I’ve written and taught many times that one sure fire way to tell that you are living right for God is that Satan begins to attack you on every front. I firmly believe it is one of the best indicators a Christian can have that they are heading in the right direction in their walk with God. The reality of course is that the process of being attacked by Satan is not the most enjoyable thing to participate in. While we are all unique in the eyes of God, the attacks of the enemy are universal across many pivotal areas in our lives as Christians. Over the next few weeks I want to deal with some of the hot targets of the devil against the Christian and identify how we can not just survive spiritual attack but achieve absolute victory through Christ Jesus!
In order to do battle we must be very clear on two things. First, we must know who we are in Jesus Christ and secondly we need to know exactly who our enemy is. Far too often, both of these key areas get completely missed in teaching about spiritual warfare. Long before we sharpen our weapons we must first know where we stand and where the enemy stands who is against us.
A New Person in Christ
The Bible says in Gal 2:20 that, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” We need to get straight right away on what our identity is. One of the biggest reasons so many of us have failed over and over again in dealing with spiritual attack and sin in our lives is because we have forgotten who is really in charge in our lives and who we are directly identified with. Notice the words, “yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…” Every step you take as a blood bought believer, Christ is with you. Every place you go, every conversation you have, everything decision you make, Christ is with you. The challenge for us is to remember this identification because when we forget it we can easily choose our own ways, the ways of the world, flesh, and sin and not the ways of Christ.
In the book of Romans the Bible says, “we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” Rom 8:37. Verses like these are often used into today’s motivational style preaching as a feel good medicine with very little power to the listener because the emphasis is placed on the wrong portion of the scripture. Yes we are conquerors but we do so through Jesus Christ. If we identify with Him in our lives we have the strength to conquer anything because He has already conquered everything on the cross!
My Bible says that, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” 1 John 5:4 It is our faith in the son of God that gives us access to victory to overcome any and every challenge. Not works, not title or status, but simple faith.
Those are just a few of many great scriptures describing who we are in Jesus Christ. Next time we’ll journey into understanding who our enemy really is, how he works in our lives, and most importantly how to achieve victory over him.
Blessings,
Pastor Miller
