Then Jesus said to him, “Go, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’” Matthew 4:10.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Jesus had many conversations during his earthly sojourn with diverse people, but one of the very first ones I reveal to you after His baptism in the Jordan at the beginning of His public ministry is with Satan. Why? First, it shows you how to respond when Satan approaches to attack, which he will, and second, it shows you that the devil has no authority over you if you do not give it to him. You do not need to fear him, you just tread on his lies with the truth and then cast him out. And if you do that, he must flee.
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4:7.
My Word will drive him out but to do so you must be committed to My Word. If you notice in My guarantee that he will flee from you, the first step is to submit to Me, which simply means, as it does with anyone you submit to, that you are in agreement with Me and adopt My ways of thinking about and doing things. Rebellion to My Word is not submission, it means you think you know better and can be master. You cannot resist the devil if you are in agreement with his ways. If he has a stronghold in your life, or even just a toehold in your thoughts, words, and actions he will have access into your life.
If you recall, and that is why Jesus had such success in casting out demons and healing all who were oppressed of the devil, Jesus said the devil had no part, no place, in Him. The night He took all your sins on Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane, He told His disciples at the Passover seder:
Hereafter I will not talk much with you, for the prince of this world comes and has nothing in me. John 14:30.
He called Satan the prince of this world, the world with its life of lies and empty show. Not of the world to come. And certainly not of you who are citizens of My Kingdom, though still in the world, you should not be of the world.
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:15-17.
You are of Me and lies have no part in the truth, darkness no part with the light, and hatred no part in love.
So let us go to the conversation Jesus had with the devil. Jesus was the fulfillment of the seed of the woman who would crush the devil’s head, that is, destroy his authority over mankind. I have told you there is only one way to deal with the devil. Tread on him.
“Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.” Luke 10:19-20.
How is it that Jesus even got into a conversation with the devil? He was led there by the Holy Spirit. He had just gotten baptized by John in the Jordan River and was full of the Holy Spirit and power.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Matthew 4:1.
The Spirit teaches you all things and reminds you of all I have said. Jesus had emptied Himself of His powers as God to take on your humanity, and, like you, to have a successful life and ministry, He had to learn how to deal with the devil and his demons. The devil is here under the authority that Adam gave him by his submission to the devil’s lies and his willingness to worship (serve) the devil over Me because of his lust for power. And yet what Adam did not realize was that he had all power working for him in Me. He just needed to command it.
And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. Matthew 4:2.
You must understand this about the tactics of the devil, he watches you to see when it is an opportune time to find you in a weak place. And if you are not weak, he will work at wearing you down to become so. He knows if he can get you in fear, in anger, want, depression, hopelessness, or pride he can force you into doing things rashly that later you will have to pay for in both bad consequences and guilt and shame.
Now I am going to share more about his tactics with you. The devil moves in very similar ways to playing a game of chess. He will advance towards you and try to take all your pieces off the board of life and take you captive to do his will. But like a skillful chess player, you must check all his advances before he takes any piece of your life. Now watch him with Jesus and you will see what I mean.
And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” Matthew 4:3.
Here the devil is trying to make Jesus doubt His identity and to prove His identity 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. This is how you put him in check.
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 addressed the devil’s command. He answered with My Word on the very subject the devil was moving against him in. There is bread for your body and there is bread for your spirit, flesh food and spirit food. My Word is spirit food.
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 Jesus answered with My Words as written in the Bible.
The devil was now in check. When in check, the devil must do one of the following: move so that he is no longer under attack (flee from you); block the attack by interposing a piece between himself and the attacker (try using another person or stepping up the attack by contrary circumstances), or capture the attacking piece (wear you down and get you into doubt and fear or offense so you back down and let go of the check so he can take you captive to do his will or entice you to an easy way out that indulges your flesh). If he cannot and you successfully check him three times, the game is over, and you have won. Checkmate.
So the devil tried to capture the attack. It had worked with Eve, she checked the devil on his first onslaught about eating from the tree, but she did not check him on the second and lost all the pieces of her life and Adam did as well. He took them captive to do his will. And his will is to steal, kill, and destroy your destiny, the good plan I have for your life.
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 4:5-6.
The devil quotes 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.
Here, the devil 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. The devil will try the same tactic on you and try to give you what people today have termed an “identity crisis.” If you are not established with who you are in Christ, you will be taken in by this. 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.
