Resist the Devil—and Make Him Flee!

Hey family, Sharon Correa here, and thank you for tuning in. I'm your host of Stepping Forward. On this broadcast, we talk about real stuff and real life, and I share my experiences of the nine years that I've been walking with Jesus and what he has done in my life. He has freed me from 12 years of active addiction to pills, to alcohol, to meth and heroin. He has delivered me and rescued me from incarceration, from unhealthy behavior patterns, from anger. Oh my gosh, from anger, from bitterness. You know, lost everything in my life, not once, but twice. And he has restored everything to me, including my mental health, because I had four diagnoses of that. And that has been restored to me. I feel like King Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel 4, like that has actually happened in my life where I looked up and acknowledged God and my sanity was restored, praise God. And gosh, just so much more, but that's just a little bit about me. And so what we are talking about is schemes and strategies of the devil that he uses to still kill and destroy us in our life, to draw us away from truth, to draw us away from God's peace, to draw us away from even the assurance of salvation. Oh, that's a big one. We might have said the prayer and said, yes, Lord, and surrendered, but we may not be, our circumstances may have not changed or the enemy comes in to believe or to tempt us to believe the lie that says, no, you aren't really saved. Look, you're still messing up. You're still making mistakes. You still have that character defect. Guess what? It's a journey. Okay. The process of sanctification and walking this journey of faith, stepping forward in faith is a process. It's not just an event.

It is a lifelong pursuit of following Jesus, becoming like Jesus, and being on mission with Jesus. That's what discipleship is. That is the journey that we're on in Christ, with Christ, and even for Christ. So in the last episode, we talked about the schemes and the strategies of the devil that he uses to still kill and destroy, and we're looking at John 10, 10. The enemy only comes to still kill and destroy. That's all he knows how to do, but Jesus came to give us a life and not just life, not just eternal life, not just oxygen down here, but an abundant life, a life that is overflowing with his goodness, with his faithfulness, with his purposes and plans and promises. And it is designed to give us a hope and a future. There is an episode that I did called, Four Reasons Why You Need Jesus, I think it was called. And look, in that one, go watch it if you haven't. But in that episode, I talked about, listen, we all have a past, a present, and a future, and Jesus needs to be Lord of all of it. That's why we need Jesus, because we have a past, present, and future, and we are all on this same journey. And so today what we're going to talk about is how to resist the devil and flee and make him flee, make him bye-bye, 86 him from the premises and get him out of your life so he stops wreaking havoc. So it's like a cancer, okay? Satan's like a cancer, and I attribute it to, I think about it, ooh, look, here we go. I think about it as like MRSA. If you have had MRSA like me, you know what that's about. It's like a flesh eating disease, a nerve destroying disease. And that's how Satan works. That's how Satan works. We think or we listen to the parable of even the yeast in the bread, even a little yeast ruins the whole bread, right?

So we got to make sure that we are protected, that we are, if our direction and our destiny is now doing life with Jesus and coming into that divine design and truly living out and becoming more like Christ and living out and walking out a beloved child of God as our first and true identity, we have to preserve and protect. create some boundaries within that space and drawing lines in the sand where we say, hey, bro, you ain't gonna do this to me no more decreeing and declaring that he has no right and no authority over your life anymore because now you are in Christ. So first Peter five, eight through nine, it says, be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, okay? The devil is your enemy. He's my enemy. He's all of our enemy. Your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, to eat, to completely destroy. Resist him. Stand firm in the faith because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. I love this scripture. I love this scripture. So resist means to stand against something or something or someone, right? When you think about, um, exercising in the weight room, we are picking up resistance so that we can become stronger. But it means to actively work against somebody standing, although it can be an inactive state, it's actually a very, very, very active state because scripturally, biblically standing means that you have your feet firmly planted and continuing in the truth and the identity of who you are and standing in, standing with Christ in victory and believing with him and continuing to say over and over again, yes, and I will remain. This is my new position. Here are some key truths and practical ways to resist the devil and walk in authority and 86 him out of your life.

