It is written...

That is what Jesus, our Lord and Savior, said to the devil when the devil came to tempt him.  He used the Word of GOD against the devil, and 3 times HE told the devil it is written!  Matthew 4 

That is what we have to do when the devil comes to tempt us!!!  We have to tell him what the WORD says.   

You mean Jesus was tempted?  YES.  Yes, He was.  Jesus had to go through everything that you and I could possibly go though today. 

Hebrews 14:14-16 (CEV)  Jesus Is the Great High Priest
 ¹⁴We have a great high priest, who has gone into heaven, and he is Jesus the Son of God. That is why we must hold on to what we have said about him. ¹⁵Jesus understands every weakness of ours, because he was tempted in every way that we are. But he did not sin! ¹⁶So whenever we are in need, we should come bravely before the throne of our merciful God. There we will be treated with undeserved kindness, and we will find help.

Jesus defeated the enemy, when He died on the cross.  He did this for us!!!  When the enemy comes to attack us, we can overcome him because he is already defeated.  Jesus has already stomped the devil and he is a defeated foe!!!

Col 2:6, 13-15 (CEV)  Christ Brings Real Life

 ⁶You have accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord. Now keep on following him.

¹³You were dead, because you were sinful and were not God's people. But God let Christ make you alive, when he forgave all our sins.

¹⁴God wiped out the charges that were against us for disobeying the Law of Moses. He took them away and nailed them to the cross.

¹⁵There Christ defeated all powers and forces. He let the whole world see them being led away as prisoners when he celebrated his victory.

And because of Jesus’ victory on the cross, we know that we are more than conquerors.  A conqueror is someone who goes out and fights, but when you are more than a conqueror you are given the VICTORY without having to fight.  We know the enemy of our souls is already defeated! 
  
Romans 8:37-39  ³⁷Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.  ³⁸For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,  ³⁹Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jesus had to be tempted and HE had to defeat the devil, so that we could have power and deliverance from the devil.  We had to know that a man could be tempted and could resist the devil.

James 4:7-8 (KJV)  ⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.   ⁸Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.

James 4:7-8 (AMP) ⁷So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you. ⁸Come close to God and He will come close to you.

 

Jesus gave us power over all the power of the enemy.  We have the power over all the lies, the tricks and the deceiving ways of the enemy, but we must be watchful.  We must understand that he is still waiting to catch us off guard so that he can attack us. 

1 Peter 5:8 (CEV) Be on your guard and stay awake. Your enemy, the devil, is like a roaring lion, sneaking around to find someone to attack.

1 Peter 5:8 (CEB) Be clearheaded. Keep alert. Your accuser, the devil, is on the prowl like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Luke 10:19  (KJV)  Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Now, I am going to throw my opinion in here and you can agree with me or you can toss my opinion out with the trash!!!  I am going to tell you that there are folks out there that think that it is okay to go around picking up snakes in the name of Jesus. 

And I just do NOT believe that this verse means that.  Nor do I believe that in Mark 16:17-18, GOD ever intended for someone to tell HIS children to play with snakes. 

If that is what Jesus meant, He would have had his disciples picking up snakes and showing people that is was okay!!!  That would be like me telling you to go out and get some drain cleaner, you know, the stuff that will eat your skin if you get it on you, and telling you that it would be okay to drink it.    

Well, Kathy, then what are you saying that this means?  I think that it means exactly what it says:  “and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”  I can stand on this scripture and doubt NOT in my heart and have faith, that if I accidentally drink something deadly, then it won’t hurt me.  And if something deadly does bite me, it can’t kill me!  But that only works if you believe in your heart and do not doubt.  Mark 11: 22-24 

Of course, if you are believing that being bitten by a snake or some other deadly poisonous thing, will kill you, then you are going to die!!!  So, you better stay as far away from snakes as you can.  YOU GET WHAT YOU BELIEVE!!!   

In the WORD, one of the disciples, Paul, was actually bit by a snake after being ship wrecked and swimming to shore.  Acts 28:1-6 (CEB) On the Island of Malta

¹ After reaching land safely, we learned that the island was called Malta. ² The islanders showed us extraordinary kindness. Because it was rainy and cold, they built a fire and welcomed all of us.

