James 4:7 ESV
Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to experience the Christian life as a well of living water springing up in us to life more abundant? The Spirit-filled life (the life that Jesus lives) should be like an artesian well spontaneously coming forth. Actually, even more than that, it should be like rivers of living water flowing out of our innermost being. Sadly, many Christians that I know live their life struggling to choose not to give into evil so that they can walk in the Spirit when Galatians 5 tells us that if we will “walk in the Spirit, we WILL NOT fulfill the lust of the flesh.” The normal Christian life is to be caught in the river of grace so strongly that you have to be determined to swim out of the powerful current of grace to choose to give into evil. James 4:6-7 says, “But He continually gives more and more grace. Therefore it says, ‘God is opposed to the self-sufficient, but continually gives grace to the surrendered.’ Submit, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Notice that it doesn’t say resist the devil so that you can submit to God. Instead, it says that if we’re surrendered to God, resisting the devil flows from the grace that flows in us. In other words, we don’t resist the devil so that we can abide in Christ. It is because we are abiding in Christ we can, from Him, resist the devil. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy 🙂
Experiencing His experience