Part II—Areas of Satanic Deception and Opposition
Bad habits affect people in different ways. There is the money-spending habit, in which the devil keeps even some Christian people on the run—buying, buying. With some it is dresses and hats, with others it is books, furniture, or even automobiles. To save their lives, they cannot keep a penny in their pockets. They must always be getting something new. There is much of the devil in that. I knew a woman of whom it was said that she’d had about sixteen different houses in ten years. She would buy a house, furnish it, live in it a few months, and then sell it. She was never at rest anywhere, and she never was well.
This was the work of wicked spirits. They edged their way into her life, meddled with her vitality, and then used physical weakness as the excuse for all that was happening. I tried to tell her about spirits of restlessness and infirmity, but like so many who are fond of sympathy, she preferred to nurse her weakness and keep it. Some have too much money to play with to resist the devil and get well. Having some regular duties involving hard work would cure a lot of ills and scatter a host of “infirm spirits” that imprison and weaken some people’s bodies.
The Fashion Habit
Then there is the fashion habit—perhaps “craze” is a better word. While we are praying for the wearing apparel of our times to be remodeled according to His pattern, there is a deliberate program on the part of the powers of evil to force upon us fashions having dangerous elements. Their campaign was launched under the plea of “health,” but behind it is a subtle conspiracy of unclean spirits to invade the senses,steal away moral control, and eventually plunge the race into moral ruin. Here we have an echo of the express warnings of the Spirit of God concerning the “last days.” Paul, by inspiration, foretold that men would have “their conscience seared” and that “silly women” would be “led away with diverse lusts”. So it needs to be seen that the fashion world can become a virulent channel through which this terrible scheme can work.
God has anticipated that there would be peril in a woman’s dressing immodestly; consequently, He has commanded that women are to “adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety [lit. ‘In seemly guise, with modesty and discreetness’]… (which becometh women professing godliness).” Modesty and discreetness can be violated in a number of ways. Color, style, length, cost, and motive are all involved. Even when dresses were long and necks high there was immodesty, but today the swing of the pendulum has opened a large door for the devil to enter. Do not women realize that there are modes which can fan the passions of men into a flame?
Many fine women err in dress entirely through ignorance. They have no desire to look young or to attract men, and when cautioned on these matters say, “We had no idea that men were influenced by such things.” I hope that what is said here may be some guide to those who honestly desire to dress in a manner well-pleasing to God.
The assault is from all quarters. The majority of the profusely illustrated magazines seem to give precedence and prominence to photographs of scantily dressed women, and the bathing season is a camera harvest for the “lust of the eyes.” Advertising, whether in newspapers, circulars, or billboards, plays up the sex appeal—anything to attract the eyes—and nothing more easily does it. Some theater managers have admitted that many of the dresses used on the stage are deliberately designed to attract the men. Add to all of this the fact that most modern secular fiction is directed to “[setting] on fire the course of nature,” and you see that all around us blazes a furnace of passion which God declared to be “set on fire of hell.”
True, no matter how women dress, and no matter what conditions prevail, men must encase themselves in Christ in order to triumph. Thank God, they can do this, but you women have a responsibility. By sobriety and wisdom in dress you can do a great deal to stem the tide of the flesh (Romans 13:14), which is always trying to corrupt the church. A few inches added to the length of a dress, or a change of color, may make the difference between modesty and immodesty. Make your clothing a matter of prayer, to neglect prayer here is to weaken your stand with God in the fight and impoverish the value of your witness to Christ and a holy life.
We all, in a measure, conform to custom and fashion, but we must not become slaves to them. What kind of moral judgment is it that has to wait for the prevailing fashion to dictate what is right or wrong? You can be sure that when fashion has worn threadbare one wile, the devil has another ready to launch. If morality exists among certain unclothed races, it is because divine restraint prevails alongside ignorance (Genesis 20:6). We do well to remember our responsibility to weaker brethren (Romans 15:14).
The “cropped hair” question is equally important before God. What He has ordained is right and best, and it is clear from I Corinthians 11:14-15that normally a woman’s hair should be long, while a man’s hair should be short.
A Warning to Preachers
There are many other bad habits. Many a solemn message has been utterly spoiled by a silly joke which was intended to illustrate, but which was entirely out of keeping with the occasion and hindered the work of the Holy Spirit. Many men of God are caught in this snare. A sense of pure humor is surely an endowment of the Almighty, but we need to be most careful and watch, lest the bounds of sobriety and propriety be overrun. Nobody wants to cultivate long-faced Christians. But “Be sober, be vigilant,” with regard to so-called humor, “because your adversary the devil, walketh about… seeking whom he may devour.”
Resist him, man of God! Resist the devil’s “funny” interpolations in your sermons. Sacrifice popularity, if that is what makes you popular. Preach the Word (II Timothy 4:2), not jokes and funny stories with a dash of religion. Then the Holy Spirit will seal every word you say, giving it the increase in due season (I Corinthians 3:6-7). We should not merely deplore these things, but recognize their source, resist them, and thus remove from Satan a formidable weapon.
A Field of Effective Service
That brings me to this. There is a large field of effective service in the realm of prayer and resistance concerning wrong things in the spiritual world. The perils of the unseen seem always to be turning up in some new garb, though in principle they are the same.
I remember attending a certain conference to investigate what was being taught and to see what was happening. Before long I became very conscious of being in a strange atmosphere. It was weird. So far as I know I had no prejudices. I said, “Lord, I am open to all truth, but I am closed to all error.” The longer I stayed, and the more I heard and saw, the more my spirit was aroused to war. For my own sake I found that I must resist, or be so enveloped as to lose my own power of choice and believe that everything from every quarter was of the Holy Spirit. I knew that it was not, and I said so. “This thing is of the devil,” I contended with bowed head, “and I resist it in the name of the Lord.” Some of the people were enraptured. Some looked mystified, and many stupefied; I was in deep agony of spirit and obliged to be against it.
