How to Defeat the Devil and Overcome the World

The war between good and evil is a perpetual war. Those who believe in God and has His Holy Spirit understand the powers given to us to overcome the forces of evil. Those who do not have His Spirit will always be subject to the forces of the world, evil and sin.

There was a lady who refuse to believe in God; she was a professed atheist. And she says that “if there was a God, he would have not allowed her to get cancer three times.” The obvious response to her was, “well, if you believed in God, maybe you would not have gotten cancer in the first place.”

This argument can go both ways for years, but the point is that regardless of if a person believes in God or not, there are forces of good and evil that move throughout our world every day. Jesus Himself said that it rains on the just and on the unjust, so no one is exempt from of either, good or evil.

Believers must realize that in the fight against spiritual wickedness, we are our own initial enemy from the start. We are possessed with demonic spirits before we are born again and must be cleansed of those spirits throughout our walk with Christ. No one becomes perfect at the point of first salvation. We must war against ourselves and cleanse ourselves, first.

“Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” 2 Corinthians 7:1. The work of self-purging begins at salvation and the goal is to perfect holiness. However, the scripture also says, “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:” 1 Peter 3:21.

In other words, though we strive to clean ourselves up in the flesh, it is not the ridding of the filth that will save us, but a good conscience toward God. Having a good conscience toward God includes doing His will, which is to be born again of water and of the Spirit and to afterward live a life of righteousness toward others. “God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” St John 4:24.

If we walk in the spirit, we will defeat the lust, sins and filthiness of the flesh. Paul struggled with the same when he confessed that, “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7: 21-24.

We rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to deliver us from the sins of death and the filthiness of the flesh. Which is why those who do not have the Holy Spirit cannot and will never be delivered from sin. They are not born again and remain in their sins.

So, the first war against evil is within ourselves. The second war we face are those of principalities, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12.

Many believers lose wars because they are not focused on the principalities but on the physical persecution coming from actual people and circumstances.

When in the Spirit, believers learn that there are certain familiar spirits that will enter their lives and attack them. Once the believer recognizes this spirit after so many attacks, they learn how to defeat them and can overcome and move on. Whatever the spirit is, it is usually a weakness in the believer that needs to be strengthened.

If a believer continues to war against the same spirit, it means the believer has not learned how to defeat it yet and it will come again in another season. After so many victories over principalities, the believer moves on to stronger battles with different, more powerful forces of evil. But they too, can win these battles also.

Some believers give up and fall victim to the evil and fall away from the faith. Not only believers, but many preachers are defeated by forces of evil because they never overcome the physical forces of evil such as the love of money, prestige, or the pride of life. And they are stuck at a certain spiritual level for years. Not only them, but their congregations never advance and they become captives to the world.

Many believers live in fear because they believe that the devil has power and can cause them pain and suffering, but that is not true to those born again, only to those who are not. Jesus said, “…All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” Matthew 28:18. So if Jesus has all power and the believer is an heir as a son or daughter through the Holy Spirit, how can the devil have any power over the believer?

If the believer knows this and walks in that level of faith, they can overcome all the attacks of the devil. If they are dressed in the armor of God; truth, faith, righteousness, peace, the Word of God, a fervent prayer life and the assurance of salvation, they will always have a good conscience toward God. But if they have sinned and the sin is laying on their conscience, they will come under the powers of the devil, which is nothing more than the lust and temptations of the world.

Many preachers convince believers that the devil has power by saying he is the prince of the world and that he has all powers in the world, but a believer can overcome the world just as Jesus did. “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33.

When the devil tempted Jesus on the mount, Jesus turned down all that he offered him and told him to get behind him because he was an offense. Believers can do the same. The devil only has power over the believer if the believer allows themselves to fall back into the world of sin and temptation. The only power allowed to overtake a believer is power from above.

Jesus said, “Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.” John 19:11. Meaning, the believer is empowered with the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit from God and above and those who attack them will become captive to the worst of sin. Again, the only way a believer can be guilty of sin is if they are driven away by temptation and actually commit that sin.

Another way to recognize and defeat the devil is to know who he is. He is not only a murderer as spoken of in John 8:44, but he is a thief, he is a liar, a divider, a homewrecker, a warmonger, a rapist, a pedophile, a drug dealer, an idolator, a bully, a lover of money, an oppressor of the defenseless and innocent, and any other evil thought of in this world. He deserves no respect nor should be given any honor or recognition as having any power over God’s people except to lie to them, which is how he will deceive the world, through lies, illusions and strong delusions.

The world, those who have not the Holy Spirit, are now and will suffer the evil of the devil as it gets worse on earth. Having faith in God will lead a person to salvation if they seek to escape the evils of the world. But if they dismiss God, and have pleasure in the evils, they will never be saved by God’s grace and will always be susceptible to the transgressions of the world. A person has to hate evil and most of all have to be able to recognize it when it is present.