When The Answer Manifests, Stay On Guard

When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!” Luke 10:17 (New Living Translation, NLT)

When we experience the manifestation of our faith, it can be glorious and exciting. We celebrate when we see the answer to our prayers and when we see our authority work against the attacks of the enemy. And- when we have a faith victory, it builds our faith for future situations.

Obviously, the devil does not like this. When we’ve overcome him, we see evidence in the physical realm that we can partner with God to stop the enemy’s plans and make good things happen. This is a real threat to the enemy being successful in any future plot against us or against anyone we know.

One tactic the enemy tries to use against us in these situations is to attempt to bring doubt to us that the victory we experienced was the result of our faith and prayers. He’ll try to convince us that even if we had not used our faith to pray and stand against him the results would have been the same. He tries to downplay our role in the positive outcome and even God’s role in it.

For example, if someone is sick and they get better, the devil will try to give credit to medicine, rest, good nutrition, or even to the body’s natural ability to fight disease as the reason that health was restored. While God can use these things, healing itself ultimately comes from God, and our prayers and faith give Him greater access to bring that healing.

Let me give an example from my own life. You may have read my husband, Jim’s, recent post about how we saw a tornado coming towards our town, and ultimately towards us, and we stood against it in faith. As we stood in our yard speaking the Word against it and using the name and blood of Jesus to enforce our authority over that tornado funnel, we saw it narrow and go back up into the clouds right before it got to town. We rejoiced that the Lord had stopped the destruction of the enemy. Yet, while I was rejoicing about our victory, the devil immediately tried to bring the thought to me that the tornado was already going to go back up into the sky and that we had nothing to do with it. He wanted me to think that the course of the tornado was already determined naturally and that my faith had not done a thing. One of his main strategies is to get us to doubt and question God. But, I knew that God was the One who eliminated that tornado because the Bible tells us that the devil is the one who destroys (John 10:10). Since I knew the Word, I rejected his lie and did not give it place in my mind and heart. Because Jim and I had used our faith-filled authority to speak against the enemy’s plans for harm, we gave God access to come in and stop that tornado. And I refuse to let the devil convince me otherwise.

We have to stay on guard against the devil, even after we experience a faith victory. He is always trying to deceive, and he is thinking ahead to try to get an advantage in the next battle. If we stay on top of things and shut him up the second he tries to talk to us, we will see one victory lead into another victory and into another as a result of our use of the authority God gave us.