We are in the middle of spiritual warfare. We are looking at verses 10 through 17 on the theme of the believer’s armor in the book of Ephesians. Last time, I talked to you about our enemy Satan. In the battle, it is vital, we know our adversary, and the tactics used to defeat us. As we saw, we are to stand firm and resist the devil. It sounds simple enough, but how do we resist the devil? Let us answer that question today.
Now, God has a purpose for the believer to be Holy and calls us to walk accordingly, setting us apart from the world system. These are plans that gain God His own glory. But on the other hand, Satan does and will continue to do all that he can to prevent us from realizing the purposes of God. Consequently, there is war in the life of a believer. I believe the war begins at the moment of salvation even before salvation, as the Word comes with the message of the Gospel. According to the words of our Lord, Satan attempts to snatch it away, so that a person can not respond. We see throughout the bible this battle. Satan has done all he can to disrupt the plan of God. We see satan’s opposition throughout the history of the church. We talked about this last time. Now, how are we going to win? How do we get beyond our doubts? How do we rise above our sins? How do we attain the level of spiritual life that God calls us to? How do we walk worthy of a high calling, a heavenly calling? How do we defeat Satan? How do we get the victory? We find the solution in the Bible.
# 1. We must know Jesus defeated Satan on the cross. In 1 John 3:8, it says that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. In Hebrews 2:14 it says He came to destroy him who had the power of death, to whom we were all our lifetime subject to bondage.
# 2. The power that defeated Satan resides in you. Bible tells us the moment you accept Christ, Holy Spirit dwells in you. In 1 John 4, it says, “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” You have an unlimited reservoir of this power.
# 3. Peter tells us to be sober. It means knowing your priorities. Be committed and watchful. And then he tells us to resist him, standing firm in the faith. And you can resist him because you have power ( Holy Spirit) available to you. Ephesians 4:27 tells us how we resist Satan expressing his power in our lives. Ephesians 4:27 simply says this: “Neither give a place to the devil.” Just don’t ever give him a place. Now, the meaning of the verse is that if he has a place it’s because you gave it to him, right? At this point, you might ask, How do I not give him a place? See what 2 Corinthians 2: 11 says “Be not ignorant of his devices.” once again know your enemy. Make sure you are not ignorant of his devices. You say, “Well, what are his devices?” Satan has not changed. He is a one-trick pony. He deceives you the same way he deceived Eve. The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. That’s his device. 1 John says this: “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of God, but is of the world.” How do you resist the devil? Don’t give him a foothold, and how do you not give him a foothold, shut the door on the lust of the eye, the pride of life (Ego), and the lust of the flesh. Having given no place to Satan, you will resist his entry into your life. And secondly, when you see him coming, flee. 2 Timothy 2:22 says, “Flee youthful lusts” – flee temptation – “and follow after righteousness,” it says This is a very uncomplicated formula. Remember, Jesus defeated Satan; Power dwells in you, therefore resist the devil and flee from youthful lust. We must remember our battle is not on the human level, although we are human. We are not fighting men. That person who is making your life difficult in church or at work is not your enemy. He/she is just an instrument devil is using against you. In other words, we have spiritual warfare demanding spiritual weapons. Look at what Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not [a]carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. How are we going to use these weapons? How are we going to appropriate power? The end of verse 5 simply says, “bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
Once again let me remind you. All of this starts with surrendering yourself to Jesus being “BORN AGAIN.” But after salvation, we must continue our walk of sanctification. In other words for us to know Christ has dealt a death blow to Satan; for us to know that the same power dwells in us, for us to withstand Satan, to give him no place, to not be unaware of his methods, to flee his temptations, we must have every thought brought into captivity to Christ. Simply put we must have our mind-controlled by the Word of God, through the power of the Spirit of God. There are no shortcuts to effective, victorious Christian living. If you’re going to live a victorious Christian life, it means you must have a heart given over to the Word of God, so that your thinking and your feeling is controlled by that very truth.
And all this power and weapons are available to us in the armor. The girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the Gospel of peace, The shield of faith, The helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit. Next week, we will explore each one in detail and see how they help us to defeat Satan. Amen.
only savior jesus 