I really like Rick Renner's explanation of James 4:7 from yesterday's "Sparkling Gems From The Greek". Here is a portion:
……Resist the devil, and he will flee from
you. — James
4:7
|
| When
the devil tries to assault your mind, telling you that your God-given dream will never come to pass, how do you resist those assaults? Do you stand firm against those lies and command them to leave? Or do you allow the devil to mentally assail your mind with untrue allegations? In James 4:7, the Bible tell us, “…Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” The word “resist” is from the Greek word anthistemi, which is a compound of the words anti and istimi. The word anti means against, as to oppose something. The word istimi means to stand. When placed into one word, thus forming the word anthistemi, it means to stand against or to stand in opposition. It is a word that demonstrates the attitude of one who is fiercely opposed to something and therefore determines that he will do everything within his power to resist it, to stand against it, and to defy its operation. By using this word, James plainly lets us know that we must be aggressively determined to stand against the work of the devil. Just shutting our eyes and hoping the enemy will withdraw won’t work. We must dig in our heels, brace ourselves for a fight, and put our full force forward to drive him back and out of our lives. Our stand against Satan must be firm, unyielding, and steadfast if we want to successfully resist his bombardment of lies against our minds and emotions. |
At The Spoken Word Church, we like to use the term "reject and replace" when speaking of the lies of the devil! We recognize that they do not line up with the Word of God and reject them by denying them the right to take up residence in our souls (mind, emotions, and will). It is NOT enough, though, to simply reject the bad! We MUST replace those thoughts and ideas with the thoughts and ideas of God that our found in His Word! If we don't, we will experience what Jesus was speaking of in Matthew 12:42! The empty spots in our minds WILL be replaced with SOMETHING! Make sure that YOU replace them with the Word! AMEN! Another Truth that we must cover here is the first part of James 4:7 that says this:
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. KJV
To "submit" is the Greek word "hupotassso". It is also a compound word! The first part, "hupo", means: under. The second part, "tasso", means: to arrange in an orderly manner, i.e. assign or dispose to a certain position. This means that WE are to put ourselves in the position of being under the authority of God and His Word! Thayer's Greek Lexicon says, of "hupotasso":to put in subjection. This is a choice that WE must make! THEN we can resist this enemy and he will have to flee! AMEN! Here is Rick Renner's expanded translation of James 4:7b:
“Stand firmly against the devil! That’s right — be unbending and unyielding in the way you resist him so that he knows he is up against a serious contender. If you’ll take this kind of stand against him, he will tuck his tail and run like a criminal who knows the day of prosecution is upon him. Once you start resisting him, he’ll flee from you in terror!”
AMEN! let's DO IT! Here, to encourage you in doing this consistently, is Hillsong with "Children Of The Light". That IS who we are!
Shalom in Him!
