January 25

 

YOUR POSITION IN CHRIST

 

James 4:7 

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you

 

Daisy was one of the first persons I dealt with who was caught in spiritual conflicts and suffered from demonic influences. She was a Christian and a university graduate, but she had severe mental and emotional problems which developed after her father divorced her mother. Within a period of five years, Daisy had been institutionalized three times as a paranoid schizophrenic. After about three weeks of counseling with me, Daisy finally found the nerve to bring up the nighttime visitation of snakes.

 

"What about the snakes?" I asked.

 

"They crawl on me at night when I'm in bed," she confessed.

 

"What do you do when the snakes come?"

 

"I run in to my mother. But they always come back when I'm alone."

 

"Why don't you try something different," I continued. "When you're in bed and the snakes come, say out loud, 'In the name of Christ, I command you to leave me.'"

 

"I couldn't do that," Daisy protested. "I'm not mature enough or strong enough."

 

"It's not a matter of your maturity; it's a matter of your position in Christ. You have as much right to resist Satan as I do."

 

Daisy squirmed at the prospect. "Well, I guess I could do that." Daisy sighed, sounding like she had just agreed to take castor oil.

 

The next week when Daisy walked in she said, "The snakes are gone!" If her problem had been strictly a neurological or chemical imbalance, taking authority over the snakes in Jesus' name wouldn't have worked. But in Daisy's case, the problem was spiritual.

 

James wrote: "Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). But if you don't resist him, he doesn't have to go. Or if you just pull the covers over your head in fear and say, "O God, do something about these demonic influences," the evil spirits don't have to leave. Resisting the devil is your responsibility based on the authority you possess in Christ.

 

Prayer: Dear Father, thank You for providing me with such wonderful power. Help me not to be afraid to use it for my sake and others.