Living Hope Fellowship Church

RESIST THE DEVIL

Training Material

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

RESIST THE DEVIL

Preface

(temptation)

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

          Resist the devil by submitting yourself to God and believing His Word.  Set your mind on things above, on Jesus, and not on the things of the world.

          The devil lies and says, Your miracles, your perfection in the Lord, your holiness walk with God, your faith in Christ, your healing, your deliverance, your family getting saved – none of it is for you!  He is a liar!

          Believe God, and resist the devil!  That is our victory in Christ Jesus! 

          How do you resist the devil?  Reject his doubts, his suggestions, and his evil thoughts.  Command him to GO in the name of Jesus!  This is the manner in which we resist the devil.  We reject what he sends us!

RESIST THE DEVIL

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

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

Because you have resisted the devil, he will flee from you - not you from him.  It is because you have submitted yourself to God, and you are believing on His Holy Word. 

After an anointed church service you may feel faith rise up in your soul, and you feel that you can go out and whip the world!  Then later, maybe even the same day, you notice an awful feeling come against your mind and body, like you are trying to swim in silly putty!  It is like trying to move, yet you are half asleep.  You are trying to feel the presence of the Lord, but you can’t find it.  Then your mind wanders, and you begin to doubt.  That is why we have to set our minds on things above, on Jesus, and not on the things of the world.

 How do you resist the devil?  You say, Devil, I command you to depart from me.  You leave me, and I reject that last thought that you tried to give me.  I reject that doubt you are trying to give me, so GO in the name of Jesus!  This is the manner in which we resist the devil.  We reject what he sends us!

One of his biggest devices against us is to say that we are silly for talking out loud to the air, but the Bible says that he is the prince of the power of the air!  So, when you rebuke the devil even without seeing him, you are talking to the one who tries to control the air. 

It is not foolish to talk to someone that we cannot see, because we pray to God.  We do not see Him, yet we receive from Him blessing, and anointing, and power to resist sin, sickness, and disease.  We must talk to our adversary, the enemy of our faith, the devil, whom we cannot see.  We must resist him in the name of Jesus. 

One of our greatest wrestlings is that the enemy will come and talk to you in “first person”.  That is, he will say, I don’t have my healing, or I don’t have my deliverance, or I’m not saved, or I don’t believe God.  He is trying to make you think it is YOU thinking that.  Don’t agree with the devil and say, Well, I must not be saved, or I must not be healed, or I must not be delivered, because I don’t think that I am. 

Jesus said if you believe you will receive.  If you believe a lie that Satan hands you, you will also receive the manifestation of it.  It could be unbelief, so your sickness or other bondage returns.  You can also believe a lie and be damned (see 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12).

How do you submit yourself to God?  Jesus is the Living Word of God.  He is the author and the finisher of our faith.  Believe also God’s written Word.  God says I’m healed.  I’m delivered.  I’m saved.  I believe it, I receive it, and it is done in the name of Jesus!

 When doubt or confusion creeps in, you think that maybe you made a mistake, or weren’t praying right, or just didn’t hear right. You need to resist the lies of the devil!  He is the father of lies, and no truth is in him.  You need to resist the evil reports.

The carnal mind is enmity against God, so Satan will come and deal with your fleshly thinking.  If your mind is stayed on the things of the world the devil has an open line to talk to you.  Cut the line. 

You have to believe that the Word of God is the truth, no matter how odd or silly it sounds, and no matter how foolish it seems, and no matter how crazy you think you may appear.  God took the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. (See 1 Corinthians 1:27.)

Learn the scriptures!  Attack the enemy with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.  Then you will have power in the name of Jesus to resist the devil, and he will flee from you!

Another favorite plow the devil uses is somebody dear to you to talk unbelief and anti-faith to you.  Anything that attacks your faith is an anti-Christ spirit, because your faith is in Jesus Christ.  If it comes against faith in God, then it is of the devil. 

Don’t sit and think whether or not the devil makes sense!  Don’t even give him time to finish his conversation.  Tell him, Devil, shut up.  In Jesus’ name I rebuke you, and I reject you.  If you listen to his conversation long enough you may believe him.

Do not tarry with the preaching of a devil.  You cannot sit and listen under the admonition of hell without it affecting you sooner or later.  As soon as you realize in your mind and heart that something is attacking your faith, and making you feel low in your walk toward God, immediately resist that thing so it will flee from you.

Don’t give him time to build a stronghold in your mind or life.  Hit him while there is still one foot up in the air!  Don’t give him time to set up a principle from hell in your life to dim your faith.  Don’t give him an opportunity to put up any foundation in your life.  Don’t give the enemy time to set up house. 

Resist him while he is talking to you.  Resist him when he tries to make you feel physically tired.  He will come against you sometimes just that way.  He’ll say, You are tired, so take a nap.  You are tired, so don’t pray.  You are tired, so don’t do anything!  He will minister lies straight out of the pits of hell if you let him, but resist the devil, and he will flee from you!

God is the author of your rest.  If you want to rest, rest in God.  The devil can only give you condemnation and damnation.  He will try to rob from you what you know is the truth in God!

When you speak against the devil, he may back up a little bit, regroup, and come back again.  If the devil does not flee immediately, HIT HIM AGAIN.  Keep hammering till you make up your mind that you are going to go right through him.  Then you will win.  We are warriors with Christ Jesus.  You have to resist the devil and fight to keep your faith.  (See 1 Timothy 6:12.)

