The Most Effective Way to Defeat the Devil

Do you feel/see disturbing ghosts in your dwellings? Yes, they exist. Yes, they are from the devil.

Do you feel any of the following?

• Sadness
• Depression
• Loneliness
• Worry
• Stress
• Anxiety
• Hopelessness
• Fear
• Lust

It’s normal to feel them. But if you live your life with these, they are from the devil.

Do you have cancer, pneumonia, tuberculosis and other expensive diseases? They are from the devil.

Do you experience financial lack? The devil is the devourer.

So what is the best way to battle the devil?

Is it by forcefully shouting this?

  

   “I rebuke you cancer in Jesus’ name! I receive the healing   power of the Lord because by His stripes, we are healed!”

Then after leaving the church, I hurry to leave the place. Then I pass by a beggar as if I did not see him. Then I quarrel with the jeepney driver for not stopping on the place where I want to go down. Then I judge the person I saw passing by.

After all that, I seriously expect the Lord to fight my battles and answer my prayers?

Don’t get me wrong. It’s a must to shout against the devil or declare the word of God out loud. But what will shouting and praying and believing (if i really believe) do for me if I live my life full of me, myself and I and away from selfless love?

Well, here’s the catch: the best way to defeat the devil is to get your mind off yourself and to start a walk of love through selfless giving.

• Enjoy giving time to love God through worship. Doing so will drive out evil spirits in your place.
• Give God that reverential fear that He deserves. Stand for what is right in front of others.
• Enjoy doing good things to people every day.
• Enjoy being faithful to your tithes.
• Enjoy giving alms to the poor. It may be food or money.  
• Desire for complimenting your peers. Make them feel good for the day.
• Be excited in helping a person in need.
• Forgive those who have offended you.
• Say sorry to those you have hurt.
• Doing good should be a want-to, not a have-to.
• Enjoy a life avoiding lies, hurts, strife. Enjoy being a peacemaker.
• Be thankful about every situation, good or bad. Have the control to avoid complaining.
• Trust God that whatever you are going through, He is with you and will not leave you nor forsake you.

Surely, some people will disagree.

“No Rye, it is not by our works that the Lord hears our prayers. It is by faith. It is through what Jesus did on Calvary."

Jesus died so that our sin nature be transformed into the God nature so that we are reconnected to the Father who gives us sufficient grace (enabling power) to do good and to love Him and other people by heart.

And now that we have the grace to love God and love others, we are enabled through Christ and in Christ to do them by heart. And when we do them by heart, the Lord hears our prayers and fights our battles. Our enemies are His enemies. He is for us and not against us.

I'm not saying you have to do good for your prayers to be answered. I'm saying have this selfless mindset and purpose your life to live it in love. We have it in us. It's just that we do not intend to walk in love because we are so consumed with ourselves.

Stop saturating yourself with feel-good sermons. The bible is filled with verses that say the Lord does not listen to the prayers of the wicked, evil, and unrighteous. His face is against them.

Well, as long as I purposely live a life only for myself, not doing the things the Lord wants me to do, even though I am called a Christian, I am still unrighteous and evil as far as God is concerned. 

Not all who calls Him "Lord, Lord" (lukewarm Christians) will enter heaven. "Depart from me you workers of iniquity." He will say that to those who claim to be believers but are not workers of righteousness.

Christians are the righteousness of God in Christ. We are righteous by nature because Jesus, the One who now lives inside us, is righteous.

But here is wisdom: you are not called righteous until you do the right thing that the Lord inspires and enables you to do.

Look, I may be an inborn designer. But unless I design something, I will not be called a designer.

Not all humans are called humans. Some people live like animals. Civilized savages as we term it. There is a tagalog saying about this. “Madaling maging tao pero mahirap magpakatao.”

Same with Christians. Sadly, not all are righteous in God’s eyes. He calls them lukewarm. They are the Sunday-Only Christians ( I was one of them).

Yes, they are all made righteous by nature. But unless they work out what God works inside of them, they are pretty much like non-believers. (Actually, worse. That’s why the world hates us. We do not do the talk.)

This is what the devil does not want us to know. The enemy wants us to believe that by just having the name Christian, we will be spared from him. The enemy blinds us to the part that we need to play in order to get to the Promised Land (prosperous life).

This is a biblical truth. The devil could not touch Jesus because Jesus went about doing good. He has no similarity with evil. The Father God favors Jesus who did good everywhere that’s why demons flee before Him.

Note also that Jesus did not struggle in shouting “I rebuke you, devil.” He said it plainly.

Once we realize that the spiritual battle is actually the Lord’s battle, we can sit back, enjoy life while doing good everywhere we go, just like Jesus did. And the Lord’s favor will be upon us.

So to battle the devil effortlessly, pray for the grace to walk a love walk. It doesn't mean you have to do good all the time. It doesn't mean you have to be perfect. It means getting your mind off yourself, and live a life that is purposed for giving – loving God and loving others.  

And the cool part is that ghosts will not want to be around you!

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with GOOD. Romans 12:21

Application Example:

Something happened in my office that made me feel depressed. I was in the bus when the memory of that event tormented me. In my mind: "So devil, you want fight? I'll give you fight." I normally do not share my seat sa bus. But I stood up and let the standing lady sit. I can't explain it but I felt the devil was irritated. The torment was gone after a few minutes.