Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)
*An expanded and more contemporary interpretation of James 4:7 could read:
“Stand firmly against the devil! That’s right — be unbending and unyielding in the way you resist him so that he knows he is up against a serious contender. If you’ll take this kind of stand against him, he will tuck his tail and run like a criminal who knows the day of prosecution is upon him. Once you start resisting him, he’ll flee from you in terror!”
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I’ve been out of pocket for a bit. It’s interesting the ways the enemy comes at you. He just plain tries to do his job – steal, kill and destroy. The thing is, there’s nothing new. He only has a limited bag of wiles and tricks.
When he came at me lately with health attacks, I remembered something I’d read that helped me. The minister stated he hadn’t had a headache in years. There were two things I noticed:
1 – Someone asked him “What would you do if you had a headache?” His answer? “First, I wouldn’t tell it if I did.” Don’t accept it through your words.
Why?
2 – “I would resist it (and the devil).” Words have power. You speak the headache, you give it power over you.
He was walking to his car from his office one day. Suddenly his head started hurting. He immediately said, “Oh no you don’t, devil! You don’t put any headache on me! I don’t have one! I’m not going to have it!”
By the time he was driving down the street, it was gone.
I realized that pain, that attack or symptom of a headache WAS NOT HIS. He didn’t receive it. Just because the symptom came didn’t mean he had to accept it. He stood against it. He spoke God’s language not the devil’s.
You know, you can spend years in the Word. You can “know” what the Bible says. You have defeated the enemy’s attacks hundreds of times. You had victory over something, no sweat.
That doesn’t mean you don’t have to apply the same principles again. You speak the same things in resistance again. Why? I like to think the devil gets Alzheimer’s and forgets he’s tried that trick before. You have to remind him (and yourself) over and over – IT’S NOT YOURS. Don’t accept it. Refuse and resist.
You do have to KNOW it’s not yours by spending time in your Bible and learning that fact to the point you immediately resist. Sometimes it takes a while (the devil wants to make sure you don’t want it). Just keep it up – keep on speaking the Word. Keep resisting.
You have a promise that if you do, the devil’s going to, “run away in terror”*.
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