Stage one of the battle was simply feeling out the opposition, sending a small force seeing if any more was needed. Now that the Enemy sees that we are for real, that this is going to be an all out war, he sends in the main force. "The Enemy, once discovered, usually doesn't just roll over and go away without a fight." In James it says to "Resist the Devil" that word is anthistemi (the e is pronounced like a long a, and the i at the end is a long e sound), and it means "to set one's self against, to withstand, resist, oppose". This is a fight, this is war, and we are to be set against Satan, withstanding his attacks, resisting his temptations, and opposing his advancement.
In stage two our resistance is tested because Satan uses the tactic of intimidation. "That is the next level of our Enemy's strategy. When we begin to question him, to resist his lies, to see his hand in the 'ordinary trials' of our lives, then he steps up the attack; he turns to intimidation and fear." Once we realize that he is here and involved, he unleashes hell. "Satan will try to get you to agree with intimidation because he fears you." Or rather, he fears God in you. Remember James 4.7 says, "Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Before we can resist, before we can set ourselves against Satan and oppose him, we must first take up arms against him by submitting to God. It is God that he fears, and he must flee from us because of God. "You are a huge threat to him. He doesn't want you waking up and fighting back because when you do he loses... So he's going to try to keep you from taking a stand. He moves from subtle seduction to open assault... the Evil One is trying an old tactic - strike first and maybe the opposition will turn tail and run."
That is intimidation. If Satan can overwhelm us with the means at his disposal then our resistance of him fails. that is why the first crucial step to resisting him is submission to God. It is only in His power that we can stand storm the gates of Hell. A few years ago I moved to Michigan to take a job at a church. It was a big step in my life because it was moving out of state, being fully on my own for the first time. At one point I almost turned the job down because I was overwhelmed. But I really felt God leading me to go there, and to help me out He gave me a promise that I know I am not the first one to receive. " Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1.9).
Joshua was given those words before he led the people into the Promised Land, and began the conquest of the land. And God shared those words with me as I prepared to move to Michigan. My time there was short, and honestly just before it ended I did have the feeling that my job there was completed, but I did make some impact on a few lives while I was there, and looking back, I believe Satan was trying to keep me from going. I learned some things, saw some sad truths about the Church, and was able to impact a few lives along the way, and Satan didn't want that.
God is with us, no matter where we go, when we submit to Him. Looking back to Joshua, God gave him an additional promise, "Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you." Just as I was with Moses, and remember that Moses is who is first referred to as "A Man of God", I will be with you. My mind goes to 1 Timothy 6, seen on the left, where Paul calls Timothy a man of God, and instructs him to pursue righteousness. We are men of God, just as Moses was, and just as God was with Moses, God is with us. That is the promise that we have when we have submitted to God.
"How did Jesus win the battle against Satan? God was with him. This really opens up the riches of the promise Christ gives us when he pledges, 'I am with you always, even to the end of the age' and 'I will never leave you nor forsake you'... It means he will fight for us, with us, just as he has fought for his eople all through the ages. So long as we wlak with Christ, stay in him, we haven't a thing to fear." Are you getting how crucial the submission to God is? Have you picked up on how key that is? When we are submitted to God, He is with us. And when He is with us, we can resist the Devil and he must flee. And his intimidation will not work, because we know that God, who is with us, is far greater than our enemy will ever be.
In 300 (yes I do know that the movie is extremely historically inaccurate, but the scenes depicted in it portray these concepts, and our response to them, so clearly) we find a group of Spartan's building a wall to funnel the Persian army into the narrow pass of the Hot Gate. Another Persian messenger is sent to try and convince the Spartan's to give up before the battle begins. As he talks he notices the bodies of the Persian scouts he has just made reference to built into the wall. One of the Spartans, Stelios, tells about how the wall was built by their ancestors, and how the scouts have supplied the motor to rebuild it. The Persian yells, "You will pay for your barbarism!" and begins to swing his whip. Stelios leaps into action, and severs his arm from his body.
The Persian falls to the ground holding the stub that is left and yells "My arm!" to which Stelios tells him, "It's not yours anymore. Go now, run along and tell your Xerxes that he faces free men here, not slaves. Do it quickly, before we decide to make our wall just a little bit bigger." The Persian here moves to step two, "No, not slaves. Your women will be slaves. Your sons, your daughters, your elders will be slaves, but not you. No, by noon this day you will be dead men. A thousand nations of the Persian empire descend upon you. Our arrows will blot out the sun." Stelios, unintimidated, announces, "Then we will fight in the shade."
That is courage. That is strength. That is the answer given by a warrior. "When a man resolves to become a warrior, when his life is given over to a transcendent cause, then he can't be cowed by the Big Bad Wolf threatening to blow his house down... The most dangerous man on earth is the man who has reckoned with his own death... I'd rather go down swinging. Besides, the less we are trying to 'save ourselves' the more effective as warriors we will be." Earlier in the movie, Stelios, another Spartan, and another Greek solider have gone to scout out the Persian army. The other Greek, overwhelmed by the magnitude of the force against them says, "There can be no victory here." Stelios simply smiles, and the Greek asks why? Here is his response, "Arcadian, I've fought countless times, yet I've never met an adversary who could offer me what we Spartans call 'A Beautiful Death.' I can only hope, with all the world's warriors gathered against us, there might be one down there who's up to the task."
He knows there is a battle to fight, and if need be he is prepared to give his life for Greece. This section of the book ends with a quote that hit me so hard the first time I read it. "Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. 'He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,' is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for the sailors or mountaineers. It might be printed in an Alpine guide or a drill book. The paradox is the whole principle of courage; even of quite earthly or quite brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his live only if he will risk it on the precipice. he can only get away from death by continually stepping withing an inch of it. A solider surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine."
If we are to really live, we cannot fear death. We go into battle ready to die, willing to die if need be, and intimidation has no power over us. It is our submission to God, that gives us the peace to die for Him, knowing that He is waiting to welcome us into His presence for "fighting the good fight of the faith." So when Satan announces that his fiery arrow will blot out the Son, simply tell him, that you will fight in the shade, knowing that the Son cannot be blotted out because He is by your side on the front lines.
Two waves have been overcome, one final one remains. Don't lower your guard because the battle rages on.
"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."
To God alone be the Glory!
Strength and Honor
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