How to Resist the Devil
“The Bible uses one single, uncomplicated word to tell you how to respond when the enemy attacks: resist. When you do, the promised result is astonishing: the devil will flee from you. He will flee!”
That confident—and biblical—paragraph is from Good News about Satan, by Bob Bevington. In the previous post, I shared some thoughts with you from Chapter 2 about how the devil delights in taking advantage of our natural desires, which our flesh uses to generate temptation within us. Today, I want to pass along some thoughts from Chapter 7, on how we resist the devil. The author focuses on two ways (in much more detail than I mention, below).
Remember Your Identity in Christ
If you are united to Christ by authentic faith you already are everything you need to be in order to resist the enemy. But it is easy to lose sight of this when you are in the heat of the battle. So it’s vital to maintain your focus by continually recalling:
- Who you are: In Christ you are a new creation with a new identity.
- Whose you are: You have died to sin and the law, and belong to Christ.
- Who are you with: You are alive and raised up with Christ.
Put on the Armor
Ephesians 6:10-18 provides the most detailed how-to on spiritual warfare in the entire Bible. Here Paul tells the Ephesians at length how to face off against nonmaterial demonic beings with whom they struggled. Yet he never even hints at rebuking, binding, loosing, calling down, or casting out these evil spirits. Instead, he reveals the core strategy for spiritual warfare by repeatedly emphasizing a single, uncomplicated word: stand. “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil….Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore…” (Ephesians 6:11-14). The chapter then goes on to describe each piece of armor in detail.
If you’re looking for a simple, straightforward look at spiritual warfare from a thoroughly biblical perspective, get yourself a copy of Good News about Satan.
