Men As Christ
Where Iron Sharpens Iron / Proverbs 27:17
Kick ‘Em Out
Matthew 4:1-11:
At that time Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. The tempter approached and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread.” He said in reply, “It is written: One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” Then the devil took him to the holy city, and made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: He will command his angels concerning you and with their hands they will support you, lest you dash your foot against a stone.” Jesus answered him, “Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.” Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.
Blog:
Per James 4:7, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” It’s that simple. The only place that the devil, his demons, and/or evil have in our Souls is what we allow them to have. What makes this complex is our “perception” of things. It first starts with how we see God and then expands to how we see ourselves. If we love God with all of our hearts, minds, and Souls and, if we then, love others as we love the Lord, then we are wearing the Armor of God (as in Ephesians 6:10-18). But, to be fair, I don’t think too many of us would have said “no” to the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden nor would many of us stood strong with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. You see the devil and his henchman are like 3- or 4-star generals (they were Principalities and Powers in Heaven – the 3rd and 4th level of Angels in the 9 spherical realms of Angel classifications). In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis captures this appropriately – “our benignly modern view of the devil”. While giving tactical advice to his demon apprentice, the demon mentor shares that “our policy for the moment, is to conceal ourselves” and “the fact that ‘devils’ are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you.” Folks don’t recognize the evil around them and, even when they do, they think that they can “handle” things on their own. But, most of us regular-folks were never meant to battle the devil or demons head-on. Only God is able to completely stand-up to the devil – just like Jesus did in the desert after spending 40 days there without any food (and, most-likely, on death’s doorstep). We find in Matthew 17:18-20 that even His Apostles couldn’t always cast-out demons and they were Apostles of Jesus!? The bottom line is that we are to protect our eyes, ears, mouths, Temples (bodies), etc. according to God’s advisement and let the Lord do the battling. It’s not our fight – and, the battle’s already been won by Jesus on the Cross. We are only called to be Faithful in Him. Faithfulness brings God’s Protection and Blessings. While the devil and his demons will always try to find a way “into” our Souls, he cannot enter into us without us opening the door. So, why not kick ‘em out today? All we have to do is “go and sin no more” (John 8:11). And, that can start right here and right now…
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