James 4:8a gives this an important instruction: Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. But in the preceding verse you will find two things that are very necessary for you to do: Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
To the extent that you submit to the Lord and appropriate from Him, to that extent you receive of His provision. If you really pursue His provision one hundred percent, that is what you will receive.
First you submit to the Lord; then, to the extent that you resist the devil, to that extent he flees from you. The percentage is relative. If you do one without the other, you dilute the blessing.
If you are not totally submissive, it does not matter how much you resist the devil; he simply does not flee very fast. If you are totally submissive to the Lord, but only halfhearted in your resistance of Satan, again it does not work as well.
Only one position is really effective, and it has both positive and negative aspects: a total appropriation of the Lord’s provision and a total power to resist and reject the enemy.
In your heart, there must be an almost violent faith that is drawing from the Lord, as well as an almost violent resistance of the enemy—a total, absolute rejection of anything that he brings against you.
How many positions of victory are weakened when there is not a total resistance! The enemy will constantly come back to see how far he can go. You can often see an example of that in little children when they are told not to do something. They may see how far they can go in disobeying before they are dealt with.
The enemy comes continually to see how much you are positioned in the Lord, how much you stand in the victory that God has given you, and how much you claim the fullness of that victory. You must voice your position in your heart. You do not have to fight for it. You do not have to reach in to struggle continually. It is a matter of what you accept and what you reject. With every acceptance of the blessing of the Lord, there must be a corresponding rejection of Satan’s lies.
People are ruined in their walk with God when they try to get the blessing of the Lord while they are half in and half out of Babylon. In reality they are nowhere. They have an emotional feeling toward “dear” Jesus, but there is no true exalting of the Lordship of Christ. You cannot keep one foot in Babylon while trying to get the other one in Zion. God says, “Flee from the midst of Babylon” (Jeremiah 51:6). “Come out of her” (Revelation 18:4). To accept Zion is to reject Babylon. It must be a total action. In order to come into God’s provision, you must flee out of the city of bondage. This is a principle that you must practice: total acceptance of the Lord and total rejection of everything that is satanic.
You can triumph continually in your liberty, even though drastic changes come and problems arise. When the enemy hits you with all kinds of troubles, you do not have to back off. Do not be conditioned to back down. Position yourself in the provision of the Lord and reject totally everything that the enemy brings.
Accept the promises of God for your life totally. When the enemy tries to lie to you about them, reject the lies. Absolutely, totally, positively reject everything the enemy brings. This must be in your thinking, or you will never keep anything that comes from the Lord. The blessings that you accept and appropriate on one side must be matched up against the lies that you totally resist and reject on the other side. That is the resistance which makes Satan flee, for the greatest force comes from one who moves into the authority of the Lord.
When you move into total submission, you move into Christ’s authority. Then when you resist the enemy, you are resisting with Christ’s authority over that particular principality and power. It is a total authority. It is absolute. The principality is then disarmed, and he cannot stand against you. He has to flee from you. He does not slink off; he flees!
No terror is as great to principalities and powers as the man who has totally submitted to the authority of the Lord. In that submission, he resists. This is the resistance of the age that is coming; it is the force that will set the world straight. Through that resistance the whole world will be delivered from futility. All creation will be loosed by the sons of God who have submitted to the Lord.
Do you want to submit more completely to the Lord? It is not a matter of stubbornness, but a matter of positioning yourself in God. It is an immovable position that is beyond being stubborn. Firmly position yourself in a place of total submission and total resistance and maintain that position before the Lord.