As Christians, learning how to defeat the enemy is essential for overcoming spiritual battles. Life is full of challenges, but God has already given us victory through His Word. Understanding how to defeat the enemy helps us stand firm in faith and walk in the authority Christ has given us.
Our countenance concerning our difficulties and challenges will change not because they disappear but because of what the enemy thinks about us when he sees us approaching. When the enemy sees you, he does not see you in your weakling power and fledgling strike: But he sees the power of Almighty God inside you.
The enemy knows that you have already been forgiven. He knows that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” It is quite unfortunate that the enemy believes more about our potential than we do.
The enemy sprawls out a little difficulty and challenges in your life to keep you from rising and stop you from being who God has called you to be.
He just scares us out of reaching our full potential. Enough intimidation and fear will keep us paralyzed and insecure and not rising to be the daughters and sons of God.
Here is the fact: either you are on your way into a challenge, or you are on your way out of a challenge. Because that’s the nature of the world in which we live.
John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
1) The Word of God is our Victory
If you have no challenges or battles to defeat the enemy in this world, I would say “happy for you.” But for anyone who lives in a real-world crowded with challenges, the word of God remains our victory.
God wants you to know the lavishness of the mercy of God that has been bestowed upon everyone who places faith in Jesus Christ. If you have been rejected by your father or mother or your best friends or spouse has walked away from you, remember, you have been hand-picked and adopted by the Most High King.
There is no pit of sin that you have gotten yourself into that cannot be forgiven. Most of the pits we are in, it ain’t the devil, it is us. There is no pit you dug for yourself that the mercy of God is not so great and so grand that he cannot reach down and snatch you up out of that pit. You have been pulled out of darkness and flung into the marvelous light of God.
The goal is for the eyes of your heart to be opened for you to see once and for all what the hope of his calling and choosing you is.
The incredible letters of the Bible are about who you are. You can step up to the plate and Defeat the enemy because of your relationship with Christ. Step up to the plate. Don’t shrink back in fear and insecurity, but go ahead and rise to the mandate of the word of God.
2) Put on the Full Armor of God to Defeat the Enemy
Be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but it is against rulers and the powers, against the world forces of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Put down all the weapons of this world that have not been working and take some weapons that actually have some power. Take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to resist in the evil day. The Bible has clearly articulated in big-bold letters that you have an enemy. And your enemy is not the person seated next to you at work or in church or your neighbor.
Your husband is not your real enemy. Your co-worker is not your real enemy. The Holy Spirit reveals that your real enemy is nothing that is flesh and blood or tangible. Apostle Paul comes clear and says we have an invisible enemy who is hoping that just because he is invisible, we will also think he is fictional.
We are all engaged in a spiritual warfare. You have an unseen enemy behind many of those challenges that are sprawled out in front of your life. Behind those challenges is an influencer, someone who is stirring the pot in hopes that you will be so intimidated and insecure. This is to see that you never rise up to be who God has called you to be and claim the victory that is already rightfully yours. It’s his scheme and sinister attack against your life to compel you to shrink back in fear and insecurity and never become who God has called you to be.
He is praying in the hopes that we will forget he’s there. He shifts the attention stage left so that you will forget he is the one off to the stage right, pulling the strings of what is happening in our lives. He so disguises himself behind life’s most pressing problems in hopes that if he disguises himself cleverly enough, you will forget he is behind the scenes and direct all the weapons at the wrong culprit.
3) Deploy all Spiritual Weapons
If you use earthly weapons, you will accomplish only earthly natural results and you will never defeat the enemy that wars agaist your soul. Look at your problems in marriage, troubles at work, and friction in relationships from a spiritual vantage point. Stop using the weapons you have been using to fight your problems and engage the spiritual weapons.
There is always something invisible influencing what is visible to your eyes. If you spend time and attention with natural weapons trying to smack at everything that keeps showing up in your life, you will achieve temporary results. Pull back the curtain and let the enemy know you got your eyes on them.
The tactics of the enemy are so sinister against you. He does not have this blanket approach. Although he can in regard to larger entities like nations, churches, and communities. However, he is very specific in his targets against you.
I want to tell you something about myself. I am a fairly easygoing personality. I’m not wound up very easily in terms of anger. So, if someone offends me or hurts my feelings and asks for forgiveness, I will forgive them really quickly. I do not even know that they offended me. If somebody does me wrong, I can get over it. But if I find out someone was planning to do me wrong, well! That will be a whole other story.
If I find out that you have been thinking beforehand or that you have been studying me so that you can watch to see when I come and when I go, well! If it’s a war you want, it is a war you will have. The devil is scheming against you beforehand. It should cause a holy indignation to rise on the inside of you. The devil has a plan. He figures out your weaknesses and the proclivities of your flesh so that he can take advantage of those. He watches you in your current state, and all look back into your history to know what abuses and hurts you have suffered so that he can know the right place to pinch.
