Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded (James 4:7-8 ESV).

We have authority in Christ to overcome the devil. There is no example in Scripture where we are told to pray for God to remove the devil from our lives, we are told to resist him. Resist means to exert force in opposition or to withstand the force or effect of (Miriam-Webster). This means that no matter what the devil attacks us with, we have the authority to withstand and tell him to “back off- you have no permission to come at me in this area”.

Papa is not the author of suffering, sickness, disease, lack or poverty. He does not bring these upon His children, the devil does. We can be confident in who we are in Christ that we are able to resist the devil and cause him to flee.

However, when we sin and turn our backs on Papa, he will honor our free will and remove His hand of protection from our life leaving us open to the consequences of sin. This opens the door for Satan to have a legal right to attack.

It is vital we have repentant, forgiving and obedient hearts to stay under the hand of God and understand our identity in Him. Knowing who we are in Christ and knowing we have His authority gives us all we need to be submitted to God, well able to resist the devil and not allow him entry into our lives.