How To Win The War Against The Devil

HOW TO WIN THE WAR AGAINST THE DEVIL

.James 4:7 says, "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you."

1. The first step is to surrender my life to God.

Before you can ever expect to win the war against satan, you must settle the Lordship issue.

That means two things to two different groups of people;

if you’re here tonight and you’ve never made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life, you need to do so! Don’t put it off any longer! It’s the best decision you’ll ever make.

Because everyone of us enter this world the same way.

First I’ll give you the bad news and then I’ll give you the good news

The bad news is: We are all born into the world with an enemy who is right there, ready and waiting to kill, steal and destroy us. Jesus tells us this in John 10. Isn’t that the pits? I mean here we are, this beautiful, precious, innocent, little, bundle of joy...we’ve never even had the chance to do anything wrong to anybody...AND WE ALREADY HAVE ENEMIES!!!

The good news is: We are all also born into the world with a Savior! Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, is the One and only champion and victor over the enemy of our souls, satan. He alone has power over the evil one. So the only way we can be safe is to run to Jesus!

A side note to parents: For many of you, I’m sure that it’s hard to imagine that your precious, little angel could have any enemies. But it is true! And it’s up to you to stay submitted to God, resisting the devil in your own life and commanding him and his evil servants to flee from your children. You are their protective covering until they are old enough to understand and submit their lives to God themselves.

So in order to win the war against the devil, you must submit your life to God. You must be born again!

But before we move on, I have to at least mention the Lordship issue a little further.

Because I’ve seen too many Christians over the years, who have been born again, but still do not have victory over the devil.

We’ve all heard many Christians quote James 4:7, but many times they leave out the most important half of that verse. You’ve heard it again and again, "Resist the devil and he will flee...resist the devil and he will flee..." but that’s only half true.

The only way that we have the ability to resist him and the authority to make him flee, is when we are living lives totally submitted to God!

In other words, if you’re a Christian, but you’re living in sin, don’t think for a minute that you can just quote James 4:7 "resist the devil and he will flee" and that he’s going to run for you. It simply doesn’t work that way.

Because if you’re living in sin (whether it’s adultery, pornography, gossip, anger, envy, jealousy, greed, murmurring...complaining...any disobedience to God) YOU HAVE GIVEN SATAN AN OPENING INTO YOUR LIFE AND YOU HAVE GIVEN UP YOUR AUTHORITY OVER HIM IN CHRIST.

It is startling to think that Satan can actually come into the heart of a man in such close touch with Jesus as Judas was. And more--he is cunningly trying to do it today. Yet he can get in only through a door opened from the inside. "Every man controls the door of his own life." Satan can’t get in without our help.

S.D. Gordon

WE MUST SETTLE THE LORDSHIP ISSUE EVERY MORNING BEFORE WE EVEN GET OUT OF THE BED AND KEEP IT SETTLED ALL DAY LONG UNTIL WE RETURN TO THE BED AGAIN. AMEN.

Being submitted to God simply means this: IF JESUS IS LORD, I’M NOT.

Therefore, I lay down every right I ever thought I had and I submit myself to His Lordship. I say, "okay Jesus, You are in control, You are the boss of my life, You and You alone have the right to call the shots and determine the path of my life.

Submitting to God means He is Lord and He is in control of everything in my life. My only responsibility is to keep my eyes on Him, to love, honor and serve Him all the days of my life.

" let God work His will in you. Yell out a loud NO to the devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and He’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet."