Access Denied?

“Neither give place to the devil.” (Eph 4:27 AV)

 

Here is a truth we must not allow to be lost.  The Devil cannot go where he is not permitted.  Job is a great example.  All he did he did because God permitted him to.  If the devil tries something not permitted, he is stopped.  Daniel tells us of a time when Satan was attacking Israel and Michael the Archangel fended him off.  Paul tells us to resist the devil and he will flee from us.  This is the truth we must remember.  The devil is not able to do anything to the child of God for which he has no permission.  Above, Paul suggests there are times we grant that permission.  Not directly.  Rather, indirectly.  We give place to him.  We let our guard down.  We allow evil to be introduced rather than refuse it and turn away.  If the devil is active in the life of the believer for the purpose of destroying us with evil, it is because we have given place to him.

Several years back, when I lived in the Paducah, KY area, the Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee rivers were flooding.  Paducah, or thereabouts, is where all three of these rivers converge.  I cannot remember the details or where exactly the storm tracked, but there was a Spring when the waters began to flood.  I remember both the Kentucky and Cumberland Damns were completely opened because the rivers were just as high as the lakes which the damns created.  It was so bad, the water had risen about seventy-five feet.  It was so high the water flooded the parking lot overlooking the river and the damn one the Cumberland in Smithland, KY.  Quite amazing, actually.  Anyway, the whole community was mobilized to save as many properties as they could.  One such project was to ask for volunteers to fill sandbags at different locations throughout the county.  My son and I went to Calvert City with a friend of ours and spent the greater part of the morning filling those bags.  As we stacked them I couldn’t help but get a picture in my mind as to how these bags were going to work.  I imagined workers placing these bags in such a way as to keep the floodwaters from intruding on the town.  The floodwaters, no matter how much power they represented, would not be permitted to go anywhere the engineers did not intend.  As the Army Corps of Engineers oversaw the project, our wonderful reservists in the area would serve their community to build sand walls that kept a great enemy at bay.  Compared to the power and destructive nature of water, one man cannot do a whole lot.  Several men would struggle.  No matter who powerful and enemy floodwaters are, if there is determination enough not to permit those waters to come, they will be kept in check.

This is how we have to view our adversary.  Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.  When Paul tells us not to give place to the devil, he is telling us we have within us the power to defeat one stronger than we.  If the devil has found a place, then we are the ones who have given him that place.  There are many ways in which we do this.  We permit a gateway that allows the Evil One to wreak havoc.  We can watch the wrong thing on the TV, our computers, or our phones.  We can listen to the wrong kind of music.  We can allow ourselves to be influenced by wrong thinking or undisciplined emotion.  We can succumb to the flesh and fulfill all its desires.  We can fail to watch and pray.  Each one of these is a sandbag.  Each one has to be full and in its place.  Bible reading, prayer, and meditation are the foundation upon which all other sandbags are piled.  Remember, if the devil finds a foothold, it is because we have permitted it and not because he is able to do as he wishes.