If you're like me, you have been 86 from so many different hotels, okay? Or even grocery stores. Back in the day, I have a list of places that I have been banned from and 86 from because I wasn't acting right. Okay. So we need to be, um, 86ing Satan and his hooligans and his, yeah, I can't think of the word I was just going to say, but we're just going to say who it was not a kind word, but, um, his hooligans out of our life. We have the authority and the permission to do that, to say, you are not any longer going to tempt me, going to learn me away, going to draw me away from the truth, from the peace, from, um, the light, from the life that I am intended and given. And so the first way is to be alert and sober minded. This language means to be spiritually awake. Okay. Not just like, stop drinking, stop drinking. So you know what's going on in your life. While that is true and a very, very, very good word to be sober from chemical dependencies and anything that is altering our state of mind, we are also to be spiritually awake and sober and be aware of the things that are spiritually influencing us and altering us. Pay attention to the influences of media, music, conversations of people, you know, who are you surrounding yourself with of habits? Is this a deadly habit that I'm doing? Is this bringing me life or is it bringing me death? Is it bringing me, um, curses or is it bringing me blessings? Like y'all, you need a family. You need to be thinking about those and looking at those things. Pay attention to what is influencing you. I was, um, back in the day I had two fifteens in my trunk, I had an amp, I had a crossover, all the things I was playing all the wrong kind of music. I love me some bass, I love a good beat.

And when I came to Christ, that didn't fit no more. That did not fit anymore. And I, I got this distaste. I got this disdain for, um, the music that I had been listening to. I didn't like it anymore. I did not like it anymore at all. And so God did this really cool, you know, uh, um, regeneration even in, even in my I musical tastes. And all I wanted to do was like worship and listen to worship music. And I kept my system in my back of my car. But I instead of you know, cranking up Tupac, I was cranking up you know, elevation worship. I was cranking up worship music and we're just singing like so so loud. So y'all pay attention to what's influencing you because you are what you eat, just like we are nutritionally, but you are what you think. And you become what you put inside of you and believe so we want to be feeding the right thing. We want to be feeding our spirit and not our flesh. Being sober minded means that you keep your thoughts clear and not clouded by sin, not clouded by anger and not even clouded by distraction. It is clear and clean and in control. Okay? The second thing, the second way, the second strategy that we have to resist the devil and make him flee is recognize the enemy's tactics. Now we in this other episode, the schemes of the devil, devil, that's not a word devil. Um, you know, we learned about those things. So recognize them, realize you're in a war, recognize the enemy's tactics and so that you can respond in the correct way. He attacks, he being Satan attacks through lies, shame, temptation, deception, fear, distraction, and discouragement. That's how he attacks us. So if you can identify the lie, here's some encouragement. Here's some hope. Here's some empowerment. If you can identify the lie, then you can also identify the truth and replace it with truth. And I do this often in my life. I have to exercise this. I practically write this out in my journal. If I'm believing a lie and I am caught in a, um, a state of confusion or even tension and I don't feel free anymore, I'll sit down and say, okay, where are my thoughts? What am I believing? What am I hearing? And then I'll go look up in scripture and combat it with truth. That is the word of God. That is our sword of the spirit. That is the only offensive weapon. That is the only offensive weapon that we have in our armor of God and

wrestling spiritually. The rest of it is too for defense, but this, the, the spirit, the sort of the spirit, our sword is our offensive weapon and we need to use it. We need to be able to use it and learn how to yield it or wield it. And so that we can continue to fight in this, um, battle for our soul. So a couple of questions. So you can think about where in your life are you most vulnerable to the enemy's lies or temptations? Where is that? Is it, you know, you believe that you're not loved, that you are unlovable, that you will never be able to, um, become all that God wants you to become or have a life that is reflective of God's goodness and faithfulness and restoring and healing power? Is it that you will never be able to drop that addiction that once an addict always enacted? Like those are lies from the pit of hell family. Okay. So where in your life are you most vulnerable to the enemy's lies and temptations? Write that out. Talk to God about a journal about it. What truth from God's word can you declare over that area? So if you feel or the lie that you're believing is I am unworthy and unacceptable, I need my spectaculars that I am unworthy and unacceptable. God is not like, he don't want me. I'm trash. I've done so many things, things, people have done things to me and I've been really ashamed of I'm unworthy and acceptable. That's a lie. That's the temptation to believe that, but that is a lie. The truth says, and according to scripture that you are accepted and that you are worthy. That's in Romans 15, seven. Um, a lie is that you are alone. That is not truth. The truth is that you are never alone. And that's found in Hebrews 13, five, a lie is, or we might be tempted to believe that we will, that we are, are a failure, that we are inadequate, that we are not good enough. That is not truth. Scripture says otherwise that you are adequate. That's in second Corinthians three, five through six, the lie. it be that that you feel responsible for your life. That's not truth. God is responsible and faithful to you and will provide as you trust him. That is found in Philippians one six. Oh, this is a good one. A lie or a temptation that you might believe is that you are confused and that you are crazy and mentally ill and can never be healed. That is a lie from the pit of hell.

