For every action there seems to be a corresponding reaction. Whenever God gives a word to your heart, Satan will fight that word, and you will become the source of both action and reaction. No matter how strong the anointing is that brings the word, there will be a corresponding power exercised to take the word from you, and you will have to contend for it. When you are dealing with the usurper and moving into a level of victory and freedom, you must understand the balance that God wants. There must be as violent a faith to believe God’s word as there is a violent resistance against everything that the enemy would do. There must be a grasping of the word and also a resistance against the enemy battling it.
The entire battle of the believer is centered around the word of God. When God gives him a word, the enemy battles that word. In Ephesians 6:12, Paul said that we contend against principalities and powers. In I Timothy 6:12, he identified the battle as the fight of faith. The believer must war against the doubts and the unbelief that Satan brings against him.
A man believes just as much as he determines to believe. God’s end-time disciples believe in the walk that He sets before them because they determine to believe, not because it is reasonable to believe. A walk with God is a revelation to their hearts, and therefore they determine to believe in it. If a person reasons his way into it, the enemy comes with great deception and helps him reason his way out of it. Reason does not bring a man into a walk with God, but revelation does. Because of that revelation, a man’s will and determination to be a believer hold him steadfast in his walk with the Lord.
You can more fully understand the battle that the enemy brings against the word in your life as you read Matthew 13, the chapter which contains seven parables about the Kingdom. The first parable, verses 3 through 9, is the most significant one concerning the living word that is coming in this hour. It is the parable of the sower and the seed. Some of the seed fell by the wayside and was devoured by birds. Other seed fell on rocky places; and because of the shallow depth of soil, the blast of the sun caused the seed to perish. Some of the seed fell among thorns, and the thorns choked the seed. But the seed that fell on good ground brought forth much fruit.
Satan always follows one of several courses when you receive a word: he tries to steal the word out of your heart, just as the birds devoured the seed; he tries to blast it with strong persecution and harassment; he tries to choke the word as the thorns choked out the seed; or he tries to imitate it. The enemy wants you to let go of that word. If he cannot grab it from you, he will try to destroy it by blasting or choking it, or else he will discredit it by trying to imitate it.
Verses 24 through 30 of Matthew 13 record the parable about the man who sowed wheat. In the night his enemy came and sowed tares in the midst of the wheat. The man told his servants to let them grow side by side; he was fearful that in trying to pull up the tares, the wheat also might be uprooted. The separation was to be made at the time of harvest. This parable also indicates the enemy’s battle against the word that comes to your life.
The battle is not against your circumstances or in your relationships, although Satan will use them as a means to an end. The battle is not against those things that come along to turn you aside from walking with God. The battle is against the word that God has spoken to you. The enemy distracts by presenting various problems in circumstances or relationships; he stirs up a situation until you feel you can hardly bear it, causing you to be rebellious and withdrawn. All of this is designed by Satan, not just to create harassment, but to cause you to let go of that word. He knows how effective he can be when he brings distractions.
A baby has a short concentration span and will quickly respond to a distraction. If he finds something to play with that his mother does not want him to have, she knows that he will cry if she takes it away. Instead, she may dangle a bright-colored object before him. When the baby sees that, he will grab it and drop the other plaything. Satan likewise knows how to come to a babe in Christ or to someone who has just embraced a word, and dangle some kind of distraction in front of him so that he will reach for it. Sometimes Satan dangles attractive things, sometimes things to stir up the old nature. If nothing else, he will bring about a situation that will stir up a man’s anger.
How many times has the enemy distracted you with little brushfires so that you missed the main objective of believing the word that God had spoken to your heart? Just about the time you are doing fine, some problem pops up at home or at work. Some little trouble always seems to come—anything to distract you from focusing on the word God has given you. A positive focus upon the Lordship of Christ and a positive submission to the Lord must be in your mind continually.
Regardless of what the enemy does, God’s people must learn to be of a single heart, walking in the word that God has spoken. For every action there must be a corresponding reaction, and they become instigators of that too. To walk with the Lord, there must be a real dedication to the Lord; but there must also be a resistance to all worldly interests. A true believer cannot incorporate the Lord into his life and still pursue after the things of the world. He cannot go in two directions at one time. For every acceptance there must be a corresponding resistance. For everything he submits to, there must be something which he rejects. Every time there is a meeting with God in his life, bringing him to a new dedication, he will also be brought into a new place of resistance.
