Lest Satan Should Get an Advantage of us

2 Timothy 2:26  And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

Greek: That they may return to soberness or awake out of the snare of the devil, after having being hunted down, taken captive, and caught alive by the devil, to do his will.

The devil is always actively hunting to “catch alive” by trapping our free will and make it to become passive, so that his will in us can then become active.  (This is always His work with believers and non-believers)

 1 Peter 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Be temperate dispassionate and serious in your life, be awake and watchful, because your opponent in a suit of law, the devil, (to thoroughly cast, throw, or hurl) as a roaring lion, conducts himself around, arduously and earnestly seeking, whom he may drink down, swallow, consume, and destroy.

 Eph 4:27  Neither give place ( topon)to the devil.

Topon:  opportunity, power, occasion for acting

Another version renders “giving place”, as our construction of a landing strip, or an airport runway on our very being, for the devil to land upon!  Only our sin and disobedience can do that.  Any time that we are in willful disobedience to the Lord, we automatically open up an airport on our very backs, where the enemy can land and take off at his personal whims and fancy!

 Ephesians 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Many of us imagine that Ephesians chapter two is Paul’s discussion focusing on unbelievers.  I tend to disagree.

The Greek word for worketh is defined as giving energy to.

This particular verse is in the present participle.  Simply speaking it signifies that the sons of disobedience energize the schemes or plans of the devil on a continuous basis. The word for disobedience is being non-compliant.

If a Christian is continually incompliant in an area of his or her life, will he or she energize the works of the devil? I believe that there is no difference; the devil is a legalist.  He will always get in wherever he is given an open door.

 Romans 1:28  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

Greek ( paraphrase): Because they did not like to acknowledge God in their thinking as someone that is more precious and valuable than the finest of metals after having an opportunity to do so, God decreed their thinking as failing the test given to a fine metal, rendering their thinking unfit, and worthy only to be rejected and cast away to do those things which are inappropriate.

This is what has happened to America. As I say, we don’t have an economic or political problem. In fact, we have a God problem and a sin problem. We have become a Theosphobic or Christophobic nation.

Mat 12:43  When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.

He travels continually throughout differing arid places “seeking a cessation of his now unpleasant circumstances” (because he has been cast out of the man), and in no way finds it (showing the necessity the demons have to possess a living being).

44  Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.

I will return into my house whence I came out, and having come, finds it vacant and occupied, and in a perfected state of being swept, and cosmetically adorned.

 John 14:30  Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

In John chapter fourteen we find Jesus discussing about His soon to come confrontation with Satan through the hands of Judah, and his later arrest and crucifixion.  In all certainty, the words of Jesus are more emphatic in the Greek.  In His own words He says, “The prince of the cosmos comes, and it is impossible for him to have even have the tiniest connection with me.”

To effectively cast out the enemy, our self-lives must be dead, and the presence of the Lord must permeate our being.  An authentic casting out of the enemy is only completely executed when he finds no more places within, or without us, to touch us, or to afflict us.

Please see below that Jesus claimed that the devil had nothing in Him.  This is an authentic situation where the devil has been cast out! This is the true meaning of binding, or of not permitting the enemy any legal ground because of a holy and free life.

Eph 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.

We are encouraged here to take the whole armor of God and having done all to stand, to stand therefore.  “Having done all” is the word “katergazomai.’   Simply stated, “having done all, to stand,” is wonderfully depicted by the cartoons of the coyote and the roadrunner.  In one of their many scuffles, as a ball of dull is kicked up, both of these guys always got lost in their dusty fights.  When the dust finally settles, the roadrunner usually remained standing.  This is exactly what it means to “having done all, to stand.”!  We must fight by the Spirit without compromise, or without discouragement, until we remain standing victoriously; as Satan, sin and the world lay scattered at our feet in full visibility, once our ball of dust finally settles!

The command is to carry out all things to a complete victory!

Philippians 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

The word for working out in Philippians two is exactly the same Greek word as “having done all” found in Ephesians chapter six.

Here Paul commands us to work out, carry out, and carry out absolutely everything to completion that pertains to our salvation and that with utmost serious cautiousness.

The verb tense is in the present middle, which simply means that the work must be our own.  Salvation never comes out magical passivity, laziness, pew sitting, and disobedience.

We must hear and find out what the Holy Spirit tells us to do, but the activity must be ours, and it must be constant and in perfect agreement with the voice of the Spirit through the rhema word of God.

 1 Cor 5:8  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

2Cor 1:12  For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.

 2 Cor 2:17  For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ

In the above-mentioned three verses, we see that the word sincerity has within its root the word for “sun” in the Greek.  The Greek word sincerity is defined as being “judged by the sun”.  Only a life of purity before the Lord will make us into a clear windowpane by which the rays of the sun or “The Son” can shine through.  An impure life will make us into a dirty piece of glass through which the image of the Lord can hardly be seen.

