| WEEKLY WORD |
Resist the Devil and he Shall Flee!
(Overcomer Wu)
"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” --James 4:7
“... Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” --John 16:33
The moment we become Christians, we are called to battle whether we like it or not. And there is a spiritual battle that is constantly raging on. If we choose to ignore it, we will only fall prey to the enemy. Although our enemy is a powerful foe, with the Lord's as the Victor on our side, we can easily not only cope with him but even overcome him, because our Lord Jesus Christ has already won the victory over the Devil (Heb 2:14). Therefore, as believers we can resist the enemy! The Bible says: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jam 4:7). The word "resist" means "to withstand, to be firm against someone else’s onsets." The word "resist" also indicates that we are not to flee from this enemy. Courage is called for in this fight, and the Lord has given to each of us a “spirit of courage” or a “spirit of power” (2 Tim 1:7). Satan and his forces have to flee when a Christian stands “strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Eph 6:10). Of course, we also need to put on the whole armor of God, which is the church corporately.
Our standing, or maintaining our ground, is the goal in this battle; hence Ephesians 6:13 continues, “... that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” If we stand upon Christ, our Rock, we shall surely not be moved by the enemy – however strong and devious he may be. Besides standing upon Christ as our Foundation (1 Cor 3), our Rock of salvation (Psa 28:1, 31:3, 95:1), our cleft-Rock , our Rock of Refuge (Psa 31:2), but the “rock” also referred to the Word of God as in Matthew 7:24-26: “Therefore whoever hears these sayings(/Words) of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.” And God's Word is an extraordinary rock that is harder than any other kinds of rock as Jeremiah 23:29 affirmed: “'Is not My word like a fire?' says the Lord, ' And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?'” Thus, the Word of God is like even a rock made into a hammer that can break any other rocks of opinions or human methodologies or devices out there that dare to stand against His Word, our Constitution.
The book of Ephesians gives ample proof that God will provide His child with the needed strength for the conflict. In chapter 1:19, we read of the "exceeding greatness of His [the Father’s] power toward us who believe.” And as we have seen in the sixth chapter, not only do we have the might of Christ at our disposal, the full armor of God to put on, but also the Word of God as the Sword of the Spriti (Eph 6:17). Then in verse 18 of the same chapter the Holy Spirit’s role in aiding us as we turn to Him in prayers and petitions in the warfare is emphatically expressed. It is through the instrumentality of our prayer, controlled and directed by the Holy Spirit, that we put on and keep on the whole armor of God, which is the Church. At the same time, we are also empowered by the Father, for our prayers are offered to God the Father through the Holy Spirit. Thus, each member of the Trinity has a part in the believer’s victory over the evil one. We must always remember that our help lies in God and not in ourselves and that we are fighting a spiritual battle; therefore, human might and methods are futile in this spiritual battle. We need to first humble ourselves under God’s hand, and He will exalt us in due time (1 Pet 5:6). With almighty, infinite and ultimate power of God on our side, Satan does not stand a chance against us!
Allow me to remind the reader that there is only one devil, but there are myriads of subordinate fallen angels (about one third of all angels have followed satan in his rebellion against God) and evil spirits operating through humans unknowingly have become instruments of unrighteousness under Satan though they themselves may think that they are doing God's service – like those in Matthew 7:22-23 who even prophesied in the Lord's Name, cast out demons, and perform miraculous signs, but the Lord sternly rejected them though they are most likely Christians for them to be able to these things in the Lord's Name. The word in the phrase “I never knew you” in verse 23 according to the Greek word used in the original manuscript can be translated, “I never approve of your (works).”
Please note that these above verses quoted in the book of Ephesians also indicate that the Lord Jesus Christ often channels His victory through the Church and the members of His Body. Jesus is the Head of the Church, and we, being members of His Body, carry out His will. He alone is the Head/Mind of the Body, and the Planner. He originates the strategy and carries it out through us. No matter how much we hope it could be done, the dishes will not be washed and the garden will not be maintained by our sitting down at a desk and thinking or wishing – far from it. When a work needs to be done, our bodies must be employed to carry it out. The same thing is true in the Body of Jesus Christ. When He wants something done, He does it through us. Our relationship to Him is as close as our little fingers are related to our bodies. If I want to write, my mind cannot do the writing. It does the dictating, and my hand must take the pen or type the words on a piece of paper or into a computer. Therefore, we're told in Ephesians chapter one that “the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the Church” (Eph 1:19b-22). All of these great power of Christ is given not so much to each of us individual Christians, but “to the Church” corporately. For this reason, we are told to put on the whole armor of God, which is the Church, in Ephesians 6:13. There is no other power by which we can overcome the evil one. And just as our physical muscles increase through use, so will our spiritual muscles become stronger as we consistently wage this warfare against Satan and his stratagems. Through us Christ is working and waging His warfare in this world against the evil one.