The theme of the addresses was “The Baptism of the Spirit.” Many went forward to “receive the blessing,” as it was termed. While in the meetings, I quietly bowed before God and said, “Lord, I am against nothing of the Holy Spirit, but I am against the devil and his counterfeits, and I ask Thee to let me be of some use to Thee to protect these unwary souls.” I must shorten the story, but let me say this: not one of those who went forward during those meetings in which I so prayed received “the blessing” they sought. It was a lesson to me in resisting deceiving spirits.
The contention that where there is no “speaking in tongues” there is no true baptism of the Spirit, I hold to be unscriptural (I Corinthians 12:10,11,13,30).
Now, I believe most certainly in that “enabling of the Spirit” which a vast number of believers need to make them effective for service, but there are grave perils in this realm. Souls must protect themselves (1) by knowing that unless they are watchful, they can be beguiled of the devil; (2) by insisting on retaining the full use of all their faculties of discernment and will; (3) by refusing to be passive anywhere or in anything. Unless they do that and perhaps more, in full reliance upon the Holy Spirit to instruct them, they will be drawn into an evil, supernatural realm from which it may not always be easy to escape.
The Spirit of God will give us power for service in harmony with Scripture, and He will work through all our faculties, especially those of discernment and choice. It is when the mind and will are out of action that the devil has a free hand. It is doubtful if he ever neglects to take advantage of a situation of this nature. There is no use in quoting such passages as Luke 11:11 and saying, “God will not give me one thing if I ask for another.” We are not in the dispensation of asking concerning these things, but of discerning—“understanding what the will of the Lord is.”God has bestowed in Christ every gift that man needs (Ephesians 1:3; I Corinthians 12:4-11). It is for us to take. We are to “apprehend that for which also [we are] apprehended.” If we continue to “Walk in the Spirit,” God will fit us, according to our need and measure, for all His will. Nothing else matters. Nothing else is necessary.
Satan Attacks Through Ordinary Things
It is not merely in seeking the baptism of the Spirit that people are beguiled of Satan, but in the ordinary affairs of life. A great deal of lethargy with respect to mind and will abounds among the Lord’s people. Many seem to think that when they are saved, God will decide things for them instead of giving them the ability to see for themselves what is right and wrong and what is wise and unwise.
“Understanding what the will of the Lord is” might never have been written, judging by the way some people conduct their lives and homes. Some of them will do anything rather than get into the place of a responsible person endowed with the wisdom and decision of “the new man in Christ.” There are those who are always asking for signs and indications in circumstances, forgetting that the devil can easily manipulate circumstances. I wonder that more of them do not ask for signs and tokens as to when and what they are to eat and drink. (I knew of one terrible case of the devil’s dictating when to eat and drink, and the man nearly lost his life. Through prayer and then personal resistance he was delivered.) But most of them cut their lives into two departments—one natural and the other spiritual. In the former they use their brain and will, but in the latter they just drift along. You never know what they are going to do in the spiritual realm, for their guidance is enveloped in some vaporous mysticism which nobody understands.
“Be sober.” Use your mind. Your brain has been redeemed as much as your heart. “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” Let the light of God create for you a new intelligence department—understand “what the will of the Lord is.” Say, “I must get to understand the will of the Lord.” This will call for faith and patience, but persist in coming to know God’s will for yourself by regular searching of His Word. If you will do that, you will guard yourself against falling into many a snare of Satan. In addition, you will become increasingly efficient in the Lord’s service as His fellow-worker (II Corinthians 6:1). A word of caution is needed here, however. There are some things that for the time being are designedly veiled from our eyes, and the recognition of this sometimes places faith in its best setting to mature (John 13:7).
Unsheathe the Sword
One of the worst things that can take place is that you lose the disposition to resist the devil, though the need for doing so may be ever so urgent. Many experience this, some because they are unwatchful, and others because they are ignorant. No matter how it is accomplished, it is a daring piece of work on the devil’s part and results in some of those perplexing things in Christian service which seem unexplainable.
Those who are so unwise as to ignore the subject stand in a certain class by themselves. Here is a realm, however, in which the power to resist is assailed and slowly weakened, until the fight is dropped and the soul is passive and helpless—a citadel at the mercy of its invaders. Not all cases reach that impasse, but let me tell you a few, the subjects of which were only too grateful for the deliverance which came to them through being able to retake the shield of faith and to again take up and wield the sword which they had dropped. Each case discussed found deliverance.
Meeting the Enemy on Strange Soil
Here is a man marvelously enlightened in what the devil does and able to explain the subject with rare clarity and power. The day comes when, eager for the spread of the gospel, he ventures into the battle zone of another country, but without any real understanding of the tremendous hold which the powers of evil have upon the people. The atmosphere is so controlled by opposing forces that any doubts which he may have had as to their existence or activity are now banished (Ephesians 2:2). This is a real spiritual battle “where Satan’s seat is.” Spiritually it is just suffocating, and if ever he needed to wrestle and pray, it is now. And he does—on his knees and on his feet. He used to do this in old England or in the United States of America with the comfort of human fellowship and sometimes with the impetus of another’s “amen,” but now everything seems working to isolate him completely.
The days come and go, each bringing its added stress of conflict. Perplexing situations arise, disappointing things happen, the “east winds” blow with a bite never before experienced, and he is baffled. Hoping against hope that the tide will turn, he plods on. Maybe he tries to do through human effort what is the work of his God—a common failure of us all—but slowly his power to resist weakens and he becomes enveloped. His head is in his hands; none of those around him understand, if they even so much as perceive what is wrong. All is confusion and darkness to him. You might tell him some of the things that he himself said about “the way of victory” in such circumstances, but he will reply, “That was all right for England or the United States and the armchair; it is different out here.”
He prays—at least he tries to—but the heavens seem as brass; he weeps inwardly and outwardly, and the devil whispers, “Your being here is a huge mistake.” The agony deepens. Things happen of which I cannot speak. Trouble upon trouble sets in. It is an “evil day.”
