But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4:6-7.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
If you want to enjoy all the good things and perfect gifts, including the gift of righteousness, that are yours in Jesus, you must be aware of the tactics, craftiness, and deceits of the devil in order to resist him and keep him from stealing what is already yours in Christ.
Today I will begin to teach you how to take up My armor for this is the only way you can resist the devil in every move of his to take, that is, steal by deceit and misrepresentation what I have freely given you in Christ.
Remember first that you did not earn what I have given you in Christ by the measure of your good behavior and your own works of righteousness, it is My irrevocable gift to you in Christ. You are forgiven, cleared, blameless, righteous and without reproach before Me. You have washed your robes and made them white (spotless of sin) in the Blood of the Lamb and have been born again of the imperishable seed of My Word.
Why am I telling you to remember this in resisting the devil? Because he is the accuser of the brethren, that is, of My children, and he will remind you of your sins night and day to steal from you the Word of righteousness. He tries to make you doubt your righteousness, but you need to understand, it is not your righteousness you wear now but Mine. You are established in My righteousness as your own by the work of Jesus. He kept all the Law for you and took on all your sins and took your judgment upon His own flesh. Your sins are not just forgiven, they are gone.
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. John 15:10-11.
In Jesus you have received the gift of righteousness. He knew no sin but He became sin for you so that in Him you can become righteous with My own righteousness, which is the finish line of the Law. So now by the gift of My righteousness, you to start at the finish line of the law to continue forward in grace—the life of good deeds I prepared for you in advance as a new creation in Christ.
“In righteousness you will be established; you will be far from oppression, for you will not fear; and from terror, for it will not come near you. If anyone fiercely assails you it will not be from Me. Whoever assails you will fall because of you.” Isaiah 54:14-15.
In order to resist the devil’s lies, the first thing you need to be established in is the gift of My righteousness. Even if you stumble and fall seven times a day, you shall not fall headlong or lose your gift of righteousness because it is not yours but Mine and I have made an irrevocable gift of it to you. And I am perfect righteousness, there is no unrighteousness in Me.
Planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green, to declare that the LORD is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. Psalm 92:13-15.
If you do sin, immediately run and acknowledge and confess your sins to Me, I am faithful and righteous to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9. Why? Jesus already took all your sins and took the punishment for them and you are cleared by the blood. It is eternal blood and is still on the mercy seat in Heaven pleading for you as administered by your great High Priest Jesus who ever lives to make intercession for you and saves you to the uttermost.
Walk in My light, which is to walk in love, and the Blood of Jesus continually cleanses you. If you have received My grace (Jesus) and the gift of righteousness you will reign in life through Jesus Christ your Lord. You will be quick to know when you have walked out of love because My Holy Spirit in you will let you know and convict you to repentance and He will let you know just what was wrong that you thought, said, or did, and how you correct it according to My Word. He guides you to all truth, which is My Word, and teaches you all things.
But before we begin to discuss My armor, which is the way to resist the devil, and you will see that My armor has to do with girding and clothing yourself in My Word, you must understand that to resist the devil you must be submitted to Me, and I am My Word, John 1:1, so you must be established in the truth of My Word and that it is for your health and prosperity in every area of your life, spirit, soul, and body. In other words, that keeping My Words is for your benefit and that I love you and am on your side. My Word is My gift to you to save you and deliver you from all destruction.
My Spirit through My servant James tells you that to resist the devil so he flees from you that you must first submit to Me. Adam and Eve submitted to the devil and resisted Me, which as you know, had a horrible result and put the whole world under the evil one.
We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 1 John 5:19.
But you can humble yourself and come under My jurisdiction by submitting to My Word and resisting the devil by speaking and obeying My Word. With Adam submission was about whose word he would take as the truth, the devil’s words or My Words and he chose to obey the lie rather than the truth. And the devil is always trying to get you to submit to him and resist Me because then he has your worship. If you bow you knee to grief, anger, fear, pride, and/or lust you are worshipping the devil and not Me.
