“Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” – James 4:7
When the devil tries to assault your mind, telling you that your God-given rights will never come to pass, how do you resist the assaults. Do you stand firm against the lies and command his to leave. Or do you allow the devil to keep mentally assaulting your mind with these lying allegations?
“Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” The word resist comes from the Greek word anthistemi, which a compound of the words anti and anti and istemi. This word anti means against which is to oppose something, while the word intimi means to stand. The two words together means to stand against or to stand in opposition. The word demonstrates the attitude of one who is fiercely opposed to something and determines that he will do everything in his power to resist, to stand against it, and defy its operation.
In James we can clearly see that we must be aggressively determined to stand against the work of the devil. We cannot just close our eyes and hope the enemy will go away that won’t work. We have to dig in and brace ourselves for a fight, we must put our full force forward to drive the devil out of our lives. Our stand against the devil must be firm. Our stand must be unyielding and steadfast if we want to successfully resist his bombardment of lies against our minds and emotions.
As I am writing this, a keep thinking of the movie ‘War Room.’ Where Elizabeth stands firm against the devil to save her marriage.
The word “devil” is a translation from Diabolos which is more of a job description than his name. If you understand the word ‘devil,’ then you also can know exactly how the devil works. dia actually means to pierce something from one side all the way through to the other side. And the word ballo means to throw, as when a person throws a ball or a rock. These two words together means to repetitiously throne something, striking it again and again until the object being struck has finally been completely penetrated.
This word Diabolos is a vivid job description for the devil. It tells us exactly how the devil operates. He always comes to assault the mind not once but many times. He strikes us again and again to wear down our resistance. Then as soon as we let down of mental resistance the devil gives one last final punch that he finally succeeds in penetrating our minds. Once the devil has gained access into our minds, he begins to add lie upon lie, if we listen to those lies and believe them, the devil will successfully build a stronghold in our lives. And the devil can begin to control and manipulate our every thought.
So, instead of letting the devil fill your head with a whole bunch of lies. Start to resist him. Tell him to shut-up, and stop dropping all of the lies in your head. Tell him that he’s not welcome there.
From Pity to Praise 