“Resist the devil, brother,” urges someone, but somehow he cannot. If it occurs to him to do so, he either says, “It is of no use,” or “I cannot.” And to say that is, of course, fatal, for by a swifter process than you think, the attitude becomes “I do not want to.”
Romans 8:2 Is Good Medicine
What has happened? The man is depressed. His spirit is enveloped as in a mist by an unseen power. His will to act in certain directions cannot operate. He is as a man paralyzed, or as one in a faint. Indeed, he feels that would be a great relief and an easy way out. What David experienced in the physical realm (Psalm 55), this man is encountering in the spiritual.
One day a friend came along and repeated Romans 8:2 to him. As one aroused from sleep, he said, “Amen! Say that again.” It was repeated. Recognizing that he had unconsciously been under a spirit of death (the devil’s objective is always to administer death of some kind), he continued to use that verse and other Scripture and finally broke gloriously free. That is resisting the devil.
You may not always be able to account for these things happening, but they do happen. In more ways than one a servant of God can be overwhelmed in spirit, hemmed in by the devil, drop the fight, faint by the way, and exist—yes, just exist—for a very long time under a spirit of death. Do you know anything of this degree? Do you know someone in this condition? If you do, you will not blame but pray, and in spirit get alongside, so that the struggling soul may be lifted into the light. The life is there, but it is buried or not functioning. The spirit can be revived, the will can be renewed, the man can be dug out, but God may want you to raise the pick of prayer and lower the shovel of faith. If He does, do not delay.
A Deceptive Goal
Here is another worker, one with noted ability and keen tenacity in the fight. This one has taken the gospel from door to door, spoken in cottage and villa, at street corner and church, and souls have been saved and blessed. The devil is out to stop this, and he does. He stimulates an inordinate desire for visible results by giving visions of wonderful things that are going to take place. What is flashed across the imagination, and implicitly believed to be from God, does not come to pass, however, and slowly the soul is drawn into darkness and doubt. The power to resist is lost in an atmosphere of perplexity and confusion.
How easy at such a time to lose heart, to let everything go to believe that all is a deception, and in consequence to become careless, prayerless, and almost as one that is godless, with the rudder of life at the mercy of the devil’s seas! Some at this stage begin to drift back into the world—anywhere to get relief. They soon find that the world is very shallow and its pleasures transitory. No true peace can be found within its borders.
God must deliver, and He will. He proves that His child can be rescued from an enemy who is so wicked that he seeks to imitate the Holy Spirit.
“You shall be delivered,” I said to such a soul. “The devil must let go. In the name of the Lord, and by His grace, you will be set free once again to witness to the power of Calvary.”
What a sigh of relief came with the reply: “Oh, thank God., someone thinks I can be restored, for I have feared that my brain would go with thinking about it!” Praise God, the restoration came, and an important center of Christian service was benefited thereby. There is recovery and restoration, and the deep lessons learned in such tribulation will mean that he who once “chased a thousand” will now “chase ten thousand.”
Weighed Down with Criticism
Here is a third case. This man has brought life to many a meeting and has stirred not a few by his words, but now he is rarely seen. He is spiritually cold, lifeless, and unapproachable. What is the trouble? Perhaps the tongue and pen of the critic have been busy, and he is misinterpreted, misunderstood, and maligned. “Well, he must expect that,” we say. “It is in order of things for a servant of God to be thus tried; and besides, criticism hurts nobody.” Yes, but this man did not realize that the devil could bury him under it. At any rate, the devil has succeeded for the present. The man is down, depressed, introspective, certain of little, and overwhelmed with the nagging fear that God may have set him aside with no further use for him.
“Oh, that is his nerves,” says someone. “He needs a rest and a change.” Truly his nerves are affected, and he gets away and takes the rest, but he receives no real relief, for the tides of divine life that once enabled him to resist the devil must again flow if he is to be quickened. (In many cases even the physical health is dependent upon the spirit’s being kept open to God and free to cooperate with Him.) If weeping and yearning as well as resting could have brought him deliverance, he would have been on his feet long ago. Instead, despondency has bred despair, and despair is now courting disaster—the disaster that the adversary and devourer of souls is after all the time.
Lifting the Load
What is to be done for this man? Is he to be left to perish on the battlefield? No! He may be forsaken of men, but God has not turned against him. The Holy Spirit is alongside (the word “Comforter” means “one called alongside to help”) to cool the fevered brain, to calm the troubled breast, and to make the wounded spirit whole.
How weary he is, none but he and God really know; and how unspeakably gracious are the ministrations of the Most High at such a time! What infinite patience, what tender compassion, what amazing love! Not for a week, nor for a month, but for years will the Spirit of God brood over the darkness and chaos if haply He may again see the unsheathed sword brandished in the bruised hand, the flash of victory in the tear-red eye, and the foe impotent at the trembling feet! Hallelujah! It can be so. Though the soul may have descended to depths unspeakable while floundering and groping in the underworld of darkness, there can come a moment when the sky overhead is cleared, and he will see that God is well able to rescue him from his plight. But what happened in this case?
The greatest part of the battle was to get the man to will as well as to want to get free. We may want a thing without willing it. When that point was reached, then was real progress, though at first it was slow. He said, “I will that God shall free me from this state, and I trust Him to do so.” That position was affirmed again and again, especially when the dawn of breaking day became obscured by angry clouds on an ever-changing sky. All the details cannot be given, but I know that the Spirit of God directed to things in his life that needed adjustment. The chief point, however, was that he refused to lose hope and kept his will set for deliverance. Slowly the sluice gates opened, and the waters of life again began to run into the dry-dock. What a work to have a hand with God in re-floating these broken but mended craft!
