How To Defeat The Devil As Demonstrated By Jesus

Jesus Himself demonstrated how to defeat the devil.

How to defeat the devil? Start by saying, “It is written…”

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See how He demonstrated how to defeat the devil?

Each time the devil tried to tempt Jesus, He responded by quoting Scripture.

And lest there be any doubt as to whether or not God’s Word is pure Truth:

Every word of God proves True…” (Proverbs 30:5)

This God—His way is perfect; the Word of the Lord proves true; He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him. (Psalm 18:30)

³¹ So Jesus said… “If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, ³² and you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.” (John 8:31~32)

Sanctify them in the Truth; Your Word is Truth.” (John 17:17)

In God’s economy, Truth is ALWAYS stronger that lies.

Here’s The Really Good News!

The power for how to defeat the devil is not in the speaker; it’s in the SPOKEN WORD!

The devil can’t tell the difference between Jesus speaking and a Christian speaking.

Here’s why:

He who hears you hears me… (Luke 10:16)

According to Jesus (See Luke 10:16 above), when you or I speak God’s Word, it’s actually Him speaking through our vocal cords. In those moments, as members of the Body of Christ, our voices becomes His voice!

And He has put great power into His Word!

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So, Is This Available To Everyone?

Yes, ANYONE can have it, but the cost is: YOU! Your surrendered life.

Let me explain that.

With Jesus, it’s all about us forming a relationship with Him. And not everyone wants to do that.

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30)

(See also Matthew 22:37 and Luke 10:27 )

Love God… with all your heart, soul, mind, strength. Do you see how that just shouts “relationship”?

To list a few more:

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21)

And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” (Matthew 7:23)

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (John 10:27)

Also, I found 20 Scriptures wherein Jesus directed people with the words, “Follow Me.” As I said earlier, it’s all about having a close relationship with Jesus.

God gives great benefits to His people. But becoming one of His people has the appearance of being difficult and undesirable. Even now as you read this, the devil is furiously injecting thoughts into your mind that make what I’m saying sound like the rantings of a nut case. But I know what Jesus said:

²⁸ Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28~30)

But the thing about being “yoked” to someone is: where one goes, the other goes. He wants each of us to become one of his disciples. He wants to “sanctify” us (transform us into one of His) and use us for His purposes.

Along with that, there are certain benefits. One of them is divine protection from the devil. Jesus has the devil on a leash. He can go so far… but no further.

This is all about us partnering with God.

There is a part that we can do, and there is a part that only God can do. But until we do the part that we can do, God will not do the part that only He can do.

Here’s a sort of over-arching Scripture that declares God’s “how to defeat the devil” strategy:

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)

Sadly, most people ignore the first part, and try to figure out how to defeat the devil by their own strength. But they can’t do it.

Anyway, here’s how that dynamic of “obedience followed by divine help” might play out in everyday life. Consider the following passage:

¹⁰ Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. ¹¹I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:10~11)

God promises to “rebuke the devourer for you”. That’s an offer to restrain the devil (he’s the devourer — see 1 Peter 5:8 ) from destroying the “fruits” of your labor.

But notice: that offer comes AFTER His commanded to “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse”. That’s a command to practice biblical stewardship with your money. The offer is conditional. Ultimately, it all belongs to God. He calls you to take a step of faith and give the first 10 percent of your income back to Him. And having established that condition, God must, as it were, play by His own rules. So if you don’t do your part first, well… you see my point.

The Apostle John wrote:

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³ And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. ⁴ Whoever says “I know Him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, ⁵ but whoever keeps His Word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him: ⁶ whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked. (1 John 2:3~6)

Jesus Gives Power And Authority To Those Who Are Truly His Disciples.

Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. (Luke 9:9)

If you are a disciple of Jesus, you have power over the devil. But as I’ve been saying, there are certain characteristics you will exhibit, if you are truly His disciple.