If the enemy cannot see the sunlight of the Son of God, he shall not leave us alone until the day and the time that he does, and if he does.  Remember our enemy, the devil, is the greatest legal lawyer that this universe will ever see, apart from God Himself.  He will claw and cleave for every inch of us that has not pass by death into resurrection.

Mat 6:9  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

I command that your name be venerated and held in honor on earth exactly in the same way, measure, and manner as it is in heaven.

10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Come thy kingdom!  Done be thy will!  Exactly in the same measure and way as it is executed in heaven so be it upon the earth.

 11 Give us this day our daily bread.

·We command that the bread of our necessity, or the bread that suffices for the day, be given to us today.

 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And release or dismiss from us our debts to the same measure that we release and dismiss our debtors. This is why unforgiveness is such a bad thing.

 13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

And lead us not into a place where we can be tempted beyond our strength causing us to do what is evil.

Matthew 26:28  For this is my blood of the new (the freshness of something new)  testament, (covenant) which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Shed Means to pour out lavishly and abundantly. The blood of Christ is poured out for us in this way.  I say, is poured out, rather than saying was poured out, because the verb tense is in the present.

In Mark 14:24 and Luke 22:20, the Lord, likewise, uses this same present tense.  What was going through the mind of Jesus when He described a future event in the present?

The New Covenant can only support its eternal “newness” through the blood, which is eternally poured out to keep it new.  The question for you and me is, what happens when we start to disobey and fail to keep covenant with the Lord?  The blood of Christ is found only in the New Covenant.  If we willfully move out from the confines of the New Covenant in disobedience, the blood is not available and we will stay in the archaic condition of bondages and sins.

The next scripture, First John 1:7 follows the same train of thought.

 Matthew 26:28  For this is my blood of the new (the freshness of something new)  testament, (covenant) which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Remission – Remission is defined as the sending away of something. The blood belonging to the New Covenant constantly sends away sins as we fulfill our obligations with the covenant through obedience.  Wherever we step out of covenant, “the blood that sends away,” will not be present.

Luke 22:20  Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

Luke twenty-two and twenty is a very powerful scripture.  In my blood is in the Greek “dative case of location.”   Let me explain this fancy terminology to you. Where do you and I live?  We live on the earth or are located in the earth.  Because we are located in the earthly world we are affected by, and are part of everything that belongs to the world.  The New Covenant is located in the blood, or more accurately in the world of the blood of Jesus.  All that the blood of Jesus accomplishes affects everything in the New Covenant.  As long as we maintain ourselves in covenant with the Lord, we automatically live inside of the world of the blood of Jesus Christ.  Wow!

Our uncompromising obedience to the Lord is our safety and protection from the devil, and our cleansing from all sin and bondage.  You and I plea the blood of Jesus daily, and rightfully so.  It is vital to claim the blood, especially before the devil.   More powerful though is to live constantly inside the world of the blood of Jesus as we keep covenant with the Lord.

As I was sharing this revelation with my wife Mary the Lord gave her a two-fold picture. The first part of the picture was that of the believer traveling through one of the Lord’s arteries as he or she kept obedience to the Lord.

The second part of the picture was similar to the kid’s TV show, “The Magic School Bus.”  In some of its episodes, the teacher, Miss Frizzle and her class, ride in the magic school bus, which becomes small and traverses through the blood vessels of a human body.  The Lord showed Mary that the magic school bus is the rhema word of God with us inside traveling through the Lord’s veins as we obey it.

Romans 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Helpeth our infirmities- The Greek tells us that the Holy Spirit comes face to face with us to take a hold together with us of our infirmities and frailties.

The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us – Greek: “To hit the target above and beyond what is normal.”  I.E. “to do the right thing and do it with skill.”

The intercessory ministry of the Holy Spirit, as He comes to take a hold of our weaknesses, is to give us the breakthroughs, answers, and deliverances that we need with bull’s eye accuracy.

2Co 2:11  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

Lest Satan exploit us, for we are not without knowledge of his schemes.

The word devices for schemes is “noema”, or thoughts. The devil has a big thought life which he can interject into an individual’s mind. Thus we must be led by the voice of the Holy Spirit in our spirits, our minds submitted to that voice. A mind doing its own thing independent of the voice of God is  target practice for the devil’s own thought life. The devil cannot interject thoughts into the spirit of a person if the Holy Spirit dwells there.

The problem with westernized nations which live under deception of being self-sufficient apart from God and the pride themselves in being opinionated, is the ability for the devil to interject many of his noemas. So we see the outcome of Europe and hopefully not America.