Are you in dry-dock? Have waters in which you once swam receded until you can scarcely see a trickle? Do not lose hope. God does not. Ask God for strength to reassert your will, set the rudder, count on God, and surely, if slowly, you will again sail on the waters of His ocean, as did he of whom I have written.
To the Rescue
It may have been a very small thing that gave place to the devil in each of these cases. It generally is (Galatians 5:9; James 3:5). It may have been a thought, a feeling, a thrill of the affections, a flash across the landscape of the imagination—nothing more—but quite enough to account for everything. If only it had been detected and resisted when it was but a speck upon the horizon! But it was allowed to pass unchecked, and now a whole continent has been invaded and must be recovered inch by inch.
Shall we come to the rescue of such souls, “to the help of the Lordagainst the mighty”? We may. But how the devil opposes our doing so, either telling us that it is not our work, or that the case is too difficult, or subtly disabling us from acting, when we would gladly do so and are weighed down with the need!
Shall we not, too, heed the warning and learn the lesson that is before us—watching as well as praying, and discerning between good and evil, that we may “cast off the works of darkness, and… put on the armour of light”? All down the ages the powers of evil have conspired to invade man’s soul and wreck it, and now it would appear that more than ever the devil is marshalling his forces to steal in upon the citadel and take it by storm.
Guard Against Evil Imaginations
Have you ever caught yourself gazing into space and half consenting to all you saw without raising a query as to the source? This is one of the devil’s most fruitful fields of harvest, and he persistently labors to gain an acceptance of something which is his invention and no reasoned product of your own mind under the illumination of the Holy Spirit. It is not too far removed from spiritism proper, and many a horrible experience has been traced to seed plots sown in these passive, uncontrolled, mental musings. If you would live in victory, you will have to be most vigilant here and learn quickly to say “no” when the foe is at the window.
Not always are the things presented suggestive of evil. The devil assumes quite a different role with some people. Neither open sin nor small things appeal to them, so he flashes before them big religious schemes, bright ideas, sweeping campaigns, and stirring scenes in which they are to play a leading part; and they take the bait without thinking. It all looks so attractive. “See how it will extend the work of God!” But many a man has come to grief by not knowing that the devil could inflate his imagination with big schemes and kindle false revival fire in his heart.
Be Careful of “Great Ventures for Christ”
I recall the case of a man who was one of the keenest Christian workers for miles around, until he shut himself up to pray for a revival of which he was to be the leader, but which never materialized. His experience landed him in a mental home, and only slowly has he recovered from the effects of his imaginings.
Scrutinize the moving spirit behind great ventures for Christ. They are not all of God. Some can be born of human ambition and others of satanic vision. If the devil cannot quench your spirit, he will try to push you into going too far. These are some of the perils, but a real conquest and mastery can be ours if we will walk with our eyes open and not be too proud to learn.
Satan Tries to Sidetrack Veteran Witnesses
There is another section of the church against which the devil persistently wars. Many men run the Christian race well up to the age of fifty or sixty, and then somehow miss their way, or “go to seed.” Probably Paul had this in mind when he wrote “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” The word “castaway” means “disapproved” or “rejected.” What terrible peril for an apostle! And if for Paul, why not us?
There have been men who have borne testimony to some of the deepest truths the Scriptures teach and have spent from twenty to thirty years in Christian service, yet slowly or suddenly they have been shunted on to a siding. What is the reason? It makes you think, and ponder, and pray, if your spiritual senses have not become dulled to the place of indifference.
Whatever your age may be, do not allow the divine fires to smolder and die out. Stir up the gift that is in you. Do not drift. Do not run the risk of being disapproved. Jam on the brakes before the downgrade momentum is so great that only a crash can stop you. Or if you have crashed, get up, hear the words of the Risen Lord again and again, “Rise, and stand upon thy feet.” Dare to believe that God can restore you, your testimony, your spiritual vigor, your prayer vision, and maybe your health, too, if you have lost it (as you can) through stemming the tides of the divine life in you (Galations 6:1; Hosea 11:8; 14:1-9).
The Gracious Restoration of God
You may not be given the same kind of work as before. That is not important and may not be the Lord’s will. The Lord is wondrously gracious and infinitely wise in His methods of adapting us to new circumstances. But be that as it may, refuse to let the devil keep his foot on you, for his place is under your feet. “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet.” This is both a principle and a promise, so let Him have your feet. Dare to get up. Be a Christian. Defy all the powers of darkness in the name of the Lord, and if nothing else will work, fall upon your knees and cry out, “O God, save me from the devil, for I mean to live and labor and die (if the Lord tarries) like a Christian.”
Desperate conditions call for drastic measures, and if there is one thing I know more than another, it is this: There is no soul who has gone too far for the Almighty to reach him. The faintest glimmer of desire for deliverance finds abundant response in the embrace of redeeming love. Length, breadth, depth, and height—you cannot fathom it. It passes knowledge (Ephesians 3:18,19), but it can reach you, because it is the expression of the very nature of God (I John 4:8). Men make barriers, but they were all dealt with at Calvary, and God can break through them all. The mighty forces of evil may gather to hold their prey, but they are less than nothing to the Almighty, who at the cross brought to naught “him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” for the express purpose of delivering “them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Read carefully and prayerfully Isaiah 40:12-31, and you will see God in such majesty and power as to dispel all fear of the evil one and his wicked powers.
The Devil Is a Murderer
It may help someone if I touch briefly on another phase of satanic activity. It relates to the question of self-destruction. Let us not debate the question as to what God would allow in the life of His children, but deal with the facts as they are known to many. A young fellow, whom I knew to be saved and living a good and careful moral life, told me that he scarcely ever shaved without having suggestions and urgings to take his life. Moreover, he found it difficult to shave at all, as proven by his frequently cut face. Except that he was not having an easy time at home or with his friends at work—the type of persecution that is the common lot of the Christian—there was no particular natural reason to account for the depression and daily horrors through which he was passing.
