So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. Mark 11:22-24.

Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:

When the devil attacks, whatever it is, you have to answer it. If you do not discipline the misbehavior of a child or stop a lie, the problem will persist, continue to grow, and finally get out of control. I did not tell you to speak to Me or others about mountains, I told you to speak to the mountains, and very specifically just what to say if you wanted that mountain out of your way.

And that is today’s Life Lesson on what to do when Satan attacks: Answer it!

When a fig tree presented Jesus with lack, He answered the fig tree and cursed that lack right out of His life and everyone else’s life as well. When Peter’s mother-in-law had a fever, He addressed the fever and rebuked it. When a storm blew against the ship in which He traveled, He answered the storm and commanded it to peaceful stillness. When the devil showed up to tempt Him in the wilderness, He answered every fiery dart very specifically and then ordered him out.

What you bind on earth has been bound in Heaven, and what you loose on earth has been loosed in Heaven. But YOU have to bind and loose on the earth. You bind the evil and loose the good. And you do it by speaking, and not gently, you must command. Jesus spoke to things with authority and they obeyed. And He asked the disciples where their faith was that they had not done the same.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and He is your Teacher, so you would do well to learn from Him what to do when Satan attacks for He routed the devil and reduced him to naught.

Begin with the first time you read of the encounter between Jesus and the devil, but you can be sure this was not the first time, but it shows how you counter his attacks.

After His baptism at the Jordan, Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Matthew 4:1. It was here that the Holy Spirit taught Jesus in His humanity what to do when the devil attacks. Remember even though Jesus was fully God and fully man, during His sojourn on earth as one like you He emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:7-8.

And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” Matthew 4:2-3. Here the devil is trying to make Jesus doubt His identity and prove it to Satan, even though I had just declared such at the baptism, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:17. You notice the devil left out “beloved,” and the pleased part, as he will about you too.

Now you will see what you must do. Whatever it is the devil shoots at you, you must answer it specifically. Jesus countered with, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ” Matthew 4:4. Here He did not get trapped by the temptation to try to prove who He was, He was established in that already. But He answered with My Word on the very subject the devil was moving against him in—bread is not just the physical bread but the bread of My Word. You have to feed to fight. The verb of the same letters that form the noun “bread” “lechem” in Hebrew is lacham, which means to fight. Feed on My Word and you will have the stability and vocabulary you need to take the enemy down. But you will see that the main ingredient is that He answered with My Words as written in the Bible.

Next the devil took Jesus up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ” Matthew 4:56. The devil will quote My Word out of context to trick you into moving thinking it is from Me. Just know this, I would never tell you to endanger yourself doing things that had no purpose and made no sense to prove something about your relationship with Me. He is challenging Jesus to show who He is by foolish behavior—this would be what people would call a “dare,” and all these are incited by Satan to destroy people based on foolish pride. You do not have to prove you are My child if you have taken Jesus as Lord, established in righteousness you are far from oppression. And I would like you to note that the devil quotes Psalm 91 here out of context, for the very next line tells you what to do with him when he shows up, i.e., tread him underfoot. “For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.” Psalm 91:11-13.

So what do you do when he urges or encourages you to do something that is foolish or dangerous? What did I show Jesus to do? For He only said the Words that I gave Him and did the works I showed Him. Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ” Matthew 4:7. Again, He used My Word to specifically answer the temptation that Satan presented.

Well now, in the devil’s game of chess, there had been a check and he had tried to stop the check but only found that he was checked again. The devil was trapped now but he chose to go for one more attempt to turn the game around so he could take checkmate. Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” Matthew 4:8-9.

Jesus had a choice. He could accept the offer and win the kingdoms of the word without having to go to the Cross or He could answer this and command Satan out. He chose to answer it and command him out, so Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” Matthew 4:10.

Here again, He specifically addressed the attack and quoted My Word that directly contradicted Satan’s temptation. He nipped it in the bud and refused to consider it, though it could have appeared an easy solution to accomplish the overall goal of His mission. Adam and Eve were not so wise. They did not answer the devil’s temptation in the negative but took it in as a positive and agreed with it though it as contrary to My Word. And they did not tell Satan to leave bothering them. Never permit him to stay.

