ON THE VANGUARD

RESISTANCE IS KEY
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
James 4:7

One of the things that I strive to be with you in these devotionals is honest. I figure that my humor isn’t always the wackiest, and my stories aren’t always the most relatable. So then the only other thing I can really offer you is my honesty. Maybe sometimes I come off as too honest, too blunt, or too revealing of how I have learned the lessons I have, but then I think again and see you the reader. I see you like I see my children. I want my children to learn from my past mistakes without having to experience what I have been through, themselves. I want to offer them advice void of them having to learn it firsthand. I may not be able to come up with a witty rhyme like Solomon did in the Proverbs, but that is alright.
I say all this at the beginning today because I want to share with you another one of those lessons that I have been learning firsthand recently. Resistance is key. I sound like I am interacting with some evil genius who is warning those whose minds are about to be taken over that there is no point in resisting an evil plan, (insert evil laugh here). Well in a way I am. I am warning us to resist the devil. James 4:7 says it just about as blunt as can be said. “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” That’s it? That’s all I have to do is submit to God and resist the devil? Yep, that’s all. But it is a task so hard to do it seems.
Why is it that when we decide to live right, something comes to throw us off course? For instance, for the past few years I have been making the New Year’s resolution that I will exercise daily. The first few days I do. One year I even got up to almost a month of exercise. But then I got tired, or it started getting colder, or a co-worker brought in a box of donuts and soon all desire to work out was thrown out the window. Spiritually it is no different. Just recently, as I have shared within the past two weeks, I have felt that I need to grow deeper in my relationship with God. I start off well but temptations move in. The urge to skip church comes upon me, someone tries to lure me into a relationship against my personal standards, or I find myself playing a mind game thinking, “What have I agreed to?” Just like at New Years, so here also I made a resolution or covenant. Soon I find myself weaseling myself out of it, redefining my terms, or just plain giving up. These are the wrongs that will come against me, and the attacks of the devil that I must stand against.
So then, let me ask, what do we do when we find we have not held our ground? What can we do to get back on track when we realize that our sin, our lack of resisting, has opened a door for the enemy? The devil comes against us and looks to weaken our walls. But once the walls have been breached he sends in a full on attack. What then? Let me offer to you what has been shown to me only this week when I asked the same question.
First we must repent. We must repent for whatever we have done to open the door to the enemy. Repentance is the turning away from sin. So then what caused us to turn to sin? It is that thing that caused us to turn that we must repent of. Second, we must break the curses that came as a result of the sin. I realize that not all of you will agree with all I have to say, and that spiritual warfare may be one of those things not agreed on, but warfare in the spirit realm is real. We then must break the curses related to and as a result of the sin. For instance, when I was involved in pornography, I opened the door to pride, selfishness, deception, jealousy, coveting, and on and on the list could go. All these curses needed to be broken, and the third step also performed, of kicking these spirits out. They had no right to come in, but my sin opened the door for them. But the party is over now, the parents are home, and all the guests whether invited or not must get out. The final step then, is to seal up the doorways with the blood of Jesus. Think back with me to the days of Moses. The blood on the doorframe kept God’s people safe. So then, sealing our doors with His blood also keeps us safe and the enemy out.
It all comes back to James 4:7, though, no matter how you look at it. We must submit to God and His ways. The safety we need is found only in Him, protected in His arms and covered by His blood. And we must resist the devil. We must not give him the spiritual legal right to come in. Opening doors as a result of sin gives him this right. So then, let us repent, break the curses, kick him out and seal the door. Let our minds and hearts be fixed on God. Let us be submitted to the ways of God and fully opposed to the enemy. It is time to stand resistant.