I had had some experience with things of this kind, so I ventured to suggest that the devil was seeking his life. He was greatly relieved to know that his problem could be dealt with as something originating from a source outside his own mental life. Having prayed by himself with little relief, he asked me to pray with him, and I consented. “But,” I said, “It is something more than prayer to God that is needed. He will help you, but you have to stand ‘in Christ’ and tell the devil that you resist him in the name of the Lord, and that you refuse to let him move you to take your life.” That was something new to him, but he did it and, praise God, was delivered! He was then able to shave without the slightest fear, for the devil, as a murderer, had been exposed and resisted. Moreover, the man knew what to do in any future assault and strengthened his position by praying for others in similar trouble.
I have told that incident at many meetings and have rarely found a gathering in which there was not someone who was pestered of the devil in a similar way. Usually the assault would be made under the pressure of home or business cares, after the recurrence of sinful habits that were deplored and wept over, or even during disappointment and despair over Christian service. The devil would use anything to persuade the man that he would be better out of the way. I thank God that I know that the power of Calvary works in this realm, and that what God may not take away in answer to asking can be cast off by resisting the devil on the ground of Christ’s finished work at the cross.
The Devil Opposes Prayer
Now a word about this subject in relation to prayer. A number of people tell me how sometimes it is difficult to pray, and that confirms my own experience. Indeed, the universal admission is that whenever people give themselves to prayer, they never find it easy. Stagnation in prayer may be encountered through lack of information, smallness of outlook, absence of vision, self-centeredness in petition, even slavishness to method, and, of course, walking “after the flesh.” Mark that brief summary.
Our Weapons in the Prayer Battle
But apart from all these, there are some striking passages of Scripture which make it abundantly clear that in the unseen world there is a tense battle for supremacy in progress all the time (Daniel 10:12,21). That is a primary reason why prayer may be difficult—the devil opposes it. Read these sentences of Holy Writ and weigh every word: “labouring fervently for you in prayers.” “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.” “Strive together with me in your prayers.” “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” “Continue in prayer, and watch.” “Watch unto prayer.” “Pray, and not faint.”“He… offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears.”
There are many more, but look at the words: “labouring fervently,” “supplicating,” “persevering,” “watching,” “striving,” “strong crying,” and “tears.” These are expressions wedded to work and war. They indicate a situation of dire necessity. They suggest deep urgency, sustained effort, undaunted courage, and a persistence and faith that is supreme. Why? Because the man of prayer operates in a world where every inch of the ground has to be taken in the teeth of the opposition. Make no mistake about it, the devil knows when a man is really praying effectually, and he does his utmost to stop him.
In some parts of Scripture the language employed is of a distinctly military character and unmistakably descriptive of the existence of a tense battle for dominion. What else can be meant by such words as “Put on the whole armour of God… stand against the wiles of the devil…. we wrestle…. withstand….”? “Take… the sword of the Spirit…Praying always….” “Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons or our warfare are… mighty through God…).” Here is the word “war” spelled out for us. Moreover, let us recognize the fact that the foe is so obstinate that he will let go only what he is compelled to let go, and he is so powerful that none but a God-endued man can overcome him. Even then the basis of that overcoming lies only in Satan’s having been conquered by Christ at Calvary.
Are You a Wide-Awake Prayer Warrior?
Prayer is, of course, one of the most effective ways of administering the victory of Calvary, and it is one of the two tasks to which the apostles gave themselves (Acts 6:4). You can be sure that it will be hindered and assailed from all quarters. Who has not gone apart to pray and found his mind to go blank or be flooded with unholy or distracting thoughts? Some, on the other hand, fall asleep while at prayer. Again, it is surprising what a lot of things you remember that you have to do when you decide to pray! Have you ever associated these hindrances with the powers of evil? Do you realize that they can interfere in your prayer life?
I always associate the devil with that sluggish, helpless night which the disciples spent near our Lord on the eve of Calvary, when reprovingly He said to them, “What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray….” I think that the devil must have caused them to sleep when they should have been vigilant and supporting the Lord in His conflict. The incident at least shows the advantage of fellowship in watching and prayer.
Writing About Praying Is Not Praying
Here and there we find souls who are so eager to pray that they wear themselves out in battle. They allow the devil to press them beyond the measure of the Spirit, as their physical collapse indicates. With most of us, however, there is a grave lack in prayer. If we understood the wide range of administrative power that prayer offers, we would pursue it to its limits and press the battle to the gates. Let us remember that talking and writing about prayer is not praying. The devil does not care how much we discuss and applaud the subject, so long as we do not pray. A book on how to pray is good, but the best and only way to learn to pray is to do it.
Place yourself at God’s disposal as a pray-er. Study as much to pray as to preach. Be ready to cooperate with God for the deliverance of some of the captive souls in the church and see what happens. You will no longer wonder if there are forces to contend with other than flesh and blood. You will know, and in knowing you will understand that unless these satanic powers are reckoned with, you are not going to get the answer you need.
Guard the Power to Pray
People who have discovered the value of prayer know that they will be assailed from every quarter and in every quarter, and they know it to be worth while to guard their power to pray more than any thing else. How easy it is to lose the spirit of prayer! The Holy Spirit of God is so easily checked and grieved on our part that sometimes without our knowing it, our ability to pray is gone. We may not know it until we kneel to pray or are faced with some situation demanding immediate dealing with God, but such powerlessness soon reveals itself.
The thing to remember is that the devil is probably more concerned with hindering prayer than anything else. Therefore he schemes to get us to take ever so little a step “out of the Spirit.” A wrong look, a feeling of resentment, a hasty word, some apparently trifling thing, and the line of communication is interrupted. A relatively little thing can rob us of our power to pray and our ability to believe.
