They Cannot Stand Against Him

James 4:6-8 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

One of the greatest obstacles in our walk with the Lord is pride. Especially when we are walking with one foot in Christianity and the other in the world. Before we know it, we are walking with both feet in the world, acting like we are better than everyone else, as we gain more and more of what the world offers. Sadly, it is all empty and vain. Nonetheless, we become independent and begin to operate as if we do not need God anymore; because after all, "we're making it happen now". Pride blinds us to the fact that we have allowed the devils to re-enslave us. We do not see, or we refuse to see, that we are now forsaking Jesus, and choosing fellowship with the devils. How do we escape this entrapment? The simple answer is humility. When we choose humility, we acknowledge that there is nothing we can do on our own. When we choose humility, we admit that without the Lord we are nothing. When we choose humility, we are choosing to be more like Jesus, who humbly submitted Himself to the will of the Father. James made it clear that the only way to make the devil flee is to submit ourselves to God in humility, because God gives more grace to the humble, and resists the proud. The devils are not threatened by us. On the contrary, they want us to think that we are strong enough, on our own; yet, they know that in the flesh we are weak. When we think we stand, because of our pride, that is when we are ripe for a fall. The devils tremble at their knowledge of God; and in the Gospels they feared and submitted to the authority of Jesus (Mark 5). So for us to think that we can stand against, and rebuke demons is nothing more than pure arrogance. God tells us to resist them in humility. In other words, acknowledge that we cannot stand against the enemy, and realize that we need the Lord to stand between us and them in our defense. If we draw near to God, in prayer and obedience to His Word, He will in turn draw near to us. Only then will the devils flee, because they know that they are no match for the Creator. They cannot stand against the King of kings and Lord of lords. If we want true victory in our walk with Jesus, we need to stop compromising with the world. We need to repent of our sinful pride and behavior, confess it to the Lord, and get back to reading, studying, obeying God's Word, and drawing near to Him in prayer. As we draw closer to the Lord in intimacy, the devils will draw back in fear and disgust, because although they despise us, they know they cannot stand against or defeat God.

Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His free gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive His free gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).