Near to God

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

In all the talk of spiritual warfare, the first part of this verse should be the majority of our study. The Wuest Expanded New Testament says it this way, “Be subject with implicit obedience to God at once and for all. Stand immovable against the onset of the devil and he will flee from you.”

How did Jesus stand immovable against the devil’s onset? By quoting Scripture. Jesus had been fasting for forty days. He was near to the Father, that was His power. When we think of spiritual warfare, we often and rightly think of Ephesians chapter six, we think about deliverance, and the battle of the mind. But how often do we consider nearness to the Father to be our starting place in warfare?

As I read the opening chapters of John’s Gospel, I see the setup for the nearness of the Father and the Son. I know what’s coming in chapters thirteen through fifteen, so I am purposefully looking for hints and language for that in the beginning. The primary place of waging a good warfare is nearness to the Father. The truth is, as we look at James 4:7, if the enemy isn’t fleeing from us, perhaps we are not submitted to the Father? I’m not just talking about Bible reading and prayer time; do we walk with the Father? Do we include Him in our day? To know the Son is to know the Father.

I think we can make spiritual warfare too complicated at times. Start with nearness to the Father, start with filling your mind and heart with the Word of God. Look at the words of David, a man after God’s heart, “How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed and keeping watch [on himself] according to Your word [conforming his life to it]. 10 With my whole heart have I sought You, inquiring for and of You and yearning for You; Oh, let me not wander or step aside [either in ignorance or willfully] from Your commandments. 11 Your word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” (Psalm 119:9-11 AMPC).

The battle against the enemy is really a battle for our nearness to God. We can be as close to God as we want to be, and we can be as repulsed or as steeped in sin as we want to be. Take the time and read Psalm 119. Read it multiple times, read it once a week, read a section each day, read it in multiple translations. Get the truth of Psalm 119 deep into your heart and mind; it will draw you near to the heart of God, and it will arm you to repel every deception of the enemy.

Temptation, no matter the kind, is simply a deception, a lie of the enemy. The deception is that you are not satisfied in God. That’s what the enemy did to Eve in the garden: he got her to convince herself that what was forbidden was actually good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise; she ate (Gen. 3:1-6). I’d add that the wisdom that she got is the very wisdom that causes us to yield to temptation instead of the Spirit of God.

If we are going to defeat the enemy, we actually need to look at his work less and God’s Word more.

No matter the battles you may be facing, the answer is not in continual striving to defeat the already defeated foe; the winning strategy is to rest in the finished work of the Son and draw near to the Father. Jesus is our example, and how did He defeat the enemy? In nearness to His Father and with the Word.

Hebrews 12:1-2 AMPC “Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us, 2 Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”