In this temptation the devil quotes Psalm 91 out of context, if you just continue on with the next line of the Psalm you find 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. He left out the treading part because you tread on him by answering his lies with My Words.
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 put the LORD your God to the test.’” Matthew 4:7. Again, He used My Word to specifically answer the temptation that Satan presented.
In the devil’s game of chess, there had been the first check and he had tried to stop the check with his second move, 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.
The devil took Jesus 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 world without having to go to the Cross or He could answer this and command Satan out. This is where Adam and Eve fell. They thought the devil could give them something I could not if they disobeyed Me and obeyed him.
Jesus chose to not to bow to anyone but Me. And He thus answered that temptation and commanded him out as checkmate. 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 was contrary to My Word. They did not tell Satan to leave and stop bothering them. Never permit him to stay.
And that is the next step after checkmate, you cast the devil (or one of his demons) out in Jesus’ Name. You have taken him down and not vice versa.
So the first step when the devil moves against you with fear, depression, sickness, storms, or the like 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 must answer it by speaking to it the appropriate word of cancelation.
For this you will need to be familiar with My Word from spending time in it (girded with truth so you have an arsenal of answers and listening to the Holy Spirit as He brings them up to you in your spirit) or use an internet search to find Scriptures with the key words you are seeking to find that address the attack.
You will see that Jesus answered things during His time as one like you. He answered the unfruitful fig tree. He answered the fever that was attacking Peter’s mother-in-law. He answered the storms at sea. He had many conversations with a variety of settings.
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 the cancer that is attacking you, it will stay. You have to check it. 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, and anything else the devil sends. But you must answer.
You know this in legal matters as well. If someone files a complaint or petition against you in court, you must file an answer with the court or you will lose by default. It does not matter if what the person is accusing you of is not true, you must answer, or it will be assumed true. By your words you are acquitted and by your words you are condemned. Watch your words, death and life are in the hand of your tongue.
Refusing to tolerate the devil’s lies by answering them with My Words 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 that you must take 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 next step? 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.
It is worship. Worship shuts the door in your life to the devil. It is thanksgiving and praise. The voice of thanksgiving works wonders. The devil cannot walk in the glory of which he was cast out. Keep up a lifestyle of worship in thanksgiving and praise and you will never fall, and the holy angels will come and minister to you.
To answer and cast out the demon just takes a matter of minutes, though you will need to repeat it if he keeps coming back trying to make the thoughts or symptoms stay, but if you stay in worship with praise and thanksgiving, especially in joyful song, the answers and the rebukes are easy. You stay in My presence by making melody in your heart in hymns, psalms, and songs of the spirit, songs in tongues.
But one more warning. The devil does not give up easy. Jesus checked him but that does not mean the devil will give up and leave you alone. Far from it. He always wants to try another found. Jesus cast the devil out and won over him in the wilderness. Jesus checked his three advances and took checkmate, but I tell you that “When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.” Luke 4:13. He was not giving up; he would come again and again. But Jesus overcame him again and again, until He took final victory when I raised Him from the dead.
There is nothing wrong with your faith if what you cast out of your life returns. You have not lost your victory or your miracle, it just is to be expected that when the devil wanders about he will try to come back and take up abode in you. Simply submit to Me, that is, keep declaring My Word that healed you and do not question whether it really worked. It did work but the devil will come back to try to steal it from you by playing another round of his diabolical game of chess. Speaking the truth is resisting him and then he must flee.
You are still in this world, though when you are born again from above you are not of the world, but you are in it and the devil is crouching at your door, just waiting for a crack that will let him in. You are no longer beneath Satan. You, in Jesus, have overcome the world. But to overcome you must do just that, overcome.
This is where many turn back from following Me in the sanctified life. They get discouraged and give up because they cast the devil out, but he came back with seven spirits worse than himself. But Jesus told you about it ahead of time. You should not be surprised. You should not be taken off guard. You should expect it and be ready for it.
You have to enforce My law of liberty and enforce My promises, which are all “yes” to you in Christ Jesus, in your life. In chess when your opponent moves you must move, you cannot just opt out and not play or you lose the game.
But you must have knowledge of who you are and what you have in Christ, or you will lose. Jesus knew who He is, was and will be and the devil was never able to penetrate His thoughts, words, or actions. Learn from Him and His “conversation” with the devil. Never have a conversation like Eve did. Imitate Christ.
I love you. You are Mine. Always remember that. You can always come home to Me and I will protect you and show you the way you should go.