Many people have sang or stated they surrender all to Me. I never ask you to surrender to Me, that is what you do with an enemy who overpowers you and takes away your freedom. I ask you to submit to Me.
When you surrender you are forced to give up the fight. Submission is an independent decision to go under another’s authority because you believe it is for your benefit to do so in honor of the one to whom you submit. You want what they can give you. To submit is to agree with what the person stands for and is a knowing and free decision to align yourself under the authority of another. You become a follower, a student, a disciple, a person committed to a cause.
In surrender you give up and are taken captive to do another’s will, you just give up. In submission you join in with the wiser one.
Submission is a heart choice and you keep your independence but choose to adhere to the other’s wisdom as best. Surrender you are forced to follow another but your heart is rebellious. It is a forced choice not a freewill offering of oneself. Surrender is a total loss of freedom. Submission is complete freedom to make your choice for a good result.
Surrender is unwilling obedience. Submission is a humbling of oneself as willing to obey, a labor of love.
How do you submit to Me? You offer your bodies, that is, your dominion authority on earth for purposes of the Kingdom, allowing My power to heal, bless, and undo the works of Satan to flow through you into the world as members of Christ’s Body, the church, and your renew your mind in My Word so that you are no longer conformed to think as the world does (and the devil is the “god” of this world due to Adam offering his body to the devil to use his dominion authority for his purposes to steal, kill, and destroy, but are transformed to think, talk, and walk in love as I do by the renewal of your mind.
Renewing your mind is reading, speaking, meditating upon, and doing My Word until it becomes your way of thinking and living. It puts your mind above instead of below. It gives you a whole new perspective on life so that you no longer are comfortable walking according to the flesh but only have peace in walking in the spirit, that is, by faith instead of by sight—seeing beyond the physical to the spiritual realm where things that are impossible in the flesh become possible by the Spirit.
So once you have humbled yourself to submit your body and soul to My purposes of life and not death, of blessing and not cursing, of giving and receiving instead of grabbing and keeping, you are ready to clothe yourself in My amor of light and resist the devil so that he flees from YOU every time he tries to play his diabolical game of chess and capture all the pieces of your life, in other words, he seeks to steal by deceit the blessing of shalom I have given you in Jesus, which is the whole pie of every good thing in every arena of your life—spiritual, physical, emotional, relational, and financial.
Renew you mind to the truth by continuing in My Word day and night and then resist every attack, fiery dart, and suggestion of the devil with the truth. For he is a liar and the father of lies and he cannot tell the truth. He is the deceiver of the whole world. But you should not be deceived any longer for you have My Word, My Spirit, the Blood of the Lamb, and the Name of Jesus, as well as all My Covenant Names, the magnificent promises signed in My Covenant Name that are all “yes” to you in Jesus. Jesus is the great “Amen” to all My promises to you. In your Covenant with Him they are yours, and in Covenant with Him you are in Him in His Covenant with Me. Double security.
So now let us begin looking at My armor which is for you. Do not get caught up in what it looks like but what it is. It is a renewed mind stayed on My Word in great peace against all storms. No fear of things that come against you for you know Me and how to draw on My strength. Mine is the battle, yours in the victory and I have already won the battle in Jesus so you job is to put on My full armor and enforce the victory you already have.
The armor can only be put on by a believer, a doubter will take it off at the first sign of trouble that challenges My Word. Like the seed planted on shallow stony ground and ground full of thorns, but the believer’s heart that is good soil will hold on to and cultivate the seed until it reaches harvest, some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundredfold.
Beginning in our next Life Lesson we will look at how to put the armor on and then begin to look at all the weapons, both defensive and offensive.
I love you and desire above all that you prosper and be in good health, even as your soul prospers by walking in the truth. But in order to live a beautiful life filled with shalom, you must submit to Me and resist the devil. And then he has to flee. But you can only do it by putting on My full armor and taking up the Sword of the Spirit. And the good news is you have already got it! What? My full armor.