The walk with God in this end-time is a restoration movement, but it is also a resistance movement. During times of war, underground resistance movements come into being, and people do everything they can to resist enemy encroachment upon their countries. A man cannot believe in freedom without resisting the enemy. Many have suffered greatly because of their dedication and refusal to submit to enemy invaders.
In the Kingdom of God, there is a provision of freedom in Christ. For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. Galatians 5:1. The enemy tries to put a bondage upon you the minute you accept a word from the Lord. In the following Scriptures, the Lord commands a certain amount of resistance against the enemy. These verses present positive directions to give you the needed leverage for resistance, showing a balanced picture of what it means to submit to the Lord and to resist the devil. They show you how to come into the blessings that God has for you, while totally rejecting everything that the enemy brings against you.
Ephesians 4:26,27: Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. The King James Version says, “Do not give place to the devil.” This is positive instruction. If you are angry, you are to recover quickly. Even when you are goaded and pressured to a point of emotional stress, respond by refusing to be distracted. Be angry, but do not sin. Do not give way to it; recover instantly before it leads you into sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath. By the time the sun goes down, you should have changed your feelings and controlled your emotions. In other words, recover quickly. That is the positive way.
If your focus is totally on the Lord, nothing will discourage you very long. Learn this, and you will not become defeated when you fall into a trap of the enemy. If the enemy makes a little inroad into your life after you have been walking month after month in total victory, regard it as an isolated incident. In a day or two you should be back in the Lord’s army, moving right along. If you give it too much significance, you will eliminate all the months of victory, thinking that the only important factor is your day of defeat. That would not be true.
When a prizefighter is knocked down, he can stay down to the count of nine, but he does not want to do so. His knee may barely touch the canvas before he is back on his feet again. Boxers have an instinct for a quick comeback. If they are knocked down, they get up in a hurry. That is the way champions in any sport react. If they make a mistake, it is difficult to see it because they make a fast recovery; then in their own minds it seems as though the mistake never happened.
There is so much to learn about walking with God. If you are caught in a trap, back out of it quickly. Recover yourself quickly and go after the enemy. Do not just stand there and give him an opportunity. Resist him! Ephesians 6:13 says that in the evil day, having done all, you are to stand! No matter what you go through, determine that at the end of the day you will be standing, victorious in the Lord.
When you slip, do not feel defeated. Regard it as an isolated incident. Jump back on your feet and lay hold of the victory of the Lord. Learn to be an instant repenter if you sin. Keep that feeling of victory in your spirit continually.
Ephesians 6:11,12 is another outstanding passage showing what your action and reaction should be. Put on the full armor of God, that you may 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. This Scripture indicates that you cannot stand against the enemy until you first put on the whole armor of God. Actually, the battle must be viewed not as Satan’s aggressiveness against you, but as your aggressiveness against Satan.
Originally Satan usurped the place he now occupies. In John 12:31, 14:30, and 16:11, the King James Version calls Satan the prince of this world; and the New American Standard Bible calls him the ruler of this world. To a great extent he is. However, now is the time when he is being cast out. For thousands of years he has governed and dominated the affairs of nations and of individuals; but now we see that this tide is changing. A certain force is working to kick out the usurper, and that force is the remnant of God. God’s bond-servants of the end time are taking the aggressive role to remove Satan from the place that he usurped. No longer are they under the domain of Satan, for they are in God’s Kingdom. Satan is the usurper, the squatter who calls himself the prince of this world, the ruler of this age. The remnant is called something greater: kings and priests of God. They are the sons of God who are to loose all creation from all futility.
Because they are commissioned in the army of the King, they must take on the whole armor of God as a protective measure to battle against the enemy. In order to wrestle against principalities and powers and to come against all the schemes of the devil, they must first take the positive action and then the negative. They must put on the armor of God, and then they can displace the enemy from every area in which he is exerting undue influence or pressure against the will of God. Christ came to redeem His people unto Himself and to give righteousness to them. But He came also to destroy the works of the devil: For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. I John 3:8b. A remnant of the people of God are the avengers and resisters who open up the new territory that God has given and which Satan has tried to wall off from them. Therefore, they battle and contend to see the people of the Lord liberated into the truth.
Restoration involves a great deal of resistance. There will not be a restoration of the faith that was once delivered to the saints (Jude 3) unless there is an earnest contending against the demon powers that try to withhold and resist that truth from becoming real and valid in people’s lives. That is why any man who walks with God will face vicious persecution.
