Over the past six months, we’ve been walking through the Eight Steps to Experiencing His Victory. Each step is an important aspect to experiencing life as God intends it to be.

Thus far we have looked at the first six steps, which are:

1. Examine Your Relationship with God

2. Ask God for Revelation

3. Take Responsibility for Your Own Actions

4. Repent and Turn to God

5. Renounce and Turn from Sin

6. Let Jesus Restore Your Soul

If you are interested in seeing all of the articles in this series on one page Click Here.

Today we’ll be looking at Step 7 - Repulse the Enemy. This step is designed to help you exercise your authority as a believer and resist the devil and force him to flee from you.

The word repulse is chosen with great care. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word repulse as “to force (someone) to stop attacking you.” Every believer has authority from Jesus Christ to repulse the enemy.

But before we find out how to repulse the enemy, we must understand what authority is and how it was given. lost, and recovered. That requires going back to the beginning of creation and the garden of Eden.

God the Author of Authority

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

God created everything by the power of His word. Since He’s the Creator, He has the right to rule over all of creation. He is the Sovereign King over everything. He has all authority.

In the Bible, the concept of authority is that of ruling power. Authority is exercised over a domain or sphere of influence. In English, it means “the power and right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience. The following synonyms provide further in insight to the idea in the word: power, jurisdiction, command, control, charge, rule, sovereignty, and supremacy.  

Since God is sovereign, He can share His rule with whomever He chooses. The one with whom shares this authority must do so under His approval and direction. This rule must be in accordance with the commands of God.

The one given authority can only exercise that authority in submission to the will of God. If he acts outside of that authority it will be an act of rebellion against God and the authority will be lost.

Authority Given

The short version of the story is that the Trinity (God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) decided to make man in their image.

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

It’s important to see the dimension of the rule that God gives to Adam and Eve. They were to rule “over all the earth” and “over every living thing that moves on the earth.” God gave them authority over the entire earth and every living creature on it.

Adam and Eve, by God’s sovereign choice, were given authority to rule the earth. They were exercising this rule under God and therefore were subject to His commands. The Bible only shows us one command that God gave them.

8 The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. 9 Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:8-9)

15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:15-17)

God gives Adam clear instructions. He tells him what he has authority to do and what he doesn’t have authority to do. His guidelines are clear. The consequences of stepping outside his authority are also clear.

Authority Lost

One day a serpent enters the garden and begins to question the word that God commanded Adam. He said, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:1).

He wanted to get Eve’s eyes on the one tree that God said they could not eat of. When Eve responded to the serpent she made God’s command more restrictive than God had done. She said, “From the fruit of trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” (Genesis 3:2-3)

The serpent was calling God a liar. He even pictured God as one who was withholding something good from Eve.

The ploy worked and Eve began to look at the tree through different eyes. She saw that the tree was good for food and that it was delightful to her eyes, and the tree was desirable to make her wise.

She chose to believe a lie of the devil over the truth from God. She rationalized her choice. It looks good. it’s beautiful. I’ll be like God and know good and evil. So she willingly disobeyed God and ate the fruit. Not only that, she gave some to her husband.

Once they ate of the fruit God’s word came true. They died spiritually. They immediately knew that they were naked. They scrambled around to find leaves to cover themselves. They ran and hid from God when He came walking in the garden.

But something else happened when they ate the fruit of the tree. Satan now became the ruler of the world. The serpent tricked them into losing their authority and brought them under his control. The world was now under his authority.

Here are four titles for the devil from the New Testament. He is called:

• The ruler of this world (John 14:30)

• The ruler of demons (Matthew 12:24)

• The god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4)

• The prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2)

Jesus even recognized the devil’s claim over the kingdoms of the world. One of the temptations of Jesus included Satan’s showing Him all the kingdoms of this world and their glory and offering them all to Jesus if He would worship him. (Matthew 4:8-9)

Jesus accepted that the kingdoms of the world were under the authority of the devil, that is one of the reasons He came to face the devil. He came to restore the lost authority of Adam. He came as the second Adam.

Authority Restored

Since God gave man authority over the earth, only a man could take it back from the devil. That is one reason Jesus had to come to earth as a human being. The Bible calls Him the second Adam.

Jesus became human in order to walk in perfect obedience to God and to defeat the work of the enemy. Romans 5:12 tells us that sin entered into the world through one man and that death touched the lives of every man because all have sinned.

Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to face the devil. He had to be tempted in all ways like Adam and Eve. Unlike Adam and Eve, Jesus was obedient to God and rebuked the devil and sent him fleeing.

Jesus did everything the Father asked Him to do. There was no rebellion in his heart that would give place to the devil. On the night He was betrayed Jesus told His followers that the ruler of this world was coming and that he had nothing in Him.

Jesus’ obedience was the foundation of His future resurrection. Death could not hold Him in the ground because He had not sinned.

Colossians 3:15 tells us that Jesus “disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them” The power of the enemy was broken and Jesus won back the right for man to legally rule and reign over the earth.

Because Jesus was willing to submit Himself to God, even to the point of death,

. . . God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

After His resurrection, Jesus told His disciples that “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” (Matthew 28:18) He then gave His disciples authority to extend His kingdom over the face of the earth.

Next week we’ll look into the authority Jesus gave to the church.