The child of God has a lot of enemies. They are fear, doubt, lust, pride, and jealousy, to name a few. Hidden behind them all is a worthy adversary that every believer must face for themselves to overcome. Once he has been overcome, fighting off his children will not be a problem. The good news is that He has already been overcome, and all you need to do is join yourself in Jesus, who is the one who overcame him for you. The reason you must face him for yourself is so that you can find your identity in Jesus as an overcomer. You must have confidence that you can overcome him when he comes calling.
With that said, there are some real secrets to overcoming your enemies, especially the devil. In this teaching, I want to give you the one thing that will help you overcome the devil in your life, not just once, but every time he attempts to take you on.
How Jesus overcame the devil.
You might be familiar with the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness. You can find these references in Mathew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13. The overcoming of temptation in the wilderness for Jesus is a redo for Israel’s temptation in the wilderness. You can read about their journey starting in the book of Exodus. Israel failed in the temptation because they did not believe in God and were easily deceived by sin. (Hebrews 3-4) Jesus changed the outcome for all who go through temptations in the wilderness, also saving Israel in the process.
Jesus gave us the blueprint for overcoming the devil in the wilderness. But this doesn’t just work in the wilderness; it works every day and everywhere. In the example of Jesus in the wilderness, I want you to look beyond the surface level to find the true answer to how he did it.
When the devil tempted Jesus, you could say He used scripture to overcome his temptations, and that was how He did it. Even though this part is true, it’s not the only thing He used against the devil. You could also say that Jesus overcame him because He knew who He was. His Father called Him the Son of God, and when the devil tempted Him, he wanted Jesus to deny that. This is also true and was a big part of how Jesus overcame the devil. Both answers are right and work together to help you overcome the devil.
When the devil comes to you with temptation, he looks for a door into your spirit. You must believe you are who God says you are by His oath to you. And when the devil perverts the word of God and tries to use it against you to deceive you, correct him and speak the truth back to him. These two examples will help you overcome the devil, but it goes much deeper.
The big secret to overcoming the devil.
The heart of this teaching speaks to the nature of Jesus. We often focus on the fact that Jesus was the Son of God. He was anointed and had power over heaven and earth, and that’s why He was so powerful while on earth. But there is another big secret that Jesus had against the devil. It is the one thing that will overcome the devil every single time. Jesus had no sin!
Jesus had no sin for the devil to use against Him.
Sin allows the devil to dominate you. Only the mind can keep him from taking over you. The devil had access to Jesus because He was flesh and blood, but he couldn’t penetrate His mind. The apostle Paul taught the church that sin works in the body of death, but with his mind, he overcomes sin. (Romans 7) That lines up with how Jesus overcame the devil in the wilderness. The devil had access to Jesus because of His flesh, but because His mind was sanctified with the truth of God, the devil could not overcome Jesus. In the mind of Jesus Christ, there was no sin, and therefore the devil could not rule over him.
This secret defined Jesus above everyone else who lived on the earth. Jesus did not walk in a consciousness of sin, and being free from sin gave Him true power over the devil in every situation, no matter how many times he came against Him.
Sin is the reason you cannot overcome the devil. It’s not that you don’t have the word of God; it’s the fact that you believe there is sin in you. Once believed, you act on sin and manifest it. At that point, you’re convinced of sin. Your flesh has a strong influence on you, and you follow it.
It’s that small doubt that arises when questioned, and you believe that you’ve done something wrong, and immediately guilt sets in and betrays your thoughts. You have already been defeated in your mind, and the battle is lost. You submit yourself to the lies and agree with them.
Sin is the devil’s work, so if you have sin in you, he talks to your sin and convinces you that you have no power to overcome him. He deceives you by making you think you are just like him, and therefore, you fall under submission to him. He is the greatest deceiver you will ever face.
If I ask someone if they are a believer or have been obedient, they immediately judge themselves by the flesh and not the mind. Therefore, they get deceived in themselves because most people always think they don’t do enough work for God, condemning them in the flesh.
If you think you’re disobedient, unbelieving, or unfaithful to God when the devil comes to tempt you, you will always fall to his lies because you already believe you are doing something wrong. You join yourself with him because you believe you are still of him. That’s what sin does to you. It separates you from God, making you believe that you are sinful.
The devil uses your sinful thoughts to deceive you. He uses your thoughts against you. But what if you had a perception change? What if your heart was changed and the devil couldn’t convince you of sin? What if instead of always looking at your sinful nature, you begin to look at the word of God that you have received? The words from heaven that have cleansed you and washed you. Wouldn’t you be able to withstand the devil’s temptations? Jesus did it. And if Jesus lives in you, then you can do it too.
When the devil talks to you, you must believe that you have been forgiven of sin and that you are of God. This is the only way you will overcome him. Living sin-free overcomes the devil every day. Interestingly enough, Jesus lived in corruptible flesh, yet it did not convince Him of its sin and weakness. He believed He was from heaven, just like His Father told Him. It’s no wonder that He could live in the flesh without sin.
If you say that Jesus was different and that He had special abilities because He was God manifested in the flesh, you are saying that you believe that you are not part of His body. I agree that He was different from us at first, but after He saved and baptized us into His body, are we still different from Him? We are the same as Him; if we are in the mind of Christ, then we are free from sin. Read Romans 6, and you will agree as well.
Do not use corruptible flesh as an excuse. We are all the children of promise by faith in Jesus Christ.
The consciousness of sin.
The most important part is to remember that the devil sinned from the beginning, not you. (Read 1 John 3) The only reason you have ever sinned against God is that you’ve joined yourself to a sinner. You must separate sin from yourself by placing the sin back on him. The devil is the sinner. He is the deceiver. He is the liar, not you. You are different from him because you have a word of God from heaven abiding in you. Now you must believe it and walk in it. Join yourself in the word of God and be one with Jesus, who is not a sinner, who has never sinned. Be born of God, and you will not walk in sin.
It is the devil who is condemned to die, not you. Eternal fire is prepared for the devil and his angels, not you. The word of God has come to separate the wheat from the tare, the sheep from the goat. It’s time to stand on the right side rather than on the left.
Paul said a very profound thing in Romans 7 when he said it is no longer I who sins, but the sin within me, that is in my flesh. We must recognize that because Adam joined himself with the serpent and sinned against God, we have walked in Adam’s consciousness of sin since that time. That’s why we have been a sinner with him. But now Jesus has come and brought a new consciousness free from sin. It’s a consciousness that can walk in eternal life and be obedient to the commandments of God. He has given us a love for God that will not join ourselves to this wicked devil, but we will join ourselves to Him who is holy and righteous and be freed from sin forever.
The devil is other than God. He is not the true God and can never be God.
The secret to overcoming the devil is to walk in the mind of Christ, free from sin.
Lastly, let’s address the question, what if I’m not perfect yet? This question usually gets viewed in the wrong perception. As if to say I still have sin; I can’t be like Jesus. I used to think this way but not anymore. What changed for me? Jesus taught me grace. Grace covers my sin until Jesus reveals it to me, and repentance is easy. When grace is working in your life, sin is not the focus. I know I’m corruptible, but so does God, and it doesn’t bother Him, so why should it bother me? As long as I live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit, I can live by faith while being free from sin.
If you can trust that God loves you, has called you and has redeemed you, and has forgiven you of every sin from the beginning, then you will easily overcome the devil when he comes to test you and convince you that you are not part of God’s kingdom. Just like Michael, the archangel cast the dragon out of heaven; you will cast that devil out of your heaven so that the same sin-free anointing in heaven can work on the earth in you.
The will of God is that you be free from sin.
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