And that is step number 2, i.e., cast him out in Jesus’ Name.

Step No. 1 when the devil attacks is to answer his attack specifically. Speak to the mountain that is in your way and trying to scare you into submission by its formidable size, whether it be disease, pain, lack, a storm or accident, you have to answer it by speaking to it the appropriate word of cancelation. Jesus answered the fig tree and the same with the fever and the storms at sea. If cancer has attacked your body, that is not from Me but the devil, and you must answer it. If you have not spoken to your cancer, it will stay. You have to say, “Oh no you don’t! You are not putting that on Me. By His stripes I have been healed, He Himself bore my diseases and infirmities, He Himself took my pains, so this does not belong in my body and cannot stay. ‘Cancer in the Name of Jesus, leave my body and be cast into the depths of the sea never to return.’ Answer each test specifically, and speak to the thoughts, words, symptoms, lack (speak to the bills and your bank account as more than enough and that I am your Shepherd so you do not want for any good thing, etc.), and anything thing else the devil sends, but you must answer. That is submitting to My Word and resisting the devil’s word or test.

If you just go straight to casting the demon out but do not answer (that is, cancel) what he said, the devil works by the power of suggestion so that you will pick up what he is telling you or the influence he is sending upon you and if you do not answer the words and cut them off they will just keep swirling around your head trying to find entrance. You may have noticed that sometimes a thought will come that you will suffer a certain ailment such as cancer or have problems with your ears or eyes or problems meeting your needs financially when there really is no problem with any of that in the present moment, but it is a foreboding of a dreaded outcome. If you do not immediately answer those and cut them off, My servant Paul by My Spirit called that casting down imaginations and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, they will keep swirling round your head seeking entrance to torment you.

After answering the thoughts the devil sends, then you must do the next step or the devil will just keep hanging around trying to get you to take the thought by his persistence, so you must command the spirit behind the disease, infirmity, etc. to go. Jesus showed you, “Be gone Satan.” And then the devil left Him. Matthew 4:11.

But there is one more step, Step No. 3, that you must do to keep your heart from being invaded by the devil, to keep up your shield and your helmet on. You must keep your mind above where I have seated you with Christ and keep your eyes on Me and the greatness of My power and the devil’s tests will no longer be mountains but become a plain.

“This is the Word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone With shouts of “Grace, grace to it!” ’ Zechariah 4:6-7.

And what is the Step No. 3? Jesus told you in the last answer to the temptation, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” Matthew 4:10. Then the devil left and behold, angels came and ministered to Him. Matthew 4:11.

Step No. 3 is worship. Worship shuts the door in your life to the devil. He cannot walk in the glory of which he was cast out. Keep up a lifestyle of worship and you will never fall and the holy angels will come and minister to you. Step No. 1 and Step No. 2 just take a matter of minutes, though you will need to repeat them if he keeps coming back trying to make the symptoms stay, but if you stay in Step No. 3 the answers and the rebukes are easy so that you can stay in My presence making melody in your heart in hymns, psalms, and songs of the spirit, songs in tongues.

You have to enforce My law of liberty and enforce My promises, that are all “yes” to you in Christ Jesus, in your life. A policeman who sits by and lets a thief rob a store before his eyes is not skilled at his job and will be fired by the police department that has clothed him in authority, entrusting the responsibility of keeping things in control and peace. For what he permits will cause things to get more and more out of control. And this is true in our own life as well. I have clothed you in Christ and He has given you His authority over the devil and his demons. You must use it. He did all the work and got you the power to use, you need only do three simple things: Answer it (this will take it captive and make it cease and desist), cast out the spirit behind it so he can cause no more, and then worship to keep your life in perfect peace as all My promises manifest in your spirit, soul, and body.

I love you. Let us talk, but never talk with the devil, only answer all the works of the evil one to cancel them in no uncertain terms. You have to command them out or they will stay.