Defeating the Devil (Part 2 of 3)

Those of us that have accepted the Savior by using the faith process know a secret that worldly people cannot understand. It is, knowing that God is continually giving us the faith we need to conquer our fears, problems and the Devil. Jesus said, “My burden is light” and He never lies. As our faith becomes real to us our burdens will become lighter. It is great when we can observe a trial of life as an opportunity to watch our glorious God lead us into victory. Unfortunately, most people today want to be the master of their own life and do their own thing. They believe that their rational mind can solve any problem. This is to believe in objectivism which denounces all faith in God. The intelligent people of this world do not have the ability to gain entrance into God’s eternal reality. There is no password that will allow them to break-in to Heaven. Jesus said that he was the way to heaven and no one could come to the father except through Him. Worldly people have all been deceived by the devil. Sadly, they do not know the meaning of life. Look at this Scripture; Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. 1 Cor 3:18-19 (NLT) The intelligent people of this world can only out-smart themselves.

Christians know that faith is the only thing in the world that can beat the Devil and this should cause us to seek out every bit of information on this subject. After all, this small word contains the secret to the most powerful force in the universe. The Bible says to; hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Eph 6:16 (NLT) We know that the devil is continually causing us to doubt God and that we must hold up our shield of faith. Many times people argue that God gave us brains to work out our own problems. Of course, we have this ability because we are made in God’s image but He is asking us to set our ability aside and use our faith instead. Our fundamental faith was given to us when God created us, just like he gave us our other capabilities’. We cannot beat the Devil until we seek divine help. This Good News (Gospel) tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” Romans 1:17 (NLT) The reason faith can be so powerful in our lives is simple. We are asking God to replace our own abilities with the powerful creative abilities that belong to Him. There are times in everyone’s life when we face death for example. How can we refuse to live in Hell when we are only human? No one but God has the power to save people. We must accept that only our faith can reach beyond the facts of this world.

There is a short story written by Bradbury that illustrates a world without faith. On some planet there are people who only live eight days. Each day contains 10 years of life on earth. You are a child one day, a teenager the second day and have a child on the third day simply to repeat the cycle. This short life is full of desperation, terror and despair. Everyone dies on their eighth day and there is no faith of any kind in this alternative world. In the eyes of God we must look even more pathetic and useless than these fictional people. The Bible says that only one day where God lives is the same as 1000 of our years. But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.  2 Peter 3:8(NLT) Therefore, if we live to be 84 years old we have only lived about 2 hours in heavenly time. The point is that faith would have made a big difference to the people who only lived 8 days and faith can make a huge difference to us who live only about 2 hours in God’s time. Our life will never change until we realize that our faith in the Creator must be genuine and the invisible world becomes something we feel every day. Only then can our faith become fully exercised and give us the power to escape the authority of the Devil. Faith is our only chance to live in God’s world.

A person with faith in God can see reason and logic like anyone else but they have the additional ability to reach beyond the facts into another world. In other words, believers know that all their senses are real but that they are not necessarily final. The spirit world is much larger and it rules our world. God’s power will become very obvious to everyone on the day He locks up the Devil who makes our life miserable. When Christians move into the next world they will realize that faith is the main ingredient of our life. At that time the fruit of faith (or righteous living) will be evident in every citizen. Even gifts of faith will become normal events someday although we hardly ever see the gifts operate in today’s world. The gifts are separate from a righteous life because they are sent for some special purpose. Maybe we should think of our life as training for the world to come even though we do not know any details about our next world. Real faith is actually based on our belief in the trustworthiness of God. So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you. 1 Peter 4:19 (NLT) Just reading that God will never fail us should make us feel better. If we do not trust God completely, how will our faith ever grow the way it is supposed to?