Humility (1 Tim. 3:6)
We have to be careful in our spiritual warfare not to be lifted up with pride. An excellent example of the use of humility in a battle is found in 1 Sam. 25:23-31. Abigail humbled herself before David and his men, and charged herself with Nabal’s iniquity. She was not the cause of David’s attack, but by her humility she certainly stopped him and delivered her household.
Submission to God and resisting the devil (James 4:7)
Oftentimes, when Christians are attacked by the devil, they often, unwisely, get into a conversation with him. That won’t work. Rather, follow the example of Michael the archangel, in Jude 9, and the Lord, in the Zechariah 3:1-2. In both cases, these very powerful beings simply said, “The Lord rebuke thee.” If you will do the same thing, you will be submitted to God, and resisting the devil, at the same time.
Acknowledgment of the truth (2 Tim. 2:25-26)
When a person fails to study or when he doesn’t rightly divide the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15), he leaves himself open to being ensnared by the devil. Once he is ensnared, he must acknowledge the truth, God must give him repentance, and then he may recover himself out of the snare. Unfortunately for most people, once they have been ensnared, they are so deceived that they don’t realize their need to get out of the snare. They would rather argue against the truth than believe what the Bible says.
Faith (Ephesians 6:16)
People “believe” the Bible by “faith,” and “understand” the Bible by “revelation.” Take Peter, for instance. He believed that Jesus Christ was the Messiah long before that truth was revealed to him. That’s “faith.” Later, in Matthew 16:17, God revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Christ. That’s “understanding.” But, Peter did not have to understand that in order to believe it.
However, when Jesus explained to Peter and the disciples that he would die (Matthew 16:21), Peter rebuked him because he did not “believe” that Christ had to die (Matthew 16:22). That’s a lack of faith. Of course, this truth was not revealed to him until after the resurrection (Luke 24: 44-46). He could not possibly have understood this until it was revealed to him. Thus, Peter left himself open to an attack by the devil (Luke 22: 31-32) because he did not “believe” what the Bible said. He refused to believe it since he could not “understand” it.
The devil often trips up people by making them believe that they have to understand something before they can believe it. But understanding is not the weapon. Faith is!
Forgiveness (2 Cor. 2: 9-11)
Forgiveness does not necessarily relieve the “hurt” that results from a transgression against you, but it certainly does cut off one of the devices of the devil. Forgiveness is so important, that before Calvary, a person’s own forgiveness from God was dependent upon his forgiveness of men who had trespassed him. When you fail to forgive, you violate Ephesians 4:32, you open the door to bitterness and grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30-31).
The blood of Christ (Hebrews 9:14; Psalm 51: 10)
Although Jesus shed His blood on Calvary nearly 2000 years ago, it still saved you when you trusted Christ (Col. 1:14). Likewise, the blood of Christ is currently available to purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. You need to plead the blood of Christ whenever you are in spiritual warfare, because at Calvary, Christ triumphed over all principalities and powers.
Spiritual mindedness (Romans 8:6)
As we saw in the last question, the devil can really work on your mind. However, when you think on spiritual things (Philippians 4:8) you have life, peace, virtue and praise. These keep you from being carnally minded which is death. The trouble with most of us is that we keep our minds filled with distractions of the flesh. The devil can have a heyday in minds like that. Our thoughts need to be in captivity to the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 10:3-6).
The whole armor of God (Ephesians 6: 10-18)
The armor of God has six pieces that protect everything on your body but your knees and your back. That’s because we stand by kneeling in prayer. And, for the Christian, there is no retreat. When you turn your back to the devil and run, you are exposed. You must stand and use the shield of faith to quench his fiery darts. You must use the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God just like Jesus did when he was tempted in Matthew 4. Every time he was attacked, he quoted Scripture until the devil left him alone.
Hope this helps,
Pastor Bevans Welder