Many things that believers have been praying for in America are unfolding.. The new administration brings in a pro-life environment and is pushing back on the indoctrination of our children from the LGBTQ influencers in America. The sovereignty of our nation and, thus, our religious freedom, is also being bolstered.  People are talking about their faith more openly than they have in decades.  Revival is breaking out on college campuses and, for now, we can be encouraged.

However, we would be naïve to believe that Satan is going to lay down and let this agenda unfold without significant opposition.  America has such influence globally that the enemy cannot afford for the turn-around in culture here, to spread to other nations.  Corruption is being uncovered at the highest levels through the efforts of DOGE to see where the money has gone.  Much of it has gone to those committed to a demonic agenda in America…whether they were aware of the source of their agenda or not. 

There are four things that we must engage In to keep this moment in history from being a very brief window of opportunity that closes with the next election cycle.  

1. Prayer is going to be more essential than ever.  We must pray for our leaders asking God to protect them, give them favor with the people, success with their policies, and wisdom and courage for governing.  We must also pray that the corruption that has been hidden in darkness will be brought into the light … on both sides of the aisle.

2. We must pray and act for the re-evangelization of America.  God is moving in amazing ways right now.  Unprecedented revival is breaking out on college campuses around America.  Students by the thousands have been giving their lives to the Lord over the past two years…the first notable outpouring being the Asbury Revival in February of 2023.  If America is to recover from its departure from God, the conscience of America must be renewed as a whole.  That will only happen if huge numbers of people turn to Jesus for the first time or return to him again. 

3. We must pray against demonic strongholds and principalities ruling over the nation. In his book, The Return of the Gods, Jonathan Cahn makes the case that when we began to push God out of our schools, courtrooms, and government buildings in the 1960’s, the enemy rushed in to fill the spiritual vacuum we chose to create.   In Daniel 10, we discover that demonic princes have assignments over nations to influence entire countries to serve Satan rather than God.  

In ancient Israel, Baal, Molech and Ishtar were consistently the false god’s Israel pursued.  Baal was the god of fertility and prosperity. He was the first substitute for the true and living God. Molech influenced people to offer their children in the fire to be granted blessings for their material prosperity.  Ishtar (Ashteroth) was the goddess of sexual immorality and perversion including her boast to turn men into women and women into men.  Certainly, we have seen the effects of these principalities establishing themselves over America. We must pray and ask God to dismantle and destroy these principalities and drive them from America once again.  Remember, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of darkness (Eph. 6:12). The irrationality of political policies and social movements over the past few years and the speed with which they took hold are explained only by demonic influence.

4. We must be willing to confess Jesus by speaking up for godliness in America at every level…through ballot boxes, at school board meetings, with our neighbors, and at the work place.  We need to do so with love and respect, but we must speak up.  Our careful silence, over the past decade or so, left America with the impression that the miniscule number of those pushing for super-liberal agendas were actually in the majority. Through our silence, we allowed them to label believers as haters and bigots and homophobes.  Since few spoke up, many Americans believed that conservatives were those things.  Now people are speaking up and America is changing her mind, but that must continue in every setting…again with love and respect.

The mid-term elections coming up in two years will be as critical as this recent election because if conservatives lose their majorities in the House and Senate, all this momentum in America will grind to a halt.  So pray for leaders at every level.   Share Jesus with those around you.  Pray against demonic strongholds in America.  And speak up for Jesus and biblical values.  This is not the time to coast, but to step on the accelerator as we try to take back this nation for the Kingdom of God.

One of the favorite verses of many believers is found in the Book of James where he says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). James was the biological half-brother of Jesus.  The gospels reveal that none of his siblings, including James, believed Jesus was the Messiah until their older brother was raised from the dead.  Let’s face it, it might be hard for any of us to see one of our siblings as the Savior of the world after rolling in the mud with him as children.  I would be interested to know how much time Jesus spent with his family during the forty days he walked on the earth after his resurrection.  James became the leader of the Church in Jerusalem and was eventually martyred for his faith. That suggests Jesus may have spent some significant time with him and, perhaps, one of the things they talked about was the confrontation between Jesus and Satan in the wilderness after he was baptized by John.  That may have painted a clear picture for James of what it meant to resist the devil. 

Sometimes, when we think about resisting the devi, we think of strong believers commanding the devil or his demons to leave after afflicting an individual for years.  Maybe we picure Jesus commanding Legion to leave the Gerasene who had been so demonized that he lived among the tombs and broke chains when the people in the region tried to restrain him.  However, James doesn’t seem to be talking about a moment when someone else resists the devil for you, but a moment when you resist him.

The word translated “resist” means to stand against, outweigh, oppose or be hostile toward something or someone.  It has the feeling of not just enduring but active opposition.  In the wilderness temptation, Jesus opposed Satan with the Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit. He actively declared God’s truth over each of Satan’s half-truths and lies.  Satan came at him three times and then departed.  In his public ministry, Jesus commanded evil spirits to leave and they did so…sometimes immediately and sometimes after a bit of resistance, but they left. On numerous occasions, they manifested genuine fear in the presence of Jesus.   We too can resist Satan with the Word of God and the authority of Jesus.

The essential key to resisting Satan however, is stated in the verse just before the one we have been discussing.  There James declares, “God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble.  Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (Ja. 4:6-7).  What we need to understand is that the first step to successfully opposing Satan is submission to the Father.  The power and authority if Christ must flow through us as we engage in any spiritual warfare.  We fight in his authority not our own.  We wield his sword of truth not our own philosophies. 