Another example: I’m quoting here from the Amplified Bible, which has helpful commentary embedded in the passage:

But He gives us more and more grace (power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully). That is why He says, God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it). (James 4:6 Amp)

We need God’s Grace, which the Amplified Bible defines as “power of the Holy Spirit”. But grace only goes to those “who are humble enough to receive it.” Humility, then, is also a characteristic of a disciple.

I made a list of areas in which I want to be obedient to God. This is probably not a comprehensive list, and I am definitely not doing them perfectly:

[obedience]

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Someone has said that there are 3,900 Scripture passages commanding us to know His Word. Yet I keep encountering people who tell me they cannot memorize Bible verses.

If you’d have asked me to recite so much as one verse 20 years ago, I doubt that I could have done it. So I sympathize with those who have done no Scripture memory. I used to be one of you.

Now, I can’t get enough of Scripture!

Now I cannot imagine how I ever lived without God’s Word at the center of my life.

In the summer of 2012, as I would read through the Scriptures I was committing to memory, I began to sense something happening that I could not identify at first. Then I saw the following passage from the Gospel of John:

²¹Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” ²²Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world? ²³Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. ²⁴He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me“. (John 14:21~24)

I wasn’t sure what it meant that Jesus would “manifest” himself to someone, so I looked it up. It means He will reveal Himself to the person.

BAM!! In a flash of recognition, I realized: that’s what was happening to me, right here in an upstairs room of my house! Jesus was revealing Himself to me through the passages I was reading each morning. It was a real presence! He was right there. Not visibly, but He was — and is — right there with me!

There’s no way I could ever go back to where I was before.

⁷ The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;
⁸ The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;
⁹ The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
¹¹ Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward. (Psalm 19:7~11)

David wrote, “More to be desired are (the Words of God) than… much fine gold”. See it there, in verse 10?

Notice what David also wrote, in verse 11: “Moreover by them Your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward.”

Here’s my attitude:

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. (Psalm 73:25)

Rather than dumping a truckload of Scriptures on you to support what I’ve said, I believe I can make my point with just one:

⁴ Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. ⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4~7)

Let me show you what’s in there:

• Rejoice — renew, refresh, refill, replenish — with JOY! Not happiness, which rises and falls with circumstances, but JOY which is always maxed out!
• Because it’s in the Lord. Joy is in the Lord. I said, JOY IS IN THE LORD!! ALWAYS!!
• “Paul, you can’t be serious!” Paul replies, “Again I will say, rejoice!”
• He’s shown me how to have a gentle spirit; “Thank You, Lord!”
• And the Lord is at hand — He’s RIGHT HERE WITH ME RIGHT NOW!
• Because of that, I am anxious for NOTHING!
• I thank Him and Praise Him throughout each day.
• “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding…” I have it. I HAVE IT! He’s given it to me. To ME! I have it! His peace is guarding my heart and mind RIGHT NOW!

Do you want that? You can have it.

Just understand:

• Your battle with the devil is taking place in your mind.
• How to defeat the devil? By speaking the Truth of God’s Word!

And the more Scripture you know, the more power you have, because the power of God is in His Word.

So, how are you doing at internalizing God’s Word?

I’d love to help you with that, too. Really, memorizing God’s Word is not at all like when they made you memorize seemingly useless stuff in school.

Here’s A Free Scripture Page To Help You Get Started!

Download the PDF file containing this page. You can print it on standard 8-1/2 x 11 paper.

To open this PDF in a separate window,  CLICK HERE ?

Once you’ve downloaded the PDF and printed the page, here’s what do do with it:

1. Fold the printed page in half vertically, right down the middle.
2. Holding it vertically, fold the bottom edge up to the faint line that you see right on the fold, about a third of the way down from the top.
3. Do the same with the other end; fold it to the other faint line.

Now you have a 6-panel set of helpful verses that you can tuck into a pocket or purse. Take it out several times a day and read through those 6 Scriptures.

[jan]