THE VICTORY CAN BE OURS

I have spent the last few days discussing the differences between God�s voice and Satan�s voice. Once we have identified Satan�s voice and his tactics, we need to know how to fight him.
First we must ACKNOWLEDGE we are in constant spiritual warfare. �For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms� (Ephesians 6:12).
Then we can ACCESS God�s power. �Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you� (James 4:7).
Although my granddaughter Kate had a very traumatic birth, God dramatically rescued her, and the physical damage was minimal. However, when Kate was nine, she had to have extensive surgery on her leg and hip bones. I can remember pacing the hallway of the hospital. The surgery was taking much longer than we were expecting. I began to hear negative voices in my head: �There must have been serious trouble.� �They are going to tell you she didn�t make it.� �If she did make it, probably she won�t be able to walk.� These lies from Satan continued in my head until I just said out loud: �Get away from me, Satan. Lord, please give me new words and get Satan out of here.� The new words came: �You will see Kate walk down the aisle on her wedding day.� Kate survived the surgery; she walks beautifully. She is almost 18 and will be attending college this fall. Grammie is not rushing her toward the �walking down the aisle� part. I am quite willing to wait for that.
When we hear lies from Satan, we just need to stop and recognize we serve a God who has total power over Satan. We can ask for new thoughts and new words.
As we are engaged in spiritual warfare, we must APPROPRIATE scripture. In Matthew 4:10 we see that when Jesus was tempted by Satan, Jesus used nothing but scripture to fight against Satan. �Jesus said to him, �Away from me, Satan! For it is written:� Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only� (Matthew 4:10). Throughout the passage, you will see the words It is written.
We can ASSERT God�s authority over Satan. �But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, �The Lord rebuke you!�� (Jude1:9).
I believe this scripture teaches we should not attempt to fight Satan by ourselves. We should call on God to fight the battle for us. Remember that when we sense an attack by Satan, we should:

Acknowledge we are in constant spiritual warfare
Access God�s power
Appropriate scripture
Assert God�s authority over Satan.
And then the Victory will be ours.

MWH