The very first battle for conquest of the promised land was Jericho.  In this famous story, God directed Israel to march around the city in silence day after day which made no strategic sense at all.  Then on the final day, after marching around the city seven times in silence, the priests blew the rams horns and the people shouted. The walls of Jericho collapsed.  Israel rushed in and totally defeated the enemy.

In the very next battle, Israel had only a small city. named Ai, to defeat.  But sin had infiltrated Israel through a man named Achan.  All of Jericho had been dedicated to God.  Israel was to take nothing from that city for themselves. But Achan had taken gold and fine clothing for himself and hidden it in his tent. As the army of Israel confidently attacked Ai, they were routed and thirty-six Israelites were killed.  Joshua was stunned that the small city had won the day after they had totally defeated the great city of Jericho. God then revealed that sin among the Israelites had cost them the victory.  

Where sin and rebellion are present, God restricts the power and authority that he would otherwise provide. We are not the source of power and authority, but are only conduits for the power and authority of Jesus.  Unrepented sin creates a crimp in the flow of the Spirit like a crimp in a water hose.  Even though there is a great volume of water at the source, only a trickle is available at the end. 

When we resist Satan with the full flow of God’s power and authority available to us, then he flees.  When our lives and hearts are submitted to God, his presence and power are not restricted.  Satan knows he cannot stand against that. James goes on to say, “Come near to God and he will cone near to you.  Wash your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you doubleminded…humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up” (Ja. 4:8-10).

The first step to prevail in spiritual warfare is to align our hearts, our minds, and our actions with the Lord. The Word of God is powerful and the authority of the believer can overcome the enemy, but only when we are submitted to Jesus. Before the battle, Paul instructs us to put on the armor of God which includes truth (the Word of God), righteousness, readiness, faith, salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (Eph. 6:13-17). We are arming ourselves with God, but only if we are a good for him.  Remember, “The wicked man flees though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion” (Prov. 28:1). Before the righteous, Satan flees.

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. James 1:22

The Book of James is one of the most straight forward letters in the New Testament.  Instead of focusing on theological discussions, he deals mostly with what we do as evidence of what we believe.  In other words, he challenges us to look at our actions more than our words to truly discover what is in our hearts.

Revelation 12 give us an important insight into the work of Satan. We are told, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down” (Rev. 12:10).  John is referencing Satan and reveals that the devil is constantly appearing before God in the courts of heaven with accusations against us…against you and me. We see a similar scene in the opening verses of the Book of Job where Satan is accusing Job of worshipping God only because God blessed him so richly.  Satan complained that God had prevented him from getting at Job and bringing pain and loss into his life.  The accuser argued that if God would lift his hand of protection and allow Satan to torment the man, Job would curse God instead of worshipping him.

When looking at these verses and others throughout scripture, we discover that Satan is constantly going before God with accusations against us.  He is persistent in his attempt to find a legal right to afflict us…some unrepented sin, some generational curse, or some spoken word that opens the door for his attacks.

James warns us of the ultimate deception through which Satan may gain access to many believers. He warns us to avoid the trap of being hearers of the Word only, without being doers of the Word. It is easy to feel spiritual and mature when we are constantly involved in Bible study, theological discussions, perpetual sermon podcasts, and so forth. We can carry on spiritual conversations, disect scripture, and talk about all the amazing things God is doing in the world, without allowing the Word of God to actually transform us.

In my years as a believer, I have witnessed men who taught the Bible with zeal and who could quote most of it, act in very unloving ways.  Some were abusive husbands and fathers. Some were spiritually arrogant and quick to judge others as less than themselves.  Some were child molesters. Others pursued secret addictions while quickly condemning others for their weaknesses.  

Because we talk about something, it is easy to believe we have done something about it.  Anyone who has done much counseling has experienced clients who come every week to their sessions and fully engage in long discussions about what they should be doing or could be doing, but then leave and never apply any of what they learned to their lives.  They show up, they talk, but they don’t change.  They feel great that they are going to counseling as if that were the goal rather than life change.  

We can do that in church or in our small groups as well.  We can read the Word, hear the Word, and discuss the Word, but never get around to doing what it calls us to do.  That is the great deception.  We feel we are good with God because we hang around God’s people, listen to sermon and attend conferences.   But our true goal is gaining religious information rather than spiritual transformation. Transformation takes a commitment to actually do what we are called to do…forgiver others, humble ourselves, confess our sins, care for the poor, seek justice for the weak, and so forth. 

When Satan goes before the Lord and accuses us of hypocrisy, God will have to grant him some legal right to afflict us because the charge is true.  The sin of appearing to be righteous while our hearts are full judgment, hatred, pride, lust, indifference to the needs of others, and so forth is the very condition about which Jesus rebuked the Pharisees…clean on the outside but full of decay on the inside.  The great deception is found in our contentment to know all the right things without letting those “right things” get hold of us and change us. The deception is feeling good with God and secure because we listen great sermons and great teachings.  James, however, says there is another necessary step.  We must do what we know, not just know what we know.  

I had a wise man come to me one day after a Bible class.  He said,” I don’t want you to teach me one more new thing from the Bible.  I want you to teach me how to do what I already know. I think that man would have made James, the brother of Jesus, smile.