“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7).

Often, people attempt to resist the devil without first submitting themselves to God. This approach, needless to say, results in failure. The divine order is to submit yourself first to God, and then to resist the devil and he will flee from you. In order to succeed in resisting the devil, you need to place yourself under God’s authority.
   
The Greek word translated ‘submit’ in James 4:7 means the following: to put in subjection, subject, subordinate, put under, bring under control etc. Therefore, to submit to God is to make Him the final authority in your life. This implies that you yield to His Spirit and fill your mind with His word to the point where it regulates your thoughts, speech and actions.
    
Jesus demonstrated this truth when He followed the leading of the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, where He was tempted by the devil (Matt 4:1-2). Remember, God had earlier on spoken of Jesus in the following words: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17). Then Satan came to tempt Jesus, and his first words were, ” If you are the son of God…” (Matt 4:3). In response to Satan’s suggestion that He validate His sonship by turning stone into bread, Jesus said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’ ” (Matt 4:4). His response to the recorded subsequent temptations was the same: “It is written.”
   
By yielding to the Holy Spirit, and letting what God said  concerning Him dictate His response to temptation, Jesus demonstrated His total submission to God. He gave Himself completely to God, relying on His Father for both strength and wisdom to handle temptation, and other things around Him. No wonder the Bible says, “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” (Philip 2:8). Everything Jesus did was done in submission to His God. As a result, He wielded so much spiritual authority that, “… [He] went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38). 
   
Our ability to resist the devil successfully depends on our submission to God. If we do not submit to God, we will lack the authority to resist the devil effectively. This is both a timeless and a universal principle. Shalom.