Ready Access But Little Power
I do not mean that our access to God is surrendered. That remains intact, guaranteed through the blood and Person of Christ (Hebrews 10:19; Ephesians 2:18; 3:12). The working value of the blood of Christ implies a cleansed life (I John 1:9), and we must never forget that that is the only basis upon which we can speak to God. But we can be deprived of our power in prayer. Real power in prayer to deal effectually with situations as they arise is rather rare, the reason being that the devil robs souls of the keen edge of their inner life without their knowing it. How much and for how long he can do this, some of us know to our sorrow, but once our eyes have really been opened to it, we should watch most carefully ( “be vigilant,” as Peter puts it) and see that we are not drawn out of the current of the Spirit.
Fellowship in Prayer
This interference with praying will also be the common experience of those who are placed together in the Lord’s work; hence it is not at all an uncommon thing to find that missionaries, as well as home workers, often fail to meet for prayer through some trifling thing. Oh, these devil pinpricks! How tired one gets of them all when one knows that the devil is the cause of them!
Do pray and determine that the enemy be exposed in this matter and that those who need to pray together will want to and be able to. Many a work of God seems to lack vitality for want of this fellowship in prayer, and while it is certain that God can work mightily through the prayers of even one soul, there must be some significance in “two agreeing,” or the Lord would not have stressed it (Matthew 18:19). The truth is that two agreeing on earth in prayer can set in motion forces that were before motionless. Many a man has had to wait for his wife to join him in prayer before God did certain things; and conversely, in other situations the wife has had to wait for the husband. It is not always so, but one has often noticed things change for the better when a situation has been tackled by two or more who were formerly praying alone.
I do not want here to enter upon a dissertation on prayer, but I firmly believe that no kind of effective praying is left unopposed, and thousands could testify that all sorts of unwelcome things are constantly happening to make real prayer impossible. It is simply that the devil ceaselessly conspires to slay the spirit and atmosphere of prayer, and until this is recognized and he is resisted, many problems in relation to praying will remain unsolved.
Family Prayers Hindered
A godly man said this to me: “We live in the country, and we have family prayers every day; but try as I will to guard that time, you would be surprised at what a task it is to keep it free. Something is always happening to prevent us from praying, or to shorten the prayer time, or to make it difficult to pray when we get down to it.”
I replied that I was not surprised at all, but that probably it was the work of the devil.
“It is something,” he rejoined, “and I expect that’s it, for if I had not experienced it, I would scarcely have believed it.”
That experience could be confirmed by a multitude, but the degree of interference would largely be regulated by the vitalness of the prayers, i.e., how far they affect the devil’s kingdom.
The Devil Sends Callers
I knew two people living in a city who decided to meet together for prayer on as many mornings as possible before beginning their daily visitation program, and this is what they told me: “We rarely have gotten far in prayer but someone will come knocking at the door of the house, asking us to go here or there, or can we do this or that, and sometimes they enter upon a long rigmarole from which it is often difficult to break away. Really it is very noticeable; and though we have prayed that we might have quiet, it still goes on.”
“Well, do you not know,” I asked, “that the devil has agencies by which he can influence people to call at your house at the wrong time and even flood you with callers whom God does not intend to come at all?
“It may be,” I said, “that the exposure of the cause will end it, for many things are allowed of God to educate us. But if it does not cease, I would declare that in the name of the Lord you resist it and the powers of evil at the back of it. Do that until you are assured of God that you have touched the real cause and dealt with it.”
Some time after that, these workers told me that they had put into operation the suggestion to pray against the devil’s engineering interruptions through people and circumstances, and these interruptions had fallen off considerably.
It must not be supposed, however, that I attribute every difficulty in prayer to the devil. There is man’s evil nature to contend with. We can be lazy and sluggish, or manifest a spirit of indifference or independence, thinking that we can do this or that, whether we pray or not. We can come under the dictum of the world and believe that “God helps those who help themselves.” That is not true. God helps those who trust Him, and in the long run nothing else will succeed, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”
The areas covered by prayer are much wider than what we are dealing with in this discussion. I merely point out here the relationship of prayer to the unseen world (around this planet), invaded as we know it to be by countless spirits of evil, whose one aim is to be the adversaries of God and man, and as such to hate the praying soul and oppose him on every spiritual issue.
Groanings in the Spirit
Prayer is, of course, an attitude as much as an act, and if that be remembered, no perplexity will arise when there is a genuine absence of words as we wait before God. We must not allow the devil to perturb us because we cannot find language with which to unburden ourselves. A groan of the Spirit in us (Romans 8:26) may accomplish more than a volume of words. I think that one of the greatest things I have learned in prayer is to hold up before God individuals, towns, countries, and nations, counting on Him to do His will for them when I do not know what more to ask for. Undoubtedly the ideal thing is to ask definitely, especially in the terms of Holy Writ, for the bedrock of faith is there; but if we should find ourselves going out, out, out in spirit to people and lands with no more audible expression than a heaving sigh of the spirit (Mark 8:12), let us not be troubled or dismayed. The great thing is that we are “praying in the Holy Ghost,” and in due season what is in our heart may filter intelligibly into the mind and be formulated upon our lips.
Divine Life Must Have Expression
But the “groanings which cannot be uttered” must not be confused with the dumbness that can come through the devil’s damping down our fires. Some people never do anything but groan, if they even do that; but when the prayer time is over, they seem to have a wonderful facility of speech. In most cases I believe it is simply that the devil hinders them. Either he overwhelms them with feelings, floods them with fear, or in some other way holds the brain so that expression in prayer becomes impossible. That this thing—this paralysis of expression—can be broken through, I have proved.
No one should sit down under this terrible dumbness. The divine life in us must have expression; and if the soul would grow and echo the heart throb of the Father, it must pray. So whenever you have the opportunity, dare to pray, and pray aloud. Do it on your feet, as well as on your knees. You will then more easily keep the stream of life running and baffle the devil. (Souls deprived of speech are in another category, but they may serve God in their spirit—Romans 1:9, margin; 12:11; Isaiah 26:9; Psalm 139:2). Even a cursory reading of the Scriptures will show that the Christian life is lived on a battlefield. We are to be soldiers (II Timothy 2:3-4) as well as sons, and as such we must take up the challenge of the evil forces in the heavens and pray.
