Resisting the Devil

The General Epistle of James
Chapter 4

Resisting the Devil Discussion
Submit Yourselves to God Completely
Resist the Devil and He Will Flee From You Now

It's a delight to have you back again to share more Daily Bread together. So far in our study of James' letter, he's brought our attention to several things:

• Trials and temptations will challenge you. Be glad. Persevere.
• Ask God for wisdom.
• Don't doubt.
• Desire/lust/covetousness is sin.
• Good comes from God.
• Act on your faith, and do good works with a meek and humble heart.
• Don't have respect of persons (prejudice).
• Keep the law - Love one another and love your neighbor as yourself.
• The tongue is a fire. Learn to control it.
• Rid yourself of jealousy and bitterness, with peace.

James continues now with more about lust, desire, envy, covetousness ... No matter what you call it, it comes from the world, and the devil is the prince of this world. Listen to what James writes.

We're supposed to be fighting for the same cause (Jesus), not fighting with one another, so why are there so many disagreements among you? It stems from a war inside of your own selves.

You want, but you don't have. You even kill (spiritually ... you envy), because you want so badly, but you cannot obtain. You fight and go to war, and still you don't get, because you don't ask. You ask, and are not given, because your heart is in the wrong place.

Resisting the Devil Research
Submit Yourselves to God in Hope
Why Resist the Devil and He Will Flee From You

The things you want are to satisfy your own lusts. By doing this, you're being unfaithful to God, because the things you seek, are of the world, fleshly and material. If your happiness comes from worldly things, you're an enemy of God.

Do you think that the scripture says in vain, The spirit that lives in us lusts to envy?

What does this mean? It means that there is a spirit in us that desires to want things. It's a carnal thing ... Human nature, if you will, to be covetous. Well, you fight, but not with one another. You fight against that natural desire to want things. When you get rid of that hunger for "things" you will be more at peace with yourself, and then you will get along with others easier as well.

But, James continues:

God gives an even higher degree of Grace. That's why the Proverb (3:34) says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. You see, God understands our human behaviors and that's why He brought in the New Testament with Jesus.

Now here's a very valuable thing to know. James says:

Submit yourself to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Resisting the Devil Importance
Submit Yourselves to God Asap
Resist the Devil and He Will Flee From You Vow

That's right! The devil doesn't want to hang out with ya if he's gotta deal with God all the time. Don't get this wrong now, as long as you're wavering, he's gonna mess with ya to see if you'll jump over to his side of the fence, but try this. Every morning, surrender your life to the Holy Spirit and walk in submission to, and dependent on His guidance, totally and completely. With that kind of submission to God, evil will keep it's distance from you. Now, back to James.

Get close to God, and He will get close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded (doubters). Be concerned, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. Don't talk badly of one another, friends. He who speaks evil of his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law, and judges the law: but if you judge the law, you aren't a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who are you that judges another?

You'll see in the letters from Peter and John, that they're also very zealous about what Jesus said is the greatest commandment as well, Love one another, and love thy neighbor as thy self. Here, James is pointing out that judging one another is a consequence of the war we are fighting within ourselves.

Resisting the Devil Help
Submit Yourselves to God in Love
Resist the Devil and He Will Flee From You Tips

More good advice:

Come now, those of you who say: Today or tomorrow we'll go into a certain city and stay there a year, and buy and sell and make a profit. But you don't know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life anyway? It's like a mist that appears for a while, and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, If the Lord will, (If it's God's Will) we shall live, and do this, or that. But now you boast in your arrogance and all this kind of rejoicing is evil. So, to him that knows to do good, and does not do it, to him, it is sin.

Have you always wondered that? If you didn't know something was a sin, and you did it, is it counted as a sin? The answer is no. You have to know you are sinning, in order for it to be sin. However, be careful of what you say you know and don't know. If you aren't sure of something and you do it anyway ... I'd put that in the sin column and ask forgiveness. If you have a little feeeeeeling that it may be wrong ... Chances are, you're dabbling in the sin area. Don't take chances. Ask for forgiveness. And next time, make it your business to know before you do something. Always remember that your sin can't outdo God's Grace.

Resisting the Devil Conclusion
Submit Yourselves to God Summary
Resist the Devil and He Will Flee From You!

As you can see, James does write with a different point of view than Paul. Their experiences were different. And we're all different too. My advice is to squeeze the grape. Here's a little Daily Bread Crumb for ya. Squeezing the grape is taking something and extracting all the greatness that you can get out of it and putting it to good use.

Come and join in again next time and we'll do some more extracting from the last chapter of James' letter together, right here at Daily Bread.