James 4:7
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

If you do a thorough study of the New Testament, you will discover that very little is said about the devil except in relation to Christ’s victory and the believer’s authority over him.

As believers, we should not be afraid of the devil. In Christ we have authority over the devil and all his works. The other nice thing about it is, he knows – and he is actually afraid of us. It is quite pathetic that a lot of the people of God are afraid of a devil who is afraid of them! The devil is afraid of me. He is afraid of me because he knows that the Greater One lives in me. He is afraid of me because I am one with Christ in origin, nature, power and authority. He is afraid of me because he knows that I have what it takes to put him on the run if and when our paths cross.

Did you know that there is not one place in the Bible where the believer is told to pray to God or ask Jesus or the Holy Ghost to do anything about the devil on our behalf? Yet that is exactly what some folks do all the time. Some have been praying that way for years. That is an awful lot of wasted prayer time! On the contrary, God’s Word tells us to do something about the devil.

Mark 16:17
17 And these signs shall follow the believer; IN MY NAME SHALL THEY CAST OUT DEVILS; they shall speak with new tongues

We could not cast out devils if we did not have authority over them; could we? Casting out devils is an expression of our authority in Christ. Our key Bible verse says to resist the devil, and he WILL flee from you. You do the resisting, and he will flee. That statement connotes certainty. God cannot do your resisting for you. I cannot. Your pastor cannot. The responsibility is yours.

WHAT MANNER OF FIGHT?

Ephesians 6:11, 12
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the WILES of the devil. 12 For we wrestle (fight) not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The Bible says that we wrestle against the devil and his bunch. The question is: What kind of fight is it? We may find ourselves fighting the wrong battle if we do not answer that question correctly. In sports, for example, there are different ways to play different games. There is no sense walking into a football match with gear for playing golf.

Take note that in the verse we read above the Bible does not say, That you may be able to stand against the POWER of the devil. Rather it says, The WILES of the devil. The Greek word translated WILES denotes craft, deceit, cunning device (Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary Of Old And New Testament Words. Thomas Nelson Publishers ). This distinction is important. You see, from the standpoint of the victory of Jesus over the devil at the Cross, the devil has no power of his own over the believer. Colossians 2:15 says that Jesus disarmed principalities and powers. The devil was defeated and disarmed 2000 years ago, yet people have been carrying on like he was a formidable foe, and armed to the teeth. That is because people have been fighting the wrong fight. Jesus fought and won the power fight – and some of us are still trying to fight that fight. But the only fight we have to fight now is the good fight of faith.

THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH

1 Timothy 6:12
12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

The fight of faith is the battle of ideas, and of truth against falsehood. In the fight of faith, the question always is, Who will you believe – God and His Word, or the devil and his tricks? The devil will try to push off on you his lies. If you accept them, he has you in that area. Your accepting his lies actually empowers him and arms him against us. That is how the devil pot any power or weapon we see him use to day. If we cast down his arguments and thoughts, he remains as toothless as a hen.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not physical, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ

We are told here again that spiritual warfare has to do with pulling down the strongholds of arguments, ideas and suggestions from the devil. That is how we fight the good fight of faith. Accepting the lies of the enemy will reduce us to the dungeons of unbelief. But casting them down with the Word causes us to stand triumphant and steadfast in faith. The fight of faith is called good because you have victory guaranteed as long as you stay in the faith realm.

LIVING IN THE REALM OF FAITH

The problem is, many believers do not live by faith. They live by sight – and whenever a need arises, they throw the faith switch position to On. Once the need is met, they switch back to walking by sight. Don’t live like that if you want the best of God. We ought to live minute after minute by faith. We ought to eat, breathe, sleep and do everything by faith.

Hebrews 10:38
38 NOW THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

Believers run around in search of divine intervention, breakthroughs, deliverance, healings and miracles because the have not been taught to abide in the realm of faith. To live by faith is to abide in the blessings of God. Why get sick and then believe for your healing when you can stay in health and not fall ill in the first place?

When you abide in the faith realm, you have your shield of faith up all the time (Ephesians 6:16). That means you are secure and the devil’s flight is guaranteed every single time he comes against you. If we begin to stay twenty-four hours of every day in the realm of faith, we would have the devil on the run full-time! And as we continue to preach this victorious Gospel in every nook and cranny of the world, he would eventually have nowhere to hide in. Things would get so hot for him here on earth that he’d wish for Jesus to come back real quick and put him out of his misery!