Part III—The Means of Victory
The more God’s people reckon with the devil in their praying, the more they will taste of the liberty of the Spirit in dealing with the issues of life. The Christian life does not reach the stage of manhood until that is done, but the truth is that many believers are limp and flabby, weak and fearful, childish and immature, simply through failing to use the life and energy that is stored up for them in Christ. No one likes to feel that this is true of him, but if it be true of any one of us, is it not better to face it?
Satan Is a Defeated Foe
God can do no more than He has done. At the cross He judged the devil and overthrew him and his hosts (John 12:31, 16:11). Believers overcome Satan because of this stupendous fact. We read in Revelation 12:11, “And they overcame him by [on account of] the blood of the Lamb, and by [on account of] the word of their testimony.” The blood here refers to Christ’s death. Not only are we saved from sin on account of that death, but we are also saved from Satan.
Further light is given on this in Hebrews 2:14, l5, where we read:“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” In the Colossian letter the same glorious truth is stated in these words: “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it [the cross].”
There is another element in the Revelation passage just quoted that must not be overlooked. The believers are said to overcome “by [on account of] the word of their testimony.” God wants that victory enforced through us by means of our spoken testimony. We know that the Lord Jesus rebuked Satan directly (Matthew 4:10). The archangel Michael rebuked Satan in the name of the Lord (Jude 9). The Apostle Paul directly addressed the evil spirits in the demon-possessed girl in Phillipi and in the name of Jesus cast them out of her. Apparently the rebuking of evil powers in the name of Jesus was customary, for the sons of Sceva tried to imitate Paul in this; but lacking the personal application and benefits of the shed blood of Christ, they were soundly beaten by the demoniac (Acts 19:13-16).
Thus the pattern is laid for us in the Word. It may be necessary to rebuke Satan in the name of the Lord in order to keep the prayer life and other areas of our Christian lives free from satanic hindrances.
But some will immediately ask, “Can we address Satan personally and rebuke him in the name of the Lord?” Yes, that is what the Scriptures just cited indicate. You may say something like this in withstanding the adversary: “I died with Christ; therefore, you have no more power over me. In the name of Jesus Christ I rebuke you!”
Let me repeat: God can do no more than He has done. At the cross He judged the devil and overthrew him and his hosts (John 12:31, 16:11), but it is through us that that victory has to be enforced. We are the links on earth through whom He is determined to realize the heading up of all things in Christ (Ephesians 1:10; Colossians 1:18,19), and to the extent that the devil can hinder prayer, to that extent He hinders the Holy Spirit’s working through us and keeps the purposes of God from maturing.
Remember that the devil is always engineering something to stop the prayer stream. All sorts of excuses will be invented to account for what he is doing under cover, but ask God to make you alert to detect if you are being robbed of your privileges in Christ.
Prayer Is a Battle
Read Daniel 10 with Ephesians 6 and you should never again wonder why you do not have an easy time at prayer, or why answers are sometimes delayed. Reckon on God, but also reckon with the devil, and then by vigilance and perseverance see to it that you are not hindered in pursuing a ministry, a work, a battle, the scope and issues of which cannot be measured. Satan hates prayer and hinders it, challenges prayer and chokes it. You may work and plan and talk until you are weary, but it will be in vain to the extent that you allow Satan to rob you of the prayer stream. Prayer alone vitalizes work.
Finally, this must be said: to resist the devil is but a healthy operation of the divine life. Just as the white blood corpuscles of the human frame police our bodies to apprehend and slay disease germs, so the spiritual life needs the energy of the might of Christ to garrison it from the deadly inroads of the world, the flesh, and the devil, but no one must lay down hard and fast lines of procedure in this field.
Seek Guidance of the Holy Spirit
Some people are highly demonstrative. Luther, with white heat of spirit, flung the inkpot across the room to express against the devil his indignant protest, but you need to be a Luther to do that safely. I knew a man who would sometimes open the window, tell the devil to go, and then close it again and by that method be assured of Christ’s victory being enforced. But there is nothing in flinging an ink pot, opening a window, stamping your foot, or shaking your fist if the Spirit of God is not in that mode of expression. Neither a bolted door nor a barred window can exclude the devil unless there be a corresponding bolting and barring of the man himself. Such gestures, however, are not necessary. We do well to speak and act much more soberly when grappling with these forces, for Satan has awful power and can only be met “in the Spirit” and “in Christ.”
Certainly we need to be careful lest we mistake physical force and a loud voice for the power and authority of the Spirit. The former cannot make up a deficiency in the latter. God can operate as effectively in the calm of a setting summer sun as in the hurricane of a November gale. The God who answered by fire was He who tabernacled in the still, small voice (I Kings 19:12). The grieved spirit that loudly demanded, “Lazarus, come forth” was endowed with the same life that displayed its strength in silence when Christ confounded His accusers by answering them never a word (Matthew 27:14). So faith may be mightiest when it is quietest. But it is for each one to know for himself. The more spiritually normal we are, the less we shall be exactly like other people. There is an individuality and originality in all of God’s children which in their lives should display some new wonder of Christ’s life.
Our Standard Is Christ
The standard example is always that of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and from even a cursory review of His temptation and His battle with the devil we may gather some eternal principles. In reading Matthew 4:1-11(see also Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13) we see the following facts.
The devil has to be met when he is at his worst—in solitude, “in the wilderness,” “with the wild beasts.” Watch your solitude!
But the Spirit of God is sovereign. He sets the battle and supervises it, for we read, “Then was Jesus led up of [Mark: ‘driven by’] the Spirit.”
Satan speaks and suggests, incites and allures, misrepresents and lies. He knows the Scriptures and clothes his daring assault in their terms.
Each part of man is assailed—the needs of the body, the pursuit of the soul, and the urge of the spirit.
