Living Victoriously

​How many of you would like to find out how to be victorious? How many of you have found out that being victorious is not easy? Yet we’re required to be victorious, hard or not, amen?
Let’s look at James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”  From whom will the devil flee? From you! He will flee from you. For those of you who feel you have tried resisting and it didn’t work, we’re going to clear up some things, show you how to resist successfully. We need to know this.
You’re going to find out that you need to learn how to resist the devil because he’s out to kill you. Some few years back I was listening to a tv minister, the channel messed up, but I heard him say we’re under more pressure now than we’ve ever been. The church and individuals Christians are under more pressure than ever before. This is because the enemy knows his days are short, and in these last days, we’re seeing more attacks coming against individual believers and churches; and it’s going to increase.
Being for-warned is being for-armed. You are being for-warned today, but at the same time you can walk in more victory than you’ve ever walked in before. On one side, it’s gong to get worse, but on the other side, we'll experience more victory than ever before, amen. On the other side, if you’ll do what the word says, it’s going to get better.
Which would you rather have, better or worse? I’ve tried worse; it’s not near as good as better, amen?  I’ve been under attack and I’ve been free.  Free is better. Victory is better than defeat. You can’t have a victory without a battle. 
A key thing to remember is all these attacks is just the enemy giving us more opportunities to be victorious.  This is not  the time to throw in the towel. It’s not the time to throw our hands up in defeat; the bigger the battle the bigger the victory. 
I told you I would show you how to resist. That word resist in the Greek is anthistemi. It’s where we get the word antihistamine. It means to set over against, to set something against. Resist means to set over against the devil and his attacks and his demons and everything that he can throw at you. You must set against it, stand against it, resist it with everything that is within you and he will flee from you.
Another key in resisting is the word submission. It’s really important because without submission there is no lining up with  the word of God, there is no being a doer of the word.  There will be no resisting with results.
Now, the word submit means to subject oneself to obey. Obedience is your prayers and your hands. Whatever the word of God says to do, then do it.  The word says the joy of the Lord is our strength. In being obedient we are storing up strength; we are storing up ability in the Lord.
If you are not in the word, reading it and studying it, if you are not in fellowship with other believers, if you are not doing what the word of God says, there will be no victorious results. In other words, your resisting will not work if you are not in the word.
Alright, let’s turn to Ephesians 6:13. “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 
When is the evil day? The evil day is any day you are attacked.  Everyday, you need to put on the whole armour of God, which you’ll find in verses 14 through 18. The word says to put on the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand.
Now, this word withstand is the same Greek word anthistemi. So, we are to get into full obedience to the  word of God, so that we can
anthistemi—resist and stand against. Hallelujah. By the way, both of these words denote more than an occasional resistance. They actually imply perpetual resistance. They both also imply the two words hostile towards. So, the word resist implies hostile towards.
I heard a football player say I’m hostile, mobile, and agile. We need to be more so when it comes to our enemy.  Many Christians out there take on that que sera sera attitude, saying you’ve got to deal with the cards you’ve been dealt. Uhm, no you don’t. You start attacking the enemy, even be hostile in your resistance, not to one another. Be hostile towards your real enemy, the devil.
Let’s talk about that word flee. Flee is the Greek word pheugo. It is where our word fugitive comes from. Submit yourselves unto God, do what he says, and resist the devil and he will pheugo. He’ll become a fugitive. Thayers says the word flee inspires fear or threatened danger. You start talking about the power in the name of Jesus, start talking about his shed blood and the devil will flee in inspired fear and threatened danger, amen? That’s why he flees, he’s afraid of Jesus. He’s afraid of the blood of the lamb, he’s afraid of the word of God.  You start resisting him with the word, start resisting him with the blood, and the name of Jesus, and he’ll flee in terror.
I like what Wheedon’s commentary says.  Temptations, when repelled, disappear, and when  habitually kept at a distance, they cease to exist. If you are going to wake up and become amazing, you must learn to submit to God, and you must learn to resist the devil, amen? Amen!
Go on the offensive and start gaining back your ground. You can do it.

Doc

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