tempted Him in the desert)
The notion of boundaries is the determined by the level of Jesus’s surrender to God’s will, and the devil tests Him in this. We have been given sealed orders from God of our purpose on Earth as part of His larger plan.
The Hebrew tradition in the Old Testament makes it clear that faithfulness to God is proven by testing.
Examples:
In the ancient times, rabbis understood that the word test could also mean exalt. That means that God does not exalt a person without first testing them.
What does this mean for me?
God has a great plan and sealed order for me, but there will be tests; seasons and times that He uses to humble, discipline and mature me, but also to exalt me so that God can bestow greater power, revelation and glory to me along with the richness of His goodness.
In summary: there is great blessing in respecting God’s boundaries for me.
The devil tempts Jesus to exercise His power apart from God. Jesus can obviously turn the stones into bread, and the temptation is to use His own power to meet His own needs and assert His own independence apart from God rather than to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and trust the Father to supply all His needs.
Example: Doing side-hustles to make more money until it gets us off of our focus on God. We can get busy, over-committed and anxious doing things to make things happen; saying yes to people so we don’t disappoint them. Wealth and money are temptations to find prestige and security apart from God. Temptation to engage in social media because everyone else is doing it to grow their ministries when it’s not God’s sealed order for us.
The devil says, “give me your allegiance for just a moment, deny your identity as a son or daughter of God and your sealed order, cross that boundary and I’ll give you super success, fast. It’ll be shabby but it’ll be authority, my authority for you.” After Jesus says no to Satan’s quick success in the wilderness, He goes out to preach, heal and drive out demons. The Scriptures note that when Jesus spoke, He spoke with authority.
The very thing that the devil offered to Jesus was earned by Jesus resisting the devil and respecting the Father’s boundaries. The result is that Jesus exercises great power and authority against the evil one. Quick success is a shabby substitute.