4) Arise and Shine
The devil preys on lazy Christians. He wants sleazy, indifferent, and apathetic Christians who are not picking up the armor of God and standing firm against his schemes. He does not care if you say amen or not. But he wants to ensure you do not go home and love the word.
Rise and Defeat the enemy called the devil. Do not lay down and let him run rough shot over your family, and peace of mind—you got to go to war with him. You have to go to battle against the schemes of the enemy.
If your marriage is falling apart, it is your time. Rise up and be a woman of God. If your teenager is going astray, do not just lay back and watch the enemy take him away. The enemy wants you apathetic and lazy because then he can take advantage of you.
5) Defeat the Enemy by putting on Breastplate of Righteousness
The Apostle Paul says you need a breastplate because you have got to have something that blocks the enemy from a full-frontal attack. You need something to cover and guard the most vital spiritual organ that you have—your heart. Your physical heart pumps all of the energy and life you need to continue to function in your physical body. Your spiritual heart is the lifeline for your spiritual well-being.
All the fervency, fire, and passion you need to have a prayer life is tied up to the health of your spiritual heart. So, if I were your enemy, I had to be after your heart Your breastplate is righteousness.
Righteousness is right-side-up living that invites the sunlight of God’s favor and His grace on your life. Unrighteousness is upside-down behavior where you do not have to invite the enemy to come and make himself at home. The environment that unrighteousness creates is the invitation. It creates an environment where demonic influence will flourish in your relationships, in your mind, in your heart, in your home, in your job, in your finances, and in your health.
You can be in your war room praying against the devil till you are blue in the face. But if you come out of that prayer closet and live a raggedy, wayward, unrighteous life, you cannot defeat the enemy. The enemy wants you to follow the path of unrighteousness, and when you do, the environment he needs for demonic activity to flourish in your life would have been created.
Whether it’s in your actions or attitudes, you have to dig your heels into the ground and refuse to walk in a way that is dishonoring God. Righteousness does not mean perfection. It means a lifestyle. It means you have chosen to honor God to the best of your abilities and to align your behavior with the truth that you say you affirm.
If you want to defeat the enemy without much struggle, practice Holiness. Holiness keeps a breastplate fitted on your life. It staves the enemy off to where he is trying to figure out how to get in and mess with your heart, mind, marriage, relationships, and finances. But you have such a big armor on the front side of you. He can not figure out how to get in. Every day, he tries to lead you astray so that he can get in.
If your breastplate was off because of your unrighteousness, it is time to put it back on because the enemy wants to take advantage of you.
6) Grow in Righteousness, Truth, Love and all that are Gods
In this pre-seeker, seeker-sensitive era where we want everybody to feel comfortable and welcome, yes, come as you are, but do not stay as you are. Most of us are impressive but have no breastplate. People have a lot of Instagram followers but no breastplate to defeat the enemy. The enemy is satisfied with how much applause we are getting from people because our selfies are perfectly lit, but then, he is ripping us to shreds because we have no protection. We have sacrificed holiness to be impressive people, and so we have a likeness of holiness.
If you are living in a way that dishonors God, whether in your actions or attitudes, you have to dig your heels into the ground and turn a new leaf. You do not want to see Jesus when time closes in on you with your head hung down. Jesus paid much too high a price for you to live in the old kind of way.
7) Engage the Power of the Holy Spirit Everyday
The Holy Spirit has the power to set you free. He can free you from drug and pornographic addiction. Honor God by living righteously according to his spirit. The breastplate of God will so defeat the enemy and defend us against the schemes of the enemy.
You can walk in righteousness, but if you have to walk in righteousness in your own strength, that is going to last about a week, and you are going to be tired. You need the Holy Spirit to help you to walk in righteousness. In whatever area, you need to break free and walk in holiness, and you cannot do it without the Spirit.
You receive the Spirit when you receive Jesus Christ. It is a gift of your salvation. It is the best gift you will ever get because the Holy Spirit comes bearing fruit. He comes bearing gifts. He comes in like a flood, and he changes your life.
I picked up a lesson from the movie, “LION KING.” All these hyenas were messing with Simba, and Simba tried to roar at the hyenas, but only a tiny squeak came out. The hyenas laughed and asked Simba to try again. This time, Simba roared, and his voice thundered that he could not imagine.
This was because Mufasa had shown up behind Simba, and all of Simba’s roar was now connected to Mufasa’s roar. The hyenas got frightened and shaky. The enemy is going to be running away not because of your roar but because Jesus’ roar is now coming up alongside you, and that is victory.
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There’s victory in Jesus’ name.
