James 4:7-10 ( NKJV )
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. law near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
Yesterday we looked at Matthew 11:7-12. In these verses, Jesus is speaking of John the Baptist. He also makes an interesting statement about the battle between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. He says that the Kingdom of God has suffered violence and the violent take it by force. Though we looked at a number of things within these verses, the one thought I want to focus on is this idea of a need for violence if we are going to take back what the devil has stolen from us.
Of course in this day and age the association of violence with religion is a very hot topic. It is no secret that a segment of one of the worlds great religions teaches that natural violence, often against innocent people, is a valid way to spread their religious agenda. Jesus never committed any kind of physical violence against anyone. The closest he came was His reaction to the religious leaders of his own nation. He drove the money changers from the temple twice, but he never hurt anyone. He healed a man who was coming to arrest Him when Peter cut off his ear. He did not condone nor participate in any kind of physical violence.
What then did Jesus mean when he said the Kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent must take the Kingdom by force? Paul gives us insight in Ephesians 6.
Ephesians 6:12 ( NKJV )
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
It is clear that the violence Jesus refers to has nothing to do with natural things. Our enemies, the enemies of the Kingdom of God, are not flesh and blood. They are Satan and his cohorts. They are real and they have been violently resisting God’s plan and purpose since the fall of man. If we are going to walk by faith we must realize that we are at war with these forces and we must violently oppose them. However we must never confuse that with natural violence. Your husband, wife or children are not the enemy. Your boss is not the enemy. Members of other religious groups, even if they chose to look at us as enemies, are not our enemy. Our enemy is the devil and his influence upon our own flesh.
How do we use this “violence” to overcome the devil and walk by faith. First let me remind you of the other word we might use instead of violent. That word is aggressive. I believe what Jesus is telling us is that we need to become much more aggressive in our Christian walk. We cannot afford to follow God in a passive way. We cannot simply accept that anything in life just has to be a given way if it does not line up with what the bible says. We must begin to aggressively pursue the Lord and aggressively resist the operation of the kingdom of darkness in our lives. Nothing less will produce the victorious living we seek.
What is the target of our aggression? I believe James tells us. First we must become aggressive in our submission to God. Yesterday we talked about why John the Baptist was called great by Jesus. One reason was the extreme nature of his commitment to God reflected in his lifestyle. We must become extreme, aggressive, in our submission to God and to His word. We cannot simply stand by and passively “try” to follow God. If we do, as soon as our following the Lord leads us somewhere we do not want to go, we will fail.
I believe we need to make a quality decision that whatever God requires of us we will do it. Whatever God says He needs from us we will give. Whatever lifestyle God requires that we live we will live it. We will place the things of God first in our living and make them our highest priority. No army requires less of it’s soldiers. This is because every military commander knows that victory cannot be won with any less than a full commitment. The soldier must be willing to die for the cause. Paul said, "I die daily.” for the cause of Christ. Not physical death, but death to self.
We want to see God move in extreme ways. We speak of taking our cities and raising the dead. Both are valid goals and I believe they are things God wants to do through us, however do we really think we can get such extreme results with a mediocre Christianity? If we want God to move in extreme ways we must be aggressive in our submission to Him.
Second, James tells us to resist the devil and he will flee from us. Being aggressive in our submission puts us in a position to resist the devil successfully. However I believe we must also be aggressive in that resistance to be successful. We put up with too much from the devil. He is our enemy. He is opposed to everything God wants to do in our lives. He resists every promise God has given you. Don’t let him get away with it! Don’t think he will flee from you if you offer some passive resistance that disappears at the first sign of a fight.
That’s how some of the doctrines that tell us healing and miracles have passed away came into the church. Someone tried to resist the devil in one of those areas, found out the devil fights back and gave up the fight. “I guess God doesn’t heal any more.” That’s not true. You can’t find that in the bible. God does heal, but the devil resists that healing. We need to fight him for it. How? By faith in the word of God.
Ephesians 6 goes on to talk about the armor of God. We have a sword called the word of God. We need to wield it. We have a shield of faith. We need to use it. Get aggressive in the fight. Our weapons are far superior, however the strongest weapons are useless if we don’t use them.
Another area of satanic activity where we need aggressive resistance is our own flesh. We need to get aggressive against sin. Sin cripples our faith. Look at Hebrews 12.
Hebrews 12:1-2 ( NKJV )
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The writer here is talking about the development of faith. The first thing he says to do is get rid of the sins and weights that easily beset us. Our flesh is not our friend. It will drag us down if we let it. There are two things here we need to deal with; sins and weights.
Sins are sins. You know what is still in your life that is sinful. We need to get aggressive in resisting those things. How do we get aggressive? Should we apply more will power? That hasn’t worked up to now and it won’t. We need to cut out the sin with the sword of the spirit. If you are being plagued by a sin you need to find the Word that tells you it is wrong and meditate on it until it cuts out the sinful thing. You can’t be passive about this. You must go after it with all you have. You must take whatever time is necessary and you must apply the word as often and as long as it takes. Every time a sin thought raises it’s ugly head you need to take the sword and cut it off.
There are also the weights. These are not sins necessarily, but they are worldly things that hold us down and hold us back. We need to get aggressive with our flesh and cut away the things it likes that are hindering us. I don’t need to tell you what they are either. You know. What keeps you from witnessing. Cut it off even if it is not sin. What keeps you from time in the word and prayer? Cut it off. What is keeping you from participation in the local church. It’s a weight that is holding down your faith. Cut it out of you life.We need to be lean, mean (against the flesh and the devil) faith machines. That’s how we are going to win.
Maybe winning isn’t important to you. Maybe a little blessing and a little curse is good enough. Maybe just a little sickness or poverty is OK with you. Maybe you don’t mind a little sin corrupting your life and your family. Maybe you don’t want too much success. Fine. Don’t be aggressive in your submission or your resistance. You will probably go to heaven. For me and my house, that just isn’t enough. I am greedy for the presence of God. I want everything the Father has promised me. I want to get to the end of my life and have the devil say, “I ‘m glad he’s finally gone!” Then I want I want one of his minions to remind him, “Yes but his children and grandchildren (physical and spiritual) are still here.” As a friend of mine would say, “That’s what I’m talkin’ about!”
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