My life is a living proof of this truth that I have the mind of Christ. You have the mind of Christ and you are able to get the mind of Christ to step in to how Christ thought and how Christ lived his life. That's our calling. That's the invitation. And that is found in first Corinthians two sixteen. I could go on and on and on. But those are some truths to battle the lies and the temptations to believe the falsivities and the fakeness and the counterfeits of life that Satan is trying to always hand us. The third thing is that we are to stand firm in faith. That says in verse nine, right, to resist him and stand firm in the faith. Standing firm means anchoring yourself in God's promises, in his truths, not your feelings. Feelings should follow facts. But when we're not walking in Christ and not walking out our identity, what happens? The flip side of that happens. Facts follow our feelings. And that's not that's not truth. We are not called to walk out and live in our feelings. We are called to walk out and live in our faith, in facts, in the truth of who God is, who we are, who we belong to and how are we supposed to behave and how this all works. So anchor yourselves in in God's truth, in God's word and in his promises. Speak scripture out loud when you're tempted, just like Jesus did in the wilderness in Matthew four. The fourth way that we can resist the devil and make him flee, get him to flee, is use the armor of God, get dressed spiritually, study Ephesians six, 10 through 18, the belt of truth, combat lies. Did you know, sidebar, did you know that my last name Correa means belt? It means some people say whip, but it means belt. It means to tie and fasten together. And so I take that on personally in my life to get on the Correa of truth, to put the belt of truth around me, to fasten me, to uphold me, to hold together and fasten the

whole rest of the army. The belt goes on after and over things, but it is used to correct and to align. That's what a belt is. So the belt of truth, it combats the enemy's lies, the shield of faith, it blocks the fiery darts that he is constantly shooting over at us on a daily basis. Remember, we're in a war, we're in a war and we have to perceive that. The sword of the spirit, God's word is our weapon, your weapon against deception. Why? Because God is not a lie to us. He is the way, the truth and the life. The fifth thing is we flee from temptation. We have a part to play. We just cannot passively, passively, we cannot passively, passivity is a sin by the way. We cannot passively, idly sit around and just be like, Oh God, we'll just do it. While that's true, we still have a part to play. We need to run. We need to flee from temptation. When we are fleeing from temptation, that means we are getting out of dodge. We're not meandering around. We're not sitting around like, Huh, I could probably actually, yeah, I could step into that ring of people who are doing math and I'm going to go over there and I am going to just witness to them. No, listen, sometimes we are called to that and sometimes we are not. Sometimes we are to have enough wisdom enough to go, no, I'm not going to go hang out with the people I just came from because I know that and then biblically even says it's and I can't even remember where it is, but there is a life principle that says you are what you hang around. You become what you're going to hang around. So you got to consider your surroundings. If you're going, if you're looking for, uh, you know, to become a wise person, you hang