1. THE BODY. Hunger must not master the body. “Man shall not live by bread alone.” Our bread and butter are not everything.
2. THE SOUL. Divine power is bestowed for special needs, not for personal demonstration or display. Presumption is not faith. Misquoted and misused Scriptures can hide disaster behind a plea of safety.
3. THE SPIRIT. The devil craves our worship, but that belongs to the Most High, whom we are to serve with an undivided heart. “Him only shalt thou serve.”
Notice in all this that the Man himself is not passive in this battle, though the victory is not in Him, but through the Spirit. He spoke: “Jesus said.” He declared: “It is written.” He reproved: “Thou shalt not tempt.”He rebuked: “Get thee hence, Satan.”
He is given a sword, which is “the sword of the Spirit,” the very breath of the Almighty—insuperable, because infallible; reliable, because authoritative; enduring, because eternal.
A sword means that there is war, prolonged, tense, exhausting. (Note the words “forty days.”)
The sword must be used: “Take the… sword of the Spirit.” He used it. It does all it says. It always will.
There is victory, progressive and complete. “Then the devil leaveth him.” “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Satan comes in arrogant confidence, but he goes defeated. That is God’s plan for you and me.
Of course, all that the Lord did was as representative as it was personal. Except as the Head of a new race, He had no need to meet the devil. But He met him and met him for us. He conquered him and conquered him for us. What He did, we do in Him, so that in all our battles we are simply to manifest His life, display His power, and celebrate His victory by using His sword.
It may be that some Christian people elbow their way through life without much attention to these things, but it can only be “anyhow and not triumphantly.” The normal Christian life is one of battle and victory, and Calvary has made every provision for this. You may refer me to the desolation of Job or the piercing thorn of Paul (II Corinthians 12), both of satanic origin, but I see these men emerge triumphant, borne along in the strength of Another, energized by the only Life that can overcome. To the one as much as to the other the Redeemer lived (Job 19:25). We may never be worthy to loosen the shoestrings of such saints as these, but we must face the facts and issues of life and in doing so decide what our attitude is to be.
Filled with the Spirit
Do you realize that we are called to conquer and, as such, are designated “workers together with [God]”? Shall we receive the grace of God in vain (II Corinthians 6:1)? Shall He who laid down His life for us never see us filly yielded to the surging power of His presence? Shall the torrents of life that dwell in the Eternal merely lap the shores of our existence, leaving us high and dry with an ocean within our reach?
“That ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” What can these words mean if not that the tidal wave of Calvary is destined to flood our banks and sweep us now into a new and eternal sphere of life and fellowship with God? If we allow Him to do this, no call to arms will escape us; and though the battle be taken to the very gates of hell, we shall emerge unscathed, “more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
What shall be the response? Is there no battle? Is the devil slumbering in the dust of ancient tombs? Are there no bruised and battered souls to restore? Is no one submerged beneath the waters of mental stress, or struggling in a grave of moral torment? Does not dread often assail the sick and fear haunt the footsteps of the frail? Shall accusation and depression stalk through the church unchallenged, and the nervous system of the sensitive and the strong be wrecked by a foe who is laden with lust and draws death as with a cart rope (Isaiah 5:18)? Is no voice to be raised against this infernal procession?
Is there no Aaron to rush in with the censer and stay the awful plague? Does not the Most High desire to turn and “whet his sword”? But who will be God-armored and clasp the unsheathed blade of His invincible breath (John 1:1)?
Laborers Togethers with God
Will you? You may, by His grace. “For God’s fellow workers we are.” (I Corinthians 3:9, lit. Greek. Grim’s Lexicon says the word means “a joint-promoter; a partner in labour.” See also II Corinthians 6:1, “to put forth power together”; Mark 16:20; I Thessalonians 3:2, “one whom God employs as an assistant.”) Have you ever paused to think what that means and to assimilate it? The whole content of redeeming love and life has been poured into the Calvary sacrifice of Christ, and from the empty tomb of the Savior, who could not be holden of death, has emerged the triumphant Head of a New Creation.
Blessed be God, then, for the new man in Christ is to be the vehicle for the display of the self-same energy of the Godhead along every road of divine activity. Have you yielded to the stupendous issues of such a fellowship? Then all the powers of hell are to know it, for where God works, you work. “Labourers together with God”—what a commission!
Silence all arguments. Say, “Whatever God has for me in this, I am taking it,” and you will be shown more clearly than I can say for what purpose you have been brought into conflict with the most formidable foe that exists, to the realization of the plan and the purpose of the Almighty.
Then must I always be fighting? Until the Lord returns for His own, as one day He surely will, the Christian must never put off his armor or lay aside his sword. He may be a victor on the field, but to be assured of it he will need to plumb the depths of I Peter 5 and scale the heights ofEphesians 6.
Our Text Again
If we take our text, in all its beautiful simplicity, we cannot be mistaken as to the meaning, and the sequence is clear: humility, submission, endowment; sobriety, vigilance; a foe, a battle, a victory.
Acknowledge your need of God. Having been saved by His merciful hand, now humble yourself under His mighty hand. He giveth grace to the humble, and you’ll be endued with the strength of His might. There is a reason for this. You have a foe. He who all down the ages has relentlessly and tirelessly pursued his foul purpose now opposes you, and it is your life that he wants. He is the devil—not “it” but “he.” “Whom resist.” Do not be careless or indifferent, and certainly not erratic; take nothing for granted, go about with your eyes open, use them, let nothing escape your notice, scrutinize and test everything, weigh all in the eternal balance. Count on God. Face the devil. Resist him, and he will flee from you.
If someone else had urged you, you might well have hesitated, but since it is God who speaks, you have naught to fear. He in Whom you stand, by His grace, is impregnable. Do as you are bidden. Your triumph is guaranteed, because He who holds the world in the hollow of His hand is before you, behind you, above you, beneath you, and best of all, in you.“Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”
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