³ Paul gathered a bunch of dry sticks and put them on the fire. As he did, a poisonous snake, driven out by the heat, latched on to his hand. ⁴ When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer! He was rescued from the sea, but the goddess Justice hasn’t let him live!”

⁵ Paul shook the snake into the fire and suffered no harm. ⁶ They expected him to swell up with fever or suddenly drop dead. After waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and began to claim that he was a god.

That brings us right back to the devil, he was trying to kill Paul and he will attack you in whatever way he can!!!  He is sneaky and he always tries his best to catch us off guard. 

The devil’s mission is to kill, steal and destroy.  We have to remember that he is a liar and the truth is not in him.  Satan knows the Word of God and he will twist it to serve his own purposes and use it to take us to HELL, if we will go.

Jesus came to give us life.

In John 10, Jesus spoke to the disciples in a parable.  John 10:9-10  ⁹I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
 ¹⁰The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Wow!  Did Jesus just say there that He has come to give us the good life?

Yes!!!  Because if we choose Jesus, then we chose life!  And we can have a richly blessed, abundant life!!!

Jesus lets us know that all that all our old ways are passed away.  And, yes, we need help to live godly!!!  That’s why we have the Holy Ghost.  And if you don’t have the gift of the Holy Ghost, then you need HIM!!!

2 Cor 5:17 (KJV) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

1 John 3:7-9 (CEB)  ⁷Little children, make sure no one deceives you. The person who practices righteousness is righteous, in the same way that Jesus is righteous. ⁸ The person who practices sin belongs to the devil, because the devil has been sinning since the beginning. God’s Son appeared for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ Those born from God don’t practice sin because God’s DNA remains in them. They can’t sin because they are born from God.

I really like how the Amplified Bible explains this verse. 
 
1 John 3:7-9 (AMP) ⁷Boys (lads), let no one deceive and lead you astray. He who practices righteousness [who is upright, conforming to the divine will in purpose, thought, and action, living a consistently conscientious life] is righteous, even as He is righteous.

⁸[But] he who commits sin [who practices evildoing] is of the devil [takes his character from the evil one], for the devil has sinned (violated the divine law) from the beginning. The reason the Son of God was made manifest (visible) was to undo (destroy, loosen, and dissolve) the works the devil [has done].
⁹No one born (begotten) of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, for God's nature abides in him [His principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within him]; and he cannot practice sinning because he is born (begotten) of God.


When we are saved and trying to live godly and holy lives, the devil tries as hard as he can to make us feel bad and unworthy of God’s love.  He tries to make us feel that we have done too much bad stuff and that we aren’t a good example, but we have to remember that now all that sin and anything else that we did that was bad is under the blood!!!  It is covered and we are made righteous through Jesus!!! 

Romans 8:1-2  ¹There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. ²For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

1 John 4: 4 (KJV)  ⁴Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

Romans 8:31-34 (AMP) ³¹What then shall we say to [all] this? If God is for us, who [can be] against us? [Who can be our foe, if God is on our side?]
³²He who did not withhold or spare [even] His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all [other] things?
³³Who shall bring any charge against God's elect [when it is] God Who justifies [that is, Who puts us in right relation to Himself? Who shall come forward and accuse or impeach those whom God has chosen? Will God, Who acquits us?]
³⁴Who is there to condemn [us]? Will Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who died, or rather Who was raised from the dead, Who is at the right hand of God actually pleading as He intercedes for us?

Jesus has taken away all our sins and GOD DOES NOT REMEMBER THEM ANY MORE!!!  He has cast them into the Sea!

Micah 7:18-19 (CEB) ¹⁸ Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity, overlooking the sin of the few remaining for his inheritance? He doesn’t hold on to his anger forever; he delights in faithful love. ¹⁹ He will once again have compassion on us; he will tread down our iniquities. You will hurl all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Isaiah 43:25 (AMP)  I, even I, am He Who blots out and cancels your transgressions, for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

Jeremiah 31:34 (KJV)  …for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

By Jesus’ death, and by the power of HIS BLOOD, which was offered as the sacrifice for our sins, we have been made clean.  Washed in His Blood!!!!!!!

Hebrews 10:14-17 (KJV)  ¹⁴For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

¹⁵Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,

¹⁶This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

17And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.