God’s plan is to use us as channels – either channels of blessings or channels through which His power can flow to resist and cast down the enemy of God and bring in His kingdom. That strength does not lie in our good flesh or our self; it lies in Christ, but He accomplishes this victory through us corporately as the Church. God has not left the resisting of the devil to a special few, the strong, the spiritual Marines, whom He has chosen for that task. The admonition is to every believer in the Body of Christ corporately. All of us who are born into the family of God are living our earthly life in a sphere where we are constantly challenged by the forces of Satan. If we choose to ignore them and go about our lives without being armed with the might of Christ, the armor of God and the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, then we are bound to be living a defeated life – perhaps a life that is passively being devoured by the enemy, the roaring lion who is constantly seeking for someone to devour (1 Pet 5:8). Are we going to lay down and passively feed ourselves to the enemy as his prey?
A verse we have quoted above also shows us the key to victory is James 4:7: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” The divine order for successful resistance is that we must first submit ourselves to God. Failure on our part to submit to God means defeat at the hand of the enemy. The language here is taken from warfare. We are to "submit" as a good soldier places himself under his military commander. By submitting ourselves to God, we not only come under His Headship and protection, but we then allow Him to be the General to lead the fight for us for which He had already won! "Resist" means to stand bravely against the enemy. But victory begins and ends with our submission to God. Our prayer as a good soldier of Christ should be: "If this is of Your will and not man's good ideas, concepts, traditions, methods, or experimentation, I will accept it. If it originates from Satan and from even the best intentions of man, I will reject it and resist it in Christ’s Name."
This is the Calvary way of victory. The Lord Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, “Yet not my will, but Yours (God' the Father's will) be done.” This was the way the Captain of our salvation has trodden and the way we should take – the seeking and the carrying out of the Lord's will alone, not man's. There is a great danger here of some saints in the Lord, especially in the Chinese traditions, who tend to assume that those who are older and who have been Christians for years are automatically more likely to know God's will and God's way than others who are of lesser age. (Please don't misunderstand that I'm not here suggesting in any way, fashion, or form to disrespect the older ones.)
Let's remember the story of old prophet Eli in the book of first Samuel, who was no longer able to be used by the Lord due to his hard of hearing and his compromises; thus the young Samuel was raised up to be the prophet at that time. Also, in the epistle to the Galatians chapter 2, we saw that great aged apostle Peter was eating with the Gentiles as the Lord has shown him distinctly from a vision in Acts 10 that the Lord has already accepted the Gentile believers into His New Testament economy/kingdom, yet when those from James arrive from Jerusalem, he withdrew immediately; thus, he compromised the truth. Therefore, the young apostle Paul at that time rebuke the senior apostle Peter before all about his compromising the truths of God's Word (Gal 2:14). In short, we should not make such assumption in spiritual matters as it could lead us to blindly follow a person's will rather than the Lord's will and the Lord's way.
In coming to surrender more fully to God, we must beware of the other methods Satan has used to trip up many of God’s children. Like the Psalmist many of us have said, "Lord, I want you to examine my soul and my heart, and see if there is any wicked way in me." Now, that is good as far as it goes, but do not stop there. To throw the door open in that manner without going any farther gives Satan the opportunity he wants. He will dig up some old sin that we put under the blood a long time ago and flay our conscience with it. At such a time as that we overlook a very practical truth the Apostle Paul uttered when he said, "Forgetting the things which are behind…” (Phi 3:13). When once we have confess and dealt with our sins in the past under the blood of Jesus Christ, we should never seek to bring them forth to the light of day again. Any kind of reminders of them are from the enemy and should be rejected. On the other hand, when you submit yourself to God to show you if there is any wicked way in you, you may be confident that He will show you some things that are wrong in your life. So be sure to immediately cast yourself upon His mercy and thank Him for putting your confessed sins under the blood. This gives Satan no opportunity to break in on your life (1 Jn 1:9).
Finally, let us be reminded of 1 Peter chapter five's warning: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are being accomplished in your brethren in the world” (1 Pet 5:8-9). These verses speak of not only being stedfast in the faith, being wary and watchful of the enemy as a roaring lion, but also of praying in petition for one another, for “the same afflictions are being accomplished in your brethren in the world.” In this way, we as the Church corporately are truly protecting each other's back, so-to-speak; thus we practically act as the true armor of God to cover one another from the attack of the enemy! Praise the Lord! We can resist the devil and he will flee from us as we stand upon the victory of Christ!