Get Thee Behind Me Satan

As you might know, I'm sponsoring a contest at my Radiant God Blog where the winner who posts the most amounts of comments while reading the Bible with the One Year Bible Plan will win $50.00. While reading the passages today, I was focusing on 1 Thessalonians 1-3. One of the things that caught my eye was found in 1 Thessalonians 2: 18, "Wherefore, we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again but Satan hindered us."

The Apostle Paul had been busy setting up the church at Thessalonica when they underwent heavy persecution. It appears that Paul is attributing the persecution and hindering his freedom to establish the Kingdom of God and spread the Gospel as the work of satan. I've been in the church for quite a while and have seen some crazy things take place, however it seems that more people today are likely to attribute being late for church as the work of satan, rather than the hindering of the spread of the Gospel.

Later, in 1 Thessalonians 3:5 the Apostle Paul attributes something else to satan. The verse reads, "For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labor be in vain."

So here we see that the hindering of the spread of the Gospel, and the temptations that the new believers are experiencing are attributed to satan. For me, it's a pretty sobering look, as there are so many teachings circulating in the body of Christ regarding the nature of satan and his power over believers. I think that it is important for Christians to stay grounded in this area and not become too focused on satan, while at the same time, realizing that he is a force to be reckoned with.

I believe the key to unlocking your success in Christ and overcoming the attacks of satan is found in James 4:7. We read, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up"

The key is to submit yourself to God. I believe this comes through prayer, fasting, and devotion to Bible reading. Resisting the devil is the next step, I feel the best way to do this is the way Jesus did it in Matthew 4:10, "Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."

Resisting the devil means to tell the devil to get behind thee, to get lost, to get out of here. If you continue reading in Matthew 4:11, you'll see that after Jesus told him to get lost, he left. However, James 4:7 goes on to say several more steps that I've yet to hear in many teachings regarding deliverance, demonic oppression, breaking bondages and strongholds, or basically whatever the leader feels like calling the class, and that is to Cleanse your hands ye sinners, and to Purify ye hearts ye double minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up.

You know, after Jesus was tempted in the wilderness and the devil left him, he didn't get up and start dancing for joy, he didn't leap and shout Hallelujah and spin in circles shouting that He had the victory. It says that the angels came and ministered to Him. This implies that Jesus had actually fought a struggle, a struggle in which afterwards, he needed some heavenly ministering to further him on.

Have you ever felt like that with temptation? Have you ever felt that you were praying, fasting, struggling with sin, fighting against temptation, doing everything within your power to resist giving in to the flesh, to the lusts that entice once again? If you have, you're not alone. And let me just now officially welcome you to the life of a believer in Jesus Christ!

Though the blood of Jesus and His righteousness covers us, His grace is not an excuse for our wallowing in sin. We must cleanse our hands from sin; this means we must stop the physical acts of sin. Then we must purify our heart, this means we not only have to deal with sin on an external level, but on an inward level as well. This is not a joyous time. It is a time of weeping, crying, fasting, humbling, feeling extremely weak, resisting the flesh, while we ultimately our crucifying our lusts, passions, and desires. However, if we humble ourselves before the Lord, He promises to lift us up. Just as the angels came and ministered to Jesus, we can rest assured that His Holy Spirit will come and minister to us after our time of battle. There is no temptation that is uncommon to man, and the Lord has promised us that He is faithful to deliver us out of them all. Hallelujah!