"The Unseen Enemy" Part IV (Overcoming the Enemy) This is the last teaching in a four part series on the enemy of our souls, the devil.  The previous teachings used the scriptures to reveal the devil’s identity, his goals and the strategies he uses to attain them.  This teaching will explain the biblical way (the only way) to defeat the devil and his demons in our earthly lifetime: by faith in the overcoming death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Again, the goal of the devil is to “steal, kill and destroy,” deceiving as many souls as possible into rejecting God so that people will share the same condemnation as Satan: eternal torment in hell “where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” (John 10:10, Mark 9:43-44).  The Bible teaches that we are all born under the same condemnation as the devil and to be rescued from his domain we must be born again into God’s kingdom. (John 3: 18, John 8:44) So we have the authority and power to resist Satan by salvation through Jesus Christ.  Jesus came to earth as a man for one reason: to die at the cross for our sins, satisfying the justice of our Holy God by taking the punishment due us:  “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil”  (1 John 3: 8).  It was at the cross that the devil received a blow of defeat from which he can never recover; and it is through our faith in Jesus Christ that we are delivered from the kingdom of darkness:  “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.  And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.  Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it”  (Colossians 2: 13-15).  This is the most important key to victory: believing in what Jesus accomplished at the cross so that we know that our sins are forgiven, and the evil one has no more claim on our lives.  When we are saved into God’s kingdom, victory is assured to him who endures to the end, but the battle has only just begun.  The strategies of the devil listed in Part III: deception, unforgiveness and temptations of our sinful nature, are tools that he uses to pull believers away from God.  The reasons for the spiritual battle are two-fold: to retain our own salvation, and to pray and witness to the lost so that they may also be liberated from Satan’s death camp. Revelation 12: 11 declares that God’s people overcame the devil “by the blood of the Lamb (Jesus) and by the word of their testimony, and they did  not love their lives to the death.”  Our first weapon is salvation through Christ, wielding His delegated authority by using His blood, His word and His name to command unclean spirits to depart from those whom they oppress.  This is only possible through a life that is fully submitted to God: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.  Therefore submit to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4: 6-7).  The word of our testimony is powerful because it proclaims the victory wrought in our lives through faith in Christ and the devil’s defeat, thus strengthening the faith of the hearers of our testimony.  By not loving our lives to the death, we desire God to receive the glory that is due Him more than our own earthly reputations and our physical existence on this earth.  In short, we have overcome the fear of man and replaced it with the fear of God.  Jesus said, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  But rather fear Him (God) who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10: 28). Some other weapons that empower us to defeat the enemy in our lives and on behalf of others:  the precious Holy Spirit that He has sent to indwell and fill every believer who desires Him, the prayer of intercession using the name of Jesus, and the power of praise and worship.  Praise and worship that is sung to God from a thankful heart confuses and terrorizes the devil and his demons.  This is why God instructed the singers and worshippers to go before the children of Israel into battle –the enemy fled before them and even started killing each other off in panic and mass confusion.  How powerful is the name of Jesus Christ to those who proclaim it!  It is the name that is above all names, and at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, that is in heaven, on the earth, and under the earth (Hell), that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2: 8-11).  This is how we overcome!  Hallelujah! “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.  I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.  Amen.  And I have the keys of Hell and of Death.”  -- Jesus (Revelation 1: 17-18).