Bible Studies
Our Victory Over The Devil Part # 1
I.
2 Cor 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
metaschematizo To alter the outward appearance without a significant inward change of the heart. The tense is in the present/ middle, which means this deceptive transformation is a continuous spiritual tactic of the enemy. It is closely illustrated to an architectural schematic, and shows us how the enemy can change the schematic of things.
II.
Eph 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.
topon opportunity, power, occasion for acting
Another version renders “giving place”, as our construction of a landing strip, or an airport runway on our very being, for the devil to land upon! Only our sin and disobedience can do that. Any time that we are in willful disobedience to the Lord, we automatically open up an airport on our very backs, where the enemy can land and take off at his personal whims and fancy!
III.
Eph4:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
This verb tense is in the past. What this means for us, is that the apostle Paul already expected once and for all, for us to have had the shield of faith lifted up at all times, and never ever put it down again! We must walk by faith and not by external appearance.
1 John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
· · The word for overcome is the word that pertains to a victor or conqueror. This verse is resident in the past tense. It is already an accomplished fact that our obedience to God will causes us to conquer and come off victorious over the world system, the flesh and Satan.
· · Unbelief has a power of its own, and it will cause us to be defeated if we are not careful. Please look at the following verse.
Matthew 13:58 And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.
The Greek translation here is in the absolute negative. This tells us that it was a virtual impossibility for Jesus to perform miracles through the people’s lack of faith or disobedience.
· · Unbelief is also closely joined together with disobedience. Obedience to God always requires faith.
· · The rhema or living word of God is a word given to us by God for a specified circumstance. The Holy Spirit reveals the rhema word of God into our hearts. This is always a word which is a possessor of faith, or which requires our faith to execute it.
Romans 10:8 But what saith it? The Rhema word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, Rhema word of faith, which we preach;
· · Consequently when we move in unbelief, it is impossible for us to obey the Lord. Unbelief hinders greatly the miraculous work of God, which is always released through faith in His commandments.
Galatians 3:5 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
IV.
2Thess 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Verse eight, of 2Thessalonians chapter two, is eye opening. Out of our Greek New Testament it tells us, that in the manifestation of the presence of God, the wicked one is destroyed. In actuality, the word for “destroy” means to render useless, idle or ineffective, the works of the Evil One. Please allow me to ask you something? If it is the manifest presence of the Lord that renders ineffective and useless the schemes of the enemy, why are we bent on so many of our congregations to not allow the gifts of the Spirit to be in use?
· · Are we ignorant of the fact that the gifts of the Spirit reveal the presence of the Lord? Spiritual gifts are activated through our obedience to the rhema or logos word, and they are always given to glorify or make the invisible God visible.
John 17:8 For I have given unto them the rhema words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
· · When we say that spiritual gifts are not for today, or we curtail their use, as to not offend the one which comes seeking in our services, we in fact hinder the manifestation of the presence of the Lord, and the schemes of the enemy which can only be rendered useless through the Lord’s presence, continue alive and well!
V.
Mat 8:16 When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:
· · Please notice the sequence of events in Mathew eight. First Jesus cast out the evil spirit, and then He healed their physical sicknesses. Do you see the order? The evil spirit had to be cast out first in this particular case, before Jesus was able to heal the sick. I am saying then that all of physical sicknesses are caused by demonic oppression. Absolutely not!
· · However, I am of the belief that there is a deception that has entered into our congregations through what I call the “gospel of food, vitamins, and herbs.”
· · Is eating right, or taking vitamins and herbs bad in itself? Once again, I say, of course not! Yet in modern day Christianity we are idolizing these things instead of adhering to and putting into practice the gospel of Christ. We are clinging to this idolatry so as to not get sick. We must put more trust in the Lord instead of putting our trust into these remedies.
· · By serving the gospel of herbs and vitamins, we are forgetting, that a good portion of sicknesses is associated with the work of the devil. Hence is the scripture above! The devil has focused our attentions into this multimillion-dollar industry instead of resisting him and causing him to flee through our explicit obedience to God and good old fashion spiritual warfare. Anything that will take our minds off from him and hi schemes has him laughing at us.
Exodus 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.
Deuteronomy 7:15 And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.
· · Is “Attention Deficit Disorder” or many of these so-called “syndromes” of the last twenty years a real thing? I absolutely believe so.
· · I think that in part we are dealing with dysfunctions that had always been always there but are now being identified. However, I believe that behind everything that in the last twenty years we are now calling a disorder or a syndrome, the devil and his minions have stuck their hands into the situation.
· · The church has been duped in part, by the enemy, to treat these modern day “disorders” and “syndromes’ from a purely physical/ emotional fashion. As long as he deceives us so that we leave him out of the picture, he is quite content and laughs at us. We must get back to the discerning of evil spirits in many of these situations, and distinguish the physical from the spiritual
Corinthians 12:10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:
VI.
Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
· · Many of us imagine that Ephesians chapter two is Paul’s discussion focusing on unbelievers. I tend to disagree.
· · The Greek word for worketh is defined as giving energy to.
· · This particular verse is in the present participle. Simply speaking it signifies that the sons of disobedience energize the scheme of the devil on a continuous basis. The word for disobedience is being non compliant.
· · Please allow me to ask you a question? If a Christian is continually incompliant in an area of his or her life, will he or she energize the works of the devil? I believe that there is no difference; the devil is a legalist. He will always get in wherever he is given an open door.