Ephesians, Chapter 6, tells us to put on the whole armor of God so that we will be able to withstand against the wiles of the devil.  We are in a WAR!  When you first got saved you resisted the devil and he fled.  Perhaps, now it seems like you resist him, and he backs up a couple of steps, and then hits you again!  You are fighting a bigger devil now, because you are bigger in God! 

Ephesians 6:12-13 says, “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.  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.”

Keep on resisting the devil, every minute and every hour for the rest of your life so that you will keep the victory!  God will give you seasons of rest from your enemy.

The enemy comes through loved ones who speak words of doubt and unbelief to you.  They ask, Well, are you really sure?  Sometimes Christians ask the same thing, because they haven’t resisted the devil.

If something is against the Word of God, it is from hell - I don’t care whose mouth it comes out of, or who the thoughts belong to, or how much sense it makes.  1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

Vigilant means to be watchful and ready.  The enemy walks about seeking whom he may devour.  He comes up to a sinner, and because they don’t resist him, he devours them!  He doesn’t come up to a Christian and say, May I devour you?  It is much more subtle than that!  Rebuke him in the name of Jesus.

 Immediately say NO to the devil!  Christians have problems when they hesitate.  When the devil hears you say, Well...., he will offer you all kinds of things.  It may be lust, or that habit you once had, sickness or disease, or whatever.  It will be candy coated and colored, pretty as you please, wrapped up with a bow on it, and then he will hand it to you.  Why?  Because you waited a moment before you said no.  Perhaps you said, Maybe it is okay this time.  Then he has got you.  You say, Well, maybe it is all right.  It can’t be all right!  The devil can never be right concerning things that are contrary to God’s Word! 

The devil can say words to you that line up with the truth, because that is the beginning of his plan, but sooner or later he will bring you something that is a lie.  His end result is a lie, so you need to resist him. 

1 Peter 5:9 says, “Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.”  This is talking about resisting the devil.  There are other people who wrestle the same devils and the same afflictions.  You are not the only one in the world who has problems.

The devil will tell you that God is not going to heal you.  He says, Tomorrow maybe, but not today.  He says the same thing about getting saved.  In the meantime he is working feverishly trying to kill you so tomorrow won’t come for you.

Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”  The devil comes to steal your joy and your faith, to kill your love for God, and to destroy your walk with Jesus.  He will tell you that it is good sound logic that you should doubt.  He tells you that you should not fast.  He lies; don’t believe him.

How do we resist the devil?  By faith in what God’s Word says. It is the truth, and it cannot lie!  It is that simple.  Don’t make it complicated. 

Overcoming is not automatic; it is a warfare.  We didn’t win any war without a fight.  Sometimes we had to have a knock down drag out.  Sometimes people died in the process, but we won the war.  The Bible says in Revelations that we win if we hang on to Jesus!

 The devil will run thoughts through your mind like, Well, maybe there is another way.  There isn’t any other way.  John 14:6 says, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”  There is no other way to get to God for your healing, for your deliverance, for the power of God in your life, or for holiness in your life.

Jesus sent the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth.  However, the enemy will bring you a false comforter, which is a lying spirit.  He will give you all the reasons as to why you should do this or that.  You know it is contrary to what the Bible says, but it sure sounds good.  He will twist scripture to base it on, but if you will resist him, he will flee from you!

Satan’s biggest plow is to tell you that he isn’t the one that you should fight; you are the problem.  He says that you really should doubt what God says, because He isn’t moving for you anyhow.  He tells you, After all, that is for somebody else, but he tells everyone else the same thing!  You just don’t hear that conversation!  

The devil says, Your miracles, your perfection in the Lord, your holiness walk with God, your faith in Christ, your healing, your deliverance, your family getting saved – none of it is for you! 

Believe God, and resist the devil!  That is our victory in Christ Jesus!  We have to submit ourselves to God.  We have to resist, renounce, and reject the council of hell.  It is a must.  When God starts talking to you and dealing with you, He will destroy the devil’s lies.

Have you ever heard the enemy whisper, You are getting sick!  He does it especially when the flu or colds are around. He will give you a little poke on the throat or the chest, and say, Hey, don’t you feel that?  That is a symptom of being sick. Don’t you remember what so and so said?  They said they were hurting.  That is a sure sign that you are coming down with the same thing!  AND they had a snotty nose.  It will manifest in this realm if you believe it, and your nose will start running. 

Somebody can come up with something aching.  It hasn’t even started hurting yet, but you are feeling for it.  You’ve jumped ahead of the devil!  The devil has worked that against every single person on this planet for centuries.  Resist the devil and command him to go in the name of Jesus!  Don’t let him get to you!

CONTACT INFORMATION:

PASTOR KEVIN BADGLEY

LIVING HOPE FELLOWSHIP, P. O. BOX 111, GRAND CHAIN, IL  62941

CHURCH / FAX (618) 634-2541

E-mail  livinghopefellowship@lazernetwireless.net

These condensed Bible studies have been published to help new Christians in their new walk with the Lord.  Kevin Badgley, the author, is the pastor of Living Hope Fellowship Church.

This is a Living Hope Fellowship publication.