To Encourage You

James 4:7 “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

One of the things that we need to understand about the Bible is that the enemy of our souls knows what it says better than we do. From the very beginning, Satan began his temptation of people by drawing attention to the Word of God. In Genesis 3 we are told that the serpent approached Eve with the following words: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” Eve replied, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” 

And so we see the devil’s methods. He uses God’s own words to deceive us, but he uses them in a way to cast doubt. He may begin with what God has said, but then he tempts us to question it, to doubt it, and ultimately, to not believe it. So, we are called to resist him. We must resist his lies. 

So, how do we resist any lie? We do so with the Truth. We are to fill our minds with it. We are to do as the psalmist did, who said, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11). We are to study it, meditate on it, and believe it. We do this so that when the doubts come (and they surely will) we are ready to argue against them. They may come from any source. They may even come from the mouths of believers. Jesus demonstrated this in the following account from Matthew 16:21-23: “Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.’ But he turned and said to Peter, ‘GET BEHIND ME SATAN! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.’” And so we, too, resist the devil, no matter through whom he speaks, with truth. That means if you don’t know the truth, you will inevitably be deceived, especially about spiritual truth. 

Another place the Bible points to this is in the following instruction from 2 Corinthians 10:4-5: “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” Do you hear that? We destroy arguments, every lofty opinion (and there are a lot of them being espoused!) that is raised against the knowledge of God. But we are completely unequipped to do this if we don’t know what the knowledge of God is! 

And then this from the lips of the Lord Jesus Himself as He faced incredible temptation from Satan in the wilderness as recorded for us in Matthew 4. As he had done with Eve, Satan began his temptation of Jesus by quoting God’s own words, but in so doing he twisted them and took them out of context as he worked to tempt and deceive. So what was Jesus’ response? He fought fire with fire by saying “it is written” followed by the Truth of the Scriptures accurately used in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

So if Jesus did this, so must we. And if we do this, the results will be the same, for Satan can’t stand the truth – he can’t handle it! In Matthew 4 we are told that “the devil left him,” i.e., he left the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we resist him the same way Jesus did, we will achieve the same results. It’s our only defense. God’s Word:  it’s the spiritual sword by which we resist our spiritual foe.

So are you equipped for the battle, or are you defenseless, deceived, a hapless victim of the enemy of your soul?