Psalms 91:1-12 “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. (2) I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust." … (10) No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; (11) for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. (12) In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.”
The above quoted Psalm is used by many believers to claim the Lord’s protection for their lives. I have not quoted that entire Psalm as that falls outside the scope of this teaching, nevertheless there are two points that I want to bring out from the above passage. Firstly, we saw earlier that Satan himself quoted this Psalm to our Lord Jesus when he was tempting Him in the wilderness, for he said it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.' “(Matthew 4:6). In other words Satan understood that this Psalm was actually speaking about God’s protection provided to Jesus as the Son of God. But the second thing I want you to notice is that God’s protection was not automatically afforded to Jesus because He was the Son of God. For the scripture says that Jesus confessed this Psalm over His life, because the scripture quoted Jesus as saying, “I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” In other words Jesus confessed this Psalm over His life in faith, and as a result that is what He experienced in His life. We are no different. If the Lord Jesus enjoyed the benefits of this Psalm by confessing it over His life, then we must follow His example. Psalm ninety-one is not the only scripture that can be used in this manner, for there are many others. But the point that I wanted to make is that the hedge that God places around His children is not automatic, for we have to claim it by faith by confessing it over our lives and the lives of our households, even as our Lord Jesus did. Someone said, but I thought that walking free from sin keeps the door closed on Satan, and he cannot then affect our lives. The answer to that comment is that we must do both, i.e. we must walk free from sin, thus not allowing Satan access to our lives, and we must in faith, claim God’s protection over our lives. You say, how do you know that we should do both? By looking at Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, for even though Jesus never once committed any sin, He still confessed Psalm ninety-one over His life.
1 Peter 5:8-9 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. (9) Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”
So does it mean that if we walk free from sin and we confess God’s promises of protection over our lives, that we will never have any problems with the devil? The answer to that question is a resounding, “no”. Although as believers, we are not of this world, we are still living in this world, and the god of this world is Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4). And so we live in a hostile environment, for the god of this world hates believers and his purpose is only to kill, steal and destroy. The above quoted passage of scripture refers to him as our adversary, and as such, he is always looking for ways to gain access to our lives. But the same passage of scripture tells us how to deal with him, for the Holy Spirit tells the believer to resist him, steadfast in the faith. So what does that mean? What it means is that there are going to be days when our adversary the devil, is going to bring circumstances into our lives that are going to test our faith. The apostle Paul refers to it as standing against the wiles of the devil in the evil day (Ephesians 6:11-13).
Matthew 28:18-19 “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. (19) Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Ephesians 1:22-23 “And He put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, (23) which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
And so we resist the devil by exercising our authority over him. In the above two quoted passages of scripture we see the authority that has been delivered to the church in the earth. In the first passage our Lord Jesus told us that all authority in heaven and in the earth has been given to Him. When He said that, He then immediately delegated His authority in the earth to His church, for He said “Go therefore”. In other words we are to go into the earth, using His authority. In the second passage we see that God has made Jesus head over all things to the church. And so again we see that the church (which is the body of Christ) has all things placed under her, which includes our adversary the devil.
Mark 4:37-39 “And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. (38) But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?" (39) Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace, be still!" And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.”
All through this teaching we have said that we must look at Jesus as our example. In the above quoted passage of scripture we have the account of the storm that arose while Jesus and His disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee. There can be no doubt that Satan was the one causing the storm that threatened to sink the boat that Jesus and His disciples were sailing in. When Jesus was made aware of the situation, He arose and rebuked the wind and the sea. Ultimately Jesus was rebuking Satan’s angels that had caused the storm in the first place. When Jesus did that everything returned to normal. And so in the same manner, believers should rebuke the devil’s attempts to bring “storms” into their lives.
Acts 16:16-18 “Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. (17) This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, "These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation." (18) And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And he came out that very hour.”
The above quoted passage of scripture is very enlightening for us regarding the authority that believers have in the earth. Just like the rest of us, the apostle Paul grew in his understanding of how to walk this Christian walk, and this incident reveals that truth to us. The background to this incident, is that Paul and his ministry team had come to the city of Philippi to preach the gospel. As can we see from the above account, when Paul and his team went to prayer a slave girl would wait for them and follow them proclaiming loudly to all who could hear, that Paul and his team were servants of the Most High God who proclaimed the way of salvation. Everyone in town knew that this girl was a fortune-teller, and so it was not a good testimony for the Lord’s ministers to have the demon that had possessed her, acting as if he was a part of what they were doing. The scripture says that she did this for many days. So why did Paul tolerate this demon’s behaviour for so long? The answer is that Paul did not know that he could do something about it. Someone said, but Paul knew that as believers, we can cast out demons. It is one thing to cast demons out of people that come to believers for deliverance, but it is something else entirely to go looking for people that are demon possessed to cast out those demons. It may be that the person who is demon possessed want’s that demon, and so for believers to try cast it out would be foolishness, for the demon won’t go, as they have permission to stay in that house. But the above scenario was different, for the demon had initiated the intrusion into Paul’s affairs, not the other way around. And so eventually out of frustration, Paul commanded the demon to come out of her, and the demon came out that same hour. Had Paul known that he could do that, he would have done it the very first day, and not waited so long. Paul learnt something that day, and so do we, i.e. we have authority over Satan’s realm if they ever try to hinder us in any way, and it is up to us to use that authority. This example also shows us that if we don’t exercise our authority then the devil will continue to harass us, as he did with Paul for many days.
James 4:7 “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
And so if we will learn to follow the examples given to us by our Lord Jesus and the apostle Paul, and rebuke the devil and his circumstances that he will try to bring against us, we will experience the same results that Jesus and Paul did, for the above quoted passage of scripture tells us as believers, to resist the devil and he will flee from us. In fact, there is no place in the new testament, where the church is taught to ask God to deal with the devil, but rather in all instances the church is taught to deal with the devil ourselves, using the authority given to us in Jesus.
Malachi 3:11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field," Says the Lord of hosts.”
There is one last comment that I want to make about our adversary, which is based on the deception of tithing. In the above quoted passage of scripture God promised the Jews that tithed, that He would rebuke the devourer for their sakes. God did that under the old covenant, because the Jews had no authority to rebuke Satan for themselves. It is only the saints under the new covenant, that have been given authority over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). And so because God has already given us all the authority we need to rebuke the devourer ourselves, He expects us to walk in that authority, and He no longer rebukes the devourer for our sakes. Satan knows that, and so he encourages the saints to claim the old covenant promise of God rebuking him, for he knows that God will not do it, for God will not violate His new covenant. And so you find many saints under the new covenant, tithing, and claiming the promise from God under the old covenant, to rebuke the devourer for their sakes, and nothing happens, but rather, the devourer continues to steal from them unabated. As sons of God, we must walk in the light of the new covenant and we will not be deceived.
Michael E.B. Maher
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