Some people feel that too much attention is given the devil, but that is not so. They may not want to talk about the devil; but he must be given some attention because he is the usurper, the squatter, the one who stands in the way of the believer. Every time God raises up a man, Satan stands at that man’s right hand trying to resist him, just as be did Joshua (Zechariah 3:1). No one ever starts to move in God without the enemy throwing every hindrance that he can at him. Accept that fact, but realize that most believers do not do anything about it. Only a few are contending for the restoration. Only a remnant of God’s people will take the aggressive role to scatter Satan from the place he has usurped.
Satan is trying to block everything of the restoration. The believer must earnestly contend for the faith which was once (for all time) delivered unto the saints. Jude 3b. It is not that God suddenly decides to give you more—He has already given it to you. It is the enemy who comes and sows the tares. It is the enemy who comes to resist the word. Contend earnestly to break that resistance so that you can have what God says you are to have. He has given it to you! God’s people are coming into divine order under the Lordship of Christ. They are going on into the Kingdom! It will not happen automatically on a certain day. It comes through a great deal of resistance. Satan must be dislodged. Start contending earnestly. Resist the enemy.
Let there be in your spirit that which was in the heart of Christ when He went to face the cross. Luke 9:51 says that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. Isaiah 50:7 says that He set His face like flint. There was no deviation from His destiny. John 12:27 tells us that He prayed about it, saying, “What shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour,’ when it was for this hour that I came forth?” He said in effect, “No, I will not pray for God to deliver Me out of this; I will face it. I will walk in it.” There must be that same determination within you too. Set your heart like flint and do not turn back. The possession of all your inheritance in God depends upon your laying hold by faith and resisting by faith.
Submit therefore 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. James 4:7,8. This passage shows the relationship between your submission to God and your resistance to the enemy. All authority in heaven and earth is given to the Lord; therefore submit to Him as Lord. To the extent that you submit to Him and come under His authority, to that extent His authority is valid in your life. With all your heart submit to God; then with all your heart resist the enemy. Submission places you under divine authority. Then your resistance is effective because you resist under the total, absolute authority of Christ. Any other approach is through the energies and efforts of the flesh.
If you are somewhat rebellious or withdrawn, you are not walking in the Spirit or thinking after the Spirit; you are walking by your own reason and understanding, with the arrogance of the carnal mind dominating you. You cannot expect to resist the enemy on that basis. Romans 8:7 says, …the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. The carnal mind never will come under submission to the Lord. When you walk on the plane of a carnal Christian (I Corinthians 3), you cannot expect any great degree of victory over the enemy. You do not have the leverage to resist him. But when you come into a total submission to the Lord, submitting to Him with all your heart, then you are directly under His Lordship.
In Matthew 28:18,19a, Christ said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore….” When you are under that authority, then you can go and make disciples of all the nations. This involves more than is implied in this Scripture. To make disciples out of the nations, you must first wrest the nations from the dominating forces of the usurpers: the principalities and powers that set Nephilim in high places of government where they distract or hinder the purposes of God. In order to make disciples, you must first cast out the enemy. You cannot thrust him out by your own efforts; only by the name of Christ can you cast him out. The authority is in Christ, and your submission to Him determines your effectiveness in moving in His authority.
It is most important to be submissive to the Lord and to have the corresponding action of resistance. Then the enemy flees. He does not just walk away from the situation; nor does he back off and then hit again. He flees! He goes as fast as he can, because he has encountered all the authority by which everything is held together. The submissive heart brings the authority of his Master into every situation. From a place of submission, your resistance can be total and absolute.
I Peter 5:8,9 is another Scripture concerning the actions and reactions of submitting to the Lord and resisting the enemy. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. You can resist Satan as you are steadfast in your faith. You are to be sober and on the alert; you are to know what is happening. The key of this is found in verse 7: casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.
Is there any way that Satan has an inroad into your life except through unbelief? Anxiety and fear are manifestations of unbelief. Therefore, you must completely trust in the Lord so that every care is committed to Him, every fear is laid at His feet, and all unbelief is committed to Him. You can resist that roaring lion to the extent that you learn to cast your cares upon the Lord and to walk with absolute trust in Him.
The battle and the struggle is one of faith. The man who determines to be a believer has won the battle within himself to believe the word that God has spoken—the prophecies that rest upon him as an individual, the prophecies that rest upon his church, and the prophecies that rest upon the Church as a whole. He says in his heart, “I am a believer; therefore, when the enemy comes like a roaring lion, there is nothing that he can do.”
If you are a submissive believer, you can resist Satan and he will flee from you. When the battle is fought on the positive side, then the corresponding reaction against the enemy is effective.