Resistance

The practice of Christianity is a practice of resistance, the Apostle James  enjoins that we should resist the devil and he will flee from us in James 4:7.

Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 5:8-9 admonished us to "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour.  Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world."

The Lord Jesus in Matthew 5:39 said "But I tell you not to resist an evil person." In 1 Corinthians 10:3-4, we are told "though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,"

We are clearly to recognize and resist our adversary, the devil.  We will discuss the Corinthian verses quoted above in a later blog.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines the word 'resist' as
"to fight against something, to try to stop or prevent something;
To remain strong against the force or effect of something, to not be affected or harmed by something; To prevent yourself from doing something that you want to do."
"To exert force in opposition, to exert oneself so as to counteract or defeat, or to withstand the force of effect of something or someone."
Synonyms of the word include 'defy,  oppose, repel, withstand.'

So we are to oppose and repel and withstand the devil,  we are to push against him and remain strong against the force of his suggestions.  We can do this because the Holy Spirit will quicken us if we yield to His government. 
John 6:63 "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life."
Romans 8:11 "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,  He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you."
Ephesians 2:1-2a "And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,..."

You He has quickened or given life from the source to resist, so that you no longer function under the dictates of the 'spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:' Ephesians 2:2b.

This is why we are told that the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence from the days of John the Baptizer and the violent take it by force in Matthew 11:12. “Everyone storms his way into the kingdom,” may clarify what Jesus actually meant, that the kingdom was being entered by desperate persons.

Persons with intense interest and deep need press their way into the kingdom. The Amplified Version puts it thus: "Until John came, there were the Law and the Prophets; since then the Good News (the Gospel) of the Kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone strives violently to go in (would force his own way rather than God's way into it).

You have to be desperate for God, you can't just be mildly interested in Him, you couldn't push against the devil or press into the Kingdom of God with a mere curious interest in God and the things of His Kingdom.

So if our default mode is to go with the kingdom of this world,  we have to practice resistance against that which we're naturally inclined to and press upward to the divine way.  May the Holy Spirit help us all.  Amen.

#momomily2014