Who Really Has the Control?

"So humble yourselves before God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Come close to God and He will come close to you.  Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up in honor."  James 4: 7-10.

I guess there's a lot of truth to that old Chinese Proverb that says; "When the student is ready the teacher will appear",  because yesterday morning in personal study I came across the verse quoted above.  Although, I must have read this scripture a few hundred times throughout my walk with God (9 years) this time as I read it, I understood the text's meaning in a totally different way.   On this particular occasion the words that literally jumped off the page were; RESIST and FLEE.

Resist the devil and he will flee!  Now the funny thing is that I had quoted this scripture plenty of times, my head knew this verse well but my heart had never heard of it. I had absolutely no ideal of the true beauty behind these words until around 24 hours ago.

First,  we really must realize who we are up against.  The devil is our enemy he hates God and he hates us.  He wants nothing more than to mess us up.  He wants to damage us: mentally, emotionally and spiritually, so that we never do anything to upset his plans. He understands that if he can constantly fill our heads with lies and make us believe them,  then we will never do anything POWERFUL for the kingdom of God.  The devil should never be listened too.  Why?  Because he is a filthy, rotten, dirty, liar and that's being far to kind of a description for him.  In fact, Jesus called him, "The father of the lie."  Satan cannot speak the truth because it is not in his nature.   Excuse me, I lost my head for a minute there.  OK, now that I've given you the bad news-here's the good news!

We can resist the devil.  Resist means to exert force in opposition!  Meaning that when he starts whispering in your ear that you don't have what it takes to make it.  You need to turn on him and start yelling in his face that, "You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you."  When the devil tells you that your life is messed up beyond repair, you just remind him that God has all of your life written down and He knows exactly where you are.  He knows what your struggles are and He still has a good plan for your life. 

Now, what starts to happen when you resist the devil?  HE FLEES!  He runs away toward a place of security!  Remember that it is impossible to have a clean fight with a coward.  A spineless coward will only throw punches when your back is turned.  Face one head on and watch what happens. Chances are they will fly outta there.  The devil is no exception to this rule.

 Please allow me to say that it isn't merely speaking the words of scripture that makes the devil run, it's the faith behind the words!  As my Pastor always reminds me, "The devil knows when you really don't believe the words that are coming out of your mouth."  My advice to anyone struggling in this area would be to fill yourself up on the word of God.  Give the words time to leak from your brain into your heart.  I promise you that eventually it will!  Just never give up, keep fighting!

So.......my title asks the question, Who Really Has the Control?  The answer is; you do!  How do I know?  Holy Spirit told me so.  His exact words were, "The devil doesn't control you, you control him."  Never allow the devil to steal the power that Jesus has given you!