Call His Bluff

Be watchful and control yourselves. Your enemy the devil is like a roaring lion. He prowls around looking for someone to swallow up. I Peter 5:8 (New International Readers Version, NIRV)

So obey God. Stand up to the devil. He will run away from you. James 4:7 (New International Readers Version, NIRV)

The devil wants us to think he is some big, bad dude. He wants us to fear him as one would fear a ferocious, hungry lion who is on the prowl for his dinner. The Bible says he is LIKE a lion, but it definitely does not say he IS a lion. The key to the devil ever winning is for him to deceive and trick. As a matter of fact, it says he is like a roaring lion. He talks big. He makes a lot of noise, but he is no match for God- or for God’s children who know their authority in Christ.

James 4:7 tells us that we can send the devil on the run if we submit to God and resist the enemy. Since the Bible says it, then it is true, Truth will never bow to our situation. Truth is ultimate and unchanging, whereas facts are always changing. Therefore, no matter what we see the enemy trying to do, we have authority over him because the Bible says so.

The devil will try to get us to doubt our authority. We are to speak the Word of God over a situation. When we do it in faith, knowing that God backs up what we are saying, the enemy has to leave. But, the devil attempts to get us to give up on our decrees. He is self-deceived and believes he can win against God- and us. He hangs on by a thread, hoping we will let go of what we decreed and declared against him. Sometimes, his strategy has been successful because God’s children have not always exercised patience in the fight against him. When circumstances didn’t appear to change right away, they lost faith in the words they had spoken. They stopped confessing because the devil had them convinced that they’d been speaking empty, powerless words. Many even spoke contrary to their original declarations.

We win against the enemy when we call his bluff. He can’t last forever against the Word of God spoken by faith-filled believers. Speak the Word of God against him, and keep on speaking it. Say it until you think you can’t say it anymore- and then say it again. The enemy’s only hope is to outlast us, and we aren’t about to let that happen. God’s Word is powerful against him when we speak it out of our mouths in authority. Call down the enemy, and keep calling him down. He cannot stand against a continuous onslaught of the spoken Word of God.