Satan 1 Peter 5:8,9 be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world.
Review, review, review; this is a key principle in retaining, remembering and memorizing Scripture. Use the verse, review the verse, or lose the verse.
Notice the third command embedded in this verse. The first command is ‘be sober’. The second command is ‘be watchful’. The third command is “RESIST HIM”. Like the first two commands, this takes effort and intentionality on our part. We must FIRST recognize that we are in a war. Then, we must understand our enemy, our adversary the devil. If we aren’t even aware that we are in a battle, then we will be unaware when we are under attack. We will not be able to indentify his methods and tactics until we are under extreme duress.
Once we understand and recognize that Satan is afoot, then we can obey this command. RESIST HIM, firm in the faith. How can we resist a spirit being? We resist both spiritually by faith, and physically in obedience. Spiritual recognition comes from the Holy Spirit alerting the presence of the evil one into our spirit and mind. When the thought comes that ‘I am under attack’, or that ‘Satan is tempting me’, we can be certain that these thoughts did NOT come from our adversary. He hides and cloaks himself under darkness and deception. He is a liar and a deceiver. If Satan could, he would work completely in anonymity, helping many believers think it is by their own lusts, their own sin by which they stumble.
The awareness of coming under attack from Satan should alarm us, but not frighten us. By FAITH, when we resist, Satan will flee. By faith, the roaring lion can be trampled under our foot like a bug or a worm. The promise in Psalms 91 says, “You will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and serpent you will trample under your foot.” By faith, when we exercise the promises of Scriptures, and rely on the presence of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, Satan will yield and flee from us.
Jesus, when tempted quoted Scripture and commanded Satan to flee. He used his body, his mind, his will and his voice to command Satan to flee. We too, relying on the indwelling presence of the living, Triune God and the certainty of the promises of the Word of God, can command Satan to leave us. Almost every day I follow the example of Jesus in resisting Satan. Every sexual thought that I have that is NOT of my wife, I automatically assume is a ‘flaming arrow’, launched into my brain by demonic forces. Unless it is recognized as such, the arrow will start burning the lust within my old man. Unless these flames are extinguished through the ‘washing of water’ with the word, and resisted through the exercise of the will using the weapons of our warfare; namely the sword of the Spirit, then we will continue to have these flaming arrows shot at us unabated. We must resist.
I pray that you would both learn how to recognize satanic attack and how to resist him. Please pray this for me also.
I welcome and covet your feedback. Your feedback also greatly encourages me. I come under attack regularly from demonic forces regarding these devotionals. If you don’t feel comfortable in writing on the blog, please email me at: breehm@comcast.net
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