Good Monday Morning (6-21-10),

Our Wednesday night Alpha course recently taught a class entitled How to resist Evil. As a result, I have been thinking more about the devil than normal…usually I try to give him as little air time as possible.

Unfortunately, ignoring his existence completely will get us in as much trouble as focusing on him with undue interest. We need to be aware of his tactics. God says His people perish for lack of knowledge. It is the truth that sets us free.

Our challenge is to walk the straight and narrow path balancing truth, knowledge, and faith in the proper proportions.

When it comes to the devil, that balance is often dangerously out of whack.

I consider the best policy one of careful avoidance. The Bible tells us to give the devil no foothold, no opportunity to gain some sort of hold in our life. The big question is also the most obvious: How do we do that?

It should be no surprise that God knows exactly how to foil the enemy’s strategy. Did you ever wonder why, if we are already forgiven and cleansed and healed and made whole (spiritually speaking), there are so many things we aren’t supposed to do?

Well, it’s because God does know how the enemy works — and He wants us to be safe.

Our Father wants to bless us. In order for that to happen, He knows we must give the enemy no opportunity, no chance, no entry into our lives. The devil comes for only three purposes: to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

Jesus came so that we could have abundant life.

It’s so easy for us to gallantly assert we are free to do anything we want to do. There’s a popular teaching in the Church today: it says that, since God forgives everything, since Jesus already paid the price, sin has no sting. But, beloved, sin has a great big bite. The reason is because sin, stepping over those boundaries our loving Lord has drawn for us, gives the devil an opportunity to get his foot in our door.

The doctrine of easy grace may be attractive to people who are unwilling to discipline their flesh, or who don’t know that it is possible to bring the flesh under control. But, for those who crave the blessings and power of God, obedience and self-control are absolutely necessary. Not because God is mean, but because the devil is walking about like a roaring lion seeking those he might be able to destroy.

It’s a shame and a tragedy that Christians so often allow the enemy access to their lives, especially since Jesus came to defeat every one of his works. Not only that, He has given us authority over those works so that nothing will by any means harm us. Ephesians chapter 4 is a good study for those who want to keep the door closed tight against the devil.

I’ve compiled a list of the wisdom found there:

· Do not live as the heathen do. They are estranged from God, their hearts are hard, and they have abandoned themselves to unbridled sensuality, greedy to indulge in every form of impurity. (You are a new person in Christ. Let your life be a demonstration of that newness.)

· Strip off your former nature, corrupt from desires and lusts, and be constantly renewed in your mind. (God’s Word will change your mind so you begin to think as He thinks.)

· Put on the new nature that is in God’s image. (As your mind is renewed, Jesus will begin to change you from the inside out.)

· Express truth with your neighbor. (Be real.)

· When angry, do not sin.

· Stop doing those illegal and unworthy things you used to do and work diligently to earn an honest living. (As you learn to trust God, you can be confident He will supply your needs at the proper time and in the appropriate way.)

· Give to those in need. (Stop thinking only of yourself and begin to help others.)

· Let no foul language or evil word or unwholesome talk come out of your mouth. But speak what is beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, that it may be a blessing to those who hear it. (Watch what you say — satan loves it when our words hurt others.)

· Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. (We sadden God when we try to do for ourselves what only He can do for us.)

· Let all bitterness and wrath and resentment and quarreling and malice be banished from you. (The devil inhabits all those emotions/actions…which is why we are to seek peace and pursue it.)

· Be useful and helpful and kind to one another, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. (Unforgiveness is an open garage door to the devil.)

“So be subject to (draw near to) God. Resist the devil (stand firm against him), and he will flee from you.” James 4:7