· · I also feel, that the same degree of obedience or disobedience to the Lord, will result in the same degree of energizing or disengaging the works of the devil in our lives.
VII.
John 14:30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.
In John chapter fourteen we find Jesus discussing about His soon to come confrontation with Satan through the hands of Judah, and his subsequent arrest and crucifixion. In all certainty, the words of Jesus are more emphatic in the Greek. In His own words He says, “The prince of the cosmos comes, and it is impossible for him to have even have the tiniest connection with me.”
· · As I have stated before (please refer to seminar addendum four on the web site), Christianity is not about our asking for things or blessings. We have been partially deceived to think that our lives as believers must be spent in asking God for a ton of things!
· · All of our victories are resident, and treasured up, in the person of Christ living within us. The more that this person within us is revealed, through our obedience, and the work of the cross, the more that we enter into all of the victories and blessings deposited in His very being, and attainable to us through His revelation within our spirits.
· · It goes to say then, that the more that we die to self, so that the magnificent person of Christ is revealed in us, the more and more that the devil will find it impossible to have even the tiniest connection with us.
John 16:11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
The Greek is very descriptive. “About judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged, condemned, and a sentence possesing a final verdict is already passed upon him”
This is the way that God sees the devil. So must we!
VIII.
Eph 4:8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men
Colossians 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. {in it: or, in himself}
· · Please observe the verses above in Ephesians and Colossians.
· · Both are related, and describe the victory that Jesus attained over the devil and his hierarchy of principalities and powers.
· · The Lord as described in Ephesians, has within Himself and His victory, captured the demonic realm, which had once captured men. He has now placed the demonic in captivity.
· · In Colossians this description goes a bit deeper The word “spoiled” contains two different definitions.
· · One is disarming someone, or confiscating weapons away from him. The Lord has effectively disarmed the hierarchy of demons.
· · The other definition of the word spoiled has to do with stripping off something, or ejecting, kicking out, or pushing out another person out of one’s way and presence. As the Son of God arose from the pits of hell and into the highest of heavens, he effectively pushed away from Himself once and for all the demonic realm.
· · Our victory then lies in, that as the person of Christ is more and more revealed within us, this dual “spoiling” which He accomplished, and resides in His person will become our reality through our death to self by the works of the cross.
· · If the devil and his minions have been spoiled and disarmed what do they have left to fight us with?
The answer is found in the next verse, Eph. 6:11.
Ephesians 6:11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
· · The word for wiles is methoedeia. The word is self-descriptive. It talks about methodology. It is obvious the devil’s methodology which has to with scheming, trickery, decei,t and so forth.
· · It is obvious then, that we have the weaponry, and the enemy does not!
· · We only have one offensive weapon against the enemy, however!
Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the rhema word of God:
· · It is imperative for us to realize that the sword of the Spirit is the rhema word of God. As we have discussed before, the rhema word of God is the living and active personal word given to us by God to assist us in a specific situation. To operate in the rhema word:
· · We must know to hear the voice of the Spirit through the operation of the cross of Christ in our lives.
· · We must learn how to cultivate the voice of the Spirit through explicit and uncompromising obedience.
· · Only the person that knows how to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit by the continual death to self, and the revelation of the person of Christ will have this only offensive weapon, which is the sword of the Spirit, at his continual disposition.
· · The sword of the spirit, which this rhema word of God, is the foundation stone of any healing, deliverance, or miracles working ministry. As long as we do not teach within our churches how to move and walk in the spirit, we shall not be able to effectively whittle the shiny and sharp sword of the rhema word of God against the enemy!
Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
· · It is important to realize that though the enemy only has methodology and schemes available to him, the lies and deception are constant, and are waged always at very close quarters.
· · Wrestle: It is arm to arm combat in which the enemy endeavors to throw us down and we must endeavor through our obedience, the rhema and logos word of God, and the revealed person of Christ within our lives ,to throw the enemy down. The word for wrestle in the Greek is pale and it describes a conflict which is decided, when the winner is able to grasp his opponent and hold him down with his hand upon his neck.
· · Wherein then is our victory found?
· · The answer lies in the following verse of Ephesians 6:13
Eph 6:13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
We are encouraged here to take the whole armor of God and having done all to stand, to stand therefore. "Having done all" is the word "katergazomai.' Simply stated, “having done all, to stand,” is wonderfully depicted by the cartoons of the coyote and the roadrunner. In one of their many scuffles, as a ball of dull is kicked up, both of these guys always got lost in their dusty fights. When the dust finally settles, the roadrunner usually remained standing. This is exactly what it means to “having done all, to stand.”! We must fight by the Spirit without compromise, or without discouragement, until we remain standing victoriously; as Satan, sin and the world lay scattered at our feet in full visibility, once our ball of dust finally settles!
· · The command is to carry out all things to a complete victory!
Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
· · To finalize today’s teaching, the word for working out in Philippians two is exactly the same Greek word as “having done all” found in Ephesians chapter six.
· · Here Paul commands us to work out, carry out, and accomplish absolutely everything to completion that pertains to our salvation, and that with utmost serious cautiousness.
· · The verb tense is in the present middle, which simply means that the work must be our own. Salvation never comes out magical passivity, laziness, pew sitting, and disobedience.
· · We must hear and find out what the Holy Spirit tells us to do, but the activity must be ours, and it must be constant and in perfect agreement with the voice of the Spirit through the rhema word of God.
God Bless You!!
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