around five wise people because you're going to be the six. If you want to be foolish in your life and do things that are not benefiting. you, then you go hang around the foolish people because you're gonna be the sixth foolish person. But we have a calling. We have a responsibility to flee from temptation, not to hang around and see how it goes. Nope, that's not it. That is not the truth. We are to run and get out of dodge. We are to flee from temptation and run toward or the opposite direction to truth, to faith, to our security, to our true design. And so what this looks like, here's some scripture references in James 7 and 1 Corinthians 10, 13. Sometimes resisting means literally removing yourself from a situation, from conversation, or from an environment that gives sin a foothold. Practical example, you're hanging around your homies and they be talking about somebody and gossiping. Well, as it is written in Galatians chapter 2, Paul gives a great example of this. When Peter, the apostle Peter, the rock of the church has started to walk out of the truth and started to walk in a manner where he's not standing firm in it. And because he did this and started compromising, then guess who also was led astray? Barnabas. Go read that passage. It is life-changing. It is in scripture for a reason. But family, when we start to compromise and we start to subscribe to compromise, then we become affected. And not only us, but other people are led astray also. So if you find yourself in a situation, in a conversation where somebody's gossiping, you either say something and say, no, I will not enter into this conversation and talking about somebody. You can go talk to that person instead of talking about that person. Or we just remove ourselves from and go, nope, this ain't for me. I'm not trying to get influenced like this. I'm out. And you remove yourself. You have a responsibility to do that. It's nobody else's job. That is in your circle of responsibility and in your control. In a situation where somebody might be doing drugs. Nope, I'm out. This isn't good for me. This is not part of the divine design. I'm to leave, right? So we are to flee from temptation. We are not to tango with the devil. It's not a dance. We are not to tow the line of sin and tow the line of temptation. Let's see how far we can get because we will become shipwrecked. So what are you involved in? What was a situation recently where you could have removed yourself and it would have been well, it would have been better for you. Okay. What are you doing and how are you leading even others that it is leading others astray? Like we have to think about those things. The sixth thing is stay connected to community. Peter reminds us that

we're not alone. We're not alone in this. The end of nine, it says, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. We're all on this same journey. We're all on it. We're in the same battle. And so there is some comfort in that some in the assurance that, that everybody else is going through it. Everybody else is suffering. Everybody else is experiencing trials, tribulations, and temptations. And so Peter reminds us that we're not alone and others are fighting the same battles. I'm fighting all the same battles that you are family. Accountability, prayer, and encouragement help keep us standing firm. Healthy community is vital for our journey of healing and restoration. It is vital. We are not meant to walk this journey alone and to do life alone, but we need to make sure that we have healthy community who are encouraging us, not discouraging us, speaking life into us, reminding us who we are, reminding us of the truth, even challenging our belief systems and the things that we are telling ourselves and speaking out loud, spurring us on in our faith. That is what it should look like. The last thing is drawing near to God. Resisting the devil is only half the battle. Okay. in on the opposite side of that same coin, we are also to cling and cleave to God like no other. He is our source of life, of truth, of love, of wisdom, of gosh, of everything. He is the source. And so we have to stay firmly rooted and planted and saying yes to his decrees and his laws and how he has telling us how to live. We have to cling and cleave to God. We cannot and will not make it without him. Worship, prayer, and thanksgiving keep you filled with his spirit, and it leaves no room for darkness because that's how the light gets in. And so let's illuminate ourselves. Let's illuminate the world around us by bringing his light into our darkness even and saying no to Satan, resisting the devil, and making him flee. We need to flee too and saying yes to God. Resisting the devil isn't just defense. It is also offense by remembering and practically walking out and walking in Christ's victory, which he has given every single one of us who have said yes to him and taken a knee and made him the Lord of our life, not only savior, but Lord of our life. That is in Luke 10 19. So let me pray over you just a prayer of authority in Christ over to you. And here we go. Heavenly Father, I'm going to read this. So excuse me. Heavenly Father, I thank you that through Jesus Christ, I have authority over the enemy. Your word says in Luke 10 19 that I have been given power to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy. Your word also promises in Psalm 91 13 that I will

tread on the lion and the cobra. I will trample the great lion and the serpent. So today I stand firm in that truth, firmly rooted and with my feet planted, unmovable, unshakable, knowing that your words are life and truth. I resist the devil and he must flee from me in Jesus name. I renounce every lie, temptation and attack from the enemy. I declare that no weapon for me shall against me shall prosper. I cover myself with the blood of Jesus and I'll walk in victory, peace and freedom. Thank you, Lord, that I am safe under your wings, strong in your spirit and more than a conqueror through Christ in Jesus name. Amen. Bye-bye. in its entirety, please have your chaplain contact us at 352-478-2098 or email us through our website at vlmag.org. We are happy to provide our Victorious Living magazine free of charge in bulk with or without staples.