by David Brenneman
"Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness," Ephesians 6:11-14.
A Defeated Enemy
"When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him." Colossians 2:15.
Christians are not called to defeat Satan. God has already done that in Christ! Nor is it our mandate to "bind" Satan. Jesus has already set limits on the extent and duration of Satan's freedom. Satan, "our ancient foe," was decisively and completely defeated by Christ's sacrifice on the cross and in His resurrection. With regard to Satan, our assignment is to trust in the
victory that Christ already achieved and daily resist him with the truth of his defeat, as Jesus did.
Satan is the father of lies and a master deceiver (John 8:44).
If he can convince you that God has not defeated him, then you will not experience Jesus' victory. You will find yourself fighting battles that Christ has already won! You will fear Satan though he has already been utterly and humiliatingly defeated Your responsibility is to resist Satan, and he will flee from you (James 4.7). When you resist him, you are acknowledging that Jesus has defeated him and given you victory over his influence. God
has provided you with spiritual armor that is more than sufficient to withstand any assault by Satan (Eph. 6:10-20).
Christians can become preoccupied with battling Satan.
This deceives them to invest their time and energy attempting to do something that Christ has already done for them. If Satan can divert you to wage a warfare that has already ended in surrender, he will have eliminated your effectiveness where God wants you. Fearing Satan is fearing Prisoner of war. You have no need or calling to defeat Satan; a you need only to apply Christ's victory in every area of your life and to live the victorious Christian life. - Blackaby Experiencing God Day-by-Day.
Did you notice the repeated command? 3 times in 3 verses. Stand firm. It was a very interesting reading last night to read what you just now read from Blackaby.
I have heard and seen in social media of people trying to do the very things that they spoke of in that devotional (Henry Blackaby and Richard Blackaby wrote that devotional book and the study materials that go with it.).
People can think they are doing "the Lord's will" by getting caught up in such unnecessary battles. It really falls in line with what we read of Jesus saying of many people saying they did this in His Name and that in His Name.
As the great hymn goes "where He leads me I will follow". In another devotional I read of "having patience in running with the Lord".
Much of what we can do is give Satan way too much credit for what's really our own sin nature in what we perceive in our world. We still do have a sin nature. We like to compare and attribute our own contrived explanations to what's not gone right in our world and way too often we take credit for what we really had nothing to do with.
We have it written in the Old Testament of how often and how many of the children of Israel, from Kings on down, didn't stand firm in the Lord...and what the consequences were of that.
We also have those such as Nehemiah and Daniel and others who were shining examples of what truly happens when we do.
For all the wisdom he had, Solomon faltered in a great many areas of his life because of his own pride. His sin nature really got in his way.
Stand firm is repeated in the New Testament in many places. Resist the devil and he's to flee. Reminding him that he's a defeated foe. I really like that last part. He's a prisoner of war trying to change things. There's no other battles that will ever mean anything that Satan's going to try in the near future or in the present. We read in the book of Revelation and other places where it just takes the spoken word of Jesus and it's over. "It is finished!" finished everything. No future battles to be decided. The created being Satan is GOING to spend 1,000 years isolated from mankind. He is GOING to try yet again at the end of that time to muster humanity to fight against the Lord Jesus and will be summarily shut down with the spoken word of the Lord God Almighty.
We are in the midst of a battle and must keep a level head about us. We must keep in mind that passage that says we shall know the truth and the truth shall set us free. We must keep our minds on the things that are above and not on the things that are of this world. We must keep that armor on at all times. We create moments of weakness when we think it's safe to take it off...and are only listening to both our sin nature and Satan's minions when we choose to take it off.
There's a quote from a movie about getting a person to take off their coat. You don't ask them to do that, you give them a reason to take it off on their own.
We can't stand firm if we're not ready for the battle. We cannot battle if we don't understand what is going on. What's going on in the lives of every single Believer is that Jesus is keeping His promise to each of us. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that we might walk in them. We are to live lives in such a way that people see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven.
Look at your life and what all you've allowed to be included in it.
What are you carrying around that is bogging you down? What have you felt that you can handle that you really cannot? What is taking up your time that you're not as concerned about growing in Christ as you ought to be? What is it of this world that you 'love' that is a barrier to your growing in Christ? It may LOOK like it's not a hinderance but anything that we desire more than our life in Christ is a hinderance.
Stand firm in the Lord. As has been written you can't carry your own cross and follow Jesus if you're carrying something else too.
All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
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