
Today’s Reading: 2 Sam. 21-22, Luke 18:24-43
Today’s Reflection: 2 Samuel 22:6 The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me;
The powers of both hell and death always seek to prevent God’s anointed from moving forward. But because King David called upon The Lord in his distress, these otherwise powerful enemies ultimately failed to stop him. And so it is with the blood-bought, born again child of God today!

The only Christians who are swayed by such forces of darkness are those who are ignorant or apathetic about the victory they already have through Jesus Christ. Jesus taught us that the gates of Hell will not prevail against his church. This means that the gates of hell will not overcome, or gain the victory or superiority over, or gain the advantage over. It also means that hell will not be in such force, as to have prevailing effect, power or influence over the church.
And the truth is, this is ever so true, but only because the true church exercises the authorities afforded them through Christ’s shed blood on the cross, and the power of His resurrection. We must learn to wage war against our adversary with the weapons of our warfare (see Eph. 6). Victory is to be OBTAINED, not simply ABSORBED effortlessly.
Many of us are only using some of our armor, but we must take on the WHOLE armor of God! We often have our prayers in place, but we should also have our battle strategy against the enemy in place, because he stands in an effort to prevent us from serving God effectively.
So, how do we prevent the devil from preventing us from prevailing? One verse in particular teaches us to RESIST the devil (see James 4:7). Now, when we resist the devil, we are in fact preventing him from preventing us. Doesn’t it make since that if we are preventing the devil, while he is preventing us, that because God is on our side, that we will do the preventing and not him?
