The Devotional – Search the Scriptures – 422


The Devotional – Search the Scriptures – 422

James 4:7-10 7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Christ/Messiah is Our Only Hope

After recording the conduct of a prideful and adulterous heart that forms in the heart of a child of God, James under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit identifies the source of the problem. It is not the problem of that of the advisory the devil. The devil is doing what he always does, he tempts and he is the father of murdering lies and deceit. The problem lies in the heart of the child of God who is sloppy with their conduct before The Messiah and pursues an unrighteous style appropriate for the devil’s use.

Now do not take offense if this is your spiritual condition today as we have all experienced the tug of the ‘worldly-wise man’ the term is found in a book written by John Bunyan, titled ‘Pilgrims Progress’. If you struggle to stay in the Spirit of God consistently, it is because the devil who is an unholy spirit walks about as a roaring lion—hungry to destroy the work of the Holy Spirit and your holiness. Now of your own you do not have holiness, to begin with. God has given us His Spirit—remember it is God who is Holy, who works His will in you for His glory and your blessing.

Therefore, we are ALWAYS called by God to resist the devil’s plan and purpose for the conduct of your flesh. The more you draw close to God, submit your life to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Now I say this by personal experience, you and I cannot serve two masters, we will find out, that whoever we serve, it will be love for one and hate for the other; see the Luke 16 passage regarding the discourse of Jesus on this subject.

It does not matter, the flesh can be gripped with pride, power, sex, drugs, and a host of other fleshly pursuits, even while you have been saved by the grace of God. The grip whether weak or strong does NOT go away by an insincere urge for God to help. We must cry out to Him we must resist the unholiness of the pride-filled devil, we must submit humbly to God. Think about this; it is pride that caused us to turn our back of God, this is the devil’s initial problem and it is ours too.

In the process of sin and the confession of it, we must remember—God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Pride is always in sin! Satan and his unholy angels, along with all unbelievers will be lost in the lake of fire because they do not have the ability or desire to humble themselves before God. If you are saved today (as I hope you are) you have humbled yourself before the Mighty Hand of God. Therefore, we sometimes need our feet to be washed. This is a re-humbling of need, for we have been cleansed from the sin of this world. (John 13:1-